The Nice Guy

This is a gem. I’ve driven past it so Many times when visiting LA. It is a must now when I visit. The food was absolutely delicious. Service was very good, and the Vibe was even better.

honestly this is my second time here the food is great & the vibes are amazing , but i was forced to sit outside in the patio away from everyone even though i had a reservation. the server was not helpful & kept repeating the same thing over & over again even though there empty tables inside. this is such an unpleasant experience & it is very unfortunate that the food is very nice but this issue ruined the whole experience for me.

If you want an intimate, great vibe, great customer service and you want to impress your significant other with a restaurant you picked go to The Nice Guy! It was my special persons birthday and she loved it. Our food was amazing and the drinks are definitely something I’m coming back for! Oh and the No photos policy is great because I was focused on my partners smile and conversation!

Meh. That’s how I’d describe my experience here. Had a reservation for 9 PM for a party of 2. We received multiple reminders of our reservation, asking that we confirm. The rules were clear if you are 15 minutes late, you lose your spot. We were on time and were greeted by the host at the entrance. Gave us attitude and asked who’s party we were joining, making it obvious that they didn’t know us, so we must be meeting someone that was known to the establishment. Bit of a joke given the fact that you can literally make a reservation for this place directly on their site. Plenty of open spots. We give our name, they see the booking (duh) and let us in. We are told to go to the bar and have a drink while they get our table ready. We order the spicy cocktail. Tasted good. At this point we’ve been at the bar for 30 minutes. Constantly being asked if we want more drinks. I’m good for drinks but a table would be nice. I go to the host, inquire about our table and get told that they have a lot of big parties there tonight so we need to wait a little longer. OK, but we’re a table of 2, so I don’t really understand why the bigger tables affect that. If you ask me to respect a 15 minute window, you should return the favour. Keep waiting while watching the bartender make huge batches of cocktails in tubs, pre-bottling them using a funnel. I’m being picky, but I feel like you could do that behind the scenes? Make me feel like my drink is made to order and not like you’re preparing for a frat party. Especially when your charging $25 a drink. Looked cheap, sorry. Go back to the host, get told that we can be sat on this tiny high table, right by the door if we wish and will then be asked to move to our actual table once it’s ready. Nah, I’m good. I’ll wait. This whole time the service is not great at the bar. No questions, advice or suggestions, just a constant barrage of “more drinks?”. Our table is ready, about 45 minutes later than our booking time. Get sat close to the bar, by the cutlery drawer and the constant flow of staff clinging and clanging cutlery and plates. Kind of annoying. I’m definitely not getting the “no taking of pictures allowed in this place” vibe they’re going for. By the way, that is a rule. You’re not allowed to take pictures in the restaurant. I get it and respect it, apparently celebrities go here and want privacy. I’m OK with that. However, the table next to us have their phones out, flashes on and their taking videos. They get asked to stop, don’t care and keep doing it. If you have a rule, enforce it. Our server introduces themselves, but that’s pretty much it. No information about the dishes, no questions, no advice. Just “so, what are we getting?”. We get the meatballs and the mozzarella for starters. Meatballs are good but don’t blow my mind. The mozzarella and bread with the tomato jam on it are good though, I’ll give them that. As soon as we’re done, some other staff member shows up, rushing, no questions other than “are we done?”. Takes and stacks our plates and cutlery, loud clinging and clanging. Felt like a school cafeteria. Order mains, again, no questions or advice. We get the Cacio E Pepe pasta and meat lovers pizza. Cacio E Pepe is good, but that’s pretty much it. I’m sorry, but the pizza was trash. Came on a Chuck E Cheese style elevated platter. Middle of the road crust, doughy, toppings were mid at best. Ate two slices and was done. Another staff member rushes to our table and cling clangs the dishes away in a rush. Sanitizes our table while we’re still sitting at it (like, OK?) while blurting out “dessert?”. We say that we’re good, our main server re-appears with the check. We pay and we’re out of there. We were in for $250, thought it would be more as we had alcohol with dinner too, so that was OK. It’s not a small amount of money, but this place was so hyped I thought it would be more . It came down to the service. If they’d put in a little more effort could have been much better.

The inside ambiance is perfect. I love the decor and the vibe this spot gives. Last I went was on a Monday night and enjoyed the live performance. It was a woman with a very beautiful voice accompanied with piano. Once the live music was over, then it crossed over to a hip hop R&B vibe. I didn't get much to eat or drink. It's the new year so I'm sticking to a particular diet. However, they accommodated me with providing me with broccolini (keto style) and I also got soda water. My friend ordered the shrimp appetizer and a pasta dish. I had a few of the shrimps and they were delicious. This spot is certainly expensive. My soda water, broccolini and splitting the appetizer to my friend left me with a balance of about $45. For broccoli and soda water. ? But, the staff and servers were great. If you're down to spend some dough effortlessly and have a good night, I recommend The Nice Guy.

AVOID unless you like embarrassingly poor service, bad music, and average food. We had a booking for 9:30pm. We were told we would have to wait 30/45 mins for a table inside (which is what was booked). We were not given notice of this before arriving. We were not seated at our table until one hour after our booking time. The managers were rude, had the attitude of petulant teenagers that had been told off, obnoxious, lacked class, failed to apologise, and behaved as though they were doing us a favour by seating us an hour after our reservation. I had to push them to offer us some form of compensation, which should have been offered as a given. Food was average at best. Music was terrible - Abba one moment and Tupac the next, and an overly loud and clunky sound system. Update - response to Larry Poston: as the hospitality director of this restaurant group, if you were indeed there and witnessed the utter mess your team were responsible for, why did you not come over and try to resolve matters? Why did the two “managers” that were arguing with me, not introduce you to me when I asked for someone more senior? Your response underlines the approach the management team of this restaurant takes to its customers - obnoxious, unapologetic, argumentative, and irreverent.

This restaurant has absolutely no idea what customer service is. Valet made us wait 5 minutes to take the car and when we got inside the hostess (Roxy) said we’re “1 min” late and the grace period has passed. “With a terrible attitude. I asked for the manager (Kyle , the fat guy) and he was as useless and rude as Roxy. I have never experienced anything like this before.

It's confirmed, the spicy chicken sandwich is BOMB. It brought back memories of my teen years scarfing down Wendy's spicy chicken sandwiches, but without the nasty sinewy bits or errant fat glob lurking amongst the "meat". The chicken was hot and crispy, the chipotle sauce was spicy and creamy, and the veggies were fast food sandwich appropriate. I took my sandwich to go due to covid but appreciated the distancing and strict mask policy while I waited for my food. Service was friendly and attentive. Thanks for the hard hit of nostalgia without the regrets, Nice Guys!