RESTAURANT REVIEW: Rosti Tuscan Kitchen

By SIERRA DAVIS | Pali Life Editor

Photos by RICH SCHMITT | Staff Photographer

I typically think Italian restaurants fall into one of two categories – either quick and easy pizza and panini parlors or romantic, fine dining experiences. After dining at Rosti Tuscan Kitchen in Santa Monica, I’ve had to create a third category. Rosti is casual, comfortable, easy, pleasant dining that offers a solid, tasty meal.

A great place to bring kids, I stopped by on a recent weeknight with my husband and a friend.

Since Rosti doesn’t serve wine or beer, we brought our own bottle of a favorite Merlot and didn’t have to worry about a corkage fee. Our friendly server Myra provided a corkscrew and three glasses  and we were on our way.

Rosti has an extensive menu of salads, pizzas, sandwiches, pastas and more – so it took us some time to peruse the menu before settling on the Sautéed Brussels Sprouts and Bruschetta Pomodoro, toasted garlic ciabatta crisps served with fresh tomato checca that was light and flavorful. The fresh basil slivers mixed in were the perfect touch. 

I loved the Brussels sprouts as well, but could have done without the added bits of pancetta – maybe I’m just a purist. Both starters are sized for one but were perfect for sharing among the three of us.

Sure to get our greens in, we ordered the Arugula & Fig Salad with crispy arugula and endive lettuces, dried figs, toasted hazelnuts, caramelized onions and goat cheese, tossed in honey balsamic dressing. All of Rosti’s salad dressings are made from scratch in their kitchen, including balsamic vinaigrette, basil herb honey balsamic, fresh thyme vinaigrette and more. Next time I’ll ask them to hold back a bit on the dressing.

The generous servings of sweet, chewy fig and tart goat cheese made this salad a definite repeat and with a bit of added protein (an option), it could easily work as a main dish.

As no true Italian feast is complete without a taste of pasta, we split a hot plate of Drunken Shrimp Linguini, topped with sautéed jumbo shrimp scampi on top of perfectly done noodles in a vodka pink sauce.

I sprinkled on a bit of chili flakes for some added heat. Pasta is so often served in such large portions – and this is no different. Come hungry or be prepared to share, as we did.

Daring to venture a little of the traditional course, our trio settled on the Southwest BBQ Chicken Pizza, though a number of more traditional pies caught our eye.

Rosti’s thin crust, Toscana-style pizzas are served in 12” and 16” sizes and can be made sans gluten.

With big eyes, we opted for the larger size, which included eight slices of pizza drizzled in BBQ sauce, chicken breast, caramelized onions and sliced avocado. The sauce was sweet and the fresh avocado was the icing on the cake.

We opted to take a few leftover slices home in order to save room for one (or two) of the desserts we kept eyeing as the display tray passed by our table occasionally.

It was a true challenge to choose between the homemade tiramisu, assorted cakes and pies, fresh baked cookies, brownies and bars – but we were up for the task.

Ultimately, we opted for a round of hot coffee and split our choice of Boston Cream Pie and a slice of Crème Brulée Cheesecake – the latter being one of the richest, most flavorful cheesecakes I’ve had to date.

I could have gone for a long after-dinner walk down Montana to keep from feeling over-stuffed, but with parking right behind the restaurant, we didn’t have to walk far at all before hopping in the car and making the quick trip back to the Palisades.