On my neverending quest to find the best plate of gnocchi in the LA area, I stopped by Spumoni Italian in Santa Monica tonight. I will try not to let my review be too biased because of the FREE CANOLE they gave us at the end.
The gnocchi was awesome. Seriously it was good. I’m ranking it as number 2 in the LA area.. stay tuned for my “best gnocchi in LA” post coming soon. The “Gnocchi Loren” was solid. Thick gnocchi in a creamy pesto sauce with pine nuts. The Girl got Penne Caprino, which had goat cheese, cream sauce, and sun dried tomatoes. We were both really big fans of our orders.
The staff here is awesome. Obviously not Italian, but awesome. The reason we went out to eat in the first place was because we’re still waiting for the heat in our new apartment to be turned on and the thought of a nice warm Italian restaurant sounded pretty good. I checked out the ol Yelp (while I still think it’s a scam it’s the best restaurant search site I know) and it had high reviews. I saw two reviews of the gnocchi and I was sold. When we got there, it was well, freezing. The dining room is pretty small, so on a cold night if someone opens the door, that cold air is going to bite everyone. After you get your meal and a nice bottle of red wine though, that chill goes away and all is ok.
I loved this place, and I’ll definitely go back with a party of 4 or more. It wasn’t my bag for date night only because if you’re anti-social (read: American) and you have a good sized personal bubble, you won’t want to site cruise-style at the same table as another couple.. it’s just kinda weird. If you do want to hit this place for a date night though, it’s not that bad, because the room volume is pretty loud and you really can’t make out what the people you’re next to are saying.. unless it’s the girls we sat next to… “I convinced my boyfriend to spend $3,000 on his mom…” ouch.
Anyway there it is.. awesome gnocchi.. maybe avoid on cold nights, and a good place to go with friends. Thanks for the canole!
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