Best Italian Restaurants in California

We love going to LA Vela, the food is always fantastic and the service Is great.

From the perfect martini all the way through to the espresso and canolli, it was a delightful evening. We were seated early and stayed late. The environment is so relaxing and the Il Picolo team was gracious and attentive. A great start to begin the holidays!

I went last night for my birthday dinner. Where the record, there is a caveat to my 4 star review. There was only one area I can’t genuinely give the place a 4 star, but everything else was absolutely wonderful and deserves all the five stars that they can get. I will start with the one area where I can’t give 5 stars, and that was the food. My friends and I all shared food, so we got to try a lot of items on the menu. The standouts were the lamb meatballs, the Hamachi crudo, the fusilli, and the tiramisu. All of the flavors in each of these dishes were very distinct, and delicious. However, given this is an Italian restaurant, we were underwhelmed with the ravioli and the clam pasta. While the portions weren’t tiny, I do feel the cost of the dishes was a little high relative to the amount food you received and what the fish itself was. But then again, we are also in DC. IMHO, and as others have said, where this restaurant really shines is the ambience and the service. First off, the holiday decor was gorgeous, and they were giving ornaments to all the diners, so it definitely set a festive mood. All of my party, except for two of us, were fairly late to the reservation. It was super crowded, but the staff were very accommodating and patient while we waited for our whole party. Additionally, our waitress Mariah was absolutely wonderful!! She was knowledgeable and charming while still being efficient . As the Birthday Girl, I appreciate the restaurant went out of its way to give me a special book about the restaurant. Mariah even managed to scrounge up a few sparklers to make my dinner extra festive in addition to my happy birthday dessert message. All in all, this is a great place for a casual yet slightly elevated dining experience. I’d come back for the customer service and ambiance alone, and despite the few disappointing pasta dishes, there were enough other star dishes I tried to make me interested to try more.

The food and experience were excellent! The ambiance was lovely, and the drinks had a great taste. Highly recommend!

This is our 2nd time at RPM. The first time was in Las Vegas and this time was in Washington DC. Both restaurants displayed excellent service and delicious meals. I had the meatball meal, superb and wife had the seafood prawns 🍤. Garlic bread was exceptionally tasty. This is one of favorite restaurants.