la.foodblogging

Photo taken by YOURS TRULY!   (By the way, I am sitting at the front window corner table, with my back against the wall. This photo shows pretty much the entire dining area.)

La Buca is a tiny, neighbourhood restaurant situated just East of Paramount Studios, at the corner of Melrose and Wilton.

I first wrote about La Buca last August. [see link below, in Related Posts from our Archives] 

This place was a real find, featuring beautifully cooked, authentic Italian fare from Mamma Buca.

We popped in there last Thursday for lunch because I remembered I hadn’t yet tried their gnocchi. Now everybody knows there’s gnocchi and then there’s gnocchi… Some gnocchi jams in your throat on the way down and almost instantly forms in your stomach into a stodgy brick of potato or flour (or, more fatally, both). A few bites and you’re pushing your plate away and reaching for a cleansing gulp of wine to cut through the paste.

Then there’s the kind of gnocchi that will spoil your palate forevermore. You will never be able to order the stuff again because you have sampled the ambrosia that is Mamma Buca’s gnocchi.

These delightful gnocchi were plump and pillowy, indented and perfectly hand-formed blobs of pure heaven. I got them dressed with a sublime and silky ‘pink’ vodka sauce that was attractively speckled with finely cut parsley and not at all salty (hate that!) At $16.75 it was a pricey but substantial dish, half of which served me well the next day for lunch when reheated in the microwave. When I asked for my ample leftovers to be bagged, I also asked our waiter to return the plate so I could lick it clean. I might have actually done that if he’d taken me seriously…

Anyway, the good news is that their renovations are well underway. I poked my head in and checked out the construction going on next door. Word is they’ll be reopening as Osteria La Buca in October. Once completed, the restaurant will be upgraded from a tiny room with a mere twenty-two seats to a licensed space that looks at least four times the square footage. There may also be a second level, but I have not had that fact confirmed.

Stay tuned…

Osteria La Buca

5210 1/2 Melrose Ave, corner Wilton
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323) 462-1900

Call ahead!
Currently BYO wine.

By MaxMillion (see more of her posts). Max Million is the nom de 'net of Pauline Adamek. Born in Sydney, Australia, Pauline has lived in Los Angeles for the past ten years and finds it agrees with her. She has been reviewing films and filing celebrity-based interview articles since 1991, and has filed stories from various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. She is completing a family cookbook and also writes novels for 8-12 year olds.