Cori Pastificio Trattoria — Restaurant in San Diego

Lovely, intimate, neighborhood restaurant. The interior feels cozy and warm and the outdoor patio space is comfortable and heated. Staff are super friendly and attentive. At one point, someone at a local table dropped a fork on the ground and within a few moments, a server had picked up the fork and another server arrived with a replacement. The serving team works well together to take orders, bring food, and clear dishes, so the dining experience feels pretty seamless. Our server was attentive and engaged, although when asked for a wine recommendation listed off some bottles that are cheaper and popular versus making recommendations based on food pairing.

The food was a little hit and miss, with some standouts and some disappointments.

Standouts - Polpo Croccante - easily some of the best octopus I have had, the sauce was incredibly flavorful and the octopus was crispy and perfectly charred.

Costolette di Agnello - The envy of the table. The lamb lollipops were delicious, the pistachio crust offering a delicious flavor complement to the meat.

Pappardelle al sugo di salsiccia - Got some rave reviews for the flavors of the sauce and the sausage.

Disappointments -

Cocktails - Just alright, soda was flat in one, overall, sort of muddled flavor profiles across the several tried by our group.

Fritelle Cacio e pepe - We were excited to try these, being fans of cacio e pepe pasta. They did not have much flavor.

Brasato di Manzo - Meat fell off the bone, but was a little overcooked. The overall dish had less flavor than hoped.

Tiramisu - Our server recommended it, but also prefaced the recommendation saying she does not typically like Tiramisu, but loves the tiramisu here. It was disappointingly imbalanced towards more mascarpone and not enough lady fingers and espresso.

Overall, an okay dining experience. The restaurant itself is a relaxed, comfortable dining environment; combined culinary...

A friend of ours told us about this authentic Italian restaurant and the chef, previously from Solare at Liberty Station, so we booked a reservation to go last night.

Do yourself a favor and go! Definitely, I suggest a reservation unless you plan on waiting or maybe coming early.

Frederick, I assume is the manager, is not only attentive, charming, handsome but genuinely seems a wonderful human being, & also seems to have an enviable memory as he instantly recognized the lady seated at the table next to us, though she had not dined there in 2 years. Very impressive!

Our waiter, Ben, was a 10! Super friendly, great charisma and service. He let us know it was their new spring menu.

We started with the focaccia bread, which was delectable, and next course was the Bufalo cheese with a bed of lettuce and truly palate tickler dressing! Our third course was the Ravioli and 4th was the Scallops on Risotto. Everything was perfectly cooked and the flavors pleasing. I did prove to myself that I'm just not a risotto girl. Finally we finished with dark chocolate creme brulee and limited sherbet. The perfect combo!

Pros- the authentic cuisine, impeccable service, on-site parking (if you can get it), warm inviting decor and convenient location, patio dining, dog friendly on patio.

Cons- it's a bit noisy inside or was last night. That's fine for us but some may prefer more intimate spot. Parking! If you don't find a spot on site it could be a pain to find...

We made outdoor seating reservations for Saturday evening and we were seating immediately. We tried the fritelle cacio e pepe, agnolotti, minestra de mare, tiramisu, ruota menfitata, and chocolate cake. The fritelle cacio e pepe are savory Italian donuts and it was something very different and tasted great! The donuts were nice and crispy and they had a creamy, cheese filling. We were told by our waitress the focaccia is also very good but we didn't try it. The entrees were OK - they weren't bad but there wasn't anything particularly exciting or special about them. The minestra de mare was seafood with a light tomato sauce. My dining companion had this and was underwhelmed and left hungry. The agnolotti was very light and fresh, but at the end of the day, it was just ricotta stuffed pasta with a lemony sauce. The desserts were also OK - there wasn't anything particular special about the tiramisu or chocolate cake. The tiramisu is better from Cesarina and the ruota menfitata was like a deconstructed cannoli. Overall, the meal took two hours, which I thought was excessive. The service as a bit slow and our waitress didn't put in our entree order until after we finished our appetizer, which I thought was odd. Plus since the meal was so long and we were sitting outdoor so the outdoor seating was actually quite uncomfortable after 2 hours. Overall, food was OK. There are better options for Italian...