Italian Cucina

Julissa was the Hostess when our friends invited us for an Italian dinner at Barona Casino last night. We were pleasantly surprised to see her as she was the Hostess at the Barona Steak House when we ate there for the first time in May 2016. She is so nice and friendly and we told her at the Steak House we live in Alpine, CA. And frequent Viejas Casino often. She told my husband and I «you are going to like our Steak House Best … «and it is delicious. So much so that we are going back to Barona Steak House tonight !!!
We thoroughly enjoyed our Italian cuisine last night and we had the pleasure of Ragde serving us. We were with our friends and their son. The Italian restaurant is their favorite place to eat. They live in Ramona and couldn’t wait to take us there. We were celebrating their Anniversary. Needless to say, we have found a new hang out. I would highly suggest you to try the restaurants at Barona Casino. Both the Steak House and Italian Cucina are worth the visit … Bring your appetite !
Bön Appetite
C. Lovejoy
June 4, 2016

Excellent food and service! I had the shrimp capellini which was very good. A little greasy but other than that good. Prices are reasonable. Good wine and beer selection. Our waiter Jose was excellent!

Ok I know my previous post I said the food was ok but tonight I absolutely enjoyed all of my dishes! Despite the fact the appetizers were big portions already I still was able to eat some of my main dish, which was chicken parmigiana and 3 jumbo shrimps. Did I mention the added shrimps were complimentary?! Well they were and they were really yummy. I couldn’t finish my main dish but had a few bites of my chicken parmigiana and it was good too. Nice breaking and crunch! So back to my appetizer, I ordered the antipasto Della Casa which was Italian heaven of meats and various vegetables. Along with garlic Ann’s crispy bread. I really liked this a lot.
My cocktail was really strong but delicious, it was the buona Fortuna. Really good for $ 10.
Also they were really accommodating with us, and I requested for a crème brûlée for dessert which they were able to make and that just really made my night! I love crème brûlée like a fat boy likes cake!
Thank you Italiana cucina for making my dinner memorable and yummy!

Our first time here last night. We had the special of the night, prime rib cubed over pasta and vegetables very tender lots of flavor. I had the minestrone soup, my wife had the salad.
We start with a bowl of marinated olives and a homemade bread with a special butter and two flasks of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. All excellent. Very reasonably priced.
The restaurant is downstairs away from the horrid stench that is the smell of a casino. No stench downstairs at all.
One snafu though, we didn’t get the bottle of wine we ordered. We got one that cost 8 dollars more. I pointed this out to our server Ami and she took the bill to the manager who refused to adjust the bill. We believe this was the fault of the wine guy in the restaurant.
But I gave 5 stars because of our server Ami. She is very special as other reviewers have indicated.
We will return. Great ambiance and atmosphere.

This Italian restaurant is nestled in the lower level of Barona Casino. Although I frequent Barona’s buffet, this was my first visit here with my family. My Mom had a Birthday coupon she wanted to use before it expired. Once we arrived, we were seated right away. The host placed us in the first open table near the entrance. We asked for a booth, but there were no booths available. We settled with the table provided. We were served olives and bread sticks to start filling our bellies, then came a family style salad to share, prior to receiving our entrees. As appetizers, we ordered the Caprese (mozarella, vine pesto ripened red and green tomatoes, basil and balsamic drizzle) and Crispy Fried Calamari with Aioli & Spicy Marinara dipping sauces. Their meals are big portions that can feed two people. After asking our server about the portion size of their entrees, she mentioned that the Maine Lobster Raviolis are portioned for one person. My Mom ordered the Port Glazed Grilled Shrimp that consisted of house cured pancetta, eggplant, zucchini, carrot and butternut squash purée. My Dad ordered their Creamy Tomato Basil Soup and Hearth Roasted Sea Bass. I shared Shrimp Capellini (artichoke hearts, asparagus, tomato, with garlic cream sauce) with my friend. As the evening progressed, we requested a couple of items from our server, who either did not hear what we asked for or just forgot to get it for us. We had to ask another server for assistance. Other than that, our meals were delicious! My Mom received two pieces of Torta Di Cioccolato (triple chocolate layered cake) to go. We were so full, it was time to play! You will definitely bring home leftovers.

