The Best Italian Restaurants In LA

While LA might be better known for our excellent Mexican food, top-notch Thai, and endless sushi options, our Italian restaurants are way better than the rest of the country gives us credit for. (We’re looking at you, New York City.) And this guide is here to prove it. From classic red-sauce spots to pasta maestros straight out of Padua, these are the very best Italian restaurants in LA. If you're looking for the best pizzerias in LA, don't worry, you can find those here.

THE SPOTS

Antico Nuovo is, in the most literal sense, new Antico—a refined version of the rustic Italian spot that opened between Larchmont and Koreatown in 2019. Sit at the bar and you’ll enjoy first-row seats to pasta twirling, scorching hot pizzas pulled out of the oven, and the chef carefully inspecting every plate with the concentration of a jewel appraiser. There’s not a bad dish here—focaccia is mattress-thick and brushed with olive oil, while the plump, fork-tender agnolotti comes filled with beef cheek and pancetta. If you don’t order ice cream at the end, return ASAP.

Unlike many Old Hollywood restaurants in LA, a great meal at La Dolce Vita—which originally opened in 1966 with Frank Sinatra as an investor—doesn’t hinge on cutesy nostalgia. Instead, this revitalized Beverly Hills landmark offers excellent Italian American classics, elite service, and legit Hollywood history, all in a moody dining room that feels completely of the moment. We particularly love the juicy bone-in veal parm and spicy shrimp diavola appetizer, but you should also throw in for a creamy tableside caesar and one of the smoothest martinis in the world.

Cento's indoor/outdoor space in West Adams is the picture-perfect definition of a neighborhood wine and pasta bar. There’s a cozy front patio filled with string-lit trees and a bright interior with a communal table perfect for groups intent on drinking a lot of natural wine. Cento’s menu is well-stocked with excellent dishes like a savory chicken liver crostini and a banana pudding tiramisu that will live in your subconscious for weeks, but at the end of the day, you’re here to eat some of the city's best (and most interesting) pasta: spicy pomodoro with basil, squid ink mafaldine, and the iconic beet spaghetti drenched in brown butter and whipped ricotta.

Bestia almost single-handedly turned the Arts District into a dining destination, and after a decade of business, it's not slowing down anytime soon. The industrial dining room is buzzy and fun, the cocktails and wine list are stellar, and the food is gleefully rich, whether you go for the mussels with spicy 'nduja, roasted lamb neck and anchovies, or a simple plate of pasta or pizza.

If you’ve eaten at Mother Wolf or Felix, you know those places treat pasta with the respect it deserves. Funke in Beverly Hills is an Italian spot from the same team, and the glamorous dining room looks like the kind of space James Bond would do spy stuff in a black tuxedo. The atmosphere is grown-up but unstuffy, and you can watch your agnolotti being formed in a 20-foot workshop at the center of the restaurant. Go heavy on the housemade pasta, and don’t leave without a sip of their fantastic tomato martini. Reservations are few and far between, so plan on booking well in advance or snagging a seat at the walk-in-only rooftop bar. 

When you think of the places in LA that have survived the test of time and more or less become integrated into the fabric of our city, Dan Tana’s is high on the list. You come here to eat classic, no-frills Italian dishes (like their glorious chicken parmesan), drink perfectly-made martinis that arrive in the blink of an eye and experience what’s probably the most authentic old-school Hollywood vibe in the city.

Chi Spacca is one of three restaurants anchoring Nancy Silverton’s Mozza empire at Melrose and Highland. While the Pizzeria and Osteria are more popular, Chi Spacca is the best of the bunch. Located in a small red dining room, feasting at this Italian steakhouse is like attending a dinner party inside a famous novelist’s wine cellar. It’s an upscale experience (expect to pay well over $100 per person) where one bottle of wine leads to three, and suddenly you’re staring at salumi platters, bone marrow pie, and a steak the size of a hubcap. If you’re in the market for a splurgy, throw-down meal, few places fit the bill better than Chi Spacca. 

They take pasta seriously at Felix. As in, they-built-a-climate-controlled-pasta-room-in-the-middle-of-the-restaurant serious. Yes, it’s over the top, but this Abbot Kinney spot has become a Very Important Pasta Place over the years, so it’s paid off. That rigatoni you watched being made arrives as a very good amatriciana, and the cacio e pepe is a Westside legend. And while the pasta is the main event here, you definitely need to get involved with the starters, especially the insanely good meatballs and their excellent focaccia.

Jones’ food is very good, but it’s not the best on this list. That said, you won’t find a better red-checkered tablecloth atmosphere than at this Weho staple—which feels Old Hollywood, but not in a corny way. The crowd is cool, attractive, and always down to party whether it’s for after-work drinks or late-night pizza. Get the spaghetti and meatballs (served in a skillet), the spicy sausage pizza, and one of the best desserts in the whole city: their apple pie.

