#2 of the top 10 new... yep!

Each year, my friend Katharine and I go eat someplace fancy for our two birthdays, which are half a year apart. This year, she couldn't choose whether to go to Laurel Hardware or Bestia for her birthday in August.

Based on reservation availability, we ended up at Laurel Hardware in September. But I'd also managed to get a reservation at the hard-to-get-reservations-at Bestia for November. So we kept that... until the day of, when illness struck. We rescheduled... for January. And even though we were both battling nasty colds, kept the reservation this time (because otherwise this would have become my birthday dinner!) and drove to a scary little alley in the Downtown LA Arts district to sample the culinary wonders of the recently named #2 restaurant on Los Angeles Magazine's Top 10 New Restaurants of 2013 list.




Two things to note about Bestia:

1. The bar is very crafty. They have signature cocktails, beer and wine. I was denied my cranberry vodka, but received a bartender-created "fruity vodka something" (that's what I requested, not what they called it ;) that was super yummy.

2. The dishes on the menu are meant to be shared, and that's awesome because you get to taste twice as much. Although we'd been warned that they sometimes try to get you to order more than you need, we did okay and were pleasantly filled (but not in a full food coma) with two appetizers, a pasta, pizza and dessert, all split in two.

Here's what we ate: 

Little Gems antipasti. We ended up getting two salads to start. Both were fabulous!

Burrata with Persimmons + pickled shallots, scarlet frill, aged balsalmic and sea salt. (Thanks Katharine!) Can't go wrong with tomatoes, balsalmic and burrata!

Cavatelli alla Norcina, aka ricotta dumplings with pork sausage and black truffles. This was amazing! One of my new favorite things!

Margherita pizza with mozzarella, basil, olive oil, sea salt and a "toasty" crust. 

Not the best pizza ever (I think I like Mozza better), but still very good. 

Dessert was the Chocolate Budino Tart with salted caramel, otherwise known as a plate of ooey gooey chocolate on a crunchy crust. It should come with a glass of milk. So chocloate-y, but so good!