Stella

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. An expensive Italian restaurant opens in a fancy part of LA, and a bunch of famous people go there to eat. The love affair between celebrities and places with $40 bowls of pasta is well-documented in this town, and at first, Stella might seem like merely another chapter in the paparazzi-pappardelle saga.

This glamourous, two-story West Hollywood restaurant has a valet line that rivals Giorgio Baldi and more famous faces in its basement than a tornado drill at Craig’s. Martinis dosed with olive oil are being put away like last call at Dan Tana’s. But any further comparisons to the Deux Moi hotspots of your algorithm should end there. Because there's also something more interesting happening at Stella: excellent, regionally-specific Italian food that you won’t find at sceney LA restaurants—or any Italian restaurant in LA for that matter. 

Granted, you can come to Stella and have a perfectly serviceable night of garlic knots, thin-crust pizza, and pomodoro pasta. But what’s the point of that? You’ve already paid $20 to park, those fancy shoes you picked out received three compliments on the way in, and Erika Jayne just gave you a wink from the corner booth. Don’t play it safe. Stella’s menu is large and filled with dishes that Giada De Laurentiis would have to google. Our rule of thumb: If you have to point to the menu and ask “what is this?” to your server, it’s a dish you want on your table.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

That might include bite-sized rounds of gooey-fresh mozzarella grilled over lemon leaves, shaved lardo decorated with strawberries and hazelnuts, or su filindeu, thin, fideo-like noodles in lip-coating lamb broth billed on the menu as “the world’s rarest pasta.” Of course, like everything else at Stella, these dishes tend to be outrageously pricey (dinner for two here can exceed $500 without much effort). But considering that you might need a flight to Sardinia to find a place attempting the same items, paying a premium to eat them on Beverly Boulevard could be considered cost-effective by comparison.

There’s also the matter of picking a table. Just like the seating plan at the Golden Globes, there are prime tables at Stella and less-prime. The prime ones here are downstairs. That’s not an indictment of the first level, which is a breezy, pleasant room populated by sharply dressed servers who know what they’re doing. It’s just that the basement is better—dark, sexy, and self-contained like the main cabin of a mega yacht parked off the coast of Monaco.

photo credit: Jakob Layman

With only a row of tiny windows above the bar, the outside world is a distant memory downstairs. Pasta cooks with rollers hold court in a temperature-controlled glass room, sizzles and scrapes emanate from the open kitchen, and a mysterious, hull-like hallway leads to another, even more private dining room. At one point, you could select which level you preferred when booking a reservation, but that option was promptly removed when the basement proved the overwhelming favorite—particularly among VIPs. The best you can do now is add a note to your reservation requesting a downstairs table, or give them a call beforehand and ask nicely. Or better yet, win an EGOT.

For celebrities and the celebrity-obsessed, Stella’s an easy draw. For Italophiles and people who want to spend lots of money on incredible food they’ve potentially never had before, Stella is also an easy draw. It’s a truly happy marriage—one that’s harder to find in this town than su filindeu. 

Food Rundown

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Mozzarella Grigliata

Start your meal here. These mounds of molten mozzarella, salty anchovies, and lemon zest aren’t only expertly portioned snacks, they’re a tiny window into Stella’s roster of Italian deep cuts. The fresh cheese is placed on a large lemon leaf (which you don’t eat), then melted over a wood-fired grill. Once it arrives, you slide it directly into your mouth like a big oyster.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Carpaccio Di Manzo

This beef tongue carpaccio has as much going on as a Spin-Art painting: a sharp salsa verde with pistachio, reduced grape syrup that tastes like a slightly sweeter balsamic, and (like most dishes here) a healthy glug of peppery olive oil. As good as the toppings are in combination, it’s the soft, luxurious slices of braised beef tongue fanned out below that make this a must-order.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Carpaccio Di Branzino

Another carpaccio, but the opposite of the beef tongue. Order this and a server appears with a cart and a fully intact branzino that looks fresh from the net. It’s carved into thin slices, then dressed with lemon, sparkling wine, lots of olive oil, and fancy salt shaved from a big crystal. You'll run out of phone storage trying to film the whole tableside ordeal, but the fish tastes as incredible as it looks. We’d suggest ordering this $79 dish with a group, though—one branzino yields a lot of sashimi, and you’ll feel like Gollum taking down that much raw fish with two people.

Pizza Romana

Stella serves seven or so Roman-style pizzas with toppings like soppressata and olives or mushrooms and gorgonzola. They’re straightforward, respectable pies with crispy-thin crusts, but also quite large. If you’re with a group, add one to your order for people to pick at. Otherwise, hold off. You’ll need the stomach space for more unique dishes.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Orecchiette

Stella frequently swaps their pasta, so don’t get too attached to any one variation. But we’ve found the thicker folded shapes (like this one) to be our favorites. The orecchiette arrive firmly al dente (a la the nearby Funke) tossed with pistachio pesto, green peas, fava beans, and sprinkled with crumbled sheep's milk cheese. It’s light, spring-like, and the best salad disgused as a pasta we’ve ever eaten.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Iberico Pork Pluma

We haven’t stopped thinking about (or talking about) this fat-marbled grilled pork neck liberally seasoned with rosemary and fennel pollen since we first ordered it. Yes, $79 for seven slices of the world’s fanciest pork chop might seem steep, but this is a dish where every bite feels like an event—the kind you’d pay an annoying cover charge just to experience.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Cassata Siciliana

If you come to Stella and skip dessert, just know you messed up. And in particular, we’re referring to this $36 Sicilian pistachio cake, decorated like a Great British Bake-Off showstopper. From the ornate frosting detail to the soft, supple sponge cake interspersed with layers of whipped ricotta, chopped pistachios, and chocolate, we’d be lucky to have this served on our wedding day, let alone in a restaurant basement.