Divino is a little piece of hidden heaven tucked away in a corner of Brentwood.  And I’m so glad I found it!

Now, I don’t usually give restaurant reviews unless the dessert is fantastic, or there’s something really interesting, but this place was so fantastic, I have to share with everyone  (for those of you who don’t live near LA, I’m sorry, you’re just going to have to salivate over my photos)!

This restaurant is not the easiest to find unless you know where it is or are specifically looking for it.  Its hidden inside a little alcove inside another alcove in a corner of Sunset and Barrington in Brentwood, Los Angeles.  Its in a festively cozy dining area surrounded by other little known delicious eats; it almost looks like a piece of Europe in the middle of Brentwood.  Divino is located next to a bright, futuristic-looking Pinkberry, which looks ridiculously out of place among the other nostalgic homey eateries in the plaza.  The restaurant is cozily fancy,  atmospheric-ly candlelit, and reminded me of Diane Lane’s “Under the Tuscan Sun” (I’ve never been to Europe, so I always have to compare to movies!).

Divino specializes in Italian cuisine, and is as authentic as it gets (according to my European international student friends).  The owners are an impeccably dressed, gorgeous couple from Italy.  They are the nicest and so charming!   I wish I had taken a picture with them, because they look like they just stepped out of a James Bond film.  My Croatian friend and I had a fabulous, lazy, European-style-drawn-out, delicious, satisfying (a little too satisfying) dinner there.  Every dish was incredibly fresh and perfectly portioned.

One of my favorite parts about Divino (other than the food, the charming owners, and everything else, hahaha) is the menu.  There is a dinner menu, but we barely touched ours.  Like in Europe, Divino has a person who walks around to every table and announces the (numerous) specials of the night; basically, a live menu.  The owners also walk around with recommendations from the menu and the specials.  Everything we had that night were specials or recommendations.

We started off with a cheese-based salad.  The salad was made up of spring greens and roasted bell peppers on top of a bed of young cheese (similar to goat cheese) with a generous slice of proscuitto.  The salad was dressed up with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Look how gorgeous it is!!!

proscuitto salad

For appetizers, we had a chutneyish tomato and young cheese soup.  I really liked this!  It went really well with the foccacia bread they bring you.

tomato tip

 Our first entree of the night was spinach rigatoni with chicken and porcini mushrooms.   The flavorful spinach pasta sauce was absolutely delicious, and the most beautiful forest green color.  

spinach pasta with chicken and porcini mushrooms

After the delicious pasta, we were still salivating over the menu and specials, so we ordered another entree.  For our second entree, we had salmon and capers with a side of greens and tomatos  (the salmon that comes with your order is usually twice the size of my  salmon pictured; I specifically asked for half a salmon fillet because I wanted to save room for dessert!).  The salmon was perfection, and I really wish I  had ordered an entire fillet.

salmon with capers

 And then dessert!  My favorite  part!!  We had the tiramisu and the apple tart (pictured above) with vanilla caramel sauce.  I was in LOVE with that vanilla caramel sauce.  It was the perfect combination of the caramel and vanilla flavors; neither one overpowered the other.  I  could drown in that sauce.   And the tiramisu was fantastic, too.  The mascarpone filling was the lightest and fluffiest ever.  The tiramisu just melted in my mouth.

tiramisu

 This place really is divine.

Divino
11714 Barrington Ct.
Brentwood, CA 90049
(310) 472-0886

Tips for diners:  Even though this is a neighborhood restaurant, the place is always packed!  Divino’s has many loyal regulars, as the prices are low for the quality you get.  I would definitely recommend making reservations.