Maccheroni Republic

This is a very nice Italian restaurant. Chefs are very warmhearted, and food is simply awesome. I’ll definitely come back again.

Yummy! Must try! Authentic pasta! Love the black and white pasta, creamy but not too rich. Calamari was great, not too much breaking… The artichoke was very good too. Everything was so yummy, didn’t regret eating all that carbs at 10pm at all… Was all worth it.

Definitely not my kind of place. Ugh! Wish I hadn’t came.
Waited for almost an hour for a just a piece of Rigatoni w/​Eggplants & mozzarella and another two orders of Lasagna di Carne. If they just tell me prior to my order that it will take that long, I would have find another solution to ease my hunger immediately by looking for a better place to dine with.
Food is undeniably good, but won’t cover my bad experience.

HIdden place across Grand Central Market but found this place on Unilocal!
Came here with my coworkers to try their specialty dishes!
I had the black and white pasta which was delicious!
Overall, it’s a bit pricey but it’s definitely a great experience.
Service was slow which was the down part, but the overall ambiance is great!

Food was bueno. I’d go back, but I would steer clear from server, Humberto.
So let’s focus on an important factor– the service. Humberto, you had me at… oh wait, ya never had me. First of all, the service provided was so awful that I had to write a review about it. Are you kidding me? Working in the food service industry means you put on a «this is my happy face» persona. By all means, my group and I are not hard people to please. Initially we thought you just had a bland personality that permeated us when you asked us what we would like to order. No expression. No excitement. Not even a «how’s your evening going?» Just a derogatory «anything else you want?» I have to deal with individuals in my day-​to-​day job, but I still add a «have a good rest of your day» even though I find myself wanting to punch the person through my phone on the other line at times.
I think the tip of the iceberg was how he made a condescending and belittling remark to my friend when we were paying our bill. He sneered a «well you could have just done that». Mother flogging. Perhaps the only person that was helpful and nice was the guy who sprinkled the parmesan cheese on our pastas. He had such passion. Passion I tell you! Maybe Humberto can learn a thing or two from this guy. [END RANT/​REVIEW]

Found this place by accident & we are so glad we did! Wow!
Maccheroni Republic gets an A+, for ambiance, homemade pasta, and our cute Italian server (what an awesome accent she had)!
I had the Boccoleti Al Pesto e Ricotta (I loved the curly pasta), and my husband had the Rigatoni with sautéed eggplant!
We’re looking forward to going back again & again!

Definitely one of the best Italian restaurants I’ve had! I came here with a friend for dinner prior to a Yiruma concert. Apparently it was one of her favorite Italian restaurants… and I can see why. We ordered only three dishes and we still had to take some to-​go. The ambience of the restaurant was very welcoming and serene. I thought parking was going to be a problem but there’s a parking structure nearby.
First was the Bruschetta di Panzanella. It sounds simple, but the grilled ciabatta with tomatoes, cucumber, basil, mozzarella and onion was simply divine. The mixture of various flavors on your palate delicious and refreshing. A great appetizer. In fact, I’d be satisfied with this meal alone.
The next was the Lasagna di Carne. So to start with, I’ve never been a huge fan of lasagna. However, this was pretty good, and that’s a huge compliment coming from me. I liked it better than the third entrée we got. It was a traditional lasagna with meat ragout and cheese. It was a little bit burnt on the side, but it gave the meal a crispy texture, which I actually enjoyed.
The final meal we ordered was the Rigatoni with sauteed eggplant, garlic, plum tomato sauce and perline mozzarella. This was alright for me. Pasta was cooked well, not to soft. For some reason, the sauce was a bit too salty for me.
Overall, the service was excellent, the ambience of the restaurant was serene, and the food was great. I don’t visit LA often, but I would come back here with my friend again.
My 3 P’s:
— Palate: ⁴⁄₅ (⁵⁄₅ for the Bruschetta)
— Plating: ⁴⁄₅
— Presentation: ⁵⁄₅

A HUGE STAPLE TO MY BF AND I’S DIET.
Literally, EVERYTHING on the menu is a safe bet. I’m not a fan of meat/​tomato sauce based pastas AT ALL, but I thoroughly enjoyed the Bigoli Della Nonna and the Rigatoni Pom’Adore. My favorite however, is the Bianchi i Neri. It is to DIE for. Literally. We died and went to heaven multiple times. The Risotto here is quite amazing as well.
The service here is very good — we had a wonderful waitress who joked about how she loved covering her pasta in parmesan cheese to the point where you can’t see the pasta anymore, while her boyfriend (who also was a server here) did not. My friends and I then teased her and tried to guess who her boyfriend was (he was serving the customers at the other side).
Having fun servers definitely makes my dining experience significantly more memorable!
For dessert, my sister and I got the cannoli. It comes with 4 cannolis, 2 of which have vanilla cream filling and 2 of which have chocolate. A++++++.
The coolest thing about this place is that you can literally close your eyes, point to something random on the menu, and not be disappointed with whatever you get. Everything here is THAT good.

