Restaurant: Toscana
Location: 11633 San Vicente Blvd #100A, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 820-2448
Date: August 18, 2017
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Excellent upscale neighborhood Italian
I haven’t been to Toscana (other than one quick lunch) in over 10 years but Seb was willing to drive across the city so we headed out on a Friday night “double date” (my wife was my date obviously). The place has been open since 1989 but is still seriously holding its own. It was mobbed as was Bar Toscana next door.
Raw vegetables on the table. Toscana has had these for at least 20 years, probably longer.
Sebastian demos — a theme for this post.
From my cellar: 2013 Azienda Agricola Bucci Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore. VM 92. Bright-straw yellow. Knockout nose combines orchard fruits, anise and crushed stone. Dense, juicy and brilliantly delineated, offering very pure, intense flavors of tangy stone fruits, almond paste and flinty minerality. Offers lovely grip and intense, lingering floral notes. This is much more minerally than the 2014 Verdicchio.
Crispy pizza-like bread.
Insalata Carciofi. Baby artichokes, fine slices of pecorino cheese, lemon, walnuts, fennel & fava beans.
Burrata. Creamy mozzarella, bibb lettuce, tomato. Love burrata of course.
Insalata di Pere. Spinach salad with pear, goat cheese and walnuts. My wife’s dream salad (she loves pear, goat cheese, and walnuts).
Prosciutto e Melone. Artisanal 24-months prosciutto di Parma with *melon
Tartufo Nero e Burrata. Burrata cheese and winter black truffle. Tasted of truffle…
Smelled like truffle!
From my cellar: 2007 il Cocco Brunello di Montalcino. 95 points. Great grapey brunello.
Trenette al Pesto. Linguine with pesto sauce. Nice solid classic pesto.
Ravivioli di Carne. Homemade veal ravioli with butter and sage. I love this old school butter and sage sauce with a meat ravioli.
Special spaghetti with king crab and shrimp. Great pasta too with lots of crab.
Risotto ai Funghi Selvatici. Arborio rice and wild mushrooms. A solid risotto.
Milanese. Pounded veal chop in bread crumb. Old school!
The lemon helped lighten it up. I was getting very full though.
Bone in.
The dessert spread. Like many traditional Italian places in Italy, Toscana has a great selection of tortes.
Blueberry torte. Fabulous buttery crust.
Chocolate mouse torte and profiterole. The torte had milk chocolate mouse, white chocolate mouse, and shaved white chocolate.
Overall, I was very impressed, and we should go back more often — far more often than once a decade. Toscana was a regular place for my wife and I when we were young and used to eat out late (Naughty Dog hours). I assumed it was “dated” but far from it, still a great Italian and one of the best in Brentwood (which is jammed with Italians).