Jon & Vinny's Brentwood

"Jon & Vinny's Brentwood location is a carbon copy of the Fairfax restaurant but with a slightly more modern feel and bigger lunch crowds than its predecessor. And rather than B-list celebrities and the same bodycon dress in twelve colors, this location hosts family dinners, first dates, and tables of high schoolers who valeted the family Range Rover and paid the bill with mom's credit card. Jon & Vinny's can also be inconsistent with its food. When it's good, it's very good, but the unpredictability can make dinner feel like a gamble. We're aware that saying we love their spicy fusilli is a certified LA cliché, but the cringe doesn't stop us from ordering it every time. " - sylvio martins, arden shore, brant cox

"Jon & Vinny's second location has the same menu as the original Fairfax restaurant but with a serious lunch crowd and way more high schoolers valeting the family Range Rover so they can eat spicy fusilli. Our issue with this Italian American spot is that it's inconsistent. But if you get a bubbly, thin-crusted pizza right out of the oven, it’s usually pretty great." - sylvio martins, brant cox, nikko duren

"Vincenti in Brentwood is another spot that doesn’t usually do pizza, but during quarantine, they’ve got it. The toppings are extremely Italian - like carciofi, burrata, zucchini, e prosciutto crudo (and that’s just on one pizza). They even make their own sausage for the potato, onion, and porcini pie. Monday-Saturday only, for delivery or pick-up." - brett keating

"Brentwood is famous for two things: OJ Simpson and having the highest concentration of overpriced, mediocre Italian restaurants in the entire country. OK, fine, it’s really just OJ, but if you’ve ever set foot in this Tesla-filled Westside neighborhood you know you can barely walk two steps down San Vicente without encountering a place serving $30 bowls of spaghetti to people who’ll probably only have one bite. Italian food is Brentwood’s lifeblood and in many ways, it doesn’t really matter if it tastes good or not. But if you’re a person who cares about food, there’s only one Italian restaurant in Brentwood you need to know about: Vincenti. In many ways, Vincenti is just like the other 29 Italian places down the street. The space is big—with a bar up front and a dining room that’s part kind-of-fancy restaurant, part neighborhood meet-up. The crowd is a mix of older couples on date night, groups of parents celebrating the fact that they got babysitters tonight, and younger couples having dinner with in-laws. It’s expensive, the menu comes across as entirely standard (pasta, burrata, giant pieces of meat), and there seems to permanently be some sort of celebrity in residence. So far, so Brentwood. The difference at Vincenti is that the food is truly excellent. Sure there’s fried calamari on the menu, but here it’s relatively light for something that involves so much oil. And anything that comes out of the wood-fired oven is worth paying attention to - they’ll rattle off a list of specials when you arrive that makes picking just one difficult. The simplicity of the food just highlights the quality—you can’t really get away with serving a $58 veal t-bone with not much else unless it’s the best damn veal t-bone around. Given that you can’t really get out the door for under $100 a head, Vincenti isn’t exactly your neighborhood Italian. If you're looking for the Brentwood version of that, head to a few doors down. But if the night calls for a place that feels like a celebration, but also isn’t trying too hard to convince you it’s cool—this is it. And really, if you’re going to eat Italian in Brentwood, you shouldn’t go any further than Vincenti." - Jess Basser Sanders

"While most people in this city only think of Jon & Vinny’s for dinner, you know their true secret lies in their brunch menu. Starting at 8am, their early menu is filled with highlights like the breakfast BLT, buttermilk pancakes, and polenta, as well as some pizza and pasta from the dinner menu. Available for both takeout and delivery." - brant cox