Vicini

We are very fortunate to operate our office in the area of Vicini, and are delighted to have them as neighbors (ie "Vicini", in Italian! :). This is an excellent restaurant, with top-quality fresh food, and recipes that go far beyond Amer-Italian standard fare. Our last meal featured the octopus appetizer, a very tasty chopped salad, perfectly cooked broccolini, and the pollo con funghi. Sauces are delicate and subtle - notes like the faint nutmeg in the mushroom sauce add a very special touch. Delicious!Luccio is a fine chef and great host. His space is elegant and his staff friendly and welcoming. We highly recommend this great local spot - go soon and often! :)

Located in a relatively quiet block of Pico in Westwood, Vicini has positioned itself as a legitimate Italian restaurant for those with refined tastes. It is certainly comfortable with nice booths and enough space to dampen any enthusiastic diners. Missing are the Italianate waiters from central casting with their charming accents, replaced by an efficient if perfunctory staff who are a bit short on charm. The food was good with the pasta and risotto appropriately al dente even though the portions were small, barely a few bites. The polipo with chickpea purée was a bit tough and the trecolore salad lacked oomph. My risotto was good, served hot the way I like it but the shrimp again were bland. The standout was the sinfully rich flourless chocolate cake served with crème fraiche and crème Anglais. Perhaps the most annoying part of the evening was the recitation of the many specials, most of which were likely obscenely priced such as the white truffle pasta at $140. They also offered steak and Beluga caviar that could set you back quite a bit as well. I have always felt that they should print a special menu with prices to prevent the unwary consumer from being talked into something they can't afford and may not even like. Another turn off was the lack of NA beverages such as beer and sparkling wine that are readily available in Italy (birra analcoholica anyone?)After eating in hundreds of Italian restaurants on both sides of the Atlantic, I favor places that are authentic with a chef who puts a bit of themselves in every dish. If the portions were larger, the taste more authentic, or the prices lower I would have rated this higher; as it is, I hope that they can improve their act.

My boyfriend found the Dine LA dinner menu and we wanted to try it. The restaurant is nice with a relaxing decor and I love the jazzy music ambience. The server promptly showed us the menu. The actual menu has more starter choices than the online version. For started, I picked the grilled octopus. It is so flavorful and tender. I'd never tried any grilled octopus as tender as this one. So glad I picked it. For the main course, I tried the branzino. Unlike the regular menu that the branzino is served with the head and the tail, this fish is served as a fillet. The entree tastes very nicely seasoned, the fish is cooked in perfection. We browsed at the dessert menu but decided to pass. Vicini is a nice restaurant that we willl come back.One thing to point out, please plan to arrive a little earlier to look for parking. There's no parking on Pico and one block around the restaurant after 6 pm. You need to park 2 blocks away in the residential area!

Been holding off on giving them a review as I didn't want to give the secret out for the best italian food in west la! But if you haven't tried Vicini I highly recommend it! The chef is incredible, amazing employees and just an amazing atmosphere! Food is fresh and actually has flavor Im so glad they took over this spot ! They have hands down the BEST pizza!

Great flavors and service. Nice environment. We had the beef Bolognese and the special Butter and squash Ravioli as entrees, and Salmon with bread as appetizer.

Just a perfect evening! Sound level was low enough for us to be able to talk. Started with warm freshly baked bread and butter. Yum! Followed up with the beautifully prepared octopus. Then on to the softshell crab, tasty and crispy. Best of all, the Agnolotti Di Brasato was absolutely delicious. We drank a superb well priced Vermentino with the meal. Service was exceptional with the food being coursed out in a timely manner.I highly recommend this restaurant.

This place is just okay. Service is okay... the guy we had didn't offer fresh grated cheese but offered the three tables around us. Also very loud inside from people talking.The food was underwhelming. $28 for the below which is described as a "rich cream sauce" and it has the runniest sauce as if it was chicken broth. Wouldn't recommend going here for price and then the flavor...

This was a pick-up order for dinner.Friendly staff.Expensive - spent $100 for a salad, two pastas and a dessert.Didn't realize until we got home that they forgot to put the avocado on the Cavolo Nero salad which is disapponting since it's a $17 salad. :(Good pasta though.

Food was pretty good but expensive for what you get. Biggest problem was that the server smelled strongly of cigarettes mixed with whatever body spray she tried to cover it up with - pretty nauseating and unprofessional. Would not come back.

We were looking forward to coming here tonight and I booked it for my friends birthday dinner. From the start, it was a mess. We weren't seated at our table until 40 MINUTES after our reservation time because they needed time for their "kitchen to catch up". We ordered drinks at the bar while we waiting - FYI, they only serve wine and beer, no cocktails (aka no liquor license). After we were seated, we waited a good while for our food to come. Clearly the kitchen was still very behind. We ordered one of their pasta specials which arrived undercooked. The pasta was hard, and the sauce was very bland. Hard to believe that it was a "special" for the evening. Very disappointing.Their vongole was extremely salty, would not recommend.The sausage rigatoni was the best thing we had on the menu, but very basic. A lot of reviews mentioned the beef tartare. Unfortunately that was not on the menu. All in all, it was a very disappointing evening. Like other reviews have said, it's nothing special. There are way better Italian options in LA than this spot that is worth the price. Don't waste your time here. Only reason I didn't give it a 1 star because our waitress was trying her best, comped some drinks, and was very careful with the seafood allergy we had at our table by providing separate utensils and ensuring it was cooked in a separate pan.