Ugo Cafe

My pasta primavera was tasteless. Too much olive oil; there were carrots, cherry tomatoes, greens — zero seasoning; not even salt. My husband ‘s pizza was pizza crust cooked — then arugula and figs tossed into it. Terrible — no flavor. The bruschetta was good. The wine was fine. We returned our food to the kitchen and left to go to a different restaurant. Never will go back.

Just excellent cappuccino! High quality sandwiches and salads and gelato.

This is my comment on their hot chocolate which disappointed me HUGELY.
They proudly displays this poster on the wall that promotes their «rich flavor hot chocolate» which I shouldn’t have paid attention, but unfortunately I did.
Their large size hot chocolate is $ 3.75 (plus tax) and I ended up paying $ 5.75 for the very thin, watery lukewarm tasteless hot chocolate with very artificial mint flavored syrup (which they charge extra $).
Verdict: I sincerely prefer Carnation hot chocolate mix over this ridiculously priced thing — I will never get even near to this place, ever.

What they have a ugo here? Liked the one in Culver City so I was immediately drawn to this place while on my way to the escalator. Very small space in the middle of the plaza. Gelato was just the same. Nice, creamy and fluffy. Great sugar rush after a long day of shopping. They also serve coffee as well. My friend got an iced latte. The flavor very different from the traditional coffee chain. More milky and light creamy taste. My friend gulped her in minutes. I demolished my gelato in seconds lol.

I have given this place so many chances now I need to warn everyone. Don’t waste your time with this place. Pastries are rock hard and there is only one person working with a line all the way out the door. I went there this morning with a good attitude and wanting to get the Nutella Mocha and the guy working was to busy on the ground unpacking whatever he was stocking in the fridge I walked over to him so he was aware that I was there. No hi or nothing so I waited for 30 seconds and I said good morning. He still did nothing. Then all of a sudden he dropped something and it shattered. I walked out and went to the ebar and got way better service I barely walked through the door and was greeted by 3 people that work at ebar. I’m done forever with Ugo. Hope no one else has been going through this and hopefully they get it together.

Convenient little place to take a breather after some shopping on the promenade. The hot chocolate was great and there is free WiFi. I did not try the desserts but they looked scrumptious as well as the food options. Outside seating was a little chilly but that’s what the coffee is for?

I love this little place they have the best creamy caramel! It’s a gelato ice blended it’s so good! Their pennies are so good! Omg I hardly recommend to buy your food here if you work in the mall or if you are just shopping!

A disappointment indeed. I knew about this place because of the location in downtown culver city. I’ve been wanting to try it so I figured I’d grab a quick lunch at this small storefront at the Santa Monica Place plaza/​mall.
I ordered the Pollo Pesto Panini. It was meh. Good at first but the time I got around to the second half of my sandwich, the bread was already stale even though the sandwich was still warm. I thought my tooth was gonna chip! The small amount of chicken in my sandwich was good. Another reason it was disappointing. Where was the damn chicken?!?
Also, the staff was a little rude. There was two people ahead of me and they were very verbal about how they were overworked. The customers in front of me only ordered coffee too! There was three workers there though? And they didn’t even have to do much with the sandwiches except heat them up in a toaster oven.
Maybe the one in downtown is a little better but I think I’ll only come back here for some gelato or something. This was officially the saddest Friday treat myself lunchtime ever.

I was hungry, kinda broke, super low energy when I saw Ugo café. Walked in real quick and I saw this delicious looking pesto pasta salad. It was almost like destiny! It was only $ 6.02 and it was so bomb! Portion was plenty, the pesto sauce was so good, and the tomatoes and chopped up kalamata olives were perfect with the pasta. I gobbled it all up and left super energized and happy.

This place has good customer service… at least when we went here to order gelato. There was a lady who helped us and she was friendly. We had a strawberry and raspberry gelato. It was good, but on the sweet side. We ordered a small and it was a bit expensive. I give it 4 stars because I feel items on the menu are a bit overpriced.

Their salads were just ok, but the gelato!!! was delicious!

Ufo café is located right next to the escalator in the outdoor mall on third street promenade.
I sampled the lemon, raspberry, and strawberry as I only really enjoy the «fruity» flavors. However, the taste wasn’t as strong as I usually like gelato to be and it was sort of one dimensional. The raspberry had the strongest flavor, but it was seedy instead of smooth.
I will say their scoops are generous, but I’d rather have small scoops of something orgasmic than have big scoops of something mediocre.
Plus, it was sort of weird that the employee was eating the samples too. I can only imagine what they do when customers aren’t around.

