Seneca Trattoria — Restaurant in San Diego

FOOD: Housemade Foccacia – The butter was truly the star of the show here. The focaccia was delicious, but the butter was an absolute delight. I coated each bite of focaccia shamelessly with the whipped butter that accompanied the starter and swiped it from the plate before it was bussed in case I needed it for later. Pro-tip for the focaccia, if you’re also ordering the prawns save some of the bread to dip in the sauce. Wood Grilled Prawns – Prawns don’t need much to shine. As long as they’re cooked through with a little smokiness, I’m a generous critic. These though were in a league of their own. Like caviar, it’s enough on its own, but combine it with a fluffy blini and some rich sour cream and now you’re really cooking with gas. The sauce underneath the prawns, the bread absolutely soaked through with light brine, smoke, and creamy oil – it’s not overkill, it’s true benevolence. Truffle Arancini – Before this dish I had never once had an arancini that didn’t disappoint. Too chewy, not hot enough, too much rice, not enough cheese, etc. Without the proper care and attention there’s a million ways to mess up arancini, but not at Seneca. Every element had its moment in the sun, each bite better than the last, with just enough truffle to tickle your tongue and flood your olfactory senses when lifted up to your mouth. Calabrian Sausage Pizza – It’s hard for me to resist Calabrian sausage. Whenever I see it listed as a topping on a pizza there’s a good chance I’ll order it. Most traditional pizzas tend to be a bit anemic in the amount of cheese they’re topped with but this pizza didn’t hold back. They gave you enough to satisfy a turophile but were careful to compliment and not outshine the other stars of the show like the broccoli, peppers, crust, and sausage. It stands as a gorgeous example of how to execute a white pizza. Corzetti Stampati Pasta – Rarely have I had a pasta so balanced and perfectly seasoned. This dish features circles of masterfully cooked al dente pasta with delicate spiral indentations soaked in a creamy light pesto sauce with pine nuts and ricotta. It was tremendous. Not a bite was wasted.

SERVICE: Oftentimes it feels like decent food can turn to ash in your mouth if the service is found wanting, but when the service is exceptional it adds that magnetism, that charm, that glow to the meal that can’t be bought with expensive ingredients and talent in the kitchen. Kara brought all that and more to our experience, serving as an ambassador from the kitchen and our qualified and knowledgeable culinary guide. She was the picture of hospitality – outgoing, conversational, attentive, and genuinely excited to be there. She brings so much to the table at Seneca and was an absolute pleasure during our dinner from its bright beginning to bittersweet end. Hold onto her, she’s a superstar. I’d also like to mention Lisa, who was the most gracious host and took such good care of us. She was kind enough to give us a very special tour of the space that wrapped a priceless bow on a dinner I won’t hesitate to say was perfect. Thank you.

ATMOSPHERE: Arsalun and team have done it again. Seneca is almost obscenely nice. It is so tastefully decorated, so hyper focused in its detail and commitment to artistic vision that it feels divine. It’s a symphonic amalgamation of childhood fantasy, old world charm, nature, modernity, luxury, and culture. Like most CH projects it is completely transportive, but this one dials it up to 11 in a way that doesn’t feel the least bit gimmicky. Rather, it feels miraculous, like they’ve somehow cracked the code to teleportation and transported you to the Amalfi Coast or some elegant chateau on Lake Como. From the varnished wood elements reminiscent of classic runabout boats to the tasteful marine elements and even the staff uniform, it is beyond impressive, and it is quintessentially...

