We truly like the visual menu and order first style of Maddalena Restaurant located at the picturesque San Antonio Winery in downtown Los Angeles.
It had been a good while since we had last been there but the decor, ambiance and quality of the food had not changed ,
The order first trattoria style still is in place and studying the actual plates of food on two tables in part of the entertainment and often takes a good bit of time since they are so appealing.
Our tour of the winery conducted by Winemaker Arnaud Debons will be the subject of an upcoming story in our Vittles newsletter.
Our lunch selection was fresh clam linguini and the presentation was most appealing. Twelve baby clams, shells open, rimmed our plate with a large, enticing helping of pasta in the center.  With this there was an excellent green salad and wonderful Italian bread which we ate too much of.
With this feast we enjoyed a glass of San Antonio Heritage wine, a 2010 Bordeaux Blend, that with good reason won a gold medal at a recent wine competition.  It took some will power to stop with one glass.
Everyone at our table was as content with our lunch as I was.  Some with the cobb salad,  another with the tri-tip and another with a most tempting ahi tuna.
Maddalena Restaurant is located at 737 Lamar Street in downtown Los Angeles with free off street parking and is open seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Telephone 323 223-1401, web www,sanantoniowinery.com