Casa Ado: Handmade Pasta by the Beach

Last Saturday, K. and I had dinner at the new-ish Casa Ado on Washington, right next to the Venice Boardwalk. We had been to the original Ado on Main Street for the first time a few weeks ago and fell in love with their pasta, so we wanted to give Casa Ado a shot. Like last time, we focused on the pasta, which is really the star. We liked both the handmade pastas, the beet tagliolini and the mushroom papardelle the best by a long shot. The orechiette, ricotta gnocchi, and proscuitto caprese salad were pretty average (have had much better elsewhere), we know what to stick with the next time. Still, it's nice to know there's somewhere to get our pasta fix on the Westside whenever we want. Service was fine, it was pretty easy to get a table on a Saturday night, and it definitely has a louder, more beachy vibe than the more cozy and dimly lit Ado.

Proscuitto, mozzerella, tomatoes and arugula. I've had better proscuitto and mozzarella at plenty of places, but this is a dish that always hits the spot if you are craving these flavors

Ricotta gnocchi with arugula, tomatoes and almonds. The best ricotta gnocchi are made purely with ricotta and should be light and fluffy. These clearly were made with some additional ingredients, probably potato, and therefore were dense and heavy, and not as good

Pappardelle with wild mushroom alfredo sauce. Love the texture of the large flat homemade pappardelle noodles, which went well with the creamy rich mushroom sauce

Red beet tagliolini with chicken marsala ragu over parmesan fondue. Casa Ado's version of my favorite dish at Ado. Love the chewy fresh homemade tagliolini noodles. The sauce is great, may sound weird, but it's like an awesome version of hamburger helper with the cheesy creamy ground meat sauce. I could eat many bowls of this. There's no real discernable beet flavor to the tagliolini, I think it's mainly just used for coloring purposes

Orechiette with sausage, broccoli rabe, ricotta salata. I've had many amazing versions of this dish, especially at Babbo and Lupa. I even make a decent version at home. This one unfortunately did not match up. Perhaps because of the ricotta salata, but it was quite dry and just didn't quite have enough flavor. Plus I am spoiled because at Babbo and Lupa they handmake the orechiette, which has a delightful chewy texture. This tasted like out of the box orechiette that you can buy at Whole Foods