It’s been a while since I was last at Bottega Louie — too long I might add. We were up in LA recently and were actually in the vicinity and decided to pop by for a late lunch/early dinner.
I’ve always loved Bottega Louie’s dining room with its high ceilings and clean, minimalistic feel. Everyone is dressed in black and white creating this very uniformed look blending everything together in a very aesthetically pleasing way.
As we sat down and perused the menu, some epi bread was dropped off at our table with two pots of soft butter. I was hungry and eagerly pulled off a piece of bread, slathering it with butter and taking a big bite. The crusty bread was wonderful chewy and highly tasty!
I was impressed with the Himalayan pink salt on the table, but not so impressed that they didn’t bother to put a small pepper mill alongside it for freshly ground pepper. That’s why I always have my own portable pepper mill in my bag.
We began with portobello fries ($9), which I’ve had at Drago Centro but sadly, the ones here missed the mark. They were all cut unevenly, too thickly battered and even my 10-year-old said “these aren’t very good without the sauce” meaning the aioli it was served with.
Burrata and roasted tomato ($11) and pesto was passable. I liked the softness of the burrata but the roasted tomato was so-so and the pesto wasn’t flavorful enough. This is an easy dish to put together so I was disappointed it was just average.
When I saw Louie salad ($12) on the menu, it sounded really appealing, but when it arrived, it wasn’t as impressive as I thought it would be. Iceberg lettuce, shrimp, hearts of palm, avocado, sweet onions, tomatoes, bell peppers was tossed in a very weak Dijon vinaigrette — bland and tasteless all around.
My prior experiences with the pizzas here have been good so we went ahead and ordered two — Pizza Bianco ($18) with ricotta, mozzarella, Grana parmesan, roasted garlic and rocket arugula was under-seasoned, but nothing a sprinkling of salt couldn’t do to rectify.
Pizza Sausage ($18) also with mozzarella and Grana parmesan but also included tomato sauce, oregano, and fennel sausage was too limp and soggy for my taste. I’ve had this particular pizza before and for some reason, it wasn’t as edgy as I remembered.
Service was also lukewarm with service staff meandering around without much purpose and not paying much attention to us throughout our meal. If this had been a first visit, I would’ve been sorely disappointed and vowed never to return again. I’m writing this as an off-visit and hopefully when I DO decide to return again, they would’ve upped the ante and improved on this experience.
If you’re interested, the deli section houses some visually impeccable desserts which will undoubtedly entice and lure you to take some home. I’ve had some of the desserts before and they were okay — a lot prettier than they taste in my opinion.
Bottega Louie
700 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Tel: 213-802-1470
Hi Anita – this place has been on our list for a long time, since it is just up the 110 from me. I want to go, I want to like it, it looks so cool. but I keep reading about lukewarm. I guess I’ll pass. Too bad.
LL