Thanks to a chowhound’s post earlier last month, I tried La Buca for lunch. What a fantastic little Italian place! Wish I lived closer.

Little slivers of homemade bread came out first, with some slightly spicy tomato sauce to dip it in. I try not to fill up on bread, but this was soft and flavourful and difficult to ignore. It was a good indication that the pizza would be exceptional.

We ate lightly, splitting a Fungolata salad; arugula, mushroom and parmesan salad. It had a delightfully light and lemony dressing.

We also shared the 12″ pizza – the Caruso – which was topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms and Italian sausage, topped with shreds of parmesan cheese.

My, oh my – those little chunks of sausage were time bombs of the most intense flavour. Super tasty with a leading note of fennel. Thin, crunchy and light crust – in short – an incredible pizza.

Best I’ve had in LA, but I must admit I rarely eat it.

La Buca is BYO – no corkage fee.

Cute venue, soon to be expanding next door in a few month’s time to seat 70. I hope the charm remains intact. I know the food will. To be honest, I haven’t yet tried the homemade pasta, but have every confidence it will be excellent.

At present it’s a very small place, with only 11 tables / room for 22, so call ahead for a table.

Far from expensive – 1 salad, 1 pizza, 1 aranciata = approx $30, including tip.

Postscript – went again today and found the salad way too heavily salted. We each had a bit, leaving about half in the bowl. Mentioned it when the server came to clear our plates, but we were raving about the pizza (Caruso again!) We found we were not charged for the salad at all. Very classy. We tipped extra to cover the cost of half the salad, but we would have eaten it all if it wasn’t so salty…

La Buca
5210 1/2 Melrose Ave, corner Wilton
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323) 462-1900

Hours:
· Mon-Fri 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30pm-10:30pm
· Sat 5:30pm-11pm
· Sun 5pm-10pm