Forma

On our lists of the best romantic restaurants and special-occasion restaurants in Los Angeles.

At Forma on Montana Avenue, a server carries out a wheel of cheese and scrapes portions straight onto the pasta table-side, part of a method the kitchen calls Dalla Forma: noodles finished inside the hollowed wheel before landing on the plate. Executive chef Piero Topputo and general manager Mario Sabatini opened the small dining room in 2015, and it still fills up fast enough that a reservation matters. The cacio e pepe and mozzarella knots are the draws beyond the cheese-wheel routine, alongside filet of sole and applewood grilled salmon for anyone skipping the carbs.