{"id":138428,"date":"2026-01-18T03:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/138428\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T03:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:11:13","slug":"review-donnas-made-me-believe-in-hype-restaurants-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/138428\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Donna\u2019s Made Me Believe in Hype Restaurants Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The table you couldn\u2019t get is now the table you can sometimes get, and the fusilli alla vodka tastes just as good, the room hums just as loudly, and, yes, everyone was right about Donna\u2019s<\/a>. The Echo Park restaurant was the epitome of the hard-to-get table when it opened in summer 2023<\/a>; even now, free tables for spur-of-the-moment visits can still be a rarity. But the enduring hype is well-deserved for a menu of reliable red sauce-gone-2020s dishes, a booth-lined room that begs you to linger, an almost too welcoming bar, and a waitstaff that become fast friends.<\/p>\n

Packed but in a casual way that doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s trying too hard. Imagine the restaurant version of your edgy friend who can wear their Italian grandmother\u2019s sweater and somehow make it fashion. That is Donna\u2019s. I waited almost a year to come here because I\u2019m generally hype averse and I immediately hated myself for not coming sooner. It\u2019s not too cool; it\u2019s just a great time.<\/p>\n

Be very nice to your server and you might get a tiny glass of the homemade limoncello to finish off your meal.<\/p>\n

Since opening in mid-2023, Donna\u2019s has became Echo Park\u2019s popular neighborhood Italian joint with a sprinkling of East Coast flavor. Chef Sathia Sun serves contemporary spins on the traditional veal piccata, spaghetti and meatballs with basil, and a must-eat garlic bread heaped with grated cheese. Every detail inside is pure fun, with custom retro wallpaper, hanging lights, tiled floors, and a bar to try one of Karla Flores-Mercado\u2019s creative Negronis and spritzes. \u2014 Mona Holmes, reporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The table you couldn\u2019t get is now the table you can sometimes get, and the fusilli alla vodka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28829,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-138428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-dining-reports","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}