Felix - Venice

Rose Cafe down the street is known for their Cacio E Pepe

I see no issue w/ bringing up price. I’ve never been to Felix. I know Felix’s pastas tend to be in the $20, I think? But I don’t know for sure since I see no prices on the on-line menu.

Uovo does a decent cacio e pepe for $15. Why not talk about relative value for cacio e pepe dishes that are w/i a 3-mi radius of each other (esp since @glazedonut wasn’t super impressed by the Felix version and was wondering if he/she should try the dish elsewhere)?

If someone said, “Yes, Forma’s version is also expensive but really delicious and worth it,” then that’s certainly helpful information to me. ::shrug::

Forma is worth it, and large enough to share. We usually get the meatballs, and another appetizer, then the pasta. It’s very rich.

Uovo is too salty for me, every dish I’ve tried. I’ve given up on it.

Thanks for the rec! Interesting, their menu online mentions miso in the cacio e pepe - I guess to add umami to the cheese? I wonder if it’s sweet at all.

Agree with @paranoidgarliclover about price points - always useful to have good comps. Felix’s cacio e pepe was $21 or $22, so Forma’s sounds like a decent comp although theirs sounds like a bigger portion.

Uovo sounds good too, been meaning to try them, but I’m a little worried after @yogachik’s post about salt - a lot of new restaurants are too salty for me.

Misunderstood and thought you were claiming that Forma is expensive but Felix is not.

In that case, yes, Forma is also fairly pricey, but portion sizes are solid and the pasta is delicious, so definitely worth it in my opinion.

Ah, yes, that would’ve indeed been a very strange statement for me to make. :wink:

Forma is a lot closer to me than is Felix (and still closer than Uovo, as well), so might be worth a try. Is there usually a long wait?

Uovo says it’s cacio e pepe is salt forward, so perhaps not a good idea to try that one. I don’t find their food salty (incl the cacio e pepe), but I can tolerate (and even enjoy) rather large amounts of salt, so…

Damn I want some ice cream!

Salt and Straw Venice is only 20 minutes away! Let’s do it!!

Mmm Coffee, Bourbon, and Vanilla.

What time is it? 5pm?

Shoot doesn’t Felix open around that time?

F it we been trying to get in for awhile let’s see if we can walk in…

I made it!


Pillowy and airy with a great top of olive oil, salt, and rosemary. I ain’t ever had focaccia like this.


I feel like the eggplant didn’t added much to this in both taste and texture. Pasta cooked just a tad more toothsome. Sauce was wonderful, sweet tomatoes but you get just enough hint of garlic and olive oil. Well balanced and well coated on the noodle.


Would have like this more hot as opposed to a little over lukewarm. Otherwise, great dish. Salt from the cheese, and you get nice black pepper throughout the whole bite, chew, and swallow. Not one really overpowers each other, the cheese and pepper play off each other well. Beautiful sauce, which I am guessing is just the cheese and a ladle of starchy pasta water.


Very porky, for some might be too overpowering. Carnitas meets cured pork. Crispy bits almost or probably better than bacon. Leftover sauce was scooped up with some focaccia, delicious!!!

Service was absolutely perfect. Water never went below half, napkin was folded when I was in the restroom, blah blah blah

Chef Funke not in the house. Will definitely like to return and try more pastas.

As much as I loved my meal. My heart and stomach goes to Bulgarini.

The Ripassata dish is my favorite pasta dish of all time. That tomato sauce!! That pasta!!!

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Is Bulgarini pasta done the same al dente as Felix?

Hi @JeetKuneBao,

Nice report. :slight_smile: Have you had Leo Bulgarini’s Handmade Focaccia right when it comes out of the oven? So good! :blush:

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Indeed I did have it straight from the oven and it was the best I ever had. I do plan on a future visit within the next coming weeks.

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Bulgarini is absolute perfection, at least on my visit.

I hear Felix’s pastas are slightly more al dente. Don’t know if it was a kitchen mishap but that Pasta Norma was very toothsome.

