The Nice Guy

I can’t tell if they’re racist or just douche bags. Real piece of shit entrance situation.

DID NOT honor our reservation, for whatever reason. I confirmed with someone on the phone but they wanted an email confirmation that I NEVER received. They definitely have a lawsuit coming their way. The way they treat customers is ILLEGAL. Please message me for more details. For sure racist

+2 stars: hit or miss food/​drinks, atmosphere, décor
–3 stars: hit or miss food/​drinks, but mostly the haughty attitudes
I stumbled upon this place on Unilocal as I was trying to find a decent place to grab a cocktail before my show at the Largo started (it’s practically kitty corner).
It was 6 pm on a Wednesday. I was informed that we weren’t allowed in – even for the bar — without a reservation. I was ready to accept this fact, but the man at the door allowed us two girls in as an exception. Nice guy.
Bartender was friendly once we got his attention after waiting ten minutes. We ordered two drinks off the menu, one of which was delicious, neither of which gave us a buzz.
We then ordered a couple of appetizers (decent but not amazing) and two more drinks: a riff on a Manhattan. The latter was very good.
Bottom line, inconsistent quality and not worth the hassle of dealing with the high and mighty.
I mean, there are so many other reliable, friendly places in LA… why spend your cash and energy on people who would prefer it if you were a celebrity?
I don’t know why I’d go back.

Writing this because I’m sick of seeing all of the one star reviews from people who are bitter they couldn’t get in the front door. Clearly and in all caps on
«RESERVATIONS ONLY» is printed. My friends and I visit The Nice Guy 3 – 4 times a month and have nothing short of amazing service. I also cringe every time someone calls this place a club, its a restaurant, thus the need for a reservation.
Once you do get inside try everything on the menu and order a dirty martini. Seriously. Its all amazing.
And don’t forget the photobooth, swear it has built in facetune.

Love going to this place with my wife and friends. The food is amazing and the atmosphere is top notch. Being born and raised in LA, it’s great having a spot to go to that’s both hip and chill at the same time.
Off the menu, I would recommend the kale salad, fig pizza, and their truffle fries are INSANE!
Their milk and cookies tops it off for desert. Highly recommend

Had a wonderful time at The Nice Guy! The ambience was romantic even though I was there with my parents — who also loved the place. The server was very helpful and asked the chef to make a special (simple) pasta dish since I’m a vegetarian. Very accommodating! The wine and food overall was just great. We also spent some time in the photo booth :-)

Last night was my second time at The Nice Guy. Wanted to try again before posting my fabled review.
Yes: There are celebrities. Yes: The owner wants to create a comfortable place for celebrities. Yes: It’s very LA. However, the restaurant is much more than that.
1) The ambience was fantastic. The lighting, live music, and décor all tie together nicely.
2) The cocktails were amazing. The Old Fashioned was one of the best I have had in LA. The mixologists take pride in their work.
3) The food was delicious. I had the veal chop which was cooked perfectly on the bone. We shared the truffle fries, cauliflower, burrata, and oysters. All were splendid. For dessert, I had the affogato which was a first for me. Simply delightful.
If you’re looking for a unique dining experience accompanied by great drinks, wonderful service (Bethany), and beautiful food, check out The Nice Guy.

Worst place I’ve been to in LA. Extremely disappointed. I have dined at most/​all places in LA. I am usually the type that likes these sort of places (very similar to Hyde) which I am a frequent customer at. I expected the the bar to be raised as it is praised by a lot but this was my experience at the «not so nice guy.»
I made a reservation a week in advance to celebrate a birthday party for a party of 8 at 9pm. At 8pm on the night of the reservation they call me to tell me they had to push my reservation back to 10pm because a celeb «might show up and need to have my table?» I thought that was super rude and if you don’t agree your the type of person who would love the nice guy lol.
I get there and they don’t seat my party until 10:30pm. They don’t even give us a table! They seat us at a tiny table in the lounge area. I had my parents dining with me who are 68. My mother had to eat her steak out of her lap! Not to mention you couldn’t even see the food you were consuming.
Now. Was the food good?
The food was terrible you might have well ate at Norms diner across the street. The Halibut was extremely over-​cooked (rubber like). I guess this one star was for the asparagus that sat underneath the fish. The Mac and Cheese should have been called onion and cheese. I’m pretty sure it said caramelized onions as an ingredient, but I didn’t expect it to be the main ingredient. and the fries tasted like McDonald’s French fries. Don’t get me wrong McDonalds fries are good but I didn’t expect that from a high rated spot such as The Nice Guy.
The crowd is there to see what celeb they can spot. It’s amazing and sad at the same time that this place is still in business and well liked by many celebs. Maybe someone can read my review and respond to it explaining to me the draw of a place like this.
It’s definitely not the food or the service (Waitress was nice) however the hostess don’t care. We even had a guest that recently had surgery on their achilles tendon and he sat down on a chair due to us having to wait forever to be seated and a hostess ran over and said «you can’t sit their with have VIP coming» NO ONE EVER SAT DOWN.
I dine all over and I spend money. We spent a decent amount of money last night (and it’s not even about the money) it’s about how you are treated. I may not be an A-​list celeb, but with me last night was a founder of a very well known company. I also know a lot of people in the restaurant industry and will be sharing the experience of last night with many.
Thank you!

