I Cugini

All I can say is brunch brunch brunch… the Sunday jazz brunch is the best… I’ve been twice… hot, fresh food, flowing drinks included in the price… get there before 1030 am

In memoriam, I write this brief review. I’m so sorry to hear of iCugini’s recent closure. It would likely be in my Top 10 for dining in LA.
Several years ago, I had an amazing first date here at I Cugini. The food and the service were both absolutely terrific. I remember having the frilled calamari, not fried… and it was perfect. As I recall, they featured 4 fresh fish choices, which it could be prepared 4 different ways: grilled, Macadamia Nut Crusted, over salt, or with tomatoes/​garlic.
Whatever fish I had was amazing, the wine recommended to us was perfect, and we were the last to leave. The setting was romantic and intimate. For dessert, my date and I shared a Tiramisu, and it was one of the best I’ve ever had. The management was so very nice to not rush us.
It didn’t work out long-​term (beyond a few more weeks), but the dinner that night left me with a wonderful and lasting memory (obviously!).
Best wishes to the owners, management, and staff as they move onto their next chapter. I can only hope you’ll re-​open somewhere else close by, or perhaps divide up and make 42 other restaurants better.

Note: This review is based solely on the tiramisu, as I don’t remember the food here.
The tiramisu here was the best I ever had.
R.I.P. I Cugini

I used to consider this my staple recommendation for Seafood. I hadn’t been in a few years and took my girlfriend there as a date. The menu selection was different from what i had remembered which was understandable considering the time between my last visit. The food was on the «warm» side and thank goodness for the bread basket. The fish didn’t taste fresh at all and the clams seemed very tough. Needless to say I will heed caution the next time I suggest
I Cugini.

Pretty standard italian food by the ocean. Great service.

Dinner service on a saturday night…
service: greeted promptly which was nice, they had a nice table for the six top that we were. although i must say the service was slightly lacking in all sorts of places. the drink order was taken very well, but the refills for water and other non alcoholic beverages was non existent. the bread came quickly but they were not hot or warm, which was kinda disappointing after smelling amazing bread smells upon entering the restaurant.
had 3 apps to start the dinner…
beet carpaccio salad was done nicely. nothing bad can be said for this, perfect portions and nice dressing of truffle oil.
grilled squid was great, grilled perfectly with a light wine sauce tasty good.
the barrata was fresh and tasty. if only they had better tomatoes the dish would have been perfect.
around the table, the seafood pasta was good, had tons of seafood in it. the risotto was cooked well but it lacked the creamy texture, the roasted cod was cooked perfectly.
no dessert but it was a pleasant experience. service could be better next time, it took them 1 hour before our entrees were ordered.

Went for my Mothers Birthday for Sunday brunch. it was ok… It was a bit too pricey for me though. My husband wanted to faint when he saw the bill! LOL!

Sunday Brunch //
After deciding to spend the day in Santa Monica with my family I searched Unilocal for brunch joints. I’d heard about this place many times on 94.7 The Wave and that actually deterred me from ever going here. I figured it would be a mess and it turned out to be quite the opposite.
I’m guessing because most are swaying from $ 50 brunches these days there was a perfect amount of people there. I had no problem making a reservation for 11 a.m. and we easily snagged a table on the outdoor patio.
All the food I ate was definitely good. The made-​to-​order omelette was good, the mini waffles were awesome, the smoked salmon was fresh, the ham and roast beef were flavorful, and the deserts were in bite size form and easy to sample each.
All-​in-​all I would recommend this brunch to anyone but I can’t say it was a bargain at $ 50 either. Great location, good service, solid food.