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I’m not entirely sure what you’re trying to say here? I looked up the word “toothsome” and it seems to indicate being exceptionally tasty? Was it a kitchen mishap that they made the pasta too tasty (some sort of joke flying over my head)?

@FoodRogue Since “al dente” literally means “to the tooth”, I interpreted @JeetKuneBao ‘s comment to mean the Pasta Norma was so chewy it stuck to one’s tooth, but was still tasty.

When I visited Felix last year in a small group, we tried the ORECCHIETTE, RIGATONI ALL’AMATRICIANA, and the black truffle gnocchi. The first two dishes were quite al dente, especially the orecchiette, which had thick edges making it feel unpleasantly nubby, but was still “toothsome” due to the delicious combo of sausage sugo, broccoli and cheese.

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Ah great, thank you for the clarification!

Personally, the exceptionally toothsome pasta at Felix is exceptionally toothsome to my personal palate! :slight_smile:

This may be a bit of a bizarre/off topic question, but how would one describe the texture of some noodles like the cold noodles at Myung Dong Kyoja? Is that an even further level of “al dente” or a different texture altogether?

Asian mindset:

“Q”

Oh man, what is “Q”?? Is that what they do at that sushi place Q in downtown? I need some lessons from you food gurus!

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Pretty nice meal here a few weeks ago. No pictures because our dining companions don’t seem to roll the way.

BURRATA PUGLIESE (kaweah peaches, basil & 30yr balsamico) - yum; hard to go wrong if ingredients are good and they were.

PAPPARDELLE (ragu bolognese“vecchia scuola” & parmigiano reggiano 48 mo)

TROFIE (pesto and a twisted pasta shape)

ORECCHIETTE (sausage sugo,friarielli, peperoncino & canestrato) - once again my favorite, nicely spicey and powerful

SPAGHETTONE ALLA NORMA (eggplant, pomodorini, basil & ricotta salata)

BISTECCA DI MAIALE (pork shoulder steak, roasted figs, sage, treviso & wildflower honey) - I loved this, was more in a meat than pasta mood that night.

Pasta seemed as good as during my previous two visits, really wonderful. Loved the pork shoulder. So no complaints about the food. But boy, after some recent meals at places like Gwen and Osteria Mozza, I think the service is definitely the weak point here, but it depends on your mood. Often I enjoy the more casual atmosphere of Felix, but for the money spent, it didn’t work out as well that night for the following reasons:

  • We had to wait 15-20 minutes for our table past the reservation time; this is no problem for me, restaurants are busy, it happens. But it was hard to get a drink with the bartender being so busy and there was nowhere to stand with the huge amount of people coming in and out. Just a quirk of the restaurant. By the time our drinks were actually ready, it was time to be seated. Still, it beats Chi Spacca’s no waiting area at all (you’d have to go next door to Osteria Mozza).

  • Pacing was bad. We had all four of our pastas hit the table at almost the same time. Hope the drinks you ordered already came because if not, you won’t get them until after you are done. Nor will you see your waitress much if at all during the meal. Not a big gripe except for that…

  • $40 corkage and an overextended somm. We brought our own wine, so we knew the price going in, fine. Waitress took the bottle to be decanted and we never saw the wine again until after the pastas were finished, despite asking a few different people to bring it over several different times. Never saw the somm at all until they rushed to pour it out. $40 is among the highest corkage fees in the city FYI. But still better than 3x markup on their wine list.

  • Pacing was bad part II. They forgot about the pork shoulder until we asked, so we not only ate the pasta with no wine, but we drank a lot of the wine without pork shoulder.

Usually, I am a big apologist for LA-style casual and fast service, but perhaps I just felt like an old man that night. Didn’t work for me. Which reminds me, have to dig up the bill to see if 20% gratuity was mandatory or not (I may have double tipped in the former case).

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calzone
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoqcWdJF1-8/?taken-by=felixlosangeles

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what you described isn’t LA casual service. It’s BAD service. No excuses.

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