Pasadena’s Newest Pasta Star Overnights Fresh Noodles Straight From Italy

Uovo, LA’s growing chain of restaurants serving handmade Italian pasta, is opening its fifth location in Pasadena today, Thursday, August 10. Found in the same Pasadena Commons complex at 146 S. Lake Avenue as sister restaurant Sugarfish, the restaurant features an 18-seat pasta bar and indoor and outdoor seating; Uovo is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

All of the pasta served at Uovo is handmade daily in Bologna, Italy, overnighted to Los Angeles, and priced under $20. “Uovo is the only restaurant outside of Italy that handmakes its own fresh pasta in Italy,” co-founder Carlo Massimini tells Eater in an email. “It’s just like the pasta I grew up eating in Italy.”

The menu includes Bolognese classics like green lasagna and tortellini in brodo, along with Roman heavy hitters like carbonara and cacio e pepe. Uovo also serves a trio of five-course set menus priced under $40 per person that are intended for parties of two. With this latest opening, Uovo Pasadena joins existing locations in Marina del Rey, Mid-Wilshire, Santa Monica, and Studio City.

Eddie Sanchez

Dinner is served at Maciel’s in Highland Park

Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher & Deli in Highland Park recently introduced a handful of dinner-only menu items including a carne asada burrito and a crab cake platter. Also on the evening menu are seasonal salads like the jicama edamame with ginger lime dressing and the peach feta with honey Dijon vinaigrette; sandwiches are served all day. Check Instagram for the latest specials.

The return of the decade-old Ramen Burger

Keizo Shimamoto, the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center’s new director of culinary events, will be preparing his Internet-famous Ramen Burger on August 19 and 20 in honor of the 80th Annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival in Little Tokyo. The Ramen Burger, which features seared ramen noodle “buns,” a beef patty, arugula, scallions, and shoyu sauce, will be available for $10 at the JACCC.

Four stars for Isla in Santa Monica

Time Out restaurant critic Patricia Kelly Yeo dolled out four stars to Isla in Santa Monica, the “farm-to-table yakitori specialist” on Main Street from the folks behind Crudo e Nudo. The grilled duck hearts, chicken wings, and chocolate sorbetto come highly recommended.

There’s an Old Fashioned cart roving around Kato

The Old Fashioned cart that Ryan Bailey, the director of operations and wine director at Michelin-starred Kato, teased last month is finally making its way around the dining room. “The tableside Old Fashioned service gives guests the choice between three cask finishes of Kavalan to be mixed with Taiwanese black sugar and angostura bitters,” bar director Austin Hennelly tells Eater in an email. “The cocktail is stirred on a hand-carved chunk of pristine Kuramoto ice and served in an elegant Kimura rocks glass.”

Colleen O’Brien