il Sogno Italiano — Restaurant in San Diego

When we made our reservations, they didn’t bother to mention that at 5pm the dining room wouldn’t be open. Upon arrival we were offered either a sidewalk table or a seat at the bar. We took the sidewalk table. This is the only place on 5th street that doesn’t have umbrellas and during our meal debris from a tree kept falling on our table. The atmosphere might be okay, depending on what you are looking for. We had hoped for an elegant dinner and what we received was a lousy meal surrounded by people who need a bath. At one point someone walked up with a dog and a member of the wait staff actually petted the dog before resuming to serve customers.

Regarding the food, my mushroom ravioli was pretty good. The Cesar salad was unimpressive but edible. My wife had Fettuccine Alfredo. The pasta and sauce were fine but the chicken was badly burnt. What sous chef can’t cook a decent chicken breast? We notified our server but she didn’t seem to care, simply brought our check.

Their website promises “an unforgettable dining and musical soirée.” I fear that may be true as this was absolutely the low point of our time in San Diego. In case you miss it tucked away on their website or the footnote on their menu, management has added a 5% surcharge to pay higher food and labor costs. I’m sure these costs are higher now, but why not just raise prices? Unless the intent is for people not to notice, I suppose.

In summary, this restaurant’s greatest asset seems to be their location. It’s too bad they can’t take advantage of that to offer something...

I’m not sure where to even start this review. This place was recommended to me by someone that I met at a conference. They ate here all three nights they were in town. The moment that we arrived at this restaurant and greeted by Shaun we knew this was going to be a home run. There were three of us in our party and we were seated immediately with a beautiful view of the city. Shaun recommended the lamp lollipops and bruschetta for appetizers and my wife threw in a wedge salad. Our table ordered the ribeye, lobster carbonara, & portobello mushroom ravioli as our entrees. They came to the table and torched the butter on top of the steak to melt it. The flavor of every meal was spectacular and exceeded our expectations. They have a great wine offering and we took advantage of that as well. Shaun was very knowledgeable and suggested a great wine based on our entree selections. This was one of the best experiences that we had while visiting San Diego. I wouldn’t call this a dinner but an experience that includes a meal. I have already recommended this place to some friends that are planning a visit soon. It’s a must try of your in the area. Hands down the best service that we’ve experienced in quite awhile and we travel and eat out a lot. I hope you give these guys a try after reading this review and if you’re lucky you will get Shaun. Thank you for the great experience! You’re friends from...

Eating here was like a dream.

Started off with a really nice Napa Valley wine and the Brussel sprouts. Delicious, both of them.

Not a long wait for the actual meal, but during the wait there was a guy killing the ivory, belting out some beautiful tunes on the piano. This really enhanced the whole experience for me and the wife.

The food?

We ordered The Ribeye The Mushroom Ravioli The Rigatoni Bolognese.

All were delicious but the Ribeye was melt in the mouth amazing. Don't add any salt, it's already salted to perfection. This kind of meat is the stuff wars were fought over 500 years ago. Potatoes and veg also had a really good flavor.

Mushroom ravioli was probably the best white sauce pasta I've had in a very long time. Truly enjoyed it.

Rigatoni bolognese was decent. Wouldn't right home about it, but was still much above average. I think the awesomeness of the other food we ordered dismissed this worthiness of this bolognese so I am not sure it got a fair shake up against so much greatness.

The whole ambience was perfect. We're intimate with the paino the service the setting it wa all perfect.

Beat restaurant we've visited between both LA San Diego in the week we've been here. I'd take this over Beauty and Essex we tried in LA any...