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Category: Italian
Neighborhood: Santa MonicaMon-Thu. 11:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat. 11:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Sun. 11:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
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The best Italian food I have had in LA.
Huge portions, the desserts are great, and you cannot beat these prices.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Jumbo Ravioli
Hmmmm....not sure if I just ordered the wrong thing, but I wasn't that impressed. The Caesar salad was bland as was the vegetable lasagna. The bread was plain, too. It was cheap, though. I've has some amazing Italian food, but this was just uneventful for my taste buds. I wouldn't go back normally, but the long wait and even longer line of people as we were leaving makes me want to give it one more chance. Maybe ask what they specialize in and order that. Although in my opinion, if an Italian restaurant can't get Caesar salad right, even if it is cheap, they just can't get Italian right.
Do want to give some kudos for great service, however!
WOW! I will say this is one of the best Italian places i've eaten at....AND I love Italian food!
We took a minitrip to Santa Monica, CA for my boyfriend's birthday. I had yelped Italian food and found this place right down the street from the hotel we were staying at. Really convenient if you plan on staying near the Pier. FYI - I am picky when it comes to Italian food. It better have flavor and lot's of content on my plate. I mean, the portion better be good.
So everything on this menu was mouthwatering. There were about 10 of us celebrating a birthday, and each one of us got something different. My favorites are: ANYTHING RAVIOLI!!! Apparently they specialize in it...if not, They should because it's soo darn good! Past is made fresh and from scratch. I had the Chicken Marsala and I could only finish half of it. It was ALOT of food! The Staff was very friendly and always there to refill your drinks. The restaurant appeared small from the pictures I saw, but they have 2 rooms.
Love this place...I would definitely come back again.
Tasty food, and healthy portions, but bring your own signal flares to get the attention of the wait-staff.
I was contacted by Maxwell not long after posting my 1-star review. He expressed his concern over our bad experience and even sent me a refund for our meal AND a git certificate to return. I must stay it's refreshing and very appreciated to have management reach out to myself and my boyfriend in attempt to rectify things! I might be heading over there tonight to give it another go around and will gladly report our findings. Thanks again Fritto Misto for if nothing else, showing there are still people who care out there :)
I admit, the long-ish wait and seemingly jolly people and reviews got me excited about this place.… Read more »
HOLY SMOKES BATMAN.... this place is delicious. My new favorite place to get pasta dishes in the LA area.... I've been here several times and EVERYTHING is mind blowing.
I trust the menu so much that I no longer order from it - I just ask the waiter to bring me whatever he likes.
You can even do build your own - which is great.
Simply Delicious. Anyone that gives this place a bad review doesn't know a thing about Italian food.
I miss this place. I used to come here when I was working near Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade. Anyway, a very nice, cozy and not so pricey Italian Restaurant. Their garlic shrimp is a must! They also have "Create your own Pasta" choices so you can indulge your carb senses.
There's usually a wait because it's busy. You can tell the wait-staff really works hard because they're always running around trying to plow through tables to accommodate everyone.
As mentioned in a previous review, the butternut squash ravioli is absolutely amazing. I can't quite describe how good it is other than to say, you should try it to understand what I'm trying to say.
I do miss the days when they had the all-you-can-eat Calamari and Salad on the weekends. Even with it being gone now, I still make it a point to order their calamari every time I visit. It's most definitely a worth while expense because its portions are generous and the flavor is difficult to match.
The food is Fritto Misto's saving grace because with how hard the wait staff works, it can often be confused with frantic, which is not such a good thing.
This is a cute mom and pop kinda restaurant. The wait wasn't so bad considering we kept adjusting our party number...in the end the wait was worth it. The food was sooo good.
I ordered the Chicken Cilantro Ravioli. My plate was blanketed with delicate pieces of ravioli stuffed with chicken and cheese and dressed in a creamy cilantro sauce topped with freshly diced green onions and tomatoes. Everyone at my table had a large plate of food. I had to share my plate...I couldn't finish it.
It's refreshing to eat at a place where you know your food is prepared and original. None of that reheat, comes from a box kind of food. Everything felt so fresh and wonderful like a home-cooked meal.
