Il Piccolino and Manhattan Pizzeria
Thursday, July 28, 2005 21:18On the NE corner of the intersection of Robertson and Rosewood is a restaurant. I’ve driven by it a number of times and didn’t know it was there. But one day, I was walking around there because someone told me there was a restaurant on Robertson just north of Beverly Blvd. I saw the restaurant and asked what their hours were. The guy there said they were closed for remodeling and hoped to be open again in a week or so.
Well, several weeks went by before I remembered to drop by again.
I found out the restaurant is under new ownership. The owner is a gregarious Italian fellow who greets the customers and chats with them. He told me he decided to keep the same name for the restaurant. Thus, the Citysearch profile of this restaurant is correct on the location and setting descriptions.
Citysearch user reviews were positive of the old approach. I’ll be curious to see when reviews come in for the new staffing.
The setting of the restaurant remains the same: a beautiful patio with an awning above to keep the sun and rain (How often does it rain in LA? Don’t answer that as this past season was one of the wettest on record!) out and plants forming a wall to keep down the street noise. Definitely an atmosphere suitable for the romantic meet-up and the power business lunch.
Service was attentive. Food was good and well presented. I had the salmon salad. It was nicely laid out on a square plate and there were some neatly cut potato pieces arranged along the edges (love my carbs despite the rap they are getting these days). And most importantly, the salmon was not overcooked or over seasoned! One lunch companion had shrimp salad and the other ordered a pasta dish with chicken. We were all content and had to pass on the dessert menu. We are planning to go again for a workplace celebration lunch coming up soon.
Give the new ownership at this lovely location a try and I think you’ll be pleased.
Il Piccolino Trattoria
350 N Robertson Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90048
(310) 659-2220
Went down to Manhattan Beach to meet some people the other day. Alas, I was stuck on the highway for 90 minutes and I missed them. I wasn’t about to give up my parking space where I feed a bunch of quarters so I decided to walk around a bit and enjoy this Southern California beach town. When my internal dinner alarm sounded, I slipped into Manhatten Pizzeria and ordered up two slices of pepperoni pizza. Yum!
The interior of the place for sit down isn’t much to write home about and more than half the people at the counter was doing take-away. One group looked like a family exhausted from an afternoon of beach browsing. Another was a well dressed woman who probably just got off work from high powered fill-in-the-blank firm and wanted take out for her residence probably in Manhattan Beach.
I bet there are pizza joints called Manhattan Pizzeria in every town to cater to all those displaced New Yawkers. Did I get the accent right? 8-).
I’m born and raised in LA and am of Chinese ancestry so what do I know about pizza in general and the virtues of NY style pies in particular? All I know is I liked it and if in that part of town again and in the mood for pizza I would get it from there.
Manhattan Pizzeria
133 Manhattan Beach Blvd
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
(310) 546-2117
By Rene (see more of his posts). You can find more of Rene's writing at his own website Rene's Ramblings
SoCalorie says:
July 28th, 2005 at 11:11 pm
I was reading a review of Skooby’s in LA Weekly from 2003 the other day (it’s mounted in Skooby’s window).
The reviewer described the annoying tendency of recent NY transplants to unfavorably compare Californian takes on things like bagels, pizza and kosher dogs.
To prevent a NY friend from making the same mistake when he moved L.A. he gave him a button that said: We don’t care how they do it in New York.
Lyn Fisher says:
June 16th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
I would love the owner of Manhattan Pizzeria to know about the lousy service of his staff. I have enjoyed the pizza in the restaurant. I live a few blocks away and had a few people over to have “the best pizza this side of New York.” I ordered an 18″ pizza which, with the coupon, was supposed to include a salad. I confirmd this with the young man who took the order. When it arrived, the price was $5 more than confirmd and no salad. The delivery person said he would be back in 5 minutes with the salad. Didn’t happen. I called the place and asked to speak to the manager. I got a lackadaisial guy who sid they were busy and itcouldn’t be helped. I asked him for the owner’s name (the website says it is family owned for the last 20 yers) - he didn’t know. I told him there were a lot of places to eat in Manhattan Beach and I didn’t need his. He said OK.
So I went to Von’s and got salad mix, By the time I got back with that, the pizza was soggy and my friends didn’t believe me about how good itg was. I don’t know if I believe me.
This was between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Friday, June 16.
Rene says:
June 19th, 2006 at 7:52 am
Sorry to hear the pizza service was a disappointment. From what I’m told, restaurant owners do want to hear when they drop the ball because it is in their interest to have happy customers and if it is a problem they can readily fix, they will do so.
All I can suggest to you is to write a “just the facts ma’am” type letter and send it to the restaurant.
steen says:
December 30th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Funny… There used to be a restaurant called Il Piccolino where Mozza is now. This was a million years ago, late 80s to be exact. I remember it being delicious. Wonder if this one’s related?