Ghisallo: Where Santa Monica Gets Cozy, Carby, and a Little Bit Italian

Let’s get this out of the way: when the temperature in Los Angeles drops below 70 degrees, it’s soup-and-heated-patio season. Thankfully, Ghisallo — the Santa Monica Italian gem from Bruce Horowitz and Mark Metyuhas (of the dearly departed Tasting Kitchen fame) — has both warmth and carbs to spare.

The restaurant is basically a love letter to Santa Monica disguised as a wood-fired pizza kitchen. The patio glows, the wine flows, and everyone looks like they’re either coming from, or headed to, a yoga class.

We were seated immediately on the heated backyard patio, where the vibe is casual date night meets neighborhood dinner party. Our server was a pro — warm, efficient, and never let a glass sit empty for more than thirty seconds (a lost art).

The meal kicked off with a Caesar salad featuring housemade sourdough croutons, baby gem lettuce, and a dressing that actually tasted like anchovy (a rarity, and a win). Then came the Panzanella, a jumble of sourdough, tomatoes, celery, pickled onion, cucumber, and gigante beans — basically the salad version of “don’t skip leg day.”

Next: the Neapolitan-style pepperoni pizza. Charred edges, molten cheese, a basil leaf doing its best influencer pose on top — textbook delicious. The rigatoni with bolognese, pomodoro, and pink vodka sauce followed, because one sauce simply wasn’t enough. It’s rich, comforting, and likely responsible for the widespread shortage of self-control at our table.

For dessert, we said yes (obviously) to the zeppole, crisp little doughnuts with vanilla cream that taste like the end of a very good day.

Ghisallo doesn’t reinvent Italian — it doesn’t have to. It’s neighborhood dining at its best: unfussy, cozy, and carb-forward in all the right ways. It’s the kind of place that makes you want to order another pizza “for the table” and pretend it’s a group decision.

Verdict: Ghisallo gets it — the heat lamps, the hospitality, and the holy trinity of pizza, pasta, and fried dough. We’ll be back. Probably tomorrow.