cafe della via — Restaurant in Cayucos

If I could give this restaurant NO STARS I would! We had our entire family gathered for our annual Cayucos reunion ages 2-75 last summer 2022 for a month. We ordered a large take out selection of many different menu items. Within 4 hours the first of my teenage children were vomiting for 12 hours overnight….by the next afternoon 3 of my children ended up in the SLO emergency room on IV’s with terrible food poisoning. The ER doc said it was from unclean handling of food and improper kitchen sanitation. The rest of the family even the 2 year old all were throwing up for at least a few days here and then on the way home. My poor daughter was sick for a week even after we left early to go home. I came back to Cafe Della Via in person a few weeks later to finish my vacation asking for the manager, but when she heard our story she said she wasn’t the manager & would pass along the information. I showed her our $hundreds of dollars receipt itemizing all the menu items from chicken, fish, pasta, salad dishes & they would not offer anything to make it right. My family has lived and vacationed in Cayucos for 6 generations. We are very familiar with this restaurant & are extremely disappointed in their lack of care for their customers. We are of course back again this summer and have also booked in December & booked for summer of 2024 and will gladly avoid this restaurant, along with all of our friends and family who visit from the Bay Area and drive in from neighboring SLO, Pismo Beach, Grover Beach etc. I pray no other family has to go through this, and my 76 year old mom is back with me this summer & saddened because she had such great memories eating here with my grandma & aunt who lived here for many years. I hope the work staff and the owners greatly improve their kitchen sanitation and hand washing requirements for the benefit of their...

DO NOT EAT HERE!! They do not have good food or customer service. A group of six of us walked in for a reservation was shown to our table and upon sitting down one of our party guest (me) and sat in a massive puddle of water on the chair. It was so wet I had to go back to our accommodations to change. Another person in our party (the birthday girl) recognized a piece of glass on her chair and didn't say anything just removed it.

About 3/4 of the way through our dinner one of the other party guests had to leave after having a couple bites of eggplant parmigiana because it was so bad.

Upon receiving the check for the evening we recognize there were were no comps for dessert for birthday girl or anybody at the table. We asked the waitress about this and she said oh I don't know I'll ask the manager and have her come over. The owner/manager came over and explained she understood I sat in water however it was just water and it was an accident. I explained I had to go back to change and she said she's sorry but she wasn't going to comp anything on our ticket. She started going off about how restaurants have been having a hard time and she was already struggling. My husband asked if they would cover my dry cleaning bill for the dress (silk/satin) She said flat out no with a lot of attitude. When we realized she had made her final decision not to do anything we decided to leave a very large tip for the...

Let me start with this. They are only open 4 hours. So if you want to be guaranteed make a reservation.

With that said. Here's what we had.

Mediterranean salad ⭐️ (I'd skip it) Shrimp risotto ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Chicken marsala ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Mediterranean salad could be good. The cucumbers were very bitter (those should be checked) and the mint isn't complimentary to the dish. It was overwhelming with the flavor. And I'd do less basil. Also a bit overwhelming. (However I did tell them the dish wasn't great and they didn't charge me which was really sweet)

The shrimp risotto is worth getting. Ot could use a bit more flavor. The sauce with the shrimp is really good. The risotto itself seemed a bit firm and could be softer with more broth. But still a good dish and broccoli was cooked well.

The chicken marsala has pros and cons. The mushroom sauce is amazing! I'd love a bit more. If you don't get much the noodles are a bit plain in flavor. The chicken wasn't as tender as it should be but the dish is still a good dish.

Also. This must be said. The water is really really good! Like. Clean.

The reason for 5 stars, water, good food overall and removing my salad that didn't taste good. The bread is warm...