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  • Details: Full Bar, Dinner
  • Hours:
    Open for dinner nightly starting at 5:30.

What's Nearby

Picks by the LA Times Staff
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More to do in: Venice

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Gjelina

310-450-1429
1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 
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(1 ratings)
Irene
STAFF

The tall door of the rustic Mediterranean restaurant opens, closes, opens -- on a roar of sound inside, much of it generated by the folks...

Times Description

Inside, it's quite the scene, very Venice chic. The glamorous and the scruffy are seated side by side at two tall communal tables, beneath a whimsical chandelier made out of an old oval pot rack twined with mismatched lightbulbs. In a reverse of the usual, the floors are brick, the ceiling wood planks, though that doesn't seem to make a difference in the pounding, festive noise level.

Still, what a smart environment for Travis Lett's exuberant California cooking. (He's the chef who put NineThirty, the restaurant at the W Hotel in Westwood, on the map when it opened in 2005.) At tables lined up under a charcoal plaster wall inscribed with graceful swirls, hungry folks are digging into platters of cured meats and cheeses, salads of burrata cheese with heirloom tomatoes and arugula, or beautiful thin-crusted pizzas smothered in fontina cheese, bitter greens and tomato confit. The wood-burning oven also turns out baby artichokes with Parmigiano and half a dozen other pizzas.

S. Irene Virbila, Times Restaurant Critic 8/25/08, to read more, click here.

Reviews from Yelp_large (3)

  • Ss
    Posted by jess a. on Yelp_small
     

    I'm torn about this place, and it's making me feel wishy-washy. Ick. The food was great. There were plenty of veg options, and I didn't feel like I was...

  • Ss
    Posted by Normna J. on Yelp_small
     

    Two words: chicken liver. One more word: holyWowguacamole. Everyone has taken care of the food reviews- truly wonderful, but expect a wait leaning...

  • Blank_user_extra_small
    Posted by Cynthia M. on Yelp_small
     

    I'm a big fan of this place. I have not had one big thing on the menu. I love their pizzas and their mussels. I usually head over for lunch more b/c at...

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