I’m just going to say the thing that everyone who is reading this review wants to know. You can now officially stop looking for a place to go for Sunday Brunch, because you are missing out if it’s not I Cugini. SUNDAY BRUNCH AT I CUGINI WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.
On my recent Rose Bowl Trip to the LA area from Texas (GO FROGS!), the game came and went on Saturday… and then the hangover came on Sunday. Sunday brunch, near the water, seamed like the perfect next step in our already amazeballs trip to CA. Seriously, Unilocal LA, your brunch suggestions are sorta lack luster. And, by lack luster, I mean, you have none. I had to do a lot of digging to come up with this gem. And, man, am I glad I’m a Unilocal genius…
Get ready for a veritable cornucopia of brunchy foodie great, good times:
A smoked salmon bar, with thinly sliced onion, capers, cream cheese, tomatoes, multiple types of Bagels. Not only bagels, any type of melt-​in-​your-​mouth breakfast bread you could dream of. Then shellfish: crab legs, shrimp, all with the option to smother it in heavenly garlic butter. A mini-​waffle station with whipped cream, syrup, and all of the fixings. A chocolate fountain with an assortment of fruit on skewers. Sausage, bacon, leg of lamb and ham carving station. An array of antipasti selections, tomato and mozzarella, mushroom salad, a white bean salad, thin crust pizzas. An entire salmon, with a man there to serve you the perfect piece. Fruta de Mar sauteed with saffron. Mussels in a delicate tomato broth. A little pastry shop filled with Italian dessert delights: cannoli, tiramasu, and the like.
When they say bottomless mimosas, you better believe they MEAN bottomless mimosas. Fantastic, friendly, and attentive service. A GREAT Jazz set up from 94.7 The Wave… the DJ greeting us warmly, even announcing TCU’s big win on the radio whilst giving us Horned Frogs a shout out.
So happy to have stumbled upon this most amazing and satisfying brunch in Santa Monica. If ever I’m back in the area, another Sunday Brunch at I Cugini will be at the top of my list.

Three and a half stars. We met up with Cliff’s parents after a long day of shopping. It must be nice to grow up with foodie parents! Server was friendly but discreet, never interrupted our conversation or left us looking for refills. Some seriously delicious pasta, and I tend to be ambivalent about the starch in the dish. The dish was complemented with a scant portion of a creamy sauce that would’ve been welcome in higher quantity. Criminally overcooked chicken makes me sad, though. Sampled some of Cliff’s halibut and it was cooked beautifully.

This Sunday brunch is a food addicts dream :)
Even the salads are all amazing, the smoked fish was a huge hit… the presentation was always pleasant.
Save room for the spectacular desserts and more choices than a cruise ship. Don’t miss the extra room in the front which is also a full bakery.
Staff and service was exceptional.
Worth the $$$
please take me here for my birthday ;)

You never it’s never a good sign when you come into a restaurant during the «lunch rush» to find it completely empty. Even if its a Monday, there should be at least a bit of activity.
That wasn’t the case for I Cugini. My colleagues and I stopped in for a business lunch on a Monday afternoon and were greeted by crickets… as the restaurant was completely empty.
We sat outside on the patio and despite the sunshine, the atmosphere was very gloomy.
For review
+/​-​artisan complimentary bread basket — tomato bread, olive bread, bread sticks — tomato bread is pretty awesome and I loved the fact that they also offered olive tapenade. However I was largely unimpressed by their Olive bread which was extremely greasy (why?!) and dense.
+ shrimp bisque — perfect portion, sweet yet salty, nice color, really could have just eaten this and been perfectly content. Blended with small bites of shrimp here and there.
— grilled California bass w/​crispy polenta and sauteed escarole — the polenta looked like lincoln logs and were a complete waste of time. They were tasteless and contributed nothing positive to the overall meal. The escarole was perfectly sauteed, but either picked poorly or under seasoned, as it was also tasteless. The same applied to the fish.
Coming back for more?
Hardly. If I do, I’ll stick to the soup and appetizers. For a seafood-​themed Italian restaurant in Los Angeles off the Pacific Ocean, I expect the restaurant to be serving top-​notch filets and appetizers. Faith should not be lost after one bite!

BRUNCH !!! Sunday Brunch is a must at this spot — I have been to many brunch spots and no one has been able to beat this spot the mimosas are end less and the OJ is the best OJ you will ever have — there is something for everyone — every last Sunday is Latin Jazz — 94.7 smooth Jazz broadcasts live there while your having brunch at the beach —
DO it and you will want to keep on doing it

I’m a fan of their Sunday brunches here. It’s nice to come down to the beach and have a nice brunch with your family when the sun’s shining, there’s a light ocean breeze, and some smoothe jazz playing. My parents like that the lady from the Wave hosts this brunch every Sunday. They’re suckers for that stuff. I like that there’s a billion things i can eat here and it’s all fresh and yummy. And the desserts are amazing.
I’ve eaten here for lunch with friends as well and the experience is still pretty awesome, just no long buffets of food to browse through. But the menu is full of delicious items and the service is efficient and friendly.
I really think it’s a classy place in a great location. And the Wave brunch is an awesome concept executed well.

