Here’s an oxymoron: the best Italian food in San Diego is not in Little Italy.
Actually, never mind, that is not an oxymoron – the best Italian food in any city is never in that city’s version of Little Italy.
In San Diego’s Little Italy the main strip on India Street certainly has a fun vibe and is always a good spot to stop and get a glass of wine (or an Amaro and a dessert pastry at Solunto), but we recommend you save your time, money, and appetites for the places serving legitimately good food. Italian food that is.
So without further ado, these are the three best Italian restaurants in Little Italy, San Diego. California. United States. World. Earth. Milky Way.
3. Herb and Wood
Herb and Wood is one of the best restaurants in San Diego and certainly one of the best in Little Italy. One of the early restaurants by celebrity chef Brian Malarkey, it remains top notch, not letting other ventures get in the way of keeping up the quality here.
They serve Mediterranean food, which means they have some Spanish, some Middle Eastern, and of course some Italian. Whatever you eat there it will be good. Their pasta and pizza are their more ‘Italian’ dishes and you can’t really go wrong with any of them. The Torchio and the Gnocci are our favorites.
A place like this makes better pastas than most of the other strictly Italian restaurants in Little Italy, so they get on our list despite being more eclectic. But hey, that is a good thing. Herb and Wood has something for everyone.
2. Monello
Monello has one of the best happy hours in San Diego. True to old country traditions, the folks at Monello know that an apertivo (literally, “to open” the stomach before dinner) must include food, so from 3-5:30 pm Tuesday through Friday they serve small bites to eat with each happy hour drink order. Sit on the patio and enjoy a negroni and a polpette (homemade meatball) or an Aperol spritz and a gnocchi sampler, while you work your way toward dinner time.
We recommend you stay for dinner too – the food here is better than most other restaurants in the area, serving traditional pasta dishes, meat and seafood dishes, like ossobucco and salmon piccata, as well as Neapolitan-style pizzas. They have a giant cheese wheel too – a sixty pound hunk of parmesan that they will toss some pastas in, when asked.
1. Civico 1845
The best Italian food in Little Italy comes out of Civico 1845. Located a block away from the main strip of restaurants, Civico has less of a party vibe and attracts less tourists.
The restaurant itself is beautiful, but they do not sacrifice food quality for ambience, like so many other places in the neighborhood. Zucchini blossoms and seared octopus are good starters. The papardelle brasato, a homemade pasta topped with a short-rib ragu sauce, is delicious. You can’t go too wrong here.
Perhaps their most impressive feat is they have an entirely vegan menu that is not an afterthought. They make quality vegan dishes which is impressive for any restaurant, much less a pasta-heavy Italian restaurant.
