Ugo

My friend Mike and I have a long-standing brunch tradition we call Coffee'n'Cobb. Our latest meet-up was at Ugo, a casual Italian spot in Culver City (a place that does not offer Cobb salad, but we had a delightful time regardless). They were still serving breakfast, but I already had pasta on the brain.


I had the rigatoni with bolognese sauce. Pretty flavorful and the pasta was not overcooked! As Jean K. Jean would say: incroyable! And the basil on top complemented the bolognese really well; sometimes I find fresh basil overpowering, but I loved it here.


Mike ordered the egg, bacon and mozzarella breakfast panini. I believe his eyes rolled into the back of his head upon his first bite, so I'm guessing quite good. Didn't get a good shot of the filling, but yes, there was a lot of bread (not an optical illusion)!

And if there's an immense display case of gelato directly across from our table, you know we had to order some:


Mike's mango gelato (an intense fresh mango flavor and would be really good in the summer. Thanks to our server for the initially-confusing-but-later illuminating two spoons per dish, which allowed us to try each other's gelato!)


My dulce de leche gelato (very sweet and awesome! I know I should try another flavor next time, but it'll be hard to branch out from this caramel-y goodness.)

I thought maybe Ugo was yet another hyped restaurant with mediocre food, but I enjoyed the food and the prices were reasonable (with the above and two coffees, our bill was under $40). Their menu has many items I'd like to try, such as lasagna and ravioli, salads and antipasti. Service was okay; friendly, but it took us a while to pay the server. I plan on coming back to Ugo soon (hopefully next time I won't be knocking stuff off the table while trying to photograph my dining companion's food)!

Ugo
3865 Cardiff Ave
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 474-4482