In the newly revamped outdoor Century City Mall, two story Eataly boasts a one stop shop for in-house freshly made, and locally sourced food products. Eataly is still so hot in LA right now since its recent opening you need to prepare for the crowds, but it is a wonderful place to pop in to watch the food work in progress (as the counters provide no doubts for what is going in your food). Peruse the specialty Italian items for sale, grab a quick take-home White Moustache yogurt, sample a panini sandwich from the panini station or indulge on a thick but airy Roman style pizza served on a board. End your Italian dreams with a specialty dessert from Venchi, by way of Torino, Italy.

 

 

The bakery makes everything from scratch, and you can expect nothing less from the Italians but to use 80 year old yeast creating easily digestible organic flour touted as gluten friendly.  The salad, grain bowl, and juice bar has partnered with Chef Jason Neroni of Rose Cafe and will rotate every three months with a new chef. The Dock and Dish offers the freshest catch daily, and the sit down seafood restaurant Il Pesce has partnered with Michael Cimarusti from the famed LA restaurant Providence.

 

 

LA’s Eataly is the first wine shop to also include California wines. The cheese counter boasts over 300 local and imported cheeses which can’t be missed due to the smell and the olive oil station allows you to pour your choice of olive oil from a vat into a glass bottle that can be brought back and refilled.

 

 

At the back of the market is La Piazza where you can find “Italian tacos” from Tuscany cooked on terra cotta plates and stuffed with different charcuterie and cheese, or sweets. The area also includes a mozzarella station, lasagna station, polpette (meatballs) station, fritto station (fried items) and salumi and cheese. Seating looked easier to come by here.

At the restaurant in the back to the left called La Pizza & La Pasta, the Neapolitan pizzas with stretchy soft dough are cooked in 90 seconds in the gold cone shaped wood burning ovens flown in from Italy. Unfortunately, no reservations are possible, but just make sure to order everything –  mozzarella, pizzas, and homemade pastas so you can take home some leftovers.

 

 

While trying to find my way out around the crowds at 1 pm on a Wednesday, I passed a lavish coffee bar and took the elevator downstairs to be wowed by a homemade gelato bar and their very own cooking school. Eataly is gourmet food stall bliss.

Eataly L.A.

Westfield Century City

10250 Santa Monica Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90067