Folliero's Pizza & Italian Food - Los Angeles

Folliero's is located in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles, so my expectations were a little low, but that's the fun of trying new places, taking a risk.

Right when I opened the door to the restaurant, I was somehow waiting in line already. I'm not a fan of waiting-a-long-time-to-be-seated, but the sensational aroma, the fitting interior decoration with brick walls, and seeing every table occupied with happy families and groups of friends, made my impatience vanish.

We were welcomed by the cordial Titina Folliero, the daughter of the family that opened this restaurant about 42 years ago. The entire staff was friendly and so inviting, that I was excited for the rest of my experience there. When we were seated, our order was taken within minutes, which was nice and surprising seeing how busy the place was. Before I even start talking about the pizza and lasagna that we ordered, let me dramatically emphasize how freaking amazing the root beer was. You might be thinking, "Come on Mustafa, it's just root beer" and I say "shut up ! it wasn't just root beer!". I would have to say that it was the most flavorful and delicious root beer that I have ever had and I've had some awesome root beer in my life.

Now to the food. My brother and I decided to share a lasagna dish and a medium pepperoni pizza. Again, I was expecting to wait a while, but the food was brought out fairly quickly. Now you might be asking yourself the ol' philosophical question, "what came first? the lasagna or the pizza?" Well my friend, the pizza did and then a few seconds later the lasagna. I took a long look at the pizza and saw about 8 pieces of pepperoni on the entire pizza and was a little disappointed. After letting out a long sigh from the disappointment, I scarfed down the lasagna. It was easy to cut through, wasn't messy, and easy to eat, even though it looks messy because it's covered with awesome sauce ("saucesome" for short).

I picked up a slice of pizza, took a big bite, and BOOM! pepper-freaking-ronis hidden underneath the cheese and holy cheezus, what a surprise it was. It's like coming home on your birthday and you see your family and think, "oh, it's just my boring family" and then all of your friends jump out of the dark and yell "SURPRISE!!!", it's exactly like that. The pizza was delicious, cheezy and thin, with hidden pepperoni surprises. I barely started my pizza, but had already finished my root beer (yes, I'm back to the root beer), and I was worried it was going to be one of those restaurants that you only get one glass of whatever drink you ordered, but I soon found out that they had free refills on their super-root beer (I almost fainted).

Now for the best part. The check comes and it's $19.20. For lasagna, a medium pizza, refillable super-root beer, that's just too much awesomeness in one sitting for me to handle, but I handled it, barely though.

Folliero's won my heart, but more importantly my stomach. I will see you very soon.

p.s. I love you, Folliero's.

Official Website: http://www.follieros.com/
Yelp!: http://www.yelp.com/biz/folliero-pizza-and-italian-food-los-angeles
Info: 5566 N Figueroa St.
        Los Angeles, CA 90042
        (323) 254-0505

CiaoCristina! - Burbank

Hidden near the Toluca Lake end of Burbank is an intimate Italian restaurant called CiaoCristina! You'll notice the bar as soon as you step foot into the place and you'll be happy to know that they have 20 different types of beers on draft. A problem I have when it comes to Italian restaurants is that I tend to order the same dish, fettucini alfredo, but I resisted (because I didn't see it when I skimmed the menu).

You are first complimented by a wine glass full of long garlic sticks and if you're not careful when breaking them into smaller pieces, you'll have some fly on to the person next to you like I did.

The lighting inside is dim, but you'll have artificial candles illuminating your food in front of you. I got there around 7 p.m. on a Sunday night and it was pretty empty, so I assumed the food shouldn't take too long to bring out, but boy was I wrong. If you come here on a date, make sure to have a list of things to talk about, maybe make up some long-wait jokes like "I should have ordered breakfast instead of dinner!" and if your date doesn't laugh, you should bail because you don't want to be wasting your money on someone humorless. This brings me to my next disappointment of the night, the prices. I was shocked to see that everything on the menu was overpriced, like the $8 beers.

I wasn't really feeling the $14 pastas, so I ordered a $10 Stromboli (a calzone, but with mozzarella cheese). It was definitely tasty and cheesy to my liking, but not worth the price.

I don't mean to put this place down, but money matters, and I think this place would have a lot more business if they dropped the prices by a few dollars.

Official Website: http://www.ciaocristina.com/
Yelp!: http://www.yelp.com/biz/ciaocristina-burbank
Info: 4201 w. Olive Ave.
        Burbank, CA 91505
        (818) 563-2426