The Ultimate Guide to Pasta in Los Angeles

Roman-Inspired

Evan Funke’s handsomely appointed Roman hit is a larger, splashier cousin to his Venice standby, Felix, which made a name for itself with a wide array of handcrafted pastas. At Mother Wolf, there are no bad choices, but tonnarelli cacio e pepe appears on nearly every table for a reason. The square spaghetti-shaped pasta is the perfect vehicle for the cheese and pepper sauce, which Funke intensifies by first toasting the black peppercorns. Don’t miss it.

The new Melrose Hill Italian spot adjacent to the buzzy Cafe Telegrama is L.A.’s newest date-night go-to. Chef Evan Algorri (Oriel) draws from his travels throughout Italy and work at New York restaurants like Marea to put together a menu of five pastas, the highlight of which is the rigatoni alla gricia. Algorri’s take on the Roman classic is inspired by his time cooking at Lupa in New York, and melds the Roman classic with French technique, thanks to the addition of a creamy caramelized onion soubise, which coats the pasta, along with bits of savory guanciale and pecorino romano cheese. You’ll probably see it on every table.

Echo Park’s moody, Roman-inspired trattoria is sibling to popular natural wine bar, Tilda, and the spot has been a hit since opening in late 2021. Specializing in everything from veggies to pizzas to focaccia, the pastas here are also incredibly well done. Make sure you try the campanelle, which changes seasonally, but during the winter months is made with portobello, oyster, and shimeji mushrooms, tossed with a house-made trumpet-shaped pasta, plus thyme and ricotta salata. The secret in the sauce is a dash of porcini powder and a hint of sherry vinegar to provide an extra hit of umami and acid, which accentuates the savory roasted flavors.

Red Sauce Specialists

The vintage-inspired revamp of the namesake Beverly Hills institution was an instant hit when it reopened last winter. From the duo behind Genghis Cohen, the thoughtful redo of the 1950s-era room (once frequented by Frank Sinatra) includes plenty of stained glass, leopard print fabric, red leather booths and of course, top-notch Italian fare. From massive pepper grinders to a ‘gram-worthy bone-in veal parm, the menu plays on red-sauce classics like clams oreganata to baked manicotti. If you’re going to try one pasta here though, it should be the spaghetti and meatballs. Made with both pork and beef, they’re fall-apart tender and perfectly traditional. 

If 2023 taught us anything, it’s that Angelenos can’t get enough red sauce. This Echo Park ode to East-Coast Italian eateries of yesteryear from Park Lane Hospitality Group quickly went viral after opening in June. Everything from their vintage signage to the eggplant-bespeckled wallpaper and giant meatballs blew up on TikTok, making Donna’s one of the toughest tables of the year. While the focus is on old-school inspired entrees, they also feature a menu of pastas including lasagna rollatini, spaghetti and meatballs, and linguine with clams. Don’t miss the rich and decadent kabocha squash ravioli — a take on the classic pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and sage.

Specializing in Italian American comfort food, this newcomer from chef Jackson Kalb (Ospi) does an excellent take on the now-ubiquitous spicy vodka pasta. Using curvy rigatoni noodles, fresh Parmigiano reggiano, and a creamy tomato-vodka sauce, this dish is a can’t-miss if you visit the newish Vine Street outpost of the chainlet on the ground floor of the Aster Hotel. You can also find a pizza-focused location in the Palisades, and a seafood-focused iteration called Jemma di Mare in Brentwood.

Now with three locations, including a newer one in Slauson, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo continue to turn old-school Italian-American classics on their heads. The fusilli in a spicy vodka-tomato sauce, showered with a fluffy cloud of Parm, has rightfully earned a cult following, though don’t sleep on the rigatoni cacio e pepe or linguine with clams, either.

Cal-Ital Classics

You’ll go back for any number of housemade pastas at this Highland Park stalwart — celery root triangoli with buttered shallots and chives and the summer-only sweet corn cappellacci with mushrooms and celery leaf, for example — but chef Matt Molina also features Semolina, one of L.A.’s best artisanal dry pasta makers, for a handful of standout dishes as well. His spaghetti with clams, pancetta, and jalapeño pesto is a welcome update to the classic dish, with a perfect twirl of spicy and savory flavors.