I travel back and forth to LA on the regular, my sweetheart lives there and it just so happened to be my turn to make the trip over the weekend of Valentine’s. My girlfriend is extremely thoughtful and I know she kicked around many ideas on places to go before she settled on this spot. She wanted the night to be perfect and put those hopes in the hands of I Cugini.
I have to say I could not have been happier. As long as I was with her it wouldn’t have mattered where we ate, but I Cugini was icing on the cake. The manager Cory was very gracious and got us a wonderful table on the heated patio, the ocean in site. Our server, I believe her name was Martha, was tremendous. She’d been working near 14 hours and was as chipper and helpful as if we were her first table of the day. Her suggestions were amazing from beginning to end, starting with delicious wine and ending with a pineapple sorbet that was perfection.
Like I said, we could have eaten anywhere, I wouldn’t have minded, but the entire dining experience here made me very happy with the choice. The food, the ambiance, the staff: all A+. There are a million places to go in LA so it speaks volumes when I say I would *definitely* come back here, any time. Now this weekend when my girlfriend is back up here in SF, we get to do Valentine’s all over again!

Came here for a birthday celebration recently, and though the restaurant is pretty huge and beautiful, I was unfortunately sort of underwhelmed by the food. It was the second time I’d been there; the first time, we sat out on the patio looking out onto Ocean Ave. and I remember the food being great. This time I had the softshell crab, and have definitely had better. Other people in our party also had the crab and said the same thing. I tried the salmon, though, and it was very, very good.
On the service side, Jerry (the new manager there) took good care of us and even comped us a dessert plate to top off our celebration, which turned out to be classy-​looking and delicious. He chatted with us a little bit and told us about some upcoming events, etc.
I’d give three stars for the food, as anyone who has read my reviews knows, good service counts for a lot with me, and so I’m adding in an extra star for that. And maybe the softshell crab just isn’t their strongest dish, who knows. I’d go back.

PLEASE NOTE: This review is for the happy hour appetizers only. I’ve heard that the dinners are very good here, and would probably earn more than four stars. I understand that with special happy hour prices often comes a slightly lower quality.
We ordered almost everything on the happy hour appetizer menu. The best was the classic bruschetta, which was nice and garlicky. My least favorite was probably the shrimp bruschetta, which was too salty, as well as the pizza with proscuitto and olives on it, also much too salty. Someone in our party mentioned the salt issue to the waiter (nicely!) and he seemed genuinely grateful for the feedback. He told the chef and his manager and at the end of the night two appetizers were removed from the bill. We would have been happy to pay for these dishes, but we really appreciated that he took the comments to heart instead of just smiling and nodding then spitting in our coffee (at least I hope he didn’t…I drank my entire cappucino).
Without this great service, the place would have received three stars, but the attention to quality and the attentiveness of the waiter makes me want to come back and try the dinner menu to give I Cugini another chance.

Consistently fresh seafood is what first comes to mind when thinking of this place. If you want Italian, you are better off at Vincenzo’s on Montana St.
This is a good place to come with a group as the restaurant is spacious and the tables aren’t on top of each other.
Service is generally good and the ambiance in fairly simple. Good happy hour as well!

I was disappointed with I Cugini. It is owned by King’s Seafood Co., which also runs 555 East, Water Grill, and Ocean Ave. I went here for lunch. It wasn’t horrible, but I probably won’t be back.
I had the risotto, which was a special. It was overcooked to a mush, and it was way too spicy; it was kind of numbing, and you couldn’t really identify the individual ingredients. I also tasted the black cod, which was better.
The service was fine.

We went here today for a Sunday brunch, and had a GREAT time. Here are the perks for brunches at i Cugini:
Live jazz (the band and singers are inside)
Patio seating
King crab
Peel and eat shrimp
Octopus salad
Warm beet and goat cheese salad
Chilled mussels
Assorted pizzas
Seafood risotto
Warm mussels in a spicy red sauce
Fresh to order omelettes
Rosemary potatoes
Bacon
Chicken apple sausage
Fresh waffles with assorted toppings
Carving station (try the roast beef)
Assorted fresh fruits
Breads
Pastas
Mimosas (included)
(there was more, but I don’t remember)
We had a ball. We watched people who hit the mimosas a little too hard as they sang along with the band. Lots of people came to hear the music and enjoy a leisurely time (though there is a 2 hour time limit for brunch — I’d imagine people wanting to stay longer for the music). There were birthday shout outs, free coffee and soft drinks, a cute waiter and a nice breeze.
Perfect day for brunch.