Alta Nordic Kitchen

Excellent place. Chef and staff are amazing. I mean literally perfect. Food was fantastic - very homey. We will be back for more.

Really cute restaurant with delicious & light dishes. Enjoyed it thoroughly!

Really amazing food. Too bad more people haven't discovered this place yet. We had the place to ourselves. Would highly recommended it.

Absolutely delicious! In memory of Anthony Bourdain, we were looking for something different and found something very special at Alta. We loved it. Every dish was a treat. There were four of us and we shared family style. One of our party is particularly fussy and hard to please and had never had traditional Scandinavian food. They were completely satisfied with and smiling after every bite. I never thought pickled herring, not my first choice in food, could taste so good. When we go back it will be the first thing I order. And I'll order the exceptional meatballs with fries. I'm not sure why this restaurant is not packed with people waiting for a table. Could be the under stated signage or the Melrose location and parking. We found parking across the street in a lot for $10. Over all, very much worth the trouble for an amazingly pallet pleasing evening.

Fantastic food, service and ambiance.

Good food, slow service, only one waitress. Unexpected 16% service charge ( besides tip) not advertised on the menu or by our waitress.

The food was very authentic traditional Swedish with great portions. The service was not to par. There were 2 people in our group that are Swedish and they joked that the service was like we were in Sweden yet we are in the U.S. They seemed to be understaffed with only 3 people (2 chefs and 1 waitress). The chef/owner was delivering the food to the tables. The waitress brought us a bottle of wine and didn't pour any in the glasses. Maybe an off day for the restaurant.

What a fantastic place! There were four of us and we shared everything - it was all spectacular. The pickled herring toast was some of the best quality fish we had ever eaten and the cod (celeriac puree!), perfect steelhead trout (looks and tastes somewhat like salmon) over cauliflower risotto, seafood casserole (tasty fennel saffron seafood stew), and tender veal meatballs with pickles and lingonberry jam - all delicious. We also had a great Austrian white wine to go with it all. One of the best meals any of us have eaten in LA - hope this place gets the attention it deserves and stays open! Only small downside - the waitress was weird and kind of judgy of our orders - they need someone who will sell how special this food is. Clean, delicate flavors - not going to knock you over the head, but all the better for it.

I will never go back to this restaurant. The food was fine, average. But the service was poor. She had literally two tables in the entire place. The three of us and a table of Ye people and their two kids. She would disappear, she forgot our toast, she didn’t know anything about the menu items. Completely ditsy.

And then, to add insult to injury the restaurant that has just about no customers has the gall to add a 16% service fee in addition to a tip that they expect. 16% plus the customary 15% or more for tip. You have got to be kidding me. Even Kali, Republique, and Nomad (very good popular restaurants) don’t charge even a third of that for their service fees.

I will not be surprised at all when this place goes out of business. I will tell everyone I know to avoid this place because of the 16% fee. That is outrageous.

Good food great service ! Not very crowded at all. Very cozy

Classic Scandinavian food and great ambiance. We super enjoyed celebrating May 17th there

I really want this restaurant to survive. But the price points seem out of line for the plates we had. If they simply added more low cost vegetables the food would feel more abundant, the plates would be more beautiful and the meal would feel not so "scant." I hope they can fix it. I don't see it surviving if they don't.

Food was terrific, as was service. We will definitely be back! Highly recommend!

I had high hopes for this place based on the reviews as I'm not familiar with Nordic cuisine but the food was average. I loved the gravlax but my cod dish was bland and my husband ordered the seafood casserole and the broth was bland. The seafood was cooked to perfection but the flavor is definitely lacking. It was our server's first night so she was pleasant enough but didn't provide much information about the food. I didn't appreciate the 16% gratuity was automatically added on our check but applied to the back of house only.

Love the food - clean and healthy - great find

Food was good.
Ambience was great for date night.
The only challenge was... they charge service fee, which does not include tip.

So, you pay service fee and tip the server. Fair or not? You decide.

Fantastic Nordic cuisine. The menu was simple and everything was excellently prepared. We came with a medium sized group and were able to order most of the menu given our large group and everything we had was excellent.

We will definitely be going back and I would recommend this restaurant if you're looking for seafood.

This was the first time that my friend and I tried this restaurant. We had been looking for good Scandinavian food for a long time here in Los Angeles. This was not only good, but great! There was a nice variety of traditional dishes, and the Swedish pancakes sent us straight to heaven! Very authentic, and very delicious. You won't regret going here.

