La Dolce Vita Ristorante — Restaurant in San Diego

We come to La Jolla almost every year for the past 18 years and somehow we have never looked around for Italian food. On a whim during our trip this year, my brother's girlfriend decided she wanted Italian food for dinner one night. Upon a quick google she randomly selected La Dolce Vita and I don't know that I've had a better Italian meal outside of the Italy itself. The special that night especially, which was lobster ravioli and scallops, was pure heaven. The seafood, first and foremost, was mind blowing. My dad spent some of my childhood as a commercial crabber in Alaska in the 80's, so you can imagine how fresh the seafood I grew up with was. Additionally, when we stayed in spent time in Italy a few years ago, focusing on the Cinque Terre area, I was spoiled by amazingly fresh Italian seafood dishes. So - to say I'm picky about seafood is ... accurate to say the least. The seafood I ate at LDV was easily still some of the best seafood I've ever eaten. The lobster and scallops were perfectly prepared, expertly seasoned, and I ate way more than I should have. My husband had a veal dish which was similarly wonderful. My dad ate pizza which he said was some of the best he'd had, and even classic dishes like Fettuccine Alfredo and Spaghetti and Lasagna were heavenly. The appetizers were equally impressive and worth it, and the table bread is baked fresh in house and the sun dried tomato sauce they serve with it is not to be missed! We skipped dessert but ordered cappuccinos to finish and I have never had a better one than this - even after working in coffee all through college and being from Seattle. No, I'm not kidding. If you are starting to think this is too good to be true, then wait until you hear about the service - the wait staff somehow made it look like they floated everywhere with the utmost ease, while expertly taking care of their tables. Our waitress was the best, and when we couldn't choose from the menu selections because there was too much good stuff, she offered to let us select a few and she would choose for us and surprise us. Her choices were perfect! This restaurant is a hidden gem, and I almost hesitated to write out this review except this place was too good to forego giving them the kudos! Oh, did I mention they have live opera on Fridays? We didn't get to see this, but I imagine it is fantastic considering the quality level of every other aspect of this place! So if you're in La Jolla, definitely check out LDV, you will not be...

Given all the mixed reviews on the web, I thought I will leave a longer review than usual - short answer is, we will be going back. A bad waiter can make a bad time, but our waitress was good at her job. Pleasant, attentive, and had no complaints when we changed our order (basically a misunderstanding). I never actually drained my water, so not sure on the fill rate (which is a pet peeve of mine). She kept the table cleared and the meal moved along at a reasonable pace.

I too did the 4course w/ wine pairing groupon, which was tonight. The calamari was a bit chewy, but I think that has to do with how they prepare it....it comes in the sauce which was temp hot....meaning even if it left the kitchen cooked right, it would still end up chewy. The shrimp scampi was good, mozzarella appetizer was good, and the bruschetta was alright (not toast like). The wine was a good white. The salad was very good, and all green (pet peeve of mine is putting all the white stuff in there.) . The red wine was also good. We both picked the penne alla vodka for the main course, which was really really good. their house branded Sarah was different but very good. Basically a sarah with a lot of oak, but well balanced given a sarah is a spicy red to begin with - we bought two bottles to take home if that says anything. Tiramisu was good as well, but a bit too heavy on the coffee taste for me....though my wife thought it was a bit light. All in all, a positive experience - I was a little apprehensive given the reviews, but my experience was positive. Not sure if I would order appetizers again, but the other courses are a solid winner. As for the layout of the place, its a nice place/atmosphere, tables are a bit close, but they are in little italy as well. **prices/value - I'm not sure if my portions are representative of a regular order. But prices seem reasonable...but again, not sure of portions. Our portions we right in that we left full, but then we had a...

Nice location and very good food. We wanted to celebrate my last evening with a group of 6 and made a reservation for 8 p.m. Arrives in time but our table wasn’t ready. That nothing to complain about cause it can always happen. We ordered a bottle of wine to enjoy while waiting. Ordered a second once cause we had to wait a little longer. After around 45 min of waiting we were able to get seated and ordered straight away. Since the restaurant closes at 9:30 p.m on a Thursday our starters came quite fast and were very good. We ordert the Beef Carpaccio, Bruschetta Golosa, and Polpette. The food was amazing. Just finished our plates when we noticed the restaurant was empty and the waiters sated to clean up the place.our mains where then served (still had our plates from the first course on the table). We were then told there is no rush for us, but they will start to clear up the restaurant and Terrasse. We still enjoy our food, at some point the Musik got turned of and you could here the waiters talking and complaining about us still being at the restaurant. We asked for the bill and paid around 400$. The waiter then came and asked for more tip since it was not 10%. I then added more tip, and he walk away complaining in another language.

The food was very nice and we had a very nice evening until that point. It is very rude to talk out guest or customers in any language, and also to ask for more it. I can also give no tip if I want to. At the end he had a discussion with our waiter about his behavior, where we were told that he did everything in his power so we would have a nice evening and we should appreciate what he had done, since it’s not typical Tonart guest stay when the closes. But we had made a reservation with plenty of time before closing.

Sadly the last 10 minutes of the evening ruined the hole experience we had, which was very said since the food is very good. Being treated like this is a reason why non of us or our fiends will come...