Haute Dining: “Best-Kept Secret in Manhattan Beach”

Alright, we’ll tell you about this jewel of a restaurant on the condition that you don’t tell anyone. If it becomes too popular, we’ll never get resos on a Saturday night! Lido di Manhattan is an Italian-Californian restaurant, across from Bristol Farms on Rosecrans in the beach city. The food was always good, but it took a make-over from kitchen Nightmare Chef Gordon Ramsay to give it focus and ramp up the food.

Stand-out dishes include the vodka pasta and the original flatbread pizzas, which always arrive piping hot with a crisp, tangy crust. Fitting the Cali-Italian theme, all the salads are excellent, especially the “Green Goddess” dressing, which has just the right amount of bite. Chili glazed salmon finished with fresh mango sauce with vegetable risotto and broccoli was the lunch special one week; it tastes as good as it sounds.

Not surprisingly, Chef Ramsay, who has an ego as big as all outdoors, has a few dishes named after him , such as the Gluten Free “Ramsay’s Seared Tuna Nicoise Salad.” As a matter of fact, the restaurant now has an entire menu of “gluten free” dishes.

The owner, the vivacious Lisa Hemmat, instituted a Thursday wine tasting ($15 for wines and appetizers) which has become disturbingly popular, and on Saturday the jazz band, Manhattan Beach Quartet is packing them in. And don’t get me started on Flamenco Night.

Remember, this is between us.

www.lidodimanhattan.com

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