A nice bottle of wine and fancy pasta never go out of style in Beverly Hills. Pop into Marea for proof. The splashy Italian seafood spot comes from NYC, where it’s been feeding fusilli to Midtown power brokers for years. A similar crowd has settled in LA, with middle-aged men in Brooks Brothers suits and ladies with beehives bemoaning how nobody gets dressed up on airplanes anymore. Being a block off Rodeo, it’s not a surprising scene. More surprising is the pasta, which goes far beyond the linguine love affair the Golden Triangle is known for.

To be clear, if the least interesting person at your table wants spaghetti, they’ll find some. But Marea’s greatness lies in the stuff you can’t get at Il Pastaio, La Scala, or Dante: Elegant pastas like delicate ribbons of pappardelle with buttery crab, and tomato-y fusilli tossed with thick pieces of charred octopus. The ones featuring high-quality seafood generally validate their sky-high prices ($40+). Fussy $30 appetizers and a boring $90 piece of Dover sole you could make at home while following along on YouTube do not.

So unless you're sitting at one of the big round tables with high-spenders behaving like they're on Traitors: CEOs Only, be prepared for fine-dining stick shocker. On a recent meal, our final bill for three was $700. But the good news is that you don't need to order that much to have an impressive meal. Fill up on bread service, stick to the lobster salad, a few pastas to share (they'll even do split portions if you ask), and a glass of pinot grigio that you chatted about with the sommelier. Then head out before your phone lights up with a bank alert.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Scorfano

Marea has a lengthy raw bar section with everything from imported oysters to $300 caviar service. None of it is exceptional, but since ordering a crudo appetizer is law in Beverly Hills, get the meaty rockfish with a dollop of pureéd calamansi and bits of pistachio coated on the outside for crunch.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Astice

We’re not sure how it took us this long to experience lobster, burrata, and basil together on one plate, but we’re glad to be here. This is the one appetizer to get at Marea.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Insalata

This is a solid salad. The breadcrumbs provide a decent crunch and for all you anchovy freaks, you’ll find several salty filets layered on top.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Pappardelle

We’ve slept on Egyptian cotton sheets less silky than this plate of pasta. Add a tarragon butter sauce and soft lumps of crab, and this dish slides down easier than ice cream after dental work.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Fusilli

Your server will likely insist this decadent, tomato-y bowl of fusilli with charred octopus and jiggly bits of bone marrow is the best dish from the original location in New York. It took us one bite to realize the statement applies to LA as well.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

Sogliola

This is the dish where Marea lost us a bit. It’s a well-cooked piece of fish, but $90 for a filet of sole is eye-opening even for Beverly Hills. Plus, if you want a sauce of some kind (like meunière on top of this one), it’s $20 extra.