Summer night out at Tanino Ristorante Bar

After surviving the first week of my internship, I went out with Sophia, Julieta, and Alyssa for a night of fun at Tanino Ristorante Bar in Westwood. We had two conditions when we were deciding where to eat at: (1) we wanted Italian food, and (2) we wanted eat at a restaurant that had a pretty setting. Tanino was a perfect match!

 

Upon opening the door, I was instantly stunned by the interior. Everything from the black and white floor tile to the intricately-patterned ceiling made it feel like I was dining in someone's mansion. Very classy.

We were shortly seated and greeted by a friendly staff of servers. Within minutes of glimpsing through the menu, the waiter came by to see if we were ready, but being our first time at Tanino, we needed much more time. But after just asking for a few more minutes, another waiter comes up and asks if we were ready to order, as if we were taking way too long to order. We spent a few more minutes deciding what to order with the eager waiters hovering over us, and finally came to a decision.

I ordered the Spaghetti ai ricci di mare, which is a spaghetti with sea urchin dish. When I told the waiter my order, he questioned me a few times (more than three!) as to whether I really wanted to order that dish. I was a little taken aback, because I am always instantly drawn to anything with sea urchin, but yet the waiter almost seemed like he was discouraging me from ordering it. So I asked him whether the sea urchin was bad that day or something, and he told me that the sea urchin was fresh, but that the taste is a little strange and wasn't sure I would like it. I guess he didn't know that I'm actually a big fan of sea urchin! Regardless, I thought it was a little weird that he would discourage someone from ordering something off their menu.

Spaghetti ai ricci di mare from Tanino Ristorante

I ended up ordering it anyway, and was so glad that I did because it was so fulfilling! Although the portion wasn't huge (a good thing), it was packed with more sea urchin than I could have imagined. Very impressive. I also liked that even though the description said that it was made with olive oil, that the dish wasn't too greasy at all. It was a very good dish, and I might end up coming back frequently to order this despite their amazing selection of dishes!

Alyssa ordered the Tortelloni di zucca e salvia, which is a tortellini stuffed with pumpkin and ricotta. It sounds super yummy, and by the looks of it, I'm sure it tasted amazing. Moreover, it's one of the recommended dishes, according to the waiters.

Tortelloni di zucca e salvia from Tanino Ristorante.

The Gnocchi was also another recommended dish, and so both Sophia and Julieta ordered the Gnocchi al pesto. That also looked positively tasty. Needless to say, the four of us happily left our plates empty and had the time of our lives!

Gnocchi al pesto from Tanino Ristorante.

Once we finished our main entrees, we asked for the dessert menu and were caught in a dilemma deciding what to order. We all ended up ordering a flourless chocolate cake. I was so glad that our entree portions were a little smaller, so that I could fit in dessert without feeling overly stuffed.

Flourless chocolate cake from Tanino Ristorante

The cake was dense with rich chocolate flavor, and eating it confirmed that we did in fact choose the perfect dessert to finish the meal!

Me and Alyssa at Tanino Ristorante

Julieta and Sophia at Tanino Ristorante.

Overall, the environment really set us up for a fantastic meal! It felt like we were eating like kings, when really, we paid like we were the poor college students we were receiving our small paychecks from our part-time jobs. I also loved that they were incredibly quick in serving our food (maybe only about 10 minutes from ordering our entrees to receiving them), but maybe that's because we arrived at about 9:00 p.m. The only thing about the service was that the waiters kept on trying to tease us and make conversation with us. It was fine at first, but I personally felt a little like they were crossing the line a bit and were a little too talkative. But with my girls with me there tonight, it was pretty entertaining. So I will just end this post and say that I am waving my thumbs up for Tanino! (Just be bold and order that sea urchin spaghetti regardless of what beef they may give you~)


Tanino Ristorante Bar
1043 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Neighborhood: Westwood
(310) 208-0444