Stanley Tucci doesn’t have a lock on pasta made with zucchini. This Beverly Hills restaurant serves linguini alla Nerano that so closely resembles what you’d find in its hometown, they staked their name on it. Transcendent in its simplicity, the linguini is twirled with both fresh zucchini and dehydrated chips, plus squash blossoms and a heavy dose of Italian provolone. This is a taste of the Amalfi Coast (or a Los Angeles summer) that’s available here all year long.

Now a Pasadena mainstay, this modern Italian spot somehow strikes a balance between chic and homey, crowded and intimate. The highly seasonal menu features handmade nearly everything, from pastas to the bread, pickles, and more. The squid ink lumache looks stunning and feels like a celebration on a plate, featuring snail shell-shaped pasta tossed with lobster, fennel, and truffle butter. It’s a special occasion dish for any night of the week.

Pasta is a perfect vehicle for vegetables, whether in sauce form, tossed with the noodle, or added directly to the dough itself. The fusilli pesto at this Santa Monica staple is tossed with market vegetables, a walnut-basil pesto cream, chili oil, and breadcrumbs for a hearty cool-weather offering. Enjoy it alongside an arugula and radicchio salad, and a glass of pinot gris.

Corn agnolotti on the Spago menu is such an iconic dish at Wolfgang Puck’s flagship that regulars show up just to get their fix.  Little folded pasta pillows are filled with corn blended with ricotta for body, surrounded by silky mascarpone cream sauce, and studded with caramelized corn kernels to offset all the natural sweetness. Great at the bar, in the dining room, or in the lavish outdoor setup that’s a staple of the space. 

Opened just before the pandemic shut everything down — without outdoor seating, Olivetta was more like a rooftop pop-up at West Hollywood’s La Peer hotel in its early days — chef Michael Fiorelli’s scene-y hot spot is back in action and buzzier than ever. Of the many pasta favorites on the Cal-Ital menu, the comforting radiatore with “all-day” lamb Bolognese is a fan favorite. Vegan? There’s a rigatoni with arugula-cashew pesto for you, too

There are a few dishes Josiah Citrin would never take off his menus, and the famed lobster Bolognese is one of them. Catch it now on the Citrin menu, which is more Santa Monica-casual than the formal tasting menus at Melisse. Here, cappellini is twirled in a rich tomato sauce studded with chunks of Maine lobster, and the finished dish is gilded with brown butter truffle foam just before serving.

Non-Italian

Who would have guessed that an Indian-inspired sports bar would have some of the most talked-about Italian food in town? All of the pasta is made in-house, from the rigatoni in malai pink sauce to the rickshaw shape tossed with cilantro-mint pesto. And all are worth ordering, though the tandoori spaghetti stands out for combining the flavors of the tandoor (smoked chiles, garlic, and charred lime) with aglio e olio-inspired breadcrumbs for a riot of flavors and textures.

LA’s most unhinged new restaurant inside an arcade uses a hodgepodge of influences from around the world to reimagine classics like caesar salad and mapo tofu. A holdover from his popular roving pop-up Estrano, chef Diego Argoti added broccoli beef ravioli to the Poltergeist menu right from the jump: short rib-filled ravioli cooked in brown butter and dark soy sauce served with a single stalk of broccolini. It combines the best of two dishes: Chinese beef and broccoli with a classic brown butter ravioli to delicious effect. 

Cozy Neighborhood Favorites

Now with two locations, including an outpost in Sherman Oaks, this long-running Italian favorite is the ideal venue for tucking into clam or guanciale-topped pizzas, chicken Parm, and handmade pastas. It’s hard to resist a good carbonara, and the version here is rich and soulful: thick strands of bucatini, lots of pancetta, freshly-cracked black pepper, Parmesan cheese, and a runny egg for extra richness.

Before he focused on red sauce classics (think mozzarella sticks) in Echo Park, Zach Pollack took a more personal tour through Italy at his first restaurant in Silver Lake. The menu is tightly constructed for the small space, and the tortellini en brodo “al contrario” has been on it since day one. Instead of cheese- or meat-stuffed tortellini served in rich chicken broth, a Bolognese specialty, Pollack’s take is stuffed with brodo, a la soup dumplings. It’s the perfect blend of Los Angeles and Italy, in one bite.

This neighborhood stalwart has been serving up crowd-pleasing plates of lasagna verde and veal shank agnolotti to devoted regulars for 21 years. But perhaps their most ordered (or most Instagrammed anyway) pasta dish is the linguine Santa Barbara sea urchin (aka uni pasta). The locally sourced sea urchin sauteed in a simple garlic sauce, tossed into the tender linguine and topped with fresh green chives.