Waiters were also very attentive considering how packed the small restaurant was. Very nice.
Spicy shrimp ravioli with a garlic cream sauce, topped with blackened chicken. If my husband wasn't watching me eat I may have thought I was cheating on him.
My Ma is the best Italian cook in the world, so I rarely visit and/or enjoy Italian restaurants. … Read more »
Last night, I was CRAVING & I mean CRAVING butternut squash ravioli. I didn't know where I could find such, so I typed butternut squash ravioli, santa monica into Yelp on my blackberry. Sure enough, Fritto Misto popped up as the only option.
Boy and & checked out the tiny, not so crowded looking restaurant on Colorado (which by the way is deceiving because you'd think there's only the one 15 table dining room, think again, there is another totally packed dining room right behind the entrance dining area with 10 more tables on your way to the powder room). We sit down and immediately are served warm bread. We asked the couple next to us if we could borrow some of their oil & vinegar (you have to ask for it or you only get butter, we learned).
Waitress was very sweet and told us the specials. Pumpkin ravioli & lobster both sounded promising but I still was hankering butternut squash ravioli. I opened the menu immediately wanted some salad, my tummy was going CRAZY with hunger. We ordered the Misto salad with pecans and pine nuts.
The salad wasn't bad, it had julienned carrots & zucchini with a balsamic dressing. The medium was HUGE for it being a medium salad. It was O-K, the caesar that the table got next to us looked amazing. I perused the menu for my entree and alas, they didn't have what I was looking for all that time, butternut squash ravioli =[... BUT boyfriend saw the sweet potato ravioli with wild mushrooms and sage cream sauce and told me that would satisfy my craving. Ho hum, I guess that'll do, so I ordered that.
LET ME JUST TELL YOU THERE WAS NOTHING HO-HUM ABOUT FRITTO MISTO'S SWEET POTATO RAVIOLI WITH SAGE CREAM SAUCE & WILD MUSHROOMS! It was absolutely delicious. The ravioli was so fresh and it had those red ribbon designs on the pasta. The wild mushrooms were tender and tasted amazing & the sage cream sauce was SO flavorful and matched the sweetness or the sweet potato filling perfectly. My dish was PERFECT.
Boyfriend ordered the sage chicken. That was also DELICIOUS. The chicken was cooked perfectly, it was so moist and tender. It was served on top of fresh tomato fettuccine with julienned zucchini & squash maybe(?) on top with a similar to mine but lighter sage creamy sauce. MMMM. He took exactly half home to eat for lunch today. (I tried to save half for my lunch today, but was unable to stop eating those pillow-y delicious goodnesses they call sweet potato ravioli...)
As we finished, we sat for a bit in a food coma, when we saw that the server gave a slice of the flourless chocolate cake to the table next to us, my mouth was envious of the yummy-ness they were about to encounter. But not even a few minutes later, our same server brought us over a slice of the cake too, on the house! Hell yeah! I was so full but I couldn't help myself but to take a few (or more than a few) bites. It was very decadent, and garnished with homemade whipped cream. Sooo chocolately and yummy!
Overall, my man and I loved this place, we will definitely be back! Next time I want to try the black ink fettuccine w/pink sauce....
Have been here several times and it's always been consistently good. Besides, $2 pp corkage?? Their own wine list isn't bad either.
Pay attention to the specials. Lobster ravioli is some of the best I've had anywhere. I clean the plate. Portions for their other pasta dishes are huge and I've never been able to finish those alone.
It really gives off a mom and pop shop kind of feel, even though it's only steps from 3rd street. They have artwork done locally that they sell along the back room. My friend bought one once; it was a piece of photography done by one of the co-owners. He even reduced the asking price and mailed a new signed copy.
Considering the name, I expected a bunch of fried stuff, mixed together, which I was kind of excited for. In reality, though, I was excited, not by a menu of frittatas, but by their great, Italian fare.
The interior is very homey, with somewhat crowded seating, low-set lighting, and friendly service. It was hardly uncomfortable, and the overflow of conversation in the restaurant was exciting.
