Cicciotti's Trattoria Italiana — Restaurant in Encinitas

An experience of authentic Italian food just blocks from the beach. Food is authentic and portions are generous. Be prepared to fork out the cash because of the location, which is walking-distance to the beach.

Warm, soft bread served with every meal. Olive oil and vinegar available upon request. Food is made from scratch and can take some time to come out, so order right away if hungry. Entrees are a great size. Food tastes fresh and well-made. Sauces are tasty and homemade. Penette alla Vodka with Chicken is my favorite. Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken is good, too. Not a big fan of the pasta with Bolognese Sauce. Seafood dishes are a hit. Menu features lots and lots of options for all ages and preferences. Overall, impressive taste and quality. Prices are on the high-side because of location.

Busy hours can cause long waits if you don't make a reservation. Be prepared to wait 15 to 45 minutes for a table to open up during peak hours. Reservations are highly recommended. Food can take quite a while to come out as well during busy hours. Service could be better during busy hours.

Outdoor and indoor seating available. Live entertainment offered several nights of the week. Inside has dining area with dining tables for larger parties and a bar room, which features a full bar and standard bar seating.

The restaurant itself is very small for the amount of people it can fit. Accordingly, inside can get extremely noisy. Dimly lit dining room creates a relaxed mood. Windows everywhere allow for lots of natural lighting during the day.

Dress code is casual during the day and is a mix of casual / jacket required for the evenings.

Parking is generally available across the street on dirt in front of the train tracks.

Owner, general manager, and owner's daughter, who is a hostess, are sweet, attentive, and genuine. Owner goes around checking up on his customers and patrons to make sure experience is going well. Bonus points for owner going out of his way to check...

We made reservations a week ago for 7:30pm for my daughter's 14th bday. Showed up Thursday evening promptly at 7:30pm. My husband said our name and that we had reservations. They had a panicked look...there was a table in the main dining room with a sign that said reserved. They ran around in a tizzy and then stuck us at a cramped table next to the bar with GIANT TVs on each wall and tables so close together it felt like a family Thanksgiving in my motherinlaws teen tiny condo ...... When I had a look of disappointment on my face the maitre d looked at me and said VERY unapologetically....you can have this or wait for a better table but who knows how long that will take?.......It was so loud in the bar we couldn't hear each other across the table, i had to request drink refills for our table...then we sat for 10minutes waiting for our deserrt while the waitress lingered at other tables chatting. I finally got up walked over to the servers who had cleared our entree plates and asked if someone would bring our dessert. We sat for a few minutes then someone came over and inspected our table as if we had already had dessert and were conning them into a free one......he gave us a smug look, walked away and came back with our dessert (no apology from anyone for forgetting our dessert. THANKYOU CICIOTTI'S FOR GIVING MY DAUGHTER A BDAY DINNER SHE WOULD LIKE TO FORGET!! The shrimp scallop fettuccine had 3 shrimp miniature bite size scallops and was void of flavor. The pre meal tomatoes bruschetta tasted like a freshly opened can of tomatoes.

The restaurant felt grimy like it needed a shrub down with a pressure washer. Bucca De Pepo...

DEAL ALERT: Check Groupon to see if there is a deal. They had $45 deal for $34 (party of 2) *

This place is definitely a must go if you're around the area and are craving good italian food & a stunning beach view! Try to time it around sunset and you will not be disappointed!

Food: Phenomenal, huge servings that will definitely fill you up and leave you with to-go bags. They also serve unlimited bread and some tomato based oil dipping sauce that is scrumptious. Hubs got the gnocchi meat sauce which was good. I couldn't decide between the Pollo Parmigiano or the Pollo Toscano and our server Joey highly recommended the Pollo Toscano because the uniqueness. He was 100% correct. The flavor was so delicious and nothing I've tried before. The cheese blend and sautéed spinach on top of the chicken breast was perfect! And the al dente past was just right. Highly recommend this dish!

Parking: there is a small parking lot in the back of the restaurant that you can access from a small narrow driveway next to the restaurant but most patrons park on the dirt row across the street and walk over.

Service: Came here on a Monday and it was pretty full. We were seated right away. The wait staff were so attentive and kept our cups full all the time and kept offering complimentary bread refills. Joey in particular was awesome and answered all our questions about the food and was so attuned to serving us which was crazy because I think he was serving most of the tables there that night! Great job Joey!! :)

All in all, would definitely recommend this restaurant and will be...