Amazing place and ambiance !
Honestly I’m not a big fan of pasta, but I must say I really enjoyed each plate at this Italian restaurant.
We party of four end up eating at this place coz had a recommendation from a Italian friend stating that their dishes where authentic.
Honestly they didn’t disappoint! Flavorful and rich each pasta plate was delicious. Service was great as well!
I would recommend try to get an outside table! It get crowded so expect to wait some time to be seated.
Their desserts weren’t that great thou… I would eat dinner and go somewhere else in DTLA for dessert :)
Enjoy!

Located right next to the Grand Central Marketplace in Los Angeles, I thought that Maccheroni Republic put out some pretty tasty and authentic food.
Calimari — Fried nicely as it was airy and crispy. The sauce it came with was good.
Bigoli Della Nonna — Spaghetti with meat sauce at its finest. The pasta was al dente and had a real nice texture to it. The meat sauce was also hearty and very flavorful.
Black and White pasta — Usually I don’t really enjoy cream based angel hair pastas but this was an exception. The flavor on this was spot on. My wife ordered this dish and I ended up inhaling most of it.
4 stars!
Note: Street parking sucks around this area so be prepared to pay for parking :(

We came for a work lunch and ordered 4 pastas to share.
The Cuffie Al Nero De Sepia is a dark, squid ink pasta in an unusual cupped shape with a saffron fish ragout. It is very rich, with a cream sauce and heavily scented with saffron and chunks of fish. I liked this a lot but it was a table least fav.
The Boccoletti Al Pesto E Ricotta was enjoyed by everyone. The long strands of curly pasta had a creamy pesto and topped with fresh ricotta. I thought it was a very mild way of enjoying the familiar flavors of pesto without so much of the sharpness.
The Bianchi and Neri refers to thin strands of both black and white vermicelli, and shrimp, mushroom, and roasted pancetta in a creamy bisque. It comes all my favorite things and I would recommend this to anyone for anyone.
The Bigoli Della Nonna was a version of spaghetti bolognese that was very solid, very good but doesn’t stand out as much. The spaghetti is thick Venetian and the sauce is made with handcut Angus & sausage ragout.
If you don’t have enough carbs, the bread basket is very enjoyable too with fresh bread and lots of balsamic and oil to dip into. We sat in the outdoor eating area and had great service by our charming french waiter oozing with french accent.

Really enjoyed the food here but service was definitely questionable and I didn’t think the food was extraordinary enough to justify the steep prices.
I came with my sister and upon being seated at an unpacked hour, it took a while for anyone to come by and take our orders or even bring us drinks. We saw two servers walk back and forth, ignoring our table for a while, though we had decided our order within minutes of being seated. All interactions with the servers for the rest of the night seemed scripted and fake. They threw in a few Italian words from time to time and there was an obvious disconnect between their demeanor and what was coming out of their mouths. Service was off-​putting and I just think a good dining experience is encompassing of good service, which Maccheroni lacked.
As for food, I ordered the bianchi and neri pasta and the fried calamari (to share) while my sister ordered the salmon salad. The bianchi and neri pasta was pretty spot on. The noodles were a medium al dente and the creaminess of the sauce, the saltiness of the pancetta, and the textures of the shrimp and mushrooms made for a perfectly balanced dish. The calamari was also well made but came in a rather small portion. Ordering an appetizer was a turn off for me at first because they were all highly priced at about the same price as an entrée. However, they make their seafood very well and all the seafood in the foods we ordered were tender and fresh. I had a bite of my sister’s salad and thought the flavors were great too, but at the end of the day, nothing I ate could really justify the high prices.
At the end of the night, I paid with cash with a server and left. However, as I was validating my parking ticket, the host came after me and asked for some receipt. I gave him the receipt I took from the check book (my copy) and he asked for the «signed» receipt. Since another server took our money, it seemed strange that this host was coming after us assuming we had paid with a card and didn’t sign anything– treating us like we’d left without paying. When I told him I paid in cash, he seemed hesitant. It made no sense that he was worrying about our bill when another server had taken care of it. I had to tell him multiple times that I’d paid with cash before he said «okay» and left me alone. Overall, this was disappointing behaviour and showed a lack if communication within the restaurant employees, making for a less than satisfactory dinner service that night.

