Vincenzo Cucina and Lounge — Restaurant in San Diego

I’m a first time visitor to San Diego and on our first day here we went to the Little Italy market on this past Saturday and after walking around for a couple of hours, we decided that when we came back to eat in Little Italy, we would try out Vincenzo‘s because it seemed to have the best menu and atmosphere. First off I wanna say that the atmosphere was great and the wait staff was phenomenal, but the food was horrific. I grew up in an Italian home where most everything was made from scratch and I know how Italian food is supposed to be. I ordered Fettuccine Alfredo because whenever I visit an Italian restaurant for the 1st time I gauge their food based on that meal. I must say that the fettuccine noodles were not fettuccine noodles. I’m not even sure what they were, but they were NOT fettuccine noodles and the best way to describe the sauce was that it was bland. I added three meatballs for eight dollars to the meal and you’d think at a true Italian restaurant you’d get three big fat homemade meatballs, but they turned out to be 3 tiny meatballs that were obviously frozen. At $25 per meal for pasta you would expect top quality food. My girl picked a pasta meal that was $25 as well that I’d never heard of before and it was indescribable to say the least. We paid $25 for about $1.50 worth of pasta and sauce in that meal. Nonetheless whenever I try out a new Italian restaurant I have to try the cannolis so we ordered 2 to go. Our waitress placed our desert order and then brought the bill. The first thing that I noticed was that the one bottle of beer that I ordered that was listed for $7 on the menu was charged for $9, then there was a $4 service fee on the bill that the waitress explained was due to “inflation costs”. But the kicker was that the two cannolis I ordered were charged at $13 apiece and since I’ve been eating cannolis for about 55 years, I was shocked and amazed and waiting in anticipation to see what cannoli is worth $13? Well then the cannoli packages arrived in 2 big boxes and I could not wait to see these things cause they had to be monstrous. I opened up the first box and inside were three tiny cannolis each about the size of my thumb. There were no chocolate chips on them instead you had a couple of pieces of fruit thrown in the box. So apparently the owner of this restaurant is expecting me to pay $2 per bite of a dessert that’s not even the dessert I ordered. What a shyster! so I asked the waitress to take them off of the bill, which she politely did and we headed out the door. But now I’m determined to get cannolis for dessert… So all that we had to do was literally walk 30 feet north of this establishment to the next establishment who had Real cannolis the size of all six of those little thumb size cannolis put together… for six bucks a pop. So if you’re gonna eat at Vincenzo‘s expect good service and a good atmosphere, but also expect to get taken and buy your...

My friend and I went on a Saturday evening. I made an online reservation which was quickly accommodated. Unfortunately everything afterwards went downhill.

The menus were dirty and needed to be cleaned. It felt as if our server forgot about me and my friend who were in the back patio. Eventually we ordered the following: bruschetta and two pastas total. The bruschetta was completely not worth it. You get 4 small pieces of bread, but what was most bothersome was the tomato & cheese mix. It had no flavor or seasoning. I could have made a better bruschetta at home.

Then it got worse. The pasta dishes came at a good time. However we nicely asked the food runner for black pepper and red pepper flakes so we could begin the meal. He said, “ok sure I will be right back”. Patiently we waited for at least five minutes. Our own server did not check in on us as they were assisting other tables. We waved over a busser who did not speak English, so we asked them to please retrieve the server. Our server came to our table after several more minutes. We politely then asked her for the peppers. She also said, “ok sure I will be right back”. We then waited another ten minutes for her to come back to the patio area. We had to wave her down for her to remember our request. Then she remembered and brought us the seasonings. However, at this point the pasta was completely room temperature and the sauce was solidifying. So then we asked if we could get the meals reheated please. This is a problem if a guest asks this. Also, this is not in accordance with food sanitation protocol to even say yes to this request & bring food back into the kitchen area. Anyways our food did get reheated so then we were able to eat the meal. The taste of the pastas was decent, the pasta was cooked well and the sauces were delicious. I was disappointed that my broccoli & sausage pasta lacked both broccoli and sausage. It seemed just like a cheese pasta.

Anyways, the ambiance and location are good. The taste was fine aside from the bruschetta. Unfortunately the service made this a place I would never recommend. It is standard pricing for the Little Italy area. Expect to spend...

If I could put zero starts I would. I had created a reservation for feb 14th, weeks before. My reservation was for 7:30 and we showed up at 7:00 to check in and maybe walk around a bit before our reservation. When walking up we saw a huge line and got a little nervous and call the restaurant to be told that we would just have to go straight to the host stand if we had a reservation and check in. After checking in, instead of chilling 30 minutes before our reservation, the dismissive host told us to go to the end of the line (that was all the way down the block) full of probably about 40 other PARTIES not individual people. she told us “it will move fast”. After asking some of the people around me that were also in line, I found out that everyone around me had reservations. A line of around 40 parties standing around the block of this restaurant who all had reservations. insane. why are reservations a thing?

the line was moving two people every 5 minutes, meaning we would be standing in that line well past our reservation time. We were able to get close to the window to see the inside was insanely packed, literally people sitting shoulder to shoulder all through the dinning hall. The servers looked as if they were running around with their heads cut off. Not a person of management anywhere to be seen. At that moment my partner and I realized this was not going to be worth our time or money.

We decided to leave the line we were already waiting in for 15 minutes and walk down the block the UnderBelly ramen spot. At that restaurant there are no reservations and typically a line, and we were still sat within 15 minutes there.

In my opinion, I’m very disappointed by this restaurant. To over book your restaurant just simply for money purposes, so you can make the most sales is sad. maybe dont over-book, actually worry about the guest you can accommodate and you won’t have as many angry customers and walk-outs next year. There are plenty of other nice italian restaurants in downtown, this restaurant isn’t special. Very disappointing that the management has nothing to...