Restaurant review: Ini Ristorante, Fountain Valley

Ini Ristorante feels like it has its own gravitational pull—a place in which, whether by choice or chance, you will inevitably find yourself. Once inside, you’ll see a dining room bursting with multigenerational families gathered in celebration, couples on dates trading bites of pasta, and friends reminiscing over cocktails.

Ini’s cross-cultural Japanese-Italian menu has an almost universal appeal. The restaurant’s use of Japanese ingredients provides subtle undertones rather than front-and-center flavor.

The bustling dining room still retains an aesthetic calm. The space is airy and bright, blushing with blond woods and dusty desert hues. The menu is meant to be shared, and it seems that all attention goes first to the truffle cheese bread. The toasted bread doused with ricotta, showered in drifts of mozzarella, and drizzled with truffled honey is Ini’s social media star and appears at almost every table.

Not all of Ini’s small plates are so hefty. Spanish-inflected octopus with romesco, chile oil, and smashed baby potatoes is a delight. A plate of melon and prosciutto takes the quintessential Italian salad and steers it sweeter with yuzu crème fraîche, honey, mustard vinaigrette, and crushed hazelnuts.