Love the staff! Such great vibes off all of them & oh the coffee is delicious as well as all the other food and drinks

Convenient location that I’ve been tempted to go to many times but never tried til today. Nice staff from my experience. I can’t offer a review of the gelato but that seems to be their main attraction (or always does at any place carrying it); finally drawn in by the bakery assortment I opted to try two things for the sake of curiosity: the ham & cheese croissant (one of my steady favorites) and a spinach croissant (which I don’t have often). Granted that this is no Dominique Ansel and LA is definitely known to have inferior pastries to NYC on a general level when it comes to fast food, I knew I would have to be a little subjective in review. However, there are good pastry sources in LA if you know where to look. The spinach croissant which I had them heat up slightly was even difficult to bite into (?!) on the edges, hard in fact which was very odd, and the taste of the spinach not my favorite but that could have been a personal thing. They were both really really buttery flavored. The first ham & cheese croissant I selected had its top flaky layer come off entirely when they tried to put it in a bag and I should have known then it might not be stellar. To be truthful, it’s pretty hard *not* to like a ham & cheese croissant and while not epic or amazing there is always a Hail Mary in the filling. The dough inside seemed not quite cooked enough in a way so that perhaps they assume everyone who orders one is going to have to get it put through the toaster. Again, maybe bc this is LA and not the kind of place you can expect to just grab and go — but I would like to be given the option. I’ve definitely liked the new pastries at Starbucks from La Boulangerie more, and don’t get me started on the not so good options from Coffee Bean… Maybe that can help you place this review on a scale for your own choice.
Bottom line: if I’m going to be spending almost $ 5 on a croissant and it’s that close to all the other great food choices in Santa Monica Place — and may I mention another bakery upstairs where they do make more authentic French baked goods — I will expect a bit higher quality for the price based on the proximity alone.
Next time I’ll try the gelato and see if that really is their main focus and it is on par with Italy as they claim!

The location makes you think they’d put just a little more effort in the quality of their products.
The gelatos were too soft for Santa Monica daytime weather, so you’ll have to eat them very quickly or bring a minifreezer with you. The iced coffee tasted bitter and nothing else. Don’t order it.
The service is okay at best, but it seemed as though they weren’t in control. Go here only if you don’t know any other places, since it certainly isn’t cheap either.

Delicious and tasty food and great service!
I love the efficient and quality service I get from Alejandra, Joshua, and another woman there who is a manager of the establishment. They are very friendly and helpful associates.
I love the gelato it is beyond phenomenal.

Ugo Café is my go to for Java while in Santa Monica.
I happened upon Ugo Café one morning while I was wasting time before a tuxedo fitting at the nearby (and god awful) BLKTUX. I ordered a skinny vanilla latte waited 3 minutes while it was prepared and was blown away by the creamy mouthfeel and full bodied flavor of Ugo’s coffee. It was damn smooth to boot, an all around excellent latte. A large ran the typical $ 5.00 which is fair for a cup of coffee at this level.
I don’t get to Santa Monica frequently but next time I do and have a coffee fiending, you can bet I will return to Ugo.

I bought two separate scoops for the kids and didn’t taste either until they were a few spoons in.
I then asked my son (2.5 y. o) for a taste. I thought it was one of the worst gelatos i’d EVER had… And I’ve had some bad ones believe me. Then when I tasted my 4 year old’s it was even worst than the previous one.
I forget which two flavors we tried but it doesn’t matter because I would not recommend for you to try ANY.
It was so bad the kids didn’t want to finish the single scoop small sizes.
Gelato: ¹⁄₁₀ taste
Service: ³⁄₁₀ didn’t say hello or how may I help you…

We came to Ugo Café for the handmade gelato. My husband got a large with ½ lemon and ½ raspberry. The lemon was tart and not too sweet, and the raspberry tasted exactly like it should. I chose a small with ½ pistachio and ½ caramel. The caramel was little too sweet for me but the pistachio was perfectly creamy and had the right amount of nuts.

Handmade gelato? Yes.
Non-​dairy flavors? Yes!
The freshest tasting strawberry flavor I’ve ever had in gelato? YES!!!
The most amazing fluffiest texture ever found in a non-​dairy gelato? OMG YES PLEASE!!!
In other words, I think I found my new favorite thing in life and it is this:
:)