Pietro's Cucina Italiana — Restaurant in La Mesa

Most disappointing dinner in awhile. I have only visited 4 times before tonight and those times I enjoyed the food and service. Each time I dined alone or with a single friend.

Tonight I invited 8 friends for a birthday dinner and the experience was pretty poor. We ordered apps and entrees. The apps were great except we ordered 4. 3 were brought out and then after awhile, they asked if we were ready to order our entrees and we reminded them we were missing a double order of apps. They came out so quick, and cold. They must have been prepared and sitting in the kitchen waiting.

We ordered our entrees but had to hold up our app plates for them to take some of them away. We ordered round of drinks but they did not take away empty glasses unless we reminded them to. They brought our entree salad out but we still had a lot of app plates that we piled up that they didn’t remove. Then they brought out the entrees and we were shuffling to hand them the remaining app plates and salad plates.

Some of the entrees were cold and everyone that ordered chicken said the same thing, tough and dry. I personally ordered the special, shrimp diablo and there was absolutely no spice to it. It tasted and had the consistency of watered down marinara with cold shrimp. Zero heat. One of my guests ordered eggplant parmigiana, completely cold.

Being a birthday dinner, we wanted to enjoy some cannoli. No one asked if we wanted desert and just brought us the bill. I asked for cannolis once I saw they delivered the bill and they seemed a little put off. They did agree to bring a cannoli and said they wouldn’t charge. 9 people, 1 canollli.

The take away is that most of the apps were the best part of the meal. Service was below poor and the entrees were subpar. Myself being the only one that visited prior, had a decent history. Now myself and 8 others don’t have much...

What can I say? This is, hands down, the best Italian food and pizza in San Diego! As one who grew up in northern New Jersey, I am very picky about my Italian food and pizza. This place reminds me of back home and it starts with the aroma the moment you step in the door. Tucked in the corner of a tiny La Mesa strip mall, you could be forgiven for not noticing it. However, once you go, you’re hooked. There’s simply no place like it in the area and, believe me, I’ve searched in the past few decades I’ve lived in San Diego. The owner, Pietro, is present almost every night and runs a great staff who make you feel at home. His son, Luciano, is incredibly friendly and adds to the family feel. We discovered the joint nearly 4 years ago and eat here or order pickup nearly every single week. With a wide variety of pastas and the best pizza west of north Jersey, there’s something for everyone. Even our picky son loves everything here. When a baby, Pietro, himself, used to come out and personally cut up meatballs for our son. Very family friendly. The last restaurant of a dying breed, we hope they stick around forever! Do yourself a favor, and help keep small local businesses around during these tough...

I had really hoped this would continue to be our go to for Italian after the sale, but after two tries we are done.

The food is similar; with slight tweaks since Pietro sold the business.

Service has tanked. In our almost two hours there on our last visit we had a single water refill.

From the time we ordered, the first pasta dish didn’t come out for a full hour. The other pasta dishes 10 minutes later.

My son’s sandwich came 30 minutes after ordering and our pizza 45 minutes after ordering.

The salads were to have no tomatoes. It was obvious tomatoes had been put on and then removed as evidenced by the massive amount of seeds.

The meat/cheese in the antipastos is very skimpy compared to previous ownership.

We had two pasta dishes that were resisted without mushroom. Both dishes came with mushrooms. No apologies or discounts offered.

We are sad to leave this place behind, but there are better ways for us...