Al Gelato sits on Robertson in the southern part of Bevely Hills. It came recommended from a couple of friends, but I initially had doubts because it was billed more as a dessert place, but hey, if they have cake and pizza and gelato all in one place, who am I to complain?
The pre-meal bread is huge! It's got a thin crust and very soft and fluffy insides. They plop down a plate of peppercinni, butter, mozzarella, and olives with it, and you're free to experiment.
We ordered a meatball, which came with homemade tomato sauce and had a certain herb mixed into the ground beef which gave it a very interesting flavor, definitely not your usual run-of-the-mill meatball.
We ordered the vegetarian lasagna and was very impressed, everything is made from scratch and hearty. Big, thick, generous layers of cheese and pasta and cheese and vegetables. It's surprisingly light and wholesome, not greasy as lasagna tends to be.
The pizza verdure had grilled eggplant, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, alongside the usual tomato sauce and cheese. The toppings were fantastic, fresh and flavorful, but the thin crust wasn't crispy enough and the whole piece tends to fall apart in your hands. Great flavor, hard to handle. Eat with a fork and knife.
We ordered the double scoop gelato, chocolate hazelnut and creme brulee, and a sample of pistachio. The gelato is creamy and the flavors are quite good, especially the chocolate hazelnut, but I think the other flavors lacked the usual explosion of flavor I usually see in gelato. The pistachio is pleasant but doesn't hit as hard as I'd like, a little lacking but still very good.
Red velvet cake. This cake looked fantastic, it's huge and colorful and just looked delectable. It turned out to be a little dry and didn't explode with the red velvet flavor we've seen in cupcakes. The cream cheese filling was not as sweet nor as creamy as can be found with cupcakes. However, for a cake, it was pretty good, but would have been more amazing if it had been more moist.
Al Gelato
806 S Robertson Blvd
Los angeles, CA 90035
Photos by Kevin Cheng for LAist
