Bencotto — Restaurant in San Diego

Bencotto (translates into "done well" in Italian) is a sleek and trendy home-style Italian restaurant in the middle of Little Italy.

With its sharp-angled modern interior accents and dim lighting, the restaurant is as chic as they come and attracts a pretty crowd. However, Bencotto is more than just a scene, it is a well-executed culinary experience.

If you love cheese, you should order the "Taste of Aged Parmigiano Reggiano" appetizer, which is described on the menu as two parmigiano-reggiano cheeses with a balsamic vinegar crème. You get about 5-6 ounces of cheese, evenly split between a 24 month and 40 month version. I wouldn't describe the balsamic vinegar on the plate as "crème" as much as a heat-reduced (and presumably well-aged) balsamic -- it is intense and syrupy. I much enjoy the 40 month rendition, a complex and layered cheese that first tastes on the tongue like roasted hazelnut and cumin and develops a sweet toffee-like flavor as it is chewed.

I LOVE the "Tortino Al Tartufo," a soft and semi-firm soufflé of ricotta and parmesan cheese with black truffle and a porcini mushroom cream sauce. The truffle flavor is quite pervasive in this rich and pleasing appetizer.

While the flavor of the "Tagliatelle Al Nero Di Seppia" is excellent, the presentation is not so good. This is a dish featuring hand cut black squid ink fettucine in a spicy pink shrimp sauce. It looks like a gloppy-looking plate of black pasta drowned in a creamy pink sauce and haphazardly scattered shrimp embedded in it. The fact that some of the shrimp are served tail-on, and some of the shrimp are cut into chunks is also kind of... strange? That said, the dish is absolutely delicious and you should order it if you don't care how your food looks.

On the one occasion I came here and had room left over for dessert, I ordered the "Semifreddo Al Pistacchio," a pistacchio mousse with hazelnuts and a sour black cherry sauce. Semifreddo means "partly cold" in Italian -- so why is it that when I ordered this dessert, it was so frozen solid that I wish I had a steak knife to cut it? That aside, once I managed to spoon it in my mouth, it was fantastic. The black cherry sauce was actually pretty awesome, and I would suggest they douse the entire dessert with this stuff.

Overall, the flavor of Bencotto's dishes shine even if the presentation or texture sometimes miss the mark. Service is consistently pretty good here. I think I prefer Bice, Salvatore's, or Cucina Urbana for a San Diego take on Italian, though Bencotto does a better job than any of the other "Italian" restaurants I've visited in Little Italy with the possible exception of its sister...

Oh my I never write reviews under four stars, but had to as a public service for my fellow San Diegans and folks that visit the city. We visited Bencotto on a Saturday night. After reading a bunch of reviews we landed on the place next-door, but that was a two hour so we went here where the wait was 30 minutes. Red flag?

We had an absolutely lovely server with a great vibe and the menu looks delicious. We were so excited for the cheesewheel pasta. From the very beginning, things were a bit off as we got our food before we even got our drinks. We ordered the cheese wheel pasta for the table and it was the smartest thing that we did. Not because it was good, but because, it would’ve been a disaster if we all got the cheesewheel pasta! It was absolutely terrible. I cannot explain to you how bad this pasta was. It tasted overwhelmingly of mushroom and we tasted absolutely zero cheese in it at all. It was heavy and overly seasoned with sage, a savory nightmare! We definitely left some pasta in the bowl, even though we were splitting it between the four of us.

The Caesar salad tasted like airplane food. There wasn’t even a hint of anchovy or anything authentic in it. The cheese tuille was mushy.

The timing of the meal was all wrong with us not getting any silverware when our pastas came. Our dirty appetizer plates had to be quickly handed over, the expo seemed to be rushing us with his exasperated attitude. The poor busboy didn’t know what to do except come back to our table multiple times to try and clear plates. It appeared that somebody was hustling and hassling him, and he needed to look busy. Again our server was super sweet, but a lot of the problems with the meal were overlooked.

When our individual pastas came it was appalling. Only one was good (signature salsa rosa sauce). The butternut squash tortelli special was a joke. There was no sage or butter. It was some sort of weird creamy dish with bacon bits and no butternut squash to speak of. What happend here!?. The reviews on others from others look great, we don’t know what happened, but know that we would never return. Everybody was really kind, but this was just a total miss. Oh by the way I work at Seattles top hand made pasta and Italian food restaurant for over 13 years so I know fine Italian food. This was no ok,...

This is a must try if you come to little Italy. They have such a great selection of pasta and sauces. We had 3 people for dinner and ordered a few appetizers and a few pastas and none of it was bad! Everything was well seasoned and beautifully displayed. We ordered the bread, a spring salad, stuffed zucchini flowers, and risotto balls to start. The bread was fluffy and cane with dipping oil and vinegar. The salad was very delicious it had pickled onions, almonds and tomatoes with a light vinaigrette and fresh spring mix. It was simple and very tasty. The zucchini flowers were my favorite appetizer we got. The flowers were filled with a cheese and herby filling then lightly battered and fried. They were not salty, over battered, or under filled as I have encountered other zucchini flowers in the past. Just light, crispy, and creamy on the outside. The sauce it came to dip with was also very tasty. Very creamy and added a nice savory saltiness to the dish. The risotto balls were delicious as well. They came with a meat sauce and are filled with gooey cheese. For our entree we ordered the lasagna and the pasta of the day tossed in the Parmesan cheese wheel. The pasta we got was a beet pasta with a pancetta sauce. I usually don't like white sauces but this pasta was so well balanced with the cheese, beets, and pancetta. My dad and I shared this dish and it was plenty with all our appetizers we ordered. My husband got the lasagna and it was so big. Such a great portion size and definitely shareable. It was so cheese and saucy ( but not saucy in a bad way). The cheese was broiled on top and the noodles were perfectly soft. If you like lasagna definitely order this one. To drink I had their Martini. It was perfection! Our server was very nice and was on top of it. With how busy the restaurant was I wouldn't expect him to be so attentive. We really appreciated the service and would recommend this place to anyone...