La Bella Cucina
949 South Figueroa
213-623-0014
★★★☆☆

LOS ANGELES — La Bella Cucina, conveniently located near the convention center, is an inexpensive Italian option when you’re craving carbs after a long day at E3.

The casual restaurant and bar features a diverse menu of appetizers, soups/salads, pasta, pizza and seafood. But several of the offerings are marred by either over or under flavoring.

The Pizza Bianco ($5.95) is their take on garlic bread. It’s a personal-sized pizza crust topped with what appears to be jarred, minced garlic. Fresh garlic would be a much better option, as the scoops of jarred garlic tend to overpower.

I was hoping to try their gnocchi ($11.95), but they were out when we went, at 6 p.m. Monday.

The farfalle botega ($9.95) was my final answer — bow tie pasta in cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, chicken and fresh spinach. Somehow, this dish was bland. I don’t know how you can make a tomato, spinach, chicken, cream sauce dish bland, but I was unscrewing the cap off the pepper to add some flavor.

The rigatoni quatro formaggi ($8.95) was also a bit bland and off tasting. Would not order again.

The restaurant offers dozens more pasta options ($7.95-$13.95), 14 specialty pizzas ($7.95-$14.95) and even a seabass with capers dish (market price).

La Bella Cucina has excellent, attentive service, a good variety of food and drink, and a very casual atmosphere in a neighborhood that can easily break the bank.

The food isn’t that great, let’s be honest. But it was filling and fairly fresh and wicked cheap. If you’re hankering for Italian, you could do worse.

John Guilfoil is the editor-in-chief of Blast Magazine. He can be reached at guilfoil.j@blastmagazine.com.

In Culture, Food and Drink, Restaurant Reviews, Travel on July 16, 2008 at 11:34

One Response to “La Bella Cucina”

  1. John Guilfoil - Cheaply eating in LA: Day two - PRrag.com on July 16th, 2008 11:54 am

    [...] reviewed La Bella Cucina, a mediocre Italian eatery downtown. John Guilfoil, writer of PRrag, is the Editor-in-Chief of [...]

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