North Italia Topanga

I was going to give this restaurant a great review because it's a gorgeous restaurant with pretty good food. Unfortunately the staff stole my sunglasses off the table (almost got away with it too)

Most of you will like this place.. especially mature audiences and those in their golden years. The main reason for that is that the flavors are very flavorful. There's no subtlety here. I couldn't quite give this place five stars. Here's some of the highlights though. 1. "Cass" served us, and she was great! 5 stars! I'd say she checked on us at least a dozen times over the course of about an hour and a half. And we were a decent sized group! Service in general, 4 stars. I think they're still finding their stride as a group. Something's were really slow to come out, and it looks like there wasn't even a single busboy that can do some of the things like bringing water to the table, extra plates, things like that. 2. Came in for dinner, and the atmosphere was what you'd expect from an Italian version of Huston's, if you remember that place down Canoga. Loud and noisy. The Acoustics in here are like a packed bar. So maybe more intimate tables for two would be appropriate. But if you're in a large group of six to eight people, good luck trying to hear each other. 3. The flavors of the food are intense. Everything has a lot of flavor, maybe too much flavor? Maybe a touch too much salt. My personal favorite was the white Pizza we got. Very flavorful, very crunchy and thin. Very napolitana Style. The porketta was great, especially the potatoes. There is some kind of spritz of lemon going on there that just really brings the potatoes to a whole other level. The sour lemon note on the potatoes counteracts the charred pork skin quite nicely. There might have been just a pinch too much salt on the crust of the pork though. The short rib pasta with cream sauce is a piece of art. I like how it's presented, and you can see everything, then you can either mix it up, or eat each component like a Cobb salad. The chicken parmigiana is great. Even covered in sauce, you can still get the crunchy texture of the fried chicken cutlet. It's good, and the sauce is intense. Very deep, Tangy Tomato flavor. But again, maybe just a pitch too much salt in the sauce. Squid Ink Pasta: apparently this is one of their most requested dishes. I personally was lost in how to define it. The subtlety of the squid ink just wasn't there for me. It was overpowered by this super ultra Tangy sauce, and the heat of the pepper. I'm trying to understand why you would take something so delicate, and then cover it in a different sauce entirely. To each their own I suppose. 4. They're busy hours are like Thousand Oaks or Westlake village. It's packed between 6:00 and 8:30. Either come before or after. Personally, I can't eat too much tomato anything after the Sun goes down. Lol. I think I'd rather come here for lunch next time. Or the happy hour! 5. Restaurant Logistics / Protocol. The first thing when you walk in the door, there's no chairs to sit on, no couch or anything while you're waiting. So everyone is standing literally in a 10 ft by 10 foot square. Here's where things get weird. It takes three people to put your name in at the front desk? One person checks to see what the table situation is, another one takes your name into an ipad, and then a third person actually seats you. What mystified me is that we couldn't make a reservation for 6:30. But yet, when we walked in at 630, there was a 20 minute wait, half the restaurant was empty, and stayed empty for a half an hour. Go figure. Their outside open patio will be nice in Spring and Fall. Summer is too hot. Winter too cold. Cover it. 6. Parking is horrendous! It's not their fault though. This parking lot is used by everyone in the mall. 7. Note to Management. Get rid of the round tables in the middle of the restaurant. You put five chairs at a round table. Who comes in with five people? It's either two or 4. Five people sitting at your round tables is tight. And even if you wanted to put those tables together for a larger party of 6 or 8, they're round, not Square. Hello? Will I be back?? Maybe for happy hour, if it was just me and a buddy, or me with a date trying to sit at the bar.

Five of us shared family style. Our favorite things were: the frittatine, butternut squash side, chicken parm, the bread, the salads (and my vini vidi vici cocktail). Very attentive service. Would definitely go back.

Ingredients listed on the menu are NOT in the food. No cheese in the omelette. No prosciutto, no cheese on the Chicken Parm Sandwich; kitchen is a joke. Curly, the fat ginger boy who runs the kitchen must hoover it before the server can get it to the table; piglet. Sad.

Another great addition to the Topanga Mall. We went out there but a month ago with two couples. The service was very friendly. The food good will definitely come back again. Both our server and the general manager, a Greek gentleman. Very attentive My only two complaints will be around drinks. One takes a while for them to come out to. They're not able to make it dry martini because they only have sweets vermouth and a restaurant like that should be able to make a dry martini. But would definitely return again Parking: It is located inside the mall by cheesecake Kid-friendliness: You can definitely come with kids but I wouldn't say it's kid friendly does get loud especially at night with people drinking and so on

Great addition to the topanga mall. Atmosphere was great and service was amazing. Very fresh italian food. Service can be a little slow but thats understandable since this a new place plus everything is made from scratch. Yes, the pastas the pizzas were all made from scratch so quality is awesome. We felt that this is a place where one was sit for hours talking amongst each other and enjoy the food.