bestia

lively and lovely. excellent food, huge portions, lively space with a great mix of people, excellent, professional and knowledgeable servers.

i was there last night as a guest of chef ori menashe and i took some photos of his amazing creations.

phenomenal. amazing. other similar adjectives. etc. 

had the pleasure of eating here and i was blown away at my overall experience. our bartender was very helpful and we even had a chance to speak with the og triple og / jedi master himself, chef ori. 

he made sure we grabbed the salumi plate and walked us through each item. the cavatelli and uni pasta featured hand made pastas and the lamb neck was truly something else. 

but the true mvp is the creamsicle torte cake. it is a must have and is actually the active ingredient in "michael's secret stuff" in space jam. it also ended racism. 

will be back here when my wallet allows me to.

i've been to bestia 4 times in the last couple years and my experience has always been on point. i am always impressed by the depth of the dishes (unique and always piping hot when they come out), the knowledgable staff/impeccable service, scratch crafted cocktails and the ambiance of a meticulously run bustling restaurant living up to all the hype.

salumi -- beautiful to look at and superb quality. my favorite was the toast in the middle with a spreadable sausage & date mixture on top.
chicken liver toast -- definitely a delicacy that is overlooked a lot of the time but this was definitely one of my favorite dishes!
foie gras brioche toast -- i've had this twice and its melt in your mouth decadent! another favorite!
spaghetti rustichella -- so delicious but definitely one of the heavier dishes, so plan accordingly!
butterscotch coconut tart with coconut sorbet -- one of the best desserts i've ever eaten and i'm a huge dessert lover. one of the times i went to bestia we got 2 orders of this cause it's that good!

i will be returning again in august and always look forward to that next visit!

bestia is beautiful. every detail of this restaurant is carefully thought out and intentionally employed. from lighting and music to service and plating, nothing is whimsical, but you wouldn't know that. as the diner, you are blissfully unaware of all the mechanisms in play to create the most perfect dining experience you'll have in a long time. but on to the food: the salumi board was magical. the meats are cured in-house and the presentation is breathtaking. the chicken liver toast was my favorite part of the meal: simple and delicious. i was really excited about the spaghetti rustichella and boy, was it delicious. my only comment is that the squid ink bottarga is very salty (as it should be) so along with salty sauce, it was a bit over-salted. but nonetheless, delicious. my friend told me the foie gras and strawberries on brioche was life-changing and she was right. holy melt-in-your-mouth, creamy goodness. i will be back as soon as i can procure a reservation at this dtla hotspot!

i’ll definitely have to come back with some meat eaters because look at this . roasted market vegetables (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts)…

overrated. dinner here was overrated and the food was really not worth the $$ for me. service and ambience was good but the food lacked anything remotely amazing as previously described. we had a variety of dishes but none of them were even remotely good, mostly bland. left hungry and sad :(

after the four wonderful events of the l.a. food & wine festival that i attended, what better way to share the amazing time with my family of foodies than to... eat dinner at bestia ! honestly, i was pretty much stuffed... but when the food started rolling in, it wasn't hard to tasting a bit here and there... and then reach for seconds and thirds! i'm getting ahead of myself, so...

the food is good but the noise level is unacceptable. we shouted across the table for the entire meal. bestia is the new "it" restaurant for la. we won't go back. the noise level made for a very unpleasant dining experience

bestia is perfect, apart from how hard it is to get a table. difficult to choose from such a great menu. awesome people watching never hurts! doesn’t get better than dinner at bestia with my friend and chef jet tila (http://chefjet.com/) and his amazing wife and oli and his boyfriend. i met oli when he was dining alone years ago at coi and whispered to me (we were dining at the table next to his) that the beets were not the kind the waiter mentioned….and the food chatter evolved into a fast and long-lasting friendship…….. would be easier to write what we didn’t eat. the chef asked if he could “cook for us” (aka cook for jet…but we can benefit) and of course we agreed, apart from the three dishes we really wanted to try what we ate…everything! salumi platter:  they make it all in-house, very tasty smoked mackerel crostino with burrata and tomato jam: i live in london now and haven’t converted to the joys of mackerel but considering it was mackerel, was as good as it could get…. duck car

everyone has been talking about bestia since it opened at the end of last year. it's always interesting what gets people talking about a place. it could be in a hip location. it might have a hot chef. and it might serve standout food. bestia is going for the trifecta with good location, chef and food. bestia is off a small alley filled with half abandoned warehouses, still waiting for their revitalization time, east of downtown. pulling up to the dimly painted bestia on the side of a large red metal building, i half expected to walk-in and hear the waiters singing songs from rent. actually though, just before opening, there was a group clap and communal "bestia" group yell coming from inside - a whole fight cheer before beginning service.  it's got a bohemian on the edge vibe with its exposed beams and metal hook chandeliers, but the customer cast looks more like broadway theatre goers with a mix of suits and post business clientele mixed in with loft living locals. the chef is ori men

this is an amazing restaurant , food is fresh and incredible, great atmosphere and very cool staff, it was worth the drive, i live in santa monica

there is a moment before bestia opens when the faithful are lined up outside in the recently hipified arts district and the staff is inside and you hear them.  clapping.  and yelling.  very loudly.  it’s bit of a primal experience and it sets the tone for what is to come. 

if you live in la and you have not yet heard of bestia, you ought to be ashamed. but not as ashamed as i feel right now for writing this belated review of a restaurant i dined at nearly three months ago. (argh!) but please, let's direct our attention to more pressing questions: like, is bestia really all that it's hyped up to be? is it currently the "best" dtla restaurant? is it really a beast of a place?

i went to bestia for my 29th birthday. my fiancé’ asked me where i wanted to go for my birthday. instead of the boring, but oh so yummy steak house, i wanted something lively, fun, and delicious. i didn’t care about the waiters coming around every second filling the water. i didn’t care about a romantic setting with candles and ambient music in the background. i just wanted the tastiest food possible for my birthday. bestia in the art district of downtown was on my radar. executive chef ori menashe, former chef of angelini osteria, pumps out regional italian dishes. he even cures his own meats from 60 different kinds of charcuterie, and he also raises his own yeast for bread. with all of this love and care to do everything himself, the food has to be good. with his pastry chef wife, genevieve gregis making desserts, the duo is creating a huge buzz around los angeles. i could confidently say, i had one of my best meals of 2013 here. you order everything first, and the dishes come out as

i'm not kidding when i say this was the most amazing meal of my life! the food at bestia is truly phenomenal. everything i had was cooked to perfection and completely different than any italian food i've ever had before. bestia has a very unique perspective, and a refined palette. don't be afraid to try the chicken gizzards and the marrow bone app, they'll both knock your socks off! and the roasted market vegetables will make you want to be a vegan. i've never tasted such succulent cauliflower florets! the highlight of the meal was the veal tartar crostini. i didn't know raw meat could melt in your mouth like butter, apparently it can! make sure you save some room for dessert - it is well worth the extra calories! the chocolate tart is out of this world and the ice cream is better than gelato in rome. by far my new favorite restaurant in la!