bestia

can never go wrong with a juicy, burrata pizza topped with olives, oregano, and fermented chilies.

specialties here are home-made charcuterie, pasta and pizza from the acunto wood-fired oven. the entire beast (hog, cow, etc.) comes in and delectable dishes come out, like fusilli lunghi al sugo di capra. for gringos, that’s hand-rolled pistachio pasta in braised goat ragu. here is what the bestia (beast) experience looks like…

it wasn't bad. it just wasn't anything exceptional. salads on menu sounded good but were only okay. blandly dressed. porcini pasta was good but not any better than what i can make myself (i love to cook and do often.) unfriendly, unhelpful, almost rude bartender ( the young guy with prematurely gray hair). would it hurt to smile at customers the way he smiled at coworkers? timing was way off on second course. there were two of us and my grilled fish arrived 15 minutes after my partner's dinner. no apology, no explanation, just a curt "we bring out food as the kitchen makes it." grilled fish was acceptable, nothing more. i think if the food had been better we would have felt better about going there. maybe eating at the bar was not a good idea. not interested in returning nor recommending.

update: jonathan gold seems to agree with me. he called it bland and also rated it at #18 on his 101 best la restaurants list. he thinks it represents a new trend in "anti-california cuisine." bestia-- bringing bland back!

had an outstanding dinner here for 3 on sunday night. we shared the calamari (amazingggg), citrus salad (pretty good), chicken liver pate (amazingggg), clam pizza (delicious but spicy), bone marrow with pasta (kinda weak), and veal pasta (kinda weak). not every dish was a 10/10 but most were. i'd definitely go back and suggest it to any type of group. reservation a must!

superb and buzzing

it’s easy to see why this place has been busy since it opened. it is a buzzy, industrial space with great service and even better food. we had the salumi, then the nduja pizza, followed by agnolotti and rigatoni, the sauces of which were rich in deep flavors. we favored the agnolotti, but both were brilliant. hard to get a reservation and a free parking space, so valet is the practical thing to do. highly recommended.

came to this place at 9 pm and this place was so busy, a very nice place with a nice vibe to it. we ordered the bone marrow, it was very good, taste and eveything was perfect, then we had the cavatelli ala norcina, it was cooked to perfection, pasta was so good, after that we had the grilled sliced pork porterhouse, it was very good as well, cooked to perfection, meat was so juicy and so good. 👍👍👍

amazing food, service and atmosphere. reservations are suggested. quite worth!

food: 4/5
service: 4.5/5
ambience: 4/5
value for money: 3.5/5
overall: 4/5

the service was amazing. one of my favorite restaurants. cozy and good place to enjoy good food. everything is well organized. great food, service and ambiance.

amazing food, service and atmosphere

title says it all! food is sharing style, and modern takes on italian classics. portion sizes are normal (not oversized american portions ;), which means you can try various dishes. i would suggest making a reservation as we were very lucky at getting a seat on a saturday night at 8:30 without one. server at the bar was friendly and knowledgable of the menu and great cocktails. food flow was also great, allowing you to talk in between dishes and enjoy the music and atmosphere of the place. great location too downtown area, will be returning for sure.

really really recommend you to try this place. you need to plan ahead to dine here as the table gets filled up pretty quickly especially during weekend nights. pastas were great. really recommend their bone marrow, uni pasta, muscles and clams, their pizzas were great too. desserts were great too. must try

i guess it's so cliche to do an end of the year list of best bites or best places you have gone to. ever since so many of the end of the year lists are coming out with their own best places to visit, i was tempted to do one myself. 

alas, it's just not meant to be. 

the criteria i was thinking of was do one i have visited this year, regardless if it was opened this year or in the past year. regardless of type of cuisine as well. more importantly, which place would be the one i can go back without a hesitation of a 2nd thought?

bestia was one of the hottest restaurants in town when it opened in 2013, and while its still busy and still great, it’s thankfully not as hard to get into these days as it used to be.

came down to la for a quick vacation and made sure to drop by bestia for dinner. the place was packed on a sunday night! the cocktails were great, though a little too strong for my liking. if there's one dish that you must order, it's their chicken liver toast. amazing. will be back soon!

yes yes yes! i will need to write an entire new post every time i eat here because the menu is constantly changing, but some how i am consistently happy ;)! my faves are octopus salad, bucatini alla‘nduja affumicata and cavatelli alla norcina!!!! just go!! we asked our waiter what to get and he said to close your eyes and order whatever your finger lands on! he is righttt!!!!

every time i tried to make a reservation at bestia they would kindly reply that they had an opening in 2-3 weeks so i would always end up going somewhere else. when my husband asked where did i want to go for our 10th anniversary i immediately replied: bestia. we made a reservation almost a month in advance and all we could get was a countertop side table.