Food and menu was thoughtful and well prepared, clearly to work of an accomplished chef.... and very authentic. We particularly enjoyed the starters; smoked fish and pickled herring, the meatballs were perfect, light with a great gravy (& of course lingonberries) and the chocolate dessert with buckthorn sauce. The waitstaff was knowledgeable and made great suggestions and the dining room was comfy and quiet.

I love this restaurant. It's great, fresh food for a good price. Wonderful chef, nice waiters and an incredible ambiance.

Outstanding!! The home baked rye bread perfectly complimented the herring and smoked fish appetizers. The wood smoked chicken (with pickled dates) and the broccoli/red peppers were wonderfully cooked. Wish I had room for dessert. Service was excellent. Accommodating to special requests/allergies. Very comfortable and an excellent meal. We got lucky on parking, which could be a challenge.

Delicious food and really friendly service. A great break from LA’s endless supply of Italian restaurants!

I invited a Danish friend of mine to join me for brunch. We loved that it was quiet enough to have a lovely conversation, that the music was appropriate and not night music. The design is warm and the staff is very friendly. We asked to meet the chef/owner and he came out to speak with us and was wonderful. We loved that the food was traditional using premium ingredients prepared all on site. The plating was good and ordering multiple plates since the portions were small would be appropriate. This is a nice place to be introduced to Scandinavian cuisine with no pretense of intimidation. I liked that it was warm and authentic.

One of the best meals I've had in LA. Highly recommend and will be back again very soon.

Great food and a culinary journey

Charming Nordic cuisine. Well done.

Amazing meal and incredibly service, can't recommend Alta enough!

Food was delicious. Staff very friendly. Will return again!

Best Swedish Pancakes outside of Sweden! Light and delicious! The gravlax , smoked salmon and Pate was delicious and perfect size to share. Eggs and salmon, hit the spot . The homemade rye bread and toast were so good I saved s piece to have for breakfast the next day at home! Great fresh coffee and lingonberry Sangria Too! We love this place !

Came here because of the reviews, but was not thrilled. We were the last table to be seated at 9:30 p.m. on a Saturday and it was empty. They were out of the meatballs(?), and ordered the Salmon (Lax), Shrimp (Skagen) and Cod. We felt like the staff was rushing to leave so skipped dessert. Not bad, but did not live up to hype.

Simply amazing food!!! Super fresh Nordic Cuisine! Dinner Friday night, went back for Brunch and Swedish Pancakes on Sunday! Delicious both times!

Excelente comida, muy bien preparados todos lo platos la calidad en linea con el precio

Excellent Scandinavian food from a very excellent chef who worked at Aquavit in New York.
The meatballs and apple dessert were especially wonderful. I wish he would put a duck dish on the menu!

We sat at the bar to watch the chef cook and assemble the dishes, and hoped to have a short conversation with him as well. He was very warm and welcoming and the food was outstanding! Everything is simple, high quality and unique, from the gravlax to the special sea bass grilled on a delicious smelling wood fired stove using almond or oak wood. We'll be back!!

The service was wonderful. The food was very good. I didn't know much about Scandinavian food. The server did a great job explaining things and suggesting things. I'm a bit picky on wine and the server brought me 2-3 to taste without me asking for that, and I really appreciated that extra effort. The food was delicious (I'm not much of a seafood person, but I loved this) and came out fresh and hot. The only downside was it's a bit pricey. The other thing that I didn't care for was when the check was brought it it was explained to me there was a 16% surcharge added for the kitchen staff and this didn't include the server tip. The server did a great job so I felt obligated to add a 15% tip for the server. Even though everything was great, the price of the food plus 30% service charge (this was for a party of 2) just seems way out of line. Perhaps they should consider making the surcharge be 20% and split it up or something like that? I'm not sure the solution, but I didn't like finding out about this after the fact. Perhaps I should have researched it better.

Wonderful Nordic cuisine in a relaxed setting. A great neighborhood gem!

Fantastic seafood. Service was amazing. Great wine selections with very reasonable prices. Gravlax and toast was to die for!!

It was an ok dining experience but i would not recommend it to anyone because there are so many better restaurants in LA for the same price point or cheaper. We went on a Saturday night and half the tables were empty.

Our second visit here and as before the food quite good and service excellent, but this time there was a mandatory 16% service charge which the server informed us "goes to the house" so any server gratuity must be added on top of that. I normally tip 20% but wasn't about to pay a total of 36% service charge so left less for the hard working server.

we had a wonderful dinner and will be looking to come back!