1/30/2009

Gjelina On Abbot Kinney


Great time at Gjelina. It has the local Abbot Kinney vibe : warm, casual, and quirky. The dark restaurant has loud music, a large bar, communal tables and a cozy outdoor patio.

We ordered lots of little plates to share between the four of us. The pizza was my fave. The super-light crust didn't have any tomato sauce. Instead it had a little bit of gruyere, carmelized onion and fromage blanc on it, enough for delicious flavor, yet nothing overwhelming. Uncooked arugula topped it off. Overall it was light, crisp and bitter sweet, in a good way.

Dates, bacon, and vinegar coated the brussel sprouts so even people who don't likethe vegetable would probably like the rich dish. I also liked the braised chickpeas with greens, Israeli cous cous, harissa and spiced yogurt.


Keep in mind that portions vary and are generally not large. The frites for $8 were plentiful, on the other hand 3 spicy grilled prawns for $10 seemed skimpy, as did the asparagus with a fried egg and Parmesan for $9.

We skipped dessert and headed over to Copa D'Oro where I had a market fresh cocktail to round off my evening.

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Gjelina
1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 450-1429

Gjelina on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

Win and Alli said...

I personally find this restaurant very load ... too much so.

Alli & Win said...

It was quite loud, especially on a Saturday night.