Marea Beverly Hills
Italian restaurant · Golden Triangle
430 N Camden Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Highlights
Coastal Italian seafood with exquisite pastas and impeccable service
Coastal Italian seafood with exquisite pastas and impeccable service
"Perhaps one day the people of Beverly Hills will get tired of going to fancy Italian restaurants, but until then, full steam ahead. Marea’s gigantic, multi-room space on Camden fills nightly with corporate card-wielding executives and ladies in beehives bemoaning bike lanes. Beyond the people-watching, the seafood-focused menu is consistently good and occasionally great. Start with the lobster and burrata appetizer, then go all-in on pasta, including silky pappardelle and an octopus and bone marrow fusilli that your server will insist is the best dish from the New York location. It’s the best one in LA, too." - sylvio martins, arden shore, brant cox, jess basser sanders
"A nice bottle of wine and fancy pasta never go out of style in Beverly Hills. Pop into Marea for proof. The splashy Italian seafood spot comes from NYC, where it’s been feeding fusilli to Midtown power brokers for years. A similar crowd has settled in LA, with middle-aged men in Brooks Brothers suits and ladies with beehives bemoaning how nobody gets dressed up on airplanes anymore. Being a block off Rodeo, it’s not a surprising scene. More surprising is the pasta, which goes far beyond the linguine love affair the Golden Triangle is known for. To be clear, if the least interesting person at your table wants spaghetti, they’ll find some. But Marea’s greatness lies in the stuff you can’t get at Il Pastaio, La Scala, or Dante: Elegant pastas like delicate ribbons of pappardelle with buttery crab, and tomato-y fusilli tossed with thick pieces of charred octopus. The ones featuring high-quality seafood generally validate their sky-high prices ($40+). Fussy $30 appetizers and a boring $90 piece of Dover sole you could make at home while following along on YouTube do not. So unless you're sitting at one of the big round tables with high-spenders behaving like they're on Traitors: CEOs Only, be prepared for fine-dining stick shocker. On a recent meal, our final bill for three was $700. But the good news is that you don't need to order that much to have an impressive meal. Fill up on bread service, stick to the lobster salad, a few pastas to share (they'll even do split portions if you ask), and a glass of pinot grigio that you chatted about with the sommelier. Then head out before your phone lights up with a bank alert. Food Rundown Scorfano Marea has a lengthy raw bar section with everything from imported oysters to $300 caviar service. None of it is exceptional, but since ordering a crudo appetizer is law in Beverly Hills, get the meaty rockfish with a dollop of pureéd calamansi and bits of pistachio coated on the outside for crunch. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Astice We’re not sure how it took us this long to experience lobster, burrata, and basil together on one plate, but we’re glad to be here. This is the one appetizer to get at Marea. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Insalata This is a solid salad. The breadcrumbs provide a decent crunch and for all you anchovy freaks, you’ll find several salty filets layered on top. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Pappardelle We’ve slept on Egyptian cotton sheets less silky than this plate of pasta. Add a tarragon butter sauce and soft lumps of crab, and this dish slides down easier than ice cream after dental work. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Fusilli Your server will likely insist this decadent, tomato-y bowl of fusilli with charred octopus and jiggly bits of bone marrow is the best dish from the original location in New York. It took us one bite to realize the statement applies to LA as well. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Sogliola This is the dish where Marea lost us a bit. It’s a well-cooked piece of fish, but $90 for a filet of sole is eye-opening even for Beverly Hills. Plus, if you want a sauce of some kind (like meunière on top of this one), it’s $20 extra. photo credit: Jessie Clapp" - Brant Cox
"The original location of Marea in midtown Manhattan has long been a favorite over at Infatuation NYC, and now, this coastal Italian restaurant has a new outpost in Beverly Hills that’s just as fancy as the original, with a gold-lit bar and glass chandeliers. Expect a menu heavy on caviar, oysters, and pastas with lobster and king crab. We recently visited Marea Beverly Hills and added it to the Hit List." - cathy park
"A nice bottle of wine and fancy pasta never go out of style in Beverly Hills. Pop into Marea the next time you’re on Rodeo Drive for proof. The splashy Italian seafood spot comes from NYC, where it’s been feeding Midtown power brokers and Lincoln Center ticket holders for years. A similar crowd has already settled the LA locale: suits with free-wielding corporate cards and ladies in beehives bemoaning that nobody gets dressed up on airplanes anymore. Beyond the people-watching, the food is outstanding. Start with any crudo that catches your eye, the lobster and burrata appetizer, and then go all-in on pasta. Your server will insist the fusilli with octopus and bone marrow is the best dish they serve in New York, and we’re already convinced it’s the best one in LA, too." - brant cox, sylvio martins, cathy park, garrett snyder, brant cox, sylvio martins, garrett snyder, sylvio martins, cathy park, cathy park, garrett snyder, sylvio martins, brant cox, cathy park, cathy park, brant cox, sylvio martins, sylvio martins, sylvio
"Marea is a renowned New York restaurant that has expanded to the West Coast, offering a sophisticated menu focusing on seafood and Italian cuisine." - Rebecca Roland
