Gjelina

A place with no signage must be so uber cool. Yep, that’s what dragged me off the street to try this Gjelina with some girlfriends.

This place has a great vibe, that’s for sure. Our wait wasn’t too bad, and we were seated in the back in the outside patio. Sweet!

The menu looked great but when we got our food, we were all pretty disappointed. Presentation and portions were great, but taste was pretty lacking. They all just seemed to lack oomph! Well, I’ll be honest, it was rather tasteless.

Here’s what we ordered:

• Definitely order their ice teas. The minty one is divine. Its so very fragrant! They all come in a cute iced individual carafe.

• Albacore Tuna Tartine with confit tomatoes, gruyere cheese and cucumber fennel salad. We all came to a consensus on this dish ~ it was just, ok. It looked amazing, but unfortunately, we all thought it lacked, um, kick. There was no flavor.

• Spicy Salami Pizza with caramelized fennel, confit tomatoes, green onion and mozzarella cheese. This was very light and in the thin Neopolitan style that I love. Great choice indeed!

• Grilled Figs with prosciutto americana, treviso, arugala on a bed of buratta cheese drizzled lightly with olive oil and balsalmic vinegar. This was a very interesting salad. I hear they do this with pears and nectarines too.

I love that they practice, whenever possible, local sustainable and organic food ingredients.

I gave it a low rating simply because the taste of the food didn’t wow us! My friends came all the way out from Orange County and I honestly wouldn’t have the heart to ask them to cross the Orange Curtain to meet me at Gjelina ever again. Sorry, I really wanted to love you, but the all important taste factor was lacking.