Their menu is a bit large, and it's hard to choose just one thing to eat, so naturally, I had more than a few bites of everybody's orders. I had the Artichoke Shrimp and Mascarpone Cheese Gnocchi, Jumbo Ravioli, and Lobster Ravioli. The gnocchi was really good. Stuffed with mashed artichoke and mascarpone, and smothered in a creamy shrimp sauce, I had trouble eating my food at the same pace as everyone else at the table. The cream was heavy and the gnocchi were slightly chewy, just the way I like it. My only problem with it was that I could barely taste the artichoke. The Lobster Raviolis was surprisingly large and looked more like the size meat medallions would be on a good day. Also topped with a cream sauce with shrimp, this dish was good, but could have used more a stronger lobster taste.
My brother got the Jumbo Ravioli, and in typical brother fashion, he said it was his first time at the restaurant and asked what people traveled miles and miles for to order. The server responded with the Jumbo Ravioli. And indeed, the Jumbo Ravioli was unique. The ravioli is stuffed with prosciutto, mortadella and chicken and is topped with a garlic cream sauce, caramelized onions, pancetta, and sundried tomatoes. The description alone made my stomach scream with hunger, and as I forked my way into my brother's dish, I realized too late that I was already scraping up the sauce with my spoon. Shameful, I know. Do I regret my unconscious decision though? No. This dish has all the ingredients for a truly sweet and savory dish.
At the end of the meal, the waitress kindly mentioned that she remembered that we were first-time customers and gave us a piece of their famous Flourless Chocolate Cake on the house. After the first bite, I picked up the cake like a vacuum would. I couldn't tell at all that this cake was really flourless. I still can't believe it.
My only caveat is that this place really likes cream when it comes to cream sauces, so if you tend to shy away from heavy cream, this might not be the place to have a cream-based dish. I like cream, so there were no problems here. Also, all the pasta I had was good, but the cream seems to impede on what you can taste on the inside of items like the gnocchi and ravioli.
When you feel like eating classic Italian with a palpable home-cooked appeal, go to Fritto Misto.
GET: Jumbo Ravioli
Too bad it is so far to travel for good Italian food. Good thing is it is by the Promenade so you can at least walk of the calories you will consume at this amazing joint.
The place is small so try to come during off hours, but if not, get use to lots of people and noise and crowded-ness. The food is good though, so I will deal with the elements. Parking spot is tough. Small lot in back. I mean small!! If you are a bad parker....um, get a friend who can do it well, or can parallel, or even walk and park at some other place.
Very flavorful selections like the ravioli and pasta new orleans. The fried pillows were good but i would not order again. A bit too dry for me. The sauce is so so. Like a marinara. Dessert changes, but tiramisu always good.
I haven't actually returned here, but someone asked if a marinara is supposed to taste like warm tomatoes. It isn't. I dunno if their just plain daft or trying to be cute, but there are these things called spices. If my big thing was warmed tomatoes I would put the fuckers in the microwave. When a meal is devoid of flavor I want my money back or I want to be able to ask the chef to fight me in the street. Either way, I am not going back.
After reading all these reviews I figured I would try this place with the boyfriend. Since overall,… Read more »
Last time I ate it last week I picked some up for my co-worker when I mentioned to her I was going.
She told me that she could not get it out of her mind & she ordered it again.
Mmmmmm, delicious. I'm eating some fetticini Alfredo with chicken breast for lunch today. This stuff… Read more »
I've driven by this place many times but always overlooked it because it looked small and a bit run-down from the outside. It's not the first time I've mistakenly judged a restaurant on appearances. Fritto Misto is that perfect neighborhood spot that serves huge, hearty portions and has truly amazing service.
The first time I went there, the waitress was unfailingly patient as we asked her questions about every item on the menu. I liked that she was assertive in her opinions - not like those waiters who say 'It's GREAT' to every item you ask about without finding out anything about your tastes. She gave us a free slice of their amazing flourless chocolate cake as it was my friend's birthday. On my second visit, the waiter gave my boyfriend a free latte for absolutely no reason!
