Mia Trattoria — Restaurant in San Diego

Momma Mia! Or shall a say grand-daughter Mia! Authentic fabulously delicious Italian cuisine! This beautiful family owned restaurant owned by a Sicilian Italian man who name the restaurant after his grand daughter and treats his associate like his own family. The restaurant is on a courner with easy street parking in a quiet neighborhood quite close to balboa park so a great place to eat after a long afternoon of visiting the park. The ambiance is warm and inviting with mirrors, low cozy colorful table lighting, tables lined with red and white checkered tablecloths as well as a beautiful bar sitting and outside dining setting up for amazing views of the sunsets. The associates treat you like family with great service attentive yet respectful of intimate conversations all the while keeping the cold water decanter full and food coming. The exquisite cuisines taste like home made with amazing flavors -every dish delicious full of flavours of what I would imagine to be like in Italy not your typical American Italian menu, the dish names in Italian and sound so beautiful when said like song specially when you ask the owner. We ordered many plates and ate family style with the cuisines shared and every bite was incredibly delicious as well as the desserts-I could not pick a favorite dish among the choices all the flavours were an orchestra of out of this world melody in my mouth! The wines are classic and enrich the Italian experience of the ambiance and authenticity of the exquisite dishes prepared with love. I was in bliss! There is also an Italian store next door with food items I’m assuming imported from Italy that you can’t just find in any grocery store. Great for selecting items to give as gifts or make gift baskets up, and they do deliveries for those times you just want to stay in and yet want homemade with love authentic Italian...

With the abundance of good Italian restaurants in San Diego, Mia Trattoria probably doesn't even fair as average among them, at least judging by our recent dining experience. Here's a short breakdown: Antipasto - polpo alla griglia/grilled octopus - chewy and overcooked, lacking in taste and presentation. Risotto - this is the course that insulted me the most as it was made with a long grain rice of some sort and not with the traditional carnaroli or arborio. Very disappointing. On the positive side, I did notice a couple of threads of saffron. Ossobuco - bland, and a bit on the dry side, despite the generous amount of sauce, which itself tasted like it was not cooked together with the meat. Lasagna - badly lacking in besciamella/bechamel sauce and generally underwhelming. Frozen dessert - this was tasty and the only item I enjoyed. Panna cotta (if you can call it that) was grainy and cooked with some kind of starch, (I'd speculate plain flour) and a complete letdown. One more good thing - both the white and the red house wines were tasty. Unless all other items on the menu are a full 10 out of 10, I don't see how this establishment is rated 4.7 out of 5, which is the same rating as some of the best Italian restaurants in our...

The food was amazing and the staff was very respectable. Hands down 5 stars. After finishing every last mussel, clam, shrimp and noodle from my entree (fettuccine al frutti di mare) I honestly felt like a million bucks. Truly hit the spot. They were very generous with the amount of seafood they served with the fettuccine and the buttery garlic sauce was perfect. I would have took a picture but I was so hungry I wasn't about to wait. I chose this place based off of the pictures I already saw under photos for this restaurant. The pictures did not lie, it was as good as it looked! My girlfriend got the raviolli ricotta e spinaci and she had said it was so good she made me try it. And honestly I didnt feel like eating raviolli at the time, but after i took a bite I was blown away. It was by far the best raviolli I have ever had. It had the perfect amount of cheese, spinach, sage sauce and butter. Overall the meal was excellent and the staff was super helpful, attentive, welcoming and respectful. I would absolutely come back! Had to leave a note on the receipt saying how much I enjoyed my meal. Thanks again...