Akasha

Akasha

Rating: * 1/2

Location: 9543 Culver Blvd. (at Watseka Avenue), Culver City; (310) 845-1700; www.akasharestaurant.com

Ambience: Lively, organic- oriented restaurant from former celebrity caterer Akasha Richmond with breakfast in the bakery, a full bar, plus lunch and dinner in the handsome, brick-walled dining room with soaring ceilings and tall, arched windows along Culver Boulevard. Sidewalk tables in front too.

Service: Personable and attentive.

Price: Dinner small plates, $7 to $12; pizza, $12 to $15; big plates, $14 to $32; desserts, $8 to $10. Lunch small plates, $7 to $10; salads, $12 to $16; larger bowls and plates, $12 to $15; burgers and sandwiches, $12 to $16; pizza, $12 to $15.

Best dishes: La Quercia prosciutto pizza, onion and tomato tart, Punjabi mung beans and rice, pan-seared wild halibut, spiked organic turkey burger, sweet potato fries, chocolate-hemp gelato, Dougie B's carrot cake.

Wine list: Limited to mostly organic and/or bio-dynamic wines from producers from both Old and New worlds. Corkage fee, $25.

Best table: For quiet, one in the bakery room; for fun, one along the windows in the dining room.

Details: Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and for dinner 5:30 to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Bakery is open from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Full bar is open Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 12:30 p.m. Two hours free parking in city structure on Watseka.

To see a photo gallery, go to latimes.com/food.

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.