Be sure to try the pink sauce - it's some of the best I've ever had. I also loved the black pasta, dyed with squid ink, and the gnocchi was perfect: not too mealy, not too mushy, not too hard.
I originally went thinking there was no corkage fee, but it turns out it's $2 a person - way cheaper than most places.
If your looking for great Italian food, this is your spot!
The sauces are amazing, the wine selection was good and this place is overall great! I will be back again 100%
I got the "Make your own" pasta for lunch. I can't remember what kind of noodles I got, but I got the basil pesto sauce.
I received a bland, army green pile on a plate.
I might be biased because I make my own homemade pesto and it's an amazing recipe, but this stuff was not good. If you normally eat your pesto from a jar you might like this stuff.
Fresh pesto should be bright green, because fresh basil leaves are bright green. This tasted old and oily. I think they used walnuts rather than the more expensive pine nuts.
Ugh. I can't continue. I was just so disappointed.
My sister got the fettuccine carbonara, she loved it, there was a ton of pancetta on it (but it could have been bacon...I'm going on looks here, I don't eat pork and didn't bother asking her if they took the cheapskate way out with bacon).
We also waited a good 10 minutes with empty plates on our table until the server finally came over to ask us if we wanted any dessert (no), more while he prepared the check...I've gotta get back to work man, quicker please!
I might come back to try their other options...Maybe dinner.
oh the irony! it takes a visitor from NYC to reveal this delightful little place to me...who lives less than 10 minutes away (cowers in embarrassment). but now that i've experienced the joy o' Fritto Misto, we'll definitely be back.
food: delicious. the bread that lands on the table is fresh and addictive. the main attraction here is pasta; it's rather DIY in that you pick a sauce, add-ons, and the type of pasta you want. there's some meats and a soup of the day as well. bonus: they will do a rice rotini if you need a gluten-free option. dessert: be careful, the excellent "tiramisu for two" looks like a tiramisu for, like, seven. but it's so good you'll finish it, no problem.
service: friendly and just right. glasses were refilled, we never felt rushed to leave, even as the place started filling up with the early dinner crowd.
and in this town, i have to mention -- they have a parking lot in the back! no-stress parking is always a good way to start a meal.
This is a place we frequent when we go out to lunch at work.
Although everything I've tried is good, I'm not really a huge fan of this place. I find all of the pastas I've tried to be mediocre and because I've had so much amazing Italian food before, I don't prefer this place.
I like that this place has good options for salads and salad/soup or salad/pasta specials.
Basically, this place is satisfying, but I've had better.
Vegetarians have limited choices, and having made the conversion 9 months ago, I remember all the tasty treats I'm missing out on. But at Frito Misto, you can order your favorite dish and ask for mushrooms instead of meat! I eat here frequently and it gets better every time. It's a bit loud, not really a romantic date place, but great for family and friends. Take out is easy with a take out parking space in the back so you don't have to drive in circles looking for a parking space.
Fritto Misto is my favorite local pasta spot. When we first found it, I think my husband and I went here at least twice a month. We even came here for Valentine's Day our first year in LA. We brought every guest who came to visit LA here, and if they visited again, they requested to eat here again. I lived in Italy for a bit in grad school, and let me explain that this is not an "authentic" Italian restaurant. I don't come here expecting to relive my days in Tuscany; instead, I come here for generous portions of great tasting pasta for a reasonable price served in a comfortable neighborhood atmosphere.
I have probably tried most of the menu items at this point, and nothing has dissapointed. Only the bread is a bit lackluster, but we don't come for the bread (that's what C&O Trattoria is for with their garlic rolls). We usually order a bottle of the house Chianti. Occasionally we split a small gorgonzola salad, but usually we save room for the huge pasta dishes to come. My personal favorites are the vegetable lasagna with pink sauce, sweet potato ravioli, and shrimp and marscapone cheese gnocchi. The make-your-own pasta option is something that makes this place really unique. A favorite make-your-own combination of mine is fettucine with pink sauce, shrimp, eggplant, and wild mushrooms. Oh, the pink sauce!
