Eataly excites eaters

By Mia Feizbakhsh ’22
A new location of Eataly, an italian restaurant originating in Turin, Italy, has opened in Los Angeles.  Eataly serves an array of European foods, in addition to Italian food.  The food complex has a wide variety, from prepared food from one of their three restaurants, to cooking ingredients for sale; they even have cooking utensils like pots and pans.
The Eataly located in Westfield consists of two floors and three restaurants, all of which serve different food. On the first floor there is a cafe, a gelato shop and a pastry shop.  The pastry selection is extensive, and the gelato features both sweet and savory flavors.   On the second floor, the most in-demand restaurant is called La Pizza e La Pasta.  The joint serves authentic neapolitan pizza and perfectly cooked pasta.  Eataly’s other two restaurants are called La Piazza and Il Pesce Cucina.  La Piazza is similar to an Italian town square, where one can line up at a stand and order prosciutto, among other items.  Il Pesce Cucina is a kitchen that serves a variety of seafood, from calamari to mussels.
You can often find the place packed with people, making it very hard to order.  The restaurants do not take reservations; they have a “first come first serve” policy and the wait can sometimes be up to an hour.  Even with all the different food options, a place as big as Eataly needs a lot of customers, and the wait may not be worth it.  The complete price range can be up to $100 for an expensive culinary utensil, and as little as $2 for a piece of chocolate.  One “large” margherita pizza, which only feeds one person, from La Pizza e La Pasta is a whopping $18! Overall, Eataly’s food is top notch, but their wait and prices are just not up to par.
Overall Rating: 3 Stars