Gjelina [venice]

Gjelina

1429 Abbott Kinney Blvd

Venice, CA 90291

I had been wanting to visit Gjelina after I had seen lots of LA youtubers and bloggers visit. Located in the heart of Abbott Kinney, the clientele is exactly what you would expect from Venice: people trying very hard to look like they aren't trying at all. The interior is very crowded with some communal tables as well as regular individualized tables. When we checked in at the front, we were made to stand against the side wall with a bunch of other waiting patrons, just awkwardly behind people enjoying their food. It was nice seeing a little bit more closely what the food looked like though. 

Dreading that we were going to have to sit at an uncomfortable corner of a communal table, I was quite pleased to be sat out on the patio on "the couch" which was probably the best spot in the house. It was much more spacious out on the patio and much less hectic in general.

Since there was so much on the menu, Andrew and I decided to share one pizza and a few small plates. The duck sausage pizza stood out right away, and Andrew had already read about the mushroom toast as a must-have. I really wanted the frites, but apparently they were out that day. We settled on the mushroom toast, asparagus, duck sausage pizza, pork belly, and planned on the butterscotch pot de creme for dessert.

Regarding the pizza, Gjelina totes itself as an American restaurant, and certainly does not claim to have neapolitan pizzas. That being said, the pizzas are well-known to LA as being very excellent. My only complaint was the lack of sauce pizzas. The duck sausage pizza we got was a white pizza, no sauce, and I knew this going into it. I found the flavor of the mushrooms and duck sausage to be okay, though I couldn't really distinguish the "duck" sausage from any other type of sausage. The pizza without sauce was just a little too dry for me, which is my complaint about almost all white pizzas. It wasn't a bad pizza, but just not something I really look for. Regardless, the other plates were very delicious so the visit to Gjelina was worth it.

The pork belly was my favorite plate, the meat was very tasty and the apple glaze on the root vegetables was the perfect accompaniment. We also got the asparagus side just to add some more greens to our meal, and it just tasted like regular asparagus, nothing too fancy. The mushroom toast was also good, lots of grease and very flavorful - something the pizza probably could have used. The butterscotch pot de creme at the end was soooo yummy and was the most amazing consistency. I don't think I've ever had pot de creme before, but I've had some puddings in my life, and this was definitely better than any I've ever had. Definitely the best part of the meal.

Mushroom Toast

Asparagus

 Duck Sausage pizza: duck sausage, nameko mushroom, garlic, mozzarella, shallot, parmesan

Pork Belly w/ roasted root vegetable, greens, apple glaze

Butterscotch Pot de Creme

Overall Gjelina is a great restaurant to go to, not just for the pizzas. Next time I would definitely want to try something with a little more tomato juice, but would still end with the butterscotch pot de creme.

Crust: average, held all the ingredients up (probably because there was no sauce making it soggy)

Cheese: good

Sauce: none :(

Best Part: mushrooms I guess?

Recommend: getting a sauce pizza, unless you're into that white pizza sort of thing