Caffe 8 1/2

Lovely little legit Italian café. SO similar to the ones I went to in Rome. REAL Italian coffee made the right way by the super-​sweet Italian owners. All the meats and cheeses there are from Italian and the pastries are yummy. Simple, unpretentious neighborhood stop that is worth going out of your way for!

Owned by really friendly Italians. No pretentious hipster baristas here. Authentic Italian coffee (the espresso is very good). Nice view outside.
Best of all, it’s down the street from me. Hallelujah!!!

GOOD cappuccino. Nice apricot croissant. Love, love the theme, the Mastroiani mural and all. Fellini would be proud.

I have found my new favorite coffee shop. Great service, super friendly people, and the coffee is the best I’ve ever had. No more Starbucks for me!

I can’t believe I just found out about hw amazing this place is and I’m only a 1 minute walk away! The 2 gentleman that were working when I went were so so friendly, knowledgeable, and just plain awesome. They have mostly coffee drinks and some sweets but they also have salads and paninis! The salads are amazing they slice the prosciutto fresh and it melts in your mouth! The presentation is also nice, they don’t just throw the salad in the container they pay attention to detail. I had a panini too. it was so good! My new favorite place!

I’ll start off by saying this is absolutely the best café’ I’ve been to in LA, and I’ve been here for many years. I accidentally stumbled onto this place a few weeks on the way to the DMV. The owner and his staff are from Italy and apparently their shop just opened up a few months ago. I’ve been here a few times now. Their cappuccino, espresso, macchiato, and lattes are amazing! Their panini are also excellent.

This is my favorite coffee shop for several reasons:
1. It’s very close to everywhere I need to be.
2. The caprese sandwich is out of this world delicious.
3. The staff are attentive, classy and thoughtful.
4. The quality of the food and coffee are consistently very high: fresh and tasty.
5. I’ve tried many of the drinks and eats here and they are always A-​1 excellent: good ingredients put together with c are and served with a smile.
6. It’s the only true Italian café around Santa Monica.
7. Positive vibes every time I go.

This café has recently changed hands. The latte is so delicious. Really, the best I’ve had near me. And the gentlemen who run this place are so nice. I prefer to give business to local businesses when possible and they are so much better than any chain. Marcello Mastroianni’s image on the wall makes for a nice touch, too.

Real Italian experience, go there and enjoy the coffee! Gaetano and Stefano are great host, you will feel just like in Italy!

I really like the staff they are so friendly and happy all the time, what do I think about the coffee, will it’s really not that expensive at all but they need to work hard to improve the quality of the espresso.

Went here for a quick bite to eat and loved it. Staff was extraordinarily kind, friendly, and helpful. I had the salami panini and my daughter had the prosciutto panini and both were delicious. Great place, great food.
P. S. The desserts look awesome too

The owner is a wonderful person who makes this plays more delicious than anything ells in the neighborhood!

Stopped in a few weeks ago and I gotta say, this place is pretty great! Wonderful, knowledgeable, staff! So friendly :) Amazingly delicious coffee drinks! The perfect place to stop in for a coffee and snack! They really pay attention to detail here, the quality of everything was impressive! Definitely a new favorite! I highly recommend this place!

Awesome panini’s or panino’s as the owner Guytano will say :) Super friendly service and legit Italian ingredients.

They made the perfect cappuccino, not bitter or burnt, but instead sweet and just the right proportions of espresso and milk. The chocolate cannoli was nice and flaky.
It’s an intimate café, clean but not sterile design, comfy seating. The meats and cheeses are all imported and looked like a proper Italian deli counter. The owner gave us a sample of the smoked mozzarella – fantastic. Will be coming back for a panini in the near future!

My go-​to place for expertly crafted espresso, traditional panini and authentic italian pastries. The real deal here !
Now in their third month, they have been incredibly consistent. Quality, taste, presentation and friendly service too.
They use simple, high quality ingredients that they assemble with care in respect of tradition from their native Rome in Italy.
It is all a matter of balance between the ingredients with their paninis, salads and espresso or capucino. Just the right amount of everything.
Gaetano, Stefano, Alessandra and Monica, the caffe’s team. Well they are the real deal too. As authentic and friendly as their cannolis or chocolate tart ! :-)

The food here is wonderful and fresh. I recommend the caprese panini and also the pastries. I have yet to try the coffee but I hear it’s the best in Santa Monica. My only slight compliant is that the window seating is a little awkward for someone who doesn’t like to have their back towards the center of a restaurant.

I am obsessed with this new coffee shop!
It’s an authentic Italian owned place. I ordered the iced coffee and it was delicious. It had a bold, robust flavor to it without being too strong or bitter. I made sure to tell them that it’s the best iced coffee I’ve ever had.
I also ordered two of the apricot shortbread cookies with powdered sugar on top. I devoured both of them! They were soft and chewy with a perfect amount of sweetness.
It turns out that everything here is imported from Italy — which makes sense why it is so good.
The inside of the coffee shop is so beautiful too. It’s clean and pristine with an Art Deco vibe to it.
The staff here are super friendly too. The woman who helped me answered all my questions and gave me suggestions of what to try.
This place may become my new favorite coffee shop. I am looking forward to coming back and trying it on the weekend too!

Wow what a great addition to the neighborhood they serve the finest quality Italian sandwiches and deserts. They also serve Danesi coffee and it’s the best!!! I love these kind of joints very relaxing and fun

Up until a few months ago, this little neighborhood gem was called Café Bello. I was bummed when it closed down: its location was a little off the beaten path so you could go here for a little escape.
My partner drove by the other day and noticed that it was open again, so he stopped in. It’s now open with new management under the name Caffe 8 ½ (as in the Fellini film — you’ll see the giant Mastroianni print on the wall!) and he came home saying «it’s run by Italian people who were actually in there speaking Italian.» (this is a good sign!) So we stopped there this afternoon for a coffee and some cannelloni. The cannelloni are REALLLLLY good (they remind me of the fresh ones from Rocco’s/Bruno’s on Bleecker Street in NYC) and their coffee? Just like Italy. I’m a bit of an Italophile and I’m pretty judgmental about espresso… for me, the bar was set high by a few visits to Roman coffee places. And this espresso is the closest thing I’ve found to my favorite coffee spot in Rome.
The owner was there today and he said that they get their pastries fresh every day: they never serve today’s stuff tomorrow. I like that. They also have sandwiches and salads if you’re stopping by for lunch.
Add to that very friendly, nice people — and you have a café that I’ll be coming to pretty often. Plenty of outdoor sidewalk seating too.