The one downside is that the wait here can be brutal at times, particularly on weekend evenings. We have waited for up to an hour and a half before. During one such wait however, I saw Dylan McDermott getting carry-out here. I guess he's a Fritto Misto fan like me!
We really enjoyed Fritto Misto.
Service was excellent. Really works for families..
The turkey lasagna was wonderful. My lobster ravioli was outstanding and the portion for $19- was unbelievable. I was not a fan of the flowerless cake, but really liked the tiramisu.
I will be dining here regularly!
What a great deal. I'm not a big fan of Italian food but I have nothing to complain about at this place. The food is light and relatively healthy and the prices are unbeatable. And the service is also impressive, especially since its a pretty casual place. Will definitely be coming back!
I love the ambiance and friendly, neighborhood atmosphere of this Italian gem in downtown Santa Monica. The service is friendly, the food is good, and the wine is cheap!
Will definitely return, would recommend.
Approx. $40-50 with drinks
weekday dinner date
date: "it was an Italian restaurant. they serve italian food. that's about it. the Crème brûlée sucked"
In case that version is too short, here goes:
A coworker recommended Fritto Misto. I was reluctant because I had been once before and I wasn't impressed, but my memory went something like this: "meh it wasn't good...it was really crowded...busy is usually a good sign...seemed like a lot of locals...the service was good...the tables were squished together...my date was sooo bad...hm maybe it was just a bad date and not Fritto Misto's fault?". At the time my date and I were standing outside Trastevere. My date and coworker agreed that Trastevere was great for people watching or being seen, but the food was just OK and the prices were higher than Fritto Misto. So my date and I pattered down to Buddha's Belly, but unfortunately there was only one thing on the menu that looked edible to my date, and I personally like having choices (rather than "hm ah ok I can eat that...and only that") so we decided to make the hike to Fritto Misto.
First, this is a walk from the promenade. You will pass several other places to eat. (Among them Planet Raw, which is pretty good, but I always leave hungry.) Second, there is a wait once you get there. In our case we were told 10 minutes and it was closer to 30. We eventually sat down outside, at one of their 3 patio tables, but there was really only room for two tables (the chairs didn't pull out on the other tables), and one of the three tables had spider webs across the table (didn't really want to sweep away the webs to sit down). It was chilly and noisy from those waiting to get a table inside and the automotive traffic. Also you can't have alcohol on the patio. So when my name was called to go inside, and we had ordered nothing more than waters, I leaped at the chance.
Inside we were seated at a table, that much like the patio, felt in the way. For an appetizer we had the pillows. The red sauce was cold, refrigerated temperature. The pillows themselves were bland (maybe chop some fresh basil into the cheese, or blend the cheese with some Romano). For the main course Jumbo Ravioli, which again the stuffing was bland. The cream sauce was overwhelming, and was ill paired with the sundried tomatoes and pancetta, too much competition - pick a direction for your dish and commit! For desert the crème brûlée - which was burned instead of caramelized, and not entirely set. The 50/50, tea and lemonade were also ill flavored (a combination of weak flavor and a processed taste).
Warning: the bathroom faucet water is EXTREMELY hot.
On a positive note, the crust of the bread (not the doughy part of the bread) but the crust of the bread is perfect :)
bottomline: Not recommended
For gluten-free people this place is great. You can build any pasta dish with the brown rice penne they use.
The sauces have proven, so far, to be very mediocre unless they involve heavy amounts of cream. The marinara, pesto, olive oil/garlic all lacked in the flavor department. The sage cream sauce is wonderful.
I love being able to order vegetables to mix in with my pasta. They cook the broccoli to perfection.
Because of the gluten-free and vegetable options, I give it a 4.
If it were for flavor alone I would give it a 2.5/3.
4.5 Stars! Great food! Seats about 60-70 people inside, and we were sat right away @8pm on a Friday night. A little loud at times. I read about the jumbo ravioli on yelp. It is fantastic. Very very rich and savory, but amazing. Calamari app was good. Caesar was good. Wine was great for $4.5! Entrees for four people, three small salads, an app and four glasses of wine for $100!? You won't find better Italian food for the price anywhere around. Great service. Drinks stayed full, and very knowledgeable. I think Beth was her name. Limited dessert list, but I doubt you'll have room for dessert. This is my new favorite Italian spot.
