[Santa Monica] [Italian] Riva

Riva
312 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 451-7482
http://www.rivarestaurantla.com

Fraiche is one of our favorite restaurant in LA.  After the big success of Fraiche, Chef Jason Travi opened another eatery, Riva.  We finally made our first visit to Riva 2 weeks ago.  And we love Riva just much as Fraiche.



I made a really early reservation because I thought they have happy hour daily.  But too bad they don't have happy hour on the weekend.  So we sat at the bar area first while the hostess was getting our table ready.



Prosecco Doc, Bisol Jeio ($9.00)
light and reamy with peach aromas and flavors and an elegant finish

Dr. P got a glass of Prosecco at the bar.  I like this fruity champagne a lot.



After about 10 minutes wait, we were seated in a nice booth table by the window.  The restaurant quickly became very busy.


Ciabatta Bread

Warm Ciabatta bread was served.


Butter

With butter sprinkled with sea salt.


Oyster of the Day ($13.00)

We got a dozen oyster to start the meal.  Oyster of the Day was Kumamoto oyster.



The oyster was topped with Prosecco jello.  Fancy schmancy!  The oyster was so fresh.  Just add a little bit of the red wine vinegar and slurp... yum!


Chefs Selection of Three Crudo ($16.00)

We also ordered Chefs Selection of Three Crudo, the Italian version sashimi.  It looked good.  But for the price of $16, we were expecting a bigger portion.  Maybe at least 2 or 3 pieces of fish for each crudo instead of just one piece each?


Cured Ocean Trout
house made mustard, dill

Cured Ocean Trout was creamy.  The trout tasted sort of like salmon and just melt in your mouth.


Sea Bass
pink peppercorns, lemon oil

Sea Bass was light and chewy.  Very delicious.


Tonno di Tonnato
big eye tuna, tonnato sauce, capers

Tonno di Tonnato, big eye tuna, was my favorite of the three.  The tuna was so soft, and I love the tonato sauce.


Sangiovese/Cabernet, Neitea Rosso "Super Tuscan," Tenuta Mormoraia, Toscana, 1999 ($15.00)
Very elegant and balanced; floral and earthy; medium-bodied with a harmonious, persistent finish.

For the main entree, Dr. P ordered a glass of Neitea Rosso Cabernet to pair with.  It was a very glass of wine.  But we got the last pour from the bottle so there were quite a bit of residue in it.


Tradizionale Pizza ($16.00)
san daniele proscuitto, tomato, arugula, red onion, pecorino romano

We shared the two entrees we ordered.  Tradizionale Pizza was made with proscuitto, tomato, arugula, red onion, and pecorino romano cheese.  I took a big bite of the pizza and it was so OMG good!  The thin crust was airy and crunchy.  I don't even like crust on normal pizza.  But I couldn't get enough crust on this one.  The proscuitto was so good, and the fresh arugula helped balance the heaviness of the meat and cheese.  We couldn't help but started comparing Riva's pizza with Mozza's.  Well, I like both.  They are both really good and I think I like them equally.  However, Riva's portion was much much bigger.  So I guess Riva is the winner?  Just when we thought everything was going perfectly, Dr. P found a piece of plastic film on his pizza.  We told our waiter.  Our waiter told the manager.  The manager went to talk to the kitchen staff, and she came to apologize (with her hand on top of Dr. P's hand!! urgh....).  Normally we would care if there is a "foreign object" on our food.  But the pizza was so good, we soon forgot about that little piece of plastic film.


Prime Rib King Cut ($37.00)
roasted fingerling potatoes, tuscan black cabbage and two sauces

The Prime Rib gotta be one of the best prime rib I've ever had!  It was sooooooo tender, juice, and flavorful.  Love both the horseradish sauce and the red wine reduction sauce.  The roasted fingerling potatoes was delicious.  But the Tuscan black cabbage was a bit too sour for my taste.  We tried, and we really wanted to, but we were too full and couldn't finish the prime rib.


Raspberry Panna Cotta ($9.00)
lime granita, white chocolate tuile

Strangely, no matter how full I am, there's always room for dessert.  We wanted something lighter and got the Raspberry Panna Cotta.  I LOVE panna cotta, or flan, or jello, or anything in that sort of texture.  The raspberry panna cotta was very refreshing.  So was the lime granita.  Dr. P couldn't get enought of the lime granita.


Coffee ($3.00)

Dr. P sipped on a cup glass of hot French pressed coffee while I was chowing down dessert.



So the manager took care of the pizza.  I couldn't help but laughed when I saw the itemized comp charge with the note "PLASTIC" on our bill.  Let's hope they will be more careful next time and not to make the same mistake.  But thanks to "plastic" we got us a free pizza.

We really like Riva.  Definitely coming back for more delicious pizza.  Maybe next time we'll come try their happy hour menu!

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