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Felix Trattoria, Pasta Master Evan Funke's Trattoria on Abbot Kinney Blvd. and Broadway Street in Venice Beach


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I had a really excellent meal here last week.  We waited in the small bar for our table to be ready and spent the few minutes eyeing fresh focaccia, pillowy arugula salads, and countless bowls of pasta come out...I did everything I could not to pull an Elaine Benes and steal from others' plates.  Once I got to eat (from my own plate), everything was better than it looked.  I was a bit amazed at how all of it (bread, salad, and pastas) was perfectly balanced--even the cacio e pepe was more delicate than the ultra rich versions that are more common.      

Between this and Uovo up the street in Santa Monica, this is a good area for pasta lovers.

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I just left Felix a little while ago. I came to town for work, and had time to kill before flying back home on Delta in the morning (LAX to DCA non-stop! I suspect that’s the longest flight from DCA and would love to be proven wrong).

Anyway, this place is really great. Thank you for the suggestion.

I had a classic Negroni, an order of the pizza bianca, the rigatoni all’amatriciana, and a glass of white wine. I sat at the bar, since it was just me and I didn’t have reservations.

I had a great meal. The Negroni was made with the Cocchi’s sweet vermouth (vermouth di Torino). It was very good. The wine was by the glass and very good - I can’t recall the name, but I know I picked it and would have no one but me to blame if I hated it.

I really enjoyed some of the pizza bianca during my meal and more once I got back to my hotel. The flavor is unbelievable. I like oregano, but I don’t know that I have ever tasted oregano that tastes like this did. The sea salt and olive oil are also great. I enjoyed the rigatoni, as well, but the pizza was out of this world.

This place, however, may be . . . Huh . . . Expensive? For a cocktail, pizza, wine, pasta, tax and tip, I spent $91. I’m not necessarily complaining, but I didn’t see prices on their online menus. Is $26 a lot for a plate of amatriciana? Maybe? Is if for what many places would call a half serving? I think so?

The service was, however, amazing. The head bartender did not waste a movement, was exceptionally hospitable, and was exceptionally polite. I could not believe how efficient she was with tea service, coffee service, the bar, the service bar, and — even — serving dinners to fools like me at that bar.

So, if money were no object and price not a factor, I would love this place. But, once you consider that the restaurant sorta makes it hard for its potential customers to assess its cost compared with its value, you leave feeling like: “O.K. great food, that I enjoyed, but did I just spend time $91 on four things?”

I’m writing this before my expense report has been rejected, because I do think the place was great. But if someone says “No” to my reimbursement, and that means it was “my” money I spent: yikes. The value proposition feels WAAAAY off for a simple, but delicious, Italian trattoria (in my humble opinion).

TL; DR: I might have gotten more utility eating at the LAX In N Out burger nine times than eating at Felix once. YMMV.

 

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