Jonathan Gold Appreciates All'Acqua's Non-Serious Approach to Italian Food

This week, Jonathan Gold hits up the bustling Italian restaurant in Atwater Village, All'Acqua, which was also reviewed by Besha Rodell just a few weeks back. The Goldster drops some Pulitzer Prize-winning language in his description of Chef Don Dickman's decidedly non-regional cuisine, calling the sea bass with endives "really good:"

But Dickman's style is not what you might call hedonistic. So a plate of grilled asparagus isn't the seething, fragrant, oily mess you might see elsewhere in town; it is grilled asparagus, black grill lines neatly etched on the stalks, crowned with a poached egg rolled in bread crumbs and fried - proper. Fried chunks of lamb's tongue are crisp and melting, garnished nicely with crunchy radish, but tend to be slightly anonymous in flavor. Crisp-skinned sea bass fillets over sweet-and-sour braised endive are really good. Still, this is food meant to be enjoyed, not talked about, no matter how abundant the herbs or how nicely sourced the Brussels sprouts. If you need your pasta to be seasoned with a worldview, perhaps this is not the place for you. [LAT]

Ultimately, the LA Times critic is "delighted by Dickman's bright flavors" at the restaurant that serves as a welcome counterpoint to the sometimes overly serious Italian restaurants that pervade Los Angeles.

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