I never thought this type of casino could possibly host a restaurant this good. I admit it — I was completely wrong. Because what’s the point of going to eat at a casino if you aren’t doing the buffet, right? But nope — Cucina is awesome.
We went here on a date night and enjoyed every second of this meal. And we’re pretty big Italian food snobs because we’re from a largely Italian area back east. One thing a good Italian restaurant should do — and remember this — is serve you huge portions. If you look at your plate and the first thing you see is lunch for the next two days, you have come to the right place.
Now the rest of the night wasn’t so good. I actually contemplated going back to Cucina for more coffee and dessert rather than lose more money in Baron’s machines. Yes, the workers there are happy … because they aren’t the ones losing!

I came here a few times already but never got a chance to write a review. Every time I came here the food all came in time and it was all pretty big portions.
I got the fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp and my boyfriend got the tenderloin plate. We shared some fried calamari and the mussels and clam dish as starters. The service was great. Forgot his name but he checked up on us every once in a while.
The Pasta I got was such a big portion! I mean I could of shared it with 2 other people and I would of still been full! And the tenderloin plate was so gooooood! It was cooked to perfection (Medium). The sauce on top was a little salty but we scraped that part off.
Service: Super fast and attentive
Food: Everything came out on time and cooked perfectly. The portioning was huge so please think about sharing! Especially the pasta dishes!
The Place: We got in at 9pm and they close at 10pm. We got out by 9:45pm so everything was timed perfectly. There is like an outside patio I think in the back. The restaurant looks very roomy and big.
I would definitely be coming back here next time (: Now I know that everything downstairs at barona is delicious!

This place is not good. The food is not good, the service is slow and even the pizza was not good.
We tried several different menu items including ravioli, steak and pizza. None of it was high quality or memorable in any way.
We tried the desert and again nothing was authentic or Italian in any way.
Avoid this place and try one of the other restaurants.

Bread is good olives excellent. Brought my father memories of when he went to Italy! Service was amazing. I recommend Amy. She is a excellent waitress very polite sweet and down to earth. Had patience with my parents!!! Alfredo sauce is delicious!!! Great service!

This place is located downstairs in the Barona Casino. The prices are beyond reasonable, especially for the amount of food they give you. The portions here are quite large. Unfortunately for us we must’ve hit them on an off day because our service was horrible. We sat for 15 minutes before our waiter came to us and that was after we asked where they were. It took over an hour for us to get our entrees which was disappointing. The price is great but it seemed to us that they need a lot off work in the customer service area.

I have nothing but great a review of this restaurant, our dinner was excellent. Both my husband and I started with the Black mussels and clams appetizer, it was big enough to be shared with 4 people and had plenty of garlic and sauce with tons of mussels and clams. Our main dish was the spaghetti with meat balls and again the amount of food per plate are huge, we shared one dish. But most of all the service was excellent! Our server Ragde, went above and beyond to make sure that we had everything that we needed, he kept coming to our table to make sure that we had enough bread, water, and to check to see if we needed anything else. We had such a great dinner, the food was great, the service was excellent and the restaurant is very clean and it has a laid back feeling. I give Italian Cucina 5 Stars! I would without a thought come back again.

This is the spot. Located downstairs at Barona Casino. I have been going here for a long time. Their service is exceptional and the atmosphere is also nice. You can escape from the casino for a while and grab a bite to eat.
Drinks are delicious. They have a huge selection of local craft beers and lots of different wines along with a full bar. The drink I get is the Italian Margarita. Oh man, is this thing good or what?! Tangy, yet sweet.
For the food I usually always order the parmesan crusted beef tenderloin. It is very good. Their pizzas and pastas are great too. Come here atleast once a month.
Oh ya, you can order a crème brûlée (my favorite) which is not on the menu but they have it.

This place has really good food. Exceptional. The service could be a little better, but the quality of the food makes up for it.

Great little Italian place. Very fair prices. Great atmosphere. Excellent wait staff. Just don’t order pasta. Everything else is beautifully presented. Pasta carbonara tasted like day old, burnt, panda express chow mein.

