How good do you want it ? This place has to be the BEST Italian restaurant on the coast for miles and miles. My wife and I have been here a few times now and we are amazed how they keep up the high standard. We have eaten many times at their South Park and Liberty Station locations in recent years and trust me they were very good every time. This newly opened restaurant is competing more than favorably with long established heavy hitters like CUCINA enoteca in Del Mar & Cicciotti’s in Cardiff so it’s doing a few things really well. For a start the restaurant manager Giuseppe has assembled a crack team of chefs and servers who treat every diner to the best food and service anywhere Italian style.
We rode our road bikes on the 101 from home in Solana Beach to this restaurant specifically to have lunch on Wednesday but we were running late and didn’t arrive until almost 2.30pm. Knowing they close for a break at 3pm on week days we were more than a little worried the kitchen might be closed. When we walked in the affable manager Giuseppe spotted us straight away and gave us big welcoming hugs. Come on where do you get that these days ! The place was absolutely packed to the rafters inside and out on the patio but we waited barely 2 minutes for a table to be readied for us. A busser named Angel brought glasses of water and fresh bread + a side of lentils to our table within seconds.
Another server named Caroline took our order for 2 lattes which she made herself and brought back within a couple of minutes. We had a short chat with the modest manager Giuseppe congratulating him on his very successful restaurant. Our Italian lattes tasted wonderful while we tried to pick a new pizza variety on the menu. We chose an Alessandro pizza from the Pizza Gourmet list which is a no sauce pizza with lots of meaty goodies.
In what seemed like just 5 minutes a server named Liz brought out our amazing looking pizza and offered to grate some fresh Parmigiano on top. Just another reason why this place is tops with unrequested acts of service like this. My wife was really enjoying our delicious pizza and was keeping up with me. I have to admit the unique combination of ingredients combined with the perfectly cooked crust was making me crave for more.
And then my wife nabbed the very last gorgeous piece in a swift sly move out of left field. Oh well maybe they had a nice dessert. And according to our charming server Caroline there was a fabulous Italian Cheesecake made by the owner’s Mom just waiting for me to order it. I had to have it. In less than 2 minutes I was looking at a delicious slice of Mom’s Italian Cheesecake right in front of me. It tasted wonderful and my wife agreed after having a small sample.
I said to our server Caroline that I needed to let my lunch settle a little in my tummy before we jumped back on our bikes to ride the 6 miles home. So there you go, great food, friendly service and a lovely space to enjoy it. Having said that it is a good idea to get here early as we have seen long lines outside at all hours of the day. We said goodbye to our friend Giuseppe the manager and hit the road. Keep in mind it’s real close to beautiful Moonlight Beach too !
