De Nunno — Restaurant in San Diego

We did door dash, so I can't actually comment on things like service or atmosphere. What I can comment on is the food. The desserts were exceptional, but my Pink Salmon Vodka pasta was inedible. The pasta was doughy without being flavorful, but that's not what bugged me. The salmon in the dish tasted musty, like the scent of an old lakeside cabin that has been shut for the winter, and you're walking in to open it up in spring and it smells like an old attic chest full of great-grandpa's mildewy old papers and clothes.

At 59, I've never tasted salmon like this, so I Googled, "What would make salmon taste musty?"

Answer was, "Fish can taste musty due to a compound called geosmin, which is produced by algae and bacteria in the water where the fish are raised. Farmed fish absorb geosmin through their gills, which can cause the fish to taste musty."

I took two bites. First bite was mostly pasta, dough-like but not awful. Second was a mouthful of musty salmon. I didn't want to wake in the night yakking my guts out because the fish tasted funny, so I stopped eating.

I'd rather be hungry in the night...

I can't believe this is in the middle of a mall food court!

De Nunno actually makes their pastas and sauces fresh every day, and you can customize it any way you like! They even have vegetarian (vegan if you don't get cheese) and gluten-free options. It's fun to watch them make your dish through the window too.

We decided on 2 different types of pasta:

Conchiglie with a signature creamy mushroom and sausage sauce, and a traditional spaghetti caccio e peppe with shrimp & burrata added on. Both of these were so good! The texture of the pasta is amazing - al dente with a nice bouncy chewy mouth-feel that you get only from the freshest pasta. The sauces were so flavorful, and the burrata was also so nice and fresh and creamy too.

We definitely need to head back there...

this is next level homemade pasta!!! you can see the trays of fresh pasta behind the counter. generous portion size, and don’t skip the focaccia - chefs kiss!! it’s really hard to find fresh pasta and De Nunno does it right, in a totally unassuming way… at the mall food court! the price is right too. the woman working at the counter and the chef were both super nice. i hope they open a full restaurant some day or franchise this model because there’s nothing like this — it’s half the price of anywhere in little italy, plus double the portion size and actually better than many places i’ve been to in little italy. thank you for an amazing lunch!! i’ll...