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Gjelina, Gjelina, Gjelina.
Loved everything about this place down to their bathroom fixtures. (How cool is their wheel-faucet fixture?! I sooo want one.) The moment le cub and I stepped in, I gasped, as the decor was pitch perfect. Industrial, yet warm due to the exposed brick and mixture of wood with metal. And ooh... the chandelier... i wanted their "bulby" chandelier. But enough about the decor. On with the food...
My man and I stopped on by on early saturday afternoon hoping to grab brunch, but we missed that menu by ten minutes. No worries, we were down for their afternoon menu of oysters, salads and pizzas. Our wait was 20 minutes.
We were seated at a cute little table at the back, outside. Apparently this is the "lounge area." A really cute space that could only exist in sunny Southern California. There were heat lamps, installed above our table, but they weren't turned on while we were there. No need.
Service was polite but "meh" (we were constantly trying to make eye-contact to get orders placed, to add on to our original order, to get the check, but the staff rarely noticed us), but the food was fantastic. Fresh and unfussy. Beautiful to look at! (We'd ordered the mushroom truffle oil pizza, the hen of the woods mushroom pizza, 1/2 dozen kumamoto oysters, 1/2 dozen umami oysters, the trout avocado grapefruit salad, and the banana chocolate bread pudding with caramel.) OMG, omg, omg.
Rustic and flavorful. Fresh, local ingredients. Our tummies smiled over and over.
We're heading back for the brunch and dinner menus for sure.
Gjelina
1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 450-1429