No Corkage Fee.... Only this place and Houstons have it. I don't think people understand how awesome that is. Yes the food here is great, but how many places can you bring your own bottle of wine into and not be charged?
Freshie fresh Pasta, great ravioli, great desserts, and free corkage make James a happy guy.
New Orleans Pasta and Sage Chicken. Good!
Make sure you order family style.
4 people, 55 bucks. Reasonable.
Grab your jeans and your flop flops and head to Fritto Misto, the closest thing we have to a local eatery in Santa Monica. Enjoy the simple tables with a menu that offers you an abundant amount of choices when it comes to pasta combinations. You could stare at this menu for hours while you salivate over all the possibilities.
The pastas are homemade which I think sets it apart from most other Italian restaurants in it's class. The portions are plentiful and the wines are affordable. Really can't be beat at this price point.
I love yelp for this reason!!!!!!
seriously!!! Atomic pasta!!!! and if anyone knows me, knows I am a pretty picky eater, and how I like to sub everything!!!!!!! hahahah snob yes, pretentious, maybe, a bitch ...ughh no... but I must say that I have a great palette, and know what I like, and what I don't like.... soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo if I like it, most likely my fellow friends and real foodies will like it....
so thanks to yelp, I found fritto and loved it :)
a nice overly sunny day, and a carb filled day is a happy nina :)
The food was good - we had a salad and the fried "pillows" to start. For entrées, I had the cajun chicken on linguine and my wife had a special artichoke ravioli. The service was both friendly and attentive. The really great thing about this place is that they don't mark up their wines. The price is the same or less than you'd pay at Von's... I wish other restaurants would do the same. The only critiques to mention are that the tiramisu is not very good - not enough ladyfingers, too much cream, and too much coco power - and the espresso lacked crema entirely.
Overall, I'd recommend it for some reliably good pasta and service, as well as some very reasonable wine prices.
Mixed Salad - tasteless
Calamari - average (frozen and not fresh tasting)
Spicy Shrimp Ravioli - extremely under cooked (not al dente) - it also had random chicken pieces in the sauce - chicken & shrimp not a good combo
Pasta Puttanesca - too salty
The crushed ice in the water was good, that's why it got more than 1 star.
Mexicans serving you Italian food, always a positive.
The ambiance here is great. I really enjoyed their Sage Cream Chicken pasta. The portions are pretty big and affordable.
I recommend this place on a weekday, as weekends get really crowded.
I came here twice a while ago and maybe i'll go once more and update. i thought this place was good for what it was - a neighborhood italian place suited for non-italians. i mean, i wouldn't say they were the most authentic italian food i've ever had. there are low carb choices on the menu for goodness sakes. who comes to an italian restaurant not prepared to eat carbs?! anyway, twice i had ravioli in pink sauce. it was aiite but i already have my fave neighborhood italian place that is more authentic and less crowded. i def. won't drive all the way here from across town. it's a good place if you're in the area.
I thought the food was quite good, freshly prepared and in good sizes (you will need a doggie bag!) but the wait service totally sucks. They're slow as hell and when we asked our server if a medium-size salad was the right size for two to split, he said, yes, it's the perfect size... but it was this HUGE salad and way too big for us. Also, be prepared to wait, anytime I have been here there is at least a 15-min wait and you have to sit outside on these broken ghetto plastic patio chairs that are duct-taped together. Not classy.
Reasonable price.
all the pasta here sooooooo good!!
pink sauce Awesome!
but wheat noodle wasn't that good!
Chocolate Cake is sooooooo yummy
Just adding a star and a quick update.
I had the split pea soup and salad for lunch last Sunday.
Nothing fancy, but really tasty and on the cheap.
Watch out for big family parties on the weekend tho', unless you are apart of them.
FREE BREAD- I know it- I'm shallow.
The ambiance is cute. It has a comfy-neighborhood feeling-kind of like cheers except they don't… Read more »
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