Spanish inspired restaurant from chef Joshua Whigham who was the executive chef at Bazaar.
Nice neighborhood restaurant that is currently only open for lunch, but they just got their liquor license and will be starting dinner service soon - worth noting that nothing on the lunch menu was over $20.
Highlights:
Escalivada Coca - Fired roasted eggplant, sweet peppers & caramelized onions w/ piparra peppers. Be sure to try the cocas (Iberian flatbreads) here and they offer several delicious varieties.
Flan - flavored with allspice, green cardamom, pistachio, orange - a great take on a classic desert with the cardamom and the subtleness of pistachio was used well here. The use of candied pistachios was also the key ingredient for the tomato watermelon skewers.
Also recommend starting off with a glass of the gazpacho here. Everything here feels fresh and thoughtfully prepared, with the team showing a commitment to local, seasonal ingredients.
oh I will definitely be back! I purposely didn’t order the gambas because I knew that they would be on their dinner menu even though shrimps w/ garlic is a personal top 5 favorite dish for me. That took some dedication!
I’m assuming it’s a Basque cheesecake to fit the theme but the menu only says Helen’s cheesecake, but either way, I will definitely be ordering it next time at Casa Leo! Ty!
Also dinner is now open and here is their posted dinner menu:
it is not Basque cheesecake. it’s something different, something like New York but pretty original. There’s a fun backstory the chef might tell you about it as it’s his wife’s family’s longtime recipe. It’s incredible, definitely try it.
Very good! Most similar to Barra Santos, but a tier better. All dishes we tried are 5/5. The restaurant is sadly empty at 6:25 on a Sunday. Go here ASAP!
Frustrating to see a relatively low score from these guys. The infatuation is truly so bad. I think this reviewer in particular has the worst taste in Los Angeles. Y’all loved it but he doesn’t even find it worthy of dinner. I’ll go soon if only to spite him
Is the score that low? In the 7s doesn’t scream “stay clear”. I doubt a 7.2 from Infatuation will hurt (or help) them. I haven’t been yet - it’s on my short list - but I absolutely agree that the writing is abysmal. I would prefer Infatuation just have scores with no writing, because then we could at least pretend they were qualified to be opining on restaurants.
They’re so effusive that 7.2 really isn’t great. Lol I hate read the infatuation enough to know that anywhere decent gets like a 7.8 or above.
im bummed bc its evidently a very slow spot and they had the chance to bring legit buzz to it and instead this damn reviewer who certainly has worse taste than any of our above posters says it’s hardly worth your time.
lol I went tonight. The Caesar salad which our infatuation reviewer panned is one of the best in la. The food as a whole was quite good, though there were some pacing issues. It was about 60 % full.
I’m not racing back admittedly, and I don’t think I’m quite as high on this as a few others were, but this could be a really great spot when they’re fully humming along.
we the people of Los Feliz appreciate your support. Yeah it’s not yet “travel-from-elsewhere” worthy, but grading on the curve of what we have in the neighborhood it’s incredible.
We went for a second time, this time for brunch. Both times we were the only people in the restaurant (okay some other people finally showed up). That’s a shame because this food is outstanding. This restaurant is easily in the top 5 percent of restaurants I’ve been to in the Los Feliz / Silver Lake / Echo Park / Atwater Village area. Frustrating that people aren’t dining here.
I don’t agree with the TimeOut review saying this restaurant is “inconsistent.” I’ve had 11 or 12 dishes here and they’ve all been good to outstanding. It’s hard to recommend dishes given how good they all are.
Again, I think the closest comparison is Barra Santos, which I like a lot, but I think Casa Leo is better.
We tried to go before a show at the Greek a couple months ago and they were packed to the max. I wonder to what extent they’re relying on event-night traffic.
