Italian holiday

Alba (West Hollywood)

RESTAURANTS • First Word

The Skinny: On the heels of Marea’s entrance on the (already crowded) westside upscale Italian scene comes Alba, another NYC import with grand ambitions. The restaurant opened last month on Melrose.

The Vibe: Italian holiday. Enter under a small pink awning, and a long hallway leads to an open dining room with curved banquets and warm lighting against a rosy color palette. The buzzy crowd is so well dressed it’s easy to imagine them heading elsewhere after dinner. If you don’t have a reservation (which you should), the welcome might not feel as warm as the lighting, and they currently don’t serve food at the bar. But you can make a soothing consolation prize out of the house margarita, made with Dos Hombres mezcal and blood orange juice, served cold, frothy, and up in a martini glass.

The Food: Pink chicory salads are in season right now (and in concert with the surrounding hue), the bitter leaves balanced by toasted hazelnuts. Roman artichokes arrive with mustard-based bagna cauda, a nice combination of textures. Obligatory stuffed squash blossoms are filled with “porcini lemon mousse,” which presents more like a starchy potato purée. The pastas impress, specifically the agnolotti with black truffle fonduta. And a beef filet in “umami bomb sauce” is cooked perfectly but seems lonely on a plate by itself.

For dessert, semolina cake is revelatory, crusty and flakey, with a surprising custardy interior, topped with seasonal fruit (like candied kumquats).

The Verdict: That cake, like the restaurant itself, is worth a try, because it's quite beautiful inside. –Heather Platt

→ Alba (West Hollywood) • 8451 Melrose Ave • Tue-Sat 530-11p • Reserve.