Bestia

I finally got a chance to try out this new place, which has been getting rave reviews ever since it opened. It is run by a husband and wife chef/pastry chef team and located in one of those weird hidden pockets of downtown LA that people haven't found yet. We managed to get a 6p reservation. I got there about 5 minutes early and the restaurant wasn't quite open yet, but there was a lot of yelling coming from inside-the staff sounded like they were at a pep rally.

The food was consistently superb. We stuck to appetizer and pasta dishes and still ordered a little too much. Our favourite dish was the cavatelli with black truffles. The pasta was the exact right consistency, the sausage perfect texture and flavour and the truffles added that intense richness. The beef meatballs were another hit, with a smooth, soft texture and a complex but perfectly matched sauce. One of the diners at the next table had the pork chop, which was huge and he deemed it 'crazy' good. We had a chocolate tart and pear tart for dessert, both excellent (the pear tart was one of the best fruit desserts I've had).

This is a very loud restaurant, not helped by the fact that the staff is constantly yelling at each other (again, pep rally type yelling not angry yelling). Ours were ringing by the time we left, although we noted that the patio was much quieter and would be the preferred location for next time.