A very enthusiastic five stars!
The food here is so fresh, delicious and authentic. The atmosphere is beautiful, unpretentious and comfortable. The service is attentive and friendly. The value and prices are outstanding, generally under $ 15 for pasta entrees with higher end dishes only a few dollars more.
The wait… can be very long! But there’s a reason people are piling in here and it is absolutely worth it. They don’t take reservations ever, so you can expect a 25 – 30 minute wait on a weeknight and over an hour on weekends.
My friend and I had a grilled calamari appetizer that was heaven. You always see fried calamari rings on Italian menus, but this was very different. It came on a bed of chopped bok choy with a spicy sauce. We also received complimentary warm baguette slices with 3 types of dipping oil (balsamic vinegar, regular olive oil, and spicy olive oil).
The pastas, made in house, were incredible. At the suggestion of the enthusiastic host, I ordered the bianchi e neri («black and white») which he said was the most popular and best thing on the menu. It was a blend of spaghetti, including squid ink, and each bite of fresh pasta was amazing. Add roasted pancetta (wow!), 5 plump marinated shrimp and mushrooms in a cream sauce, all in a giant portion, and it was an incredible entrée for $ 15.95.
They have a daily lunch special (weekdays only? I don’t think so, but must double check) where you get a pasta plus salad for only $ 9.95. Wow!
For an all-​around great restaurant in DTLA, I really don’t think it gets better than this.

THAT BIANCHI & NERI PASTA THO. I definitely understand the hype around this pasta after my visit! A friend and I had serious pasta cravings so we decided to give Maccheroni Republic a try. We tried 2 pastas: the Bianchi & Neri and Pappardelle with Wild Boar Ragout.
The Bianchi & Neri was excellent. Easily in my top 5 pasta dishes lol. The shrimp was cooked perfectly, while the pancetta added just the right amount of saltiness to this dish. The creamy sauce was not too heavy, and the mushrooms were divine. The Pappardelle with Wild Boar Ragout was solid as well, with nice chunks of boar in the sauce. However, I did think the pappardelle was a bit past al dente/​really thin. Also really sad that dishes came out barely warm bc they would have been amazing steaming hot!
For dessert, we tried the chocolate cake and vanilla gelato, which were both HUGE disappointments. The cake was nice and moist, but didn’t have that depth of chocolate flavor. The gelato just tasted & looked like cheap soft serve from some buffet. Don’t get either!
While I loved the pastas here, Maccheroni Republic’s desserts fell short. So come for the awesome organic pastas and take your dessert cravings elsewhere!

I got to try this place out during the Night on Broadway extravaganza this year. Nice restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating. The wait was a bit long and we missed them calling us but the maitre’d was still nice enough to let us have a table without waiting much longer.
We sat on the patio under the heat lamps so it was a nice ambiance on a nice, brisk evening.
I’m told they make their own pastas here which is a nice twist. They had a nice selection of Italian pasta dishes and so it took us a while to decide what to get. We did start off with a calamare as an appetizer. They also brought out some dinner rolls to munch on too. You can always count on carbo loading when eating Italian, I’m not complaining since I love bread and pasta.
I finally decided on the Bigoli della Nonna which turns out is similar to spaghetti with meat sauce. The pasta ended up being slightly thicker than your traditional spaghetti noodles which I enjoyed a lot. The flavor was good and I’d order this again if I ever returned.
The calamare was decent, nothing too special.
Our waiter was an authentic Italian dude, with a thick accent and all and he served us up pretty good.
The only downside is the restroom situation because they only have one that is shared by both men and women. After dinner we waited in line for about 10 – 15 minutes to use it.
Besides that, everything was good and I’d come back to eat here again.

After a stroll around this part of DTLA, the wife and I happened to walk by this restaurant that looked appealing. So we decided to have our date lunch here at Maccheroni Republic.
It was around noon on a Thursday. The place was a little busy but we got seated right away. It appears that majority of the customers here who works in office spaces around the area, dined in for a lunch break.
Looking down the menu, the items to me are in Italian tongue twisters, but they have descriptions what’s in it and they all sounded really good.
I went for their Maccheroni Stellari. When its quoted «star shaped» first thing came to mind was Chef Boyardee, fun shaped stars! The texture of pasta with star shaped ends was slightly chewy, the tomato sauce flavor had that mildly spiciness to it along the garlic herbs. Around $ 11 it was a perfect dish.
The wife’s choice was the Violetta Di Melanzane. It’s roasted eggplant rolls worked really well with the mozzarella. Instantly, it’s cheesy, then tomatoey packed with flavor from the pool of sauce. Priced around $ 11 this «Zane», is yummy bliss.
We would’ve tried their most talked about Black & White pasta but we weren’t too hungry. So we went with one entrée and the other an appetizer. Both choices were good Italian homemade dishes and what stood out most is their quality.
We got friendly service here and even got our orders on-​time. This place is casual, but when we got seated at patio and next to the street. There were a few smelly transients that walked-​by and good thing it was at the end of our dining.