If I could give more than 5 stars I would. Everything was EXCELLENT!!!
First off, our server Ami was super sweet and really nice. She was very attentive and happy and smiling at all times :)
The food was really good as well and big portions. The breadsticks and foccacia were good. I liked the bread a lot. We got the Caesar salad and the house salad. These were your standard salads that were ok and nothing special about them. We got the chicken parmigiano and the lasagna. Both were huge portions size served hot! The sauces were good and it tasted home made. The portions were so large that we had more than half as leftovers.
For dessert we got the tiramisu and coffee. Both super good and they complement each other well. Coffee with cream was good and didn’t need sugar. Tiramisu is served in a martini like glass. I shared this with my boyfriend, but at this point we were both pretty full. Both were really good and a great way to end the meal.
Great overall experience, I really enjoyed it here. This made the drive worth it. I will definitely be back!

Had a great experience! We were planning on visiting the buffet but decided that the two hour wait was just too long. The food and portions were great as well as the cost. Our waiter, Juan, was phenomenal. We look forward to returning!

5 stars without hesitation. Honestly, if you haven’t been to this place because you love the Barona buffet too much (which I do), or because you haven’t been to Barona at all, then you better make a trip out there.
To my surprise, this is probably the best place I’ve been to with Italian food. Erase that… This is the best Italian restaurant. I’m not sure what it is about this place… Could it be the romantic restaurant? Or could it be the amazing service? Maybe it was even the heavenly food? Actually, I think it’s all of the above.
I applaud our waitress (her name has slipped my mind and I can’t forgive myself), for she had the patience to deal with my mother who was bombarding her with questions. Trust me, my mother can ask the simplest of questions about the menu/​etc that I could answer for her, and she asks them several times, but worded differently. (Regardless, I love her dearly, of course. Hehe…) Aside from the patience that our waitress had, she was diligent in checking up on/​answering questions, never failed to leave us out in the blue about our food, and not to mention, she was a complete sweetheart.
Now, I’ll speak about the restaurant itself. This is the perfect Italian restaurant because it completely fits what I, if not most people, would consider an Italian restaurant. It’s not the *fanciest* place, but it is quite lovely. There are brick walls, beige walls, wooden poles, long windows covered with curtains, hanging lights with tiled/​mosaic glass, tiled floors, and vividly colored carpet. The whole color scheme is dark, neutral colors: beige, red, brown, yellow, white, etc. It reminds me of spaghetti. There is dim lighting, and it has a very romantic atmosphere to it.
Enough about all that, I know the FOOD is what everyone cares the most about! My family got the calamari and tomato basil soup for appetizers. The calamari comes with two sauces, marinara and pesto, and a table of 4 or so could share it. Whereas, the soup would be good for one person. My mother kept it for herself, but my sister and I would steal bites here and there because it was that good. Frankly, you could never go wrong with tomato basil as a soup.
If you’re having trouble picking a pasta, but know that’s what you want, why not go with the original and typical chicken fettucine alfredo? The serving size is huge. If you’re not savagely hungry, you could probably share it with someone and still have leftovers. Also, they’re not selfish with the chicken. If you’re craving a pizza, get one of their pre-​made ones, or even create your own!
My sister got the hearth roasted salmon (I believe is what it’s called), and it came with vegetables – no side of rice, potatoes, etc. It was savory, and I’m sure one person could finish it. On the other hand, my mother got the prime rib. It was huge, juicy, and delectable – she couldn’t finish it. Thankfully, Italian Cucina was more than competent enough to cook her steak the way she wanted it. Each entrée also comes with your choice of house salad, or caesar salad.
I had an excellent experience for my first time, and I’d definitely come back, and recommend it for someone who likes Italian food… Or someone who just wants to eat at a great restaurant. I was not disappointed at all. 5 stars!

The best Italian I’ve had. The server was so accommodating too, we had 3 kids under 5 and he was as so patient. I highly recommend the grilled shrimp with mango purée and port sauce it was so good I had dreams bout it :)

Have been here three times now and have not been let down. All the pasta, seafood, chicken, beef, and deserts are on point. Even the coffee and cocktails are delish! The prices are super reasonable for what you’re getting, the quality of food, atmosphere and service are awesome.
My only complaints are that they have a menu that’s on the small side, but they made a special order for my grandmother because they had all