I always hesitate to go to places known for celeb watching. I must say, the food and service were both great here. The truffle fries are absolutely amazing! Their burger is the second best I’ve had in LA next to fathers office. Comes with more truffle fries and they have a great aioli as well (for you sauce suckers out there) To top it off, we had cookies and milk and ready made doughnuts. Soft cookies, so good in my book!
Def a tough spot to get in. I was there last night and had drop ins from the Kardashians, Emma stones, and others just to name a few.
A little weird with the paparazzi hanging outside and the bar area does get a little crowded with some of the cliché LA folks. All and all, I would love to go back and will make it a point to go back in the future! Nice job!

The doorman, Eddie, was a complete jerk in front of me and my friend. This guy is completely unprofessional for a doorman. A complete hack and since he represents the place, I won’t be going here again.

Another place in LA that doesn’t answer the phone for reservations. Then when you actually get a reservation, the staff is pretentious, slow, and inattentive. Food and cocktails are good. Not worth dealing with the staff.

Visited this place last night.
I tried to keep my hands warm outside using their warmer as I was waiting, when all of the sudden this guy; (who I guessed worked there…), turned off the warmer in front of me. Wow.
Not so much of a «nice» guy…

I didn’t realize this place was so infamous! Seems like people either love it or hate it. I hadn’t even heard of it until my boyfriend went and highly recommended it. He was able to talk to someone (I guess that *is* one point for pretentiousness) and get my friend and I reservation for 8:30. When we entered it was very apparent that this wasn’t my kind of crowd. Nonetheless, we heard the food was fab. Our table wasn’t quite ready and the bar was packed except for one area. We headed to that spot (as the waitress had pointed it out to us) and were immediately told by the bartender that it was «reserved» and that we could go anywhere else but there (in those words). Nice guy (ha. ha. ha.) Thanks, dick. A lack of space left us standing awkwardly and attempting to order a drink from behind a row of comfortable seated strangers. Cool.
When we were seated, the servers were very attentive. We had the meatballs but they left the burrata out. Thats okay. They were indeed phenomenal! The truffle fries were great too, but we could have been easily influenced due to our hunger. We shared the chicken piccata and brussels sprouts. Hallelujah! The brussels sprouts were NOT crispy! They were so good. Nice and tender and yummy. I have grown a bit bored of the whole crispy roasted brussels sprouts thing. The chicken piccata was to die for. So. good. It was perfect to share as it is two boneless breasts. The spinach with it is perfectly done.
For desert, we wanted the doughnuts but our waitress persuaded us to try the cookies. Im glad she did! The milk was icy cold and the cookies were piping hot. The meal itself was very unpretentious and refreshing. I really enjoyed it.
We also liked the photo booth near the bathrooms. Very cute! Overall, I’d go back but only for the food. Not for the «scene.»

New Years !!! Right?!
Didn’t receive half if not more of the meal…
No service. Basically a New Years in a crowded bar paying for food with no food and trying to drink with out even one glass for the champagne. Welcome 2016 with shittiest establishment in LA yet.

Tryed to checkout the not so «Nice Guy» for a drink… What a joke!!! Me and my fiancé are locals and wanted to support a new local restaurant, but we never got past the ford model at the door asking for our reservations…
Totally obnoxious, extremely pretentious, and in my opinion outdated philosophy on life and mentality on what is cool. I give this joke of a place six months. What a bunch of losers.

Worst customer service ever.
I tried for three days — both email and phone messages — to just get an AVAILABILITY for a reservation date. They won’t even let me make the reservation on open table because my party is «too large». When I called again on the third day, they said they have only one person who handles the reservations and she was out. They refused to look up availability for me even while I was on the phone with them, telling me to call back again the next day. Couldn’t even give me a yes or no answer. And when I called yet AGAIN the next day as instructed, no one answered the phone. When I finally did receive an email response, there was no apology for the delay and they told me they have no availability. Did it really take three days for a 30 second response?
Any restaurant that is this much of a pain to deal with isn’t worth it, ever. There are far too many good restaurants in LA to bring my business to this one.