I still dream about the Bianchi And Neri pasta. (black and white) I dream about it like the long lost unrequited love that breaks your heart and haunts your memory.
Even after returning twice to have it again, it’s never enough.
*tear drops*

4.5, feeling generous and rounding up. I came here the day after New Year’s around 6:30pm and there was already a long line. Although I was just a party of 2, there were many small parties before us, the wait ended up being around 35 minutes. We were seated outside with ample space heaters around us, making the environment comfortable.
The specials mentioned didn’t entice us as much as the seafood linguine in special red sauce, I was literally licking my plate clean with the complimentary bread. The boy ordered rigatoni, which I thought was just ok.
Service was good and attentive. Complimentary bread had a good texture. They must have some speedy cooks because food came relatively quickly given the hustle bustle on a Saturday night.
Only 1 unisex bathroom, makes for a wait, but great way to chit chat with others in line! I can’t comment about parking, but walking distance to a lot of other LA hot spots!

After spending all afternoon at The Broad we were starving and pasta sounded like it would totally hit the spot. We didn’t have a reservation but made it in early and didn’t have to wait.
The place was packed at 5:00 p.m.
The service was decent nothing crazy special they seemed a little side tracked but the restaurant was full.
The food is here was awesome though, we started off the grilled calamari was excellent perfectly cook and great over the sauteed spinach and onions. For our main courses ordered the Pappardelle with Wild Boar, $ 19.95 which was amazing the pasta itself was perfect texture and flavor. For me personally, the pappardelle was my favorite dish. We also had, the Cioppino with spicy pasta sauce, $ 19.95 the pasta is $ 3 more. I think my favorite part about the cioppino was the pasta. Their dishes are simple but full of flavor.
The restaurant is really small so be prepared if you don’t come early and don’t have a reservation you will be waiting a while. All the servers have Italian accents which is kind of cool.

Despite dining out less frequently this year, 2015 has been a year of experiencing several stellar restaurants Los Angeles has to offer, among them including Maccheroni Republic, Bestia, Gjelina, Petit Trois, and Hinoki & The Bird.
Eileen L.‘s REFVIEW for Maccheroni Republic
RELEVANT INFO
* A trattoria in the heart of DTLA with incredible Italian food that amounts to a pleasantly low bill
* Does not take reservations — arrive before 6:30 for minimal wait during dinner
* No longer free corkage since MR finally acquired a beer & wine liquor license
* Corkage fee, though no longer free, is still considerably cheap: $ 5 first bottle, $ 10 second bottle on
* Although I felt horribly for holding up a table for 45 minutes because all my friends were so late, the place was lenient (to say the least) about seating me before the rest of my party arrived
* Parking validated at the parking structure next door
EXPECTATIONS GOING IN
* All my friends had been singing loud praises of this spot, so I had high expectations coming here
FOOD
* Starter Bread ($ 0): unassuming in appearance, but light and airy
* Bianchi & Neri ($ 15.95): No surprise why it’s a favorite here — creamy, decadent, flawlessly al dente pasta
* Sangiovese ($ 6): Simple, yet rich compared to many house wines
VALUE
* Quality pasta at relatively inexpensive entrée prices — $ 7-​$ 12 antipasti; 10-​$ 15 pastas
IMPRESSION OVERALL
* A good Maitre D makes all the difference in the world — Nikola is the greatest and was so helpful from beginning to end… I called at 5:30 the night I was dining to see if I could reserve a large-​ish table for 7. He requested that I call back half an hour before I planned to arrive to put my name down and reserved a lovely patio table by the entrance archway
* Our server was very amiable and present when we needed him
ENVIRONMENT /​AMBIANCE
* Quaint, modest trattoria hidden behind tall hedges on Broadway Avenue with a dimly-​lit patio, and a brighter interior
* Great for date nights or large group gatherings — we were among 3 large parties comprised of only females that held our white elephant holiday exchange here on a Monday night
WOW FACTOR
* Looking forward to returning and trying all the other pasta dishes!

Local muito agradável, com ambiente externo.
Massa feita de forma artesanal
Comida muito boa e com tempero na medida, vale a pena conferir.

Super Italiener! Klasse Bruschetta! Super Nudelgerichte und als Krönung auch noch leckere Desserts! Preis-​Leistung ist perfekt! Sehr freundliche Bedienung!