Hidden in a downtown El Segundo strip mall, Jame looks more like a chain sandwich shop than a legitimate Italian restaurant. But make no mistake, this tiny spot is home to some very good Italian food. Whether it be the giant plate of prosciutto, pesto mandilli, pork shank, or an all-time great kale salad, the food at Jame is consistently delicious and surprisingly well-priced. Jame is the kind of place to impress out-of-town friends or show up alone on a weeknight to take down a few bowls of pasta (yes, we’ve done both).

Mother Wolf's space on the ground floor of a hotel is glitzy and opulent, like you’re in a ballroom at The Madonna Inn. The over-the-top setting is certainly what draws most people in, but it's the food that keeps them coming back. The tremendous menu includes classic Roman-style dishes like crispy margherita pizzas and al dente rigatoni all’amatriciana, plus fan favorites from sister restaurant Felix like cacio e pepe. Reservations can be hard to come by, so we recommend planning in advance.

In Silver Lake, there’s a fine line between important restaurants and important restaurants on Instagram. But rest assured, neighborhood staple Alimento is still excellent nearly a decade after it opened. This has a lot to do with the dreamy chicken liver crostone and the radiatori pasta tossed in a spicy pork sugo, but frankly, you can order almost anything on the menu (including the beautifully pink-in-the-middle tri-tip) and be guaranteed a pleasant meal.

You could probably walk past this tiny Italian spot on Beverly Blvd. a hundred times (there's now a second location in the Palisades) and not notice it, but that would be a mistake. For well over a decade, Angelini Osteria has been serving some of the best old-school Italian dishes in the city. It’s fancy-ish and mature, and you should plan on dropping some serious money. It’s worth it though—from the lasagna verde to veal shank agnolotti with white truffles, Angelini is where you go to eat consistently top-notch pasta.

Located on the ground floor of The Hollywood Roosevelt, this Italian spot oozes genuine Old Hollywood glam from every pore: Art Deco chandeliers, leather banquettes, and a large marble bar begging you to have a seat and drink a martini. The menu—overseen by Mozza chef Nancy Silverton—is filled with standout dishes like pillowy, ricotta-topped pizza fritta, steak tartare with mustard seeds and kohlrabi, and goat cheese-stuffed rigatoni that transports you to the holidays, even if it’s July and you’re kind of sweating.

Between the truffled mushrooms and polenta, briny squid ink lumache, and torchetti with fried rosemary on top, Union serves the kind of bold and delicious Italian cooking that you'd be thrilled to find anywhere in the city, let alone the chain-store hub that is Old Town Pasadena. If you’re looking for a fancy, impress-the-hell-out-of-somebody kind of dinner on this side of town, there are few options better than Union.

Brentwood is a neighborhood with a lot of Italian restaurants (so many that we felt obliged to rank them), but Divino is hands-down the best one. Unlike the painfully quiet trattorias on San Vicente where you can hear utensils scraping against plates, this nautical-themed spot on Barrington is buzzing with a chatty dining room full of families sharing some of the best pasta dishes on the Westside. The silky beef carpaccio is the ideal start to a meal here, and we highly recommend the creamy chicken ragú that’s way more flavorful than it sounds. And save room for dessert because getting the tiramisú is non-negotiable. 

Despite being in the heart of Venice (Beach), Barrique is closer to a neighborhood restaurant you’d find in Italy, with minimal decor and a menu of simple dishes which happen to be very good. That means lots of antipasti, a squid ink pasta with crab, and entrees like smoked duck and grilled ribeye. It’s also a prime date-night spot, partly because of the candle-lit interiors, but also the heavily accented Italian waiters.

The second location of one of LA’s best pasta spots, Pasta Sisters in Culver City might be even better than the original—mainly because it’s the one where you can drink wine on a patio. Most of the bowls are build-your-own, meaning you get to choose the type of pasta and sauce (except for the clams and garlic, which they’ll only serve with spaghetti). Our favorites are the pesto with tagliatelle and bolognese with pappardelle, but when you’ve got freshly made pasta and sauces this good, you really can’t go wrong.

Located in that magical oceanside junction where Santa Monica, the Palisades, and Malibu all collide into a who’s who of 1996, Giorgio Baldi is a flat-out LA classic. This is where you go to overhear Jane Fonda and Gwyneth Paltrow talking about school districts while an old Italian man gets pushy about his gnocchi. With people-watching this good and old-school dishes that remain excellent, Giorgio’s still holds a place in our hearts.

This cozy spot in Inglewood feels like a trendy cafe in an old-school Italian restaurant’s body. And the comforting food coming out of the kitchen is exactly the kind of stuff you'd want on a lazy Sunday. From spaghetti and meatballs to a chicken parm sandwich, the red sauce classics here are masterful. But Sunday Gravy also takes the classic dishes we know and love to glorious new heights during weekend-only specials, like white lasagna with creamy spinach and mushrooms. Be sure to get there early before they sell out.