Went here last night with one of my girl friends. As soon as we walked in, I knew I didn’t want to be there.
I’m not really into the pretentious LA/​Hollywood type of spots but if that’s your thing, this is the place for you!
When we pulled up in our über, people were staring into the car to see if we were «somebody» but sorry to disappoint… we’re just regular asians.
The type of people that come here are just super rude. Push you around with no effs given. I’m really short so I have little person syndrome so being in a place like this just does not go well. I don’t mind if I’m in a crowd but at least say a polite «excuse me» or something instead of just shoving your way through! Ugh!
This is the type of place where you order a vodka cranberry and the cranberry juice is made of real cranberries so it’s not sweet. Am I too hood? Can I get some Oceanspray up in here? LOL
I. Can’t.

This review stems from a previous visit, which makes me wonder why I took so long to review this. Then I remember it wasn’t that memorable in the first place.
Parking was either hard-​to-​find-​street on La Cienega (read signs) or typical valet. Got lucky on the next block with street, across from Trashy.
Best part of the staff here was the blonde hostess with a slight accent, total sweetheart and able to answer any questions that we had. True these weren’t rocket scientist inquiries, but she was great nonetheless. Bartenders were eh; for this night they had a very particular hipster vibe. The one that was with us wasn’t that friendly or engaging, but couldn’t really be considered rude and dismissive either. However, for such a trendy establishment, he could have upped his game a little more. Found out from another bartender that he wasn’t feeling too well (this was after we were searching for him and couldn’t find him, so the other one stepped in to let us know he took a brief break, this was cool of him) which I guess might explain a few things.
As for the food, the only items I had were a few of their truffle fries-I’ve had much better than this-​and then one half of an order of the cookies, which were hot from the oven but very thin and a waste of $ 8. Didn’t get to try anything else, but I do like how they have a decent selection of things to eat. I didn’t drink, so I can’t speak about that, but my water was fine.
NO photo sign is posted clearly for all to see, but you know this won’t be honored, it’s L.A.
Now I’m not sure if my experience was as it was due to the fact I went on a Saturday, a night I normally never go out on. Perhaps it would have been more my thing on a Wednesday-​Thursday.
Annnnd…here comes the bad pun:
Nice guys don’t always finish last… but this one comes close.

Put your party pants on, dress up and be prepared to hear some of the BEST live music you have ever heard!!! Hands down crazy talented vocals up in this place. I’m such a sucker for this!
Guaranteed celeb sighting
Total Hollywood vibe
Sign on the outside states «no pictures allowed»
Drinks are delicious and strong
Very bourgeoise
Pizza is amazing. Burger and truffle fries are GREAT! Mac and. Cheese is delicious — everything is pretty much guaranteed to be good!
Food ⁵⁄₅
Service ⁴⁄₅
Ambiance ⁵⁄₅
Value for money ⁴⁄₅
Edit: —
1. Chicken Parmesan — literally the BEST chicken parm ever
2. Jojo
3. Donuts — fresh fluffy not too sweet hot out of the fryer.
4. Kale salad
Also Adam is great!

Feel like i have to write a review after reading all the one star’s below me… yikes lol.
I actually had a fantastic time here! Came with 4 others for dinner (with reservations). Was seated in prime area, the middle of the restaurant facing the live music (which was awesome!!). We also came on ESPY week and had zero issues amid all the a-​list sports stars and celeb there. It was pleasant and really fun!
Food was great! especially that chicken parm. We ordered about 3 of those! Drinks also great, bartender was awesome too! Bill came to about 400 $ for 5 people so dont come here if you’re looking to save pennies!!! lol. Def a good time, and worth a visit. And to avoid possible issues as said reviews below — 1. make reservations, 2. dont be an asshole 3. follow the rules
This is LA. if someone doesn’t let you in somewhere… not the end of the world. You cant expect to be treated great everywhere. Take it with a grain of salt, and don’t come back… but don’t knock a genuinely GREAT restaurant with DELICIOUS food for that. of course you’ll think everything else is bad if you had a bad time from the start!

Cool, aber mit Startschwierigkeiten.
Ein sehr chicer kleiner Laden im Chalet Style. Trotz Reservierung mussten wir ewig auf den Tisch warten. Das Essen war gut (aber dafür kommt hier eigentlich niemand her). Merkwürdig fand ich, dass alle bezahlbaren Weissweine, die wir orderten, gerade nicht verfügbar waren, das hat ein «Geschmäcke» bei mir verursacht. Eine schöné Raucherterrasse versöhnte dann wieder. Ebenso die sensationelle DJane (ich glaube es war eine DJane oder war es ein DJ? Na egal, aber der Vibe stimmt hier auf jeden Fall!