Off topic (feel free to respond on a Gjelina thread), but what do you crave from there? I went there once many, MANY yrs ago, and I liked it, but I kinda/sorta found it similar to Milo and Olive (which is way closer to me). Maybe I should re-try it. And is the stuff you love there available from GTA (if that still even exists)?
The lamb sausage pizza and the brunch lamb burger mostly.
I’ve actually never gotten anything from GTA, so no idea. Sorry.
3 Likes
I personally strongly prefer Gjelina to Milo and Olive. Imo, Gjelina gets everything right about pizza that Milo and Olive gets wrong. A lot of the same pizzas and salads are available at GTA, too, but the veggie dishes and pastas usually aren’t. The pasta, in particular, is worth a try. There’s a lot of good pasta in LA these days but I was struck by how good Gjelina’s was on my last visit.
PS: Here’s some more quail porn from Benu:
Reminds me I really need to do a report on our exceptional holiday dinner there
7 Likes
What??? I adore M+O pizzas. What do you think they get wrong?
Is there a wrong in the comparison? I’d consider it difference in styles, where the two do seem somewhat opposite.
1 Like
Nothing wrong w/ comparing, but I asked for details b/c, depending on why @Bigmouth loves Gjelina pizzas but dislikes M+O’s, then I might feel the opposite.
I’m too lazy to deal w/ Abbot Kinney parking, so, if it seems like it might be obvious that I won’t like Gjelina’s pizzas, then I can save myself the trouble. 
2 Likes
Yep, you should do more reports. Your photos are lovely.
2 Likes
That’s funny
I agree - nothing wrong with comparing, but I reiterate in that, is there a wrong here? I don’t think so. Just different. Westside is lucky to have the two places.
Very nice @moonboy403!
I agree with everything you wrote about the Warm Dark Chocolate Cake. It was like Molten Chocolate Cake without the molten. Which actually would have made it better and couldn’t be any less unoriginal than this. Bring back the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake!
2 Likes
Milo and Olive bake their pizza at too low a temperature. Their oven is around 600 F, while Gjelina/GTA’s is more like 800 F. As a result, the crust at M+O comes out more browned than charred. You can ask for it well done, but then the pizza cooks too long, which leads to a hard, dry cornice I find unappealing.
Here’s a picture of the lamb sausage pizza from my last visit to Gjelina. It’s a little blurry but you can see much more charring, especially on the undercarriage.
Try ordering the aforementioned lamb sausage pie and comparing it with the pork belly sausage pizza at M+O. It’s not a perfect comparison, but I personally find the sauce and toppings to be much tastier at Gjelina.
BTW, if you can get over to Abbot Kinney for lunch, Wednesday and Thursday are great days to do so. There’s street sweeping along 6th until noon, so there’s almost always parking on one side at lunchtime.
2 Likes
It never ceases to amaze me how much you guys know about pizza!
Side bar: maybe the difference in preference comes from how much char one does or does not like.
Oh, no. The chewy versus crispy debate is huge also.
1 Like
Thanks for all the info! I actually don’t mind a browned crust, so I wonder if it’ll end up simply being me feeling that they’re 2 diff styles of pizza (as @bulavinaka mentioned), which would be a very happy result indeed.
Don’t know if I’ve ever the pork belly pizza at M+O b/c I can’t tear myself away from the pepperoni or the mushroom. But maybe I need to try something new. 
Crisp vs. tender / chewy is just a personal preference. I’ve enjoyed many tender pizzas but my favorites are all crisp.
My favorite pizzas are really both. That’s the appeal of a super hot oven imo. In the right hands, it yields a crust that is simultaneously crisp yet supple. The trade-off is it takes skill and attention to get consistent results. IIRC, Mozza lowered the temperature on their ovens a while back for precisely this reason.
For sure! It’s a style that’s very popular as evidenced by the success of places like Milo and Olive and Stella Barra. And I’m obviously being a little melodramatic when I say “everything wrong with pizza” 
Back when there were fewer pizza options in LA, there was greater urgency to my complaint bc I didn’t want to see this style crowd out the alternatives. Now, however, there are plenty of places doing pizza the way I like it. Everybody wins!
1 Like
Such a coincidence you mention that, since I like Stella Barra, too! Although I prob like M+O more. I had never considered that they had similar crust styles!
1 Like
Since nobody answered your initial question
I crave the fish plate and their salads. They have a lot of other great items like the sandwiches - butcher, chicken parm, Italian, etc… but I think their fish plate and salads are perfect. Hard to beat.
2 Likes
Are you referring to Gjelina or Gjusta? I didn’t see any sandwiches on the Gjelina menu when I looked just now.
me no read good
2 Likes