Great views, good looking crowd, just ok everything else – Dante Beverly Hills

Dante is a restaurant which started in NYC in 1915. Craving Italian food in Beverly Hills, I recently had lunch at their location in Los Angeles. The restaurant is located on the rooftop of the Maybourne Hotel. We were seated right away, with no reservation, and given a very nice seat on the terrace overlooking Beverly Hills and beyond. I could see the Hollywood sign in the distance. I started with a Dante Martini and the server proudly mentioned that the olives all come from Italy. You can see the view in the vid below.

My wife had the caviar martini which I was pleasantly surprised came with a 28.3g jar of California caviar and blinis. For $55, this is a great deal.

For lunch, we started with oysters which the server dropped off with no explanation of type. In any case, they were good.

For mains, we shares the ragu pappardelle and a margherita pizza. The pasta was just ok. I like my ragu more saucy, and the noodles were over cooked. We were not offered Parmigiano Reggiano. The pizza was not bad, but I would of liked it served hotter.

Overall, the very well dressed crowd and view made this a nice lunch. The food was just ok, and the service was a bit slow. Overall, I would not return for food. Maybe for drinks with a view. For dessert, we decided to look for highly rated gelato in the area and walked to Fatamorgana Gelato (about 5 minutes from Dante). I had the chocolate mint which was just ok. The ice cream had a weird “icy” texture, but the taste was pretty good. However, there was also some hint of a herb that I could not identify, which gave the gelato a very unique taste. It might be good if you are in the area, but I would not make a trip just to have this gelato.