Having Lunch at Eatalian Cafe

One of my favorite podcasts is You Can’t Eat the Sunshine. Brought to you by devoted Angelenos Kim Cooper and Richard Schave it celebrates the unique things that make Los Angeles special. A recent episode featured an interview with Antonio Pellini of Eatalian Cafe. During the interview it was mentioned that it served the best pizza in Los Angeles. As soon as I heard that I had to go.

Eatalian is the kind of restaurant that grows through word of mouth. You wouldn’t just happen upon it because it’s located in an unusual spot – an industrial area of Gardena. The restaurant itself is attached to the warehouse of Mr. Pellini’s wholesale business and has only small signage. From the outside it looks like it can’t possibly be a restaurant but as you can see from the above photo it most certainly is. And don’t let those few tables fool you, business was jumping. Word of mouth is certainly working.

Mr. Pellini hails from Italy and the dishes on the menu are truly authentic. And everything is made in house…the bread, the pasta, the gelato…everything.

My whole family went and we chose a diverse array of dishes. My dad opted for the Frute di Mare.

He’s ordinarily a tough sell but he couldn’t stop raving about this dish. He said it was incredibly fresh and delicious and he’s already planning his return visit!

My mom and sister went for Tagliatelle with Ragu.

My sister is a pasta expert and said this ranked amongst her favorites.

Since I’m a pizza nerd I had to order one.

I went for the Gitana – tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, tomatoes, speck and parmesan. Whoa nelly! It IS the best pizza in LA. I cannot tell you how incredible delicious it was. So much so that I couldn’t bear to leave one piece behind and ate the whole thing (my family did sample a bit).

BUT, we still saved room for dessert since we knew everything was homemade.