I've been here a couple times with a group of people and I can't for the life of me figure out what this restaurant is going for and there are so many mixed vibes. The waiters here dress like they are going to Hogwarts, but the restaurant sells itself as a fancy Italian restaurant and there is no consistency with the atmosphere. First visit there was a 2.5 hr wait which we felt was very long but sort of hyped things up for us (perhaps too much). First off, I do not know what this restaurant is going for. When getting off the elevator I felt like we were in the Rainforest Café, nothing but a dark jungle atmosphere complete with sound effects. Then walking a few steps further we see the front desk where overly loud and overly funky disco music is playing, the vibes changed completely. The atmosphere doesn't fit the restaurant and it's menu at all. We were seated basically outside with heaters above each table which you can't control yourself and at first we were all roasting under it and the server said she could only turn it halfway down or off. We went with off. The table we were seated at had this completely round shape to it but the servers had to take the long way around to get to the other side and so did we if we had to get out to use the restroom, I don't think anyone liked it and it felt more like a design flaw than anything else. One of the waitresses seemed to take this out on us, like we should have passed the waters all the way across the table to be refilled or something. OK, now onto the food and drinks. The menu seems to camouflage itself in fancy sounding Italian words when what we ordered was as simple as vodka pasta. I noticed on this page it says there are a lot of vegan options... Well there are NONE. The drinks we ordered were either watered down or overly strong, there was nothing consistent about them. The vodka pasta was just OK and not worth $25. We felt we could have made it at home and had it come out just as good. Second visit (only returned because a few people wanted to go here) was honestly worse other than the wait time being better, however we did have a reservation this time and I don't think we did last time. About the reservation there is a $50 fee if you don't show up! Ridiculous. Make sure to add a card that will get declined. They don't validate parking here and the garage below is $25 for just a few hours! We ended up taking a Lyft here the second time and paying less honestly. Second time we were tricked into getting sparking water which is $9 a bottle! We got the garlic bread to start which was the worst garlic bread I've ever had. It was very cake-like is the only way I can describe it and had to be eaten with a knife and fork because it was too messy and soggy. The food took a long time to come out this time, like over an hour. I tried the margarita pizza and even that was burned and had an overly runny cheese and was WAY too salty. Concerning that this place can't even make a pizza right. Overall plenty of better...

We went here for a date night / birthday dinner on a Monday. We were very excited as it was our first date night in a long time since having our baby. We got a babysitter and attended our reservation. We arrived 15 min before our reservation was scheduled. We sat at the bar waiting for our table & grabbed a drink. We were then seated at a table that felt like it was in the walkway to the other seats and it was very tiny, and we were there for dinner. We tried to make it work but we were not loving it. We then asked for a different table, & got moved inside. Fine. This kinda bummed us out because it defeat the purpose of attending this rooftop spot for us. We waited over 15 minutes for our new server to come to our table, this again, bummed us out. We expressed that we just wanted to leave at this point, and the manager Jon (who was very nice) offered to move our table outside. We were happy with that. We moved to our new table and got olives & Prawns. I got a glass of bubbly on the house for the trouble. At this point, it was over 55 min since our reservation started (not included the 15 min early we got there) and we only ate the prawns (which were delicious) and the olives, that I loved!! But we were hungry. We couldn’t drink too much because I’m a breast feeding mom & we were driving. Our server Elly was very nice and lively, could’ve had more knowledge about the drink/ wine menus & the manager Jon was very professional at handling this trouble. After 2 hours and 15 min we still did not have dinner, waiting for our pizza & pasta. With just prawns and olives in our bellies, 3 servers later, and a talk w the manager. We were running out of time, hungry, and super bummed out! We ended up asking for our food to go. The pizza was 6/10 and so was the pasta. We didn’t end up paying for it. We wanted to enjoy our night. This was a big stretch for us, we love this restaurant group but the service, timing, host, were terrible!!!! We Love CH, we wanted to spend money, & we were impressed with how nice & profession Jon (the manager) was. I’ve worked in high volume restaurants for years, I get the pressure. This was bad. We just really had a terrible time, wish we never went, and probably won’t be back. We cried on the way home because we left our very young baby home with a baby sitter to have a terrible time. I don’t recommend spending money on the food, since it’s not that good and very expensive. The olives & prawns were delicious. & so...