There’s a very lively and comfortable bar at Terra e Mare — a casually elegant Modern Italian restaurant at the western edge of Studio City, in the space that was formerly a forgettable restaurant called The Bellwether. You sit at the right side of the bar, and you can chat with the affable mixologist about the joys of the white called Lachryma Christi from Campania winemaker Mastroberardino, or why there’s a need for a Vegi Martini. (Do Martinis usually have meat in them?)
But I was sitting on the left side, which is right in front of the open kitchen. As far as I’m concerned, it was the best show in town, with flames rising into the air and chefs who never stop moving — a lesson in Italian food preparation, unintentionally taught on the fly.
And it was while I was sitting there, eating a salad of rainbow beets with goat cheese and micro greens, watching the preparation of grilled branzino with spinach and roasted potatoes, and filet mignon with mushrooms and quail eggs, that I decided this isn’t just a very good restaurant, it approaches being a very great restaurant — as good an Italian restaurant as anywhere I’ve been in the Valley.
I was enjoying every sip of my Lachryma Christi, and every bite of my peppered mussels and clams. I couldn’t wait to tell others that this was the real deal — a restaurant that would have made Stanley Tucci very happy in his CNN series. After a year of forced semi-isolation, Terra e Mare was a reminder of the joys of eating out. And the pleasure that great Italian cooking always brings us.
There’s a busy dining room at Terra e Mare as well, along with outdoor dining that stretches along the sidewalk in both directions. But sitting at the bar was like being dropped in the middle of a mouth-watering cooking show on the Food Network. Oooh, look — fettuccine with mushrooms and back truffles! Breath in deeply, inhale the bosky, woody aroma of the truffles — a joy without taking a bite. And how about duo of risotti — one with lobster and burrata, the other with saffron and bone marrow. So tempting, so exquisitely delicious. And a very good reason to go back. Not just once, but many times.
Along with the branzino — perfectly cooked, seared more than grilled, tender, a wonderful piece of fish — I wanted the grilled salmon with pea puree and asparagus. I wanted the shrimp on a bed of zucchini topped with a carefully crafted lemon marinade. I wanted the grilled lobster with quickly tossed mixed vegetables. And the Tuscan-style mixed seafood stew — a cioppino of many part and elements. A dish that reminds me that, after a year of so much sushi, fish can taste pretty great cooked as well.
That’s, of course, from the “Mare” side of the menu — along with those peppered mussels and clams (two of my favorite shellfish in a single dish), the tuna and avocado tartar, the grilled calamari (with spinach, and plenty of both lemon and garlic), the raw oysters, the octopus salad, and the squid ink lobster ravioli. Oh…and the “square” pasta tubes — chitarra — tossed with lobster, or clams and saffron. A lot of seafood. But there’s “Terra” as well — and plenty of it.
There’s only one meat appetizer — the beef tartar — which sounds so much more elegant as “tartar di manzo,” but tastes great in any language. But on the menu proper, under “Le Carni,” along with the filet mignon, there’s a New York steak with chimichurri sauce, spinach, and those rainbow beets again. There’s rack of lamb (“carre di agnelo”) in a sauce of garlic and thyme. There’s a breaded veal chop. There’s Jidori chicken breast (sun-dried tomatoes, olives, smoked scamorza cheese over grilled asparagus).
And for the high rollers among us, there’s the meat-o’-the-moment — a tomahawk steak with veggies and roasted spuds, at $125 for two. Which is far more reasonable than the $1,000 tomahawk wrapped in gold foil served at Nus’ret in Beverly Hills. Which is a fool’s dish, Instagram food, for gold has neither taste nor nutritional value. Aside from a really big check, it gives you bragging rights. My steak is bigger than yours.
And do note: As good as Terra e Mare is, it’s still finding its legs. An order of oysters arrived, which I hadn’t ordered. A few minutes later — it arrived again. I was served my beet salad twice — before the mussels and clams, and again after. I was not bothered, really I wasn’t.
I was having too much fun watching the cooking class floor show in the open kitchen. So much so, I followed the Lachryma Christi with a glass of Vernaccia di San Gemignano. A great wine, from a beautiful Tuscan village. Every sip, every bite, brought back memories of great trips to Italy. Terra e Mare took me there, which is a dazzling accomplishment. Getting on the Ventura Freeway after, I had to wonder where I was. Italy is a hard act to follow.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Terra e Mare
- Rating: 3 stars
- Address: 13251 Ventura Blvd, Studio City
- Information: 818-528-7470; www.terraemareristorante.com
- Cuisine: Modern Italian
- When: Lunch and dinner, every day
- Details: Full bar; reservations essential
- Prices: About $75 per person
- Suggested dishes: 11 Antipasti e Insalate ($11-$38), 6 Pasta ($22-$33), 2 Rissoti ($26-$29), 5 Pesci ($27-$38), 6 Carni ($28-$125, for two), 6 Vegetable Sides ($8-$10)
- Cards: MC, V
- What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)
