De La Nonna - Art's District — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I came to De La Nonna with my family and while the food was decent, the experience was VERY disappointing. The prices are the equivalent of a fine dining establishment however you essentially wait on yourself and the odd fees attached to the bill are just plain silly. And a mandatory 20% gratuity added for paying cash?? What? It's just not THAT good.

But none of that compares to the extremely rude hostess. My husband tried to get her attention saying "excuse me" multiple times...we were literally 3 feet away and she completely ignored him then walked past the table looked directly at him and still ignored him! Another girl witnessed the situation and immediately came to the table and brought us the takeout box my husband was asking for.

Mind you, this entire exchange came after my daughter had asked the same hostess if she could turn on the space heater to which she replied, "yes, you can turn it on!" Wait, what? You want US to light your heater???

Jose, the owner had been delightful when he took our order so I sought him out to share with him that this was so disappointing. I am always very fair when speaking to management, trying to be positive about the things that were pleasant but sharing those things that could negatively overshadow a customer's experience. In my youth I worked in numerous restaurants so I know what it's like to be on both sides of the "table." I would absolutely want to know about anything that might taint someone's visit at my establishment, particularly when that party spent $200.00+ on pizza for 4!

I approached Jose with utmost respect and started the conversation with multiple compliments about the food but then shared with him the unpleasant experience with the hostess to which he replied multiple times, "There must have been a miscommunication." I suggested that perhaps she was having a rough day and he said, "I have NEVER had a complaint about her, I have known her for 7 years and she has managed restaurants, I have never seen her in a bad mood." Seriously? She's NEVER been in a bad mood??? At this point I'm getting annoyed...are you suggesting I'm lying? Sheesh!

I have traveled extensively, dined at 100's of 5 star restaurants all over the Country (and in other Countries) and I always compliment good service and good food, however, if I feel something is subpar, I always share that as well because, as a business owner myself, I always want to know if there is something that could be improved upon.

I was careful to share that I always address concerns before sharing a review on social media because it's important to give the establishment the opportunity to make things right. Not only did Jose NOT make me feel taken care of, he actually made me feel as though he questioned my concerns. And, rather than coming to the table and addressing us and making sure we were happy, he did nothing! SO disappointing, and so easily remedied!

I've never felt so dismissed by management. And, it would have been so easy to make me feel cared for. Instead, I felt like his demeanor when he took our order was disingenuous.

Sadly, this could have been a lovely experience, despite the situation with the hostess, but the lack of care shown to a customer who took the time to share their concern really ruined it.

The finest and most successful restaurants I have frequented ALWAYS treasured my business and made sure that I knew they appreciated me. This experience made me feel as though they couldn't care less if I ever returned.

Trendiness and hype only take you so far, to stay in the game you must treat your clientelle as though they are paying your bills...because they are...until they aren't.

There are too many great restaurants in Southern California with exceptional food and service that make you feel as though they care...this was was definitely not my experience at De La...

You can tell this place cares about its ingredients and how the pizza is made. Everything was fresh and ultra delicious! The pizza was a good size, a little bigger than I could tell from the photos. It was light and not heavy at all, it was basically a super fluffy olive oily focaccia topped with pizza ingredients. Not oily bad, oily good like that amazing taste. I was also pretty impressed that they had fresh oregano and weren't shy about how much they topped the pizza with. The place itself was very adorable, its indoor/outdoor and very Instagrammy in design.

I gave it 4 stars for a few reasons. 1. This to me is a fine dining restaurant, the style, the price, the ingredients all make it so, BUT they have you order at the counter. Now normally I wouldn't be so stingy on this BUT there were easily 20 workers there that evening and a lot of them seemed to be just standing around. I wasn't mad I wasn't getting attention I more felt bad with how many people were working with nothing to do lol. In the middle of dinner one came over to ask if we needed anything and refill our water cups. I was slightly confused are you a serviced restaurant or not? haha I feel like this is something my parents generation would hate, I can hear them now. 2. Some of the chairs were very uncomfortable and the tables are very small. We felt crowded and stuck in the corner by the bathrooms 3. Its an expensive place, everything was absolutely delicious don't get me wrong, but my husbands drink was more than his pizza, ouch that one hurt ha

All that aside, I would 100% come again because it was absolutely delicious and at the end of the day, I want yummy food.

Just a side not on the parking situation, arts district has some of the WORST parking in LA we circled the area multiple times before finally snagging a spot a few mins from our reservation. This isn't a De La Nonna problem, but the valet was 18$.. yikes. Area parking lots were 5$ per 1/2hour. So be prepared going in that you're either going to pay an arm and a leg for parking or circle forever for...

De La Nonna now runs like an establishment with an absentee owner.

Went there on 29th Apr around 8pm so the owner can identify the staff for constructive troubleshooting.

Host and cashier were great.

Salad came out quickly but after 45 minutes the pizza still didn't come. I checked my credit card app transaction time for the 45 minute mark so it's not a 45 "Karen vibes" minute.

Okay fine whatever sometimes there's an issue.

Went in there and double checked if it's coming and I can see the 3 kitchen staff working slowly with low energy and just chatting. They were clearly not in a rush.

Mind you it was not a busy night. Tables were at best 30% occupied by that point.

The server was great and very apologetic and went over to the kitchen to ask what's going on and the guy just shrugs and says it's coming with the same low energy. Wow if I was the manager and saw that I would rage. Absolutely terrible team player to put the server in this situation.

This review is mostly done on behalf of the non-kitchen staff.

Anyway it came out after another 5-10 minutes so it's approaching 1 hr by this point.

Meanwhile multiple tables around us that had left long ago tables are still not clean.

To seal the deal, we asked for the desert half way through the pizza and it still took 15 minutes (unverified based on vibes) to come out. At this point the night is closing and almost no one in the restaurant.

And then the kitchen brought out TWO slices of tiramisu when we ordered one.

I said to the guy we only ordered one and then he said "it's complementary". Okay thanks, not going to complain about that lol.

And then the server came out with a receipt for an additional tiramisu thinking we wanted an extra so we have to pay the additional one. We said the kitchen said it's complementary so the server took the bill away.

Anyway, clearly the kitchen is not working as a team player and not communicating.

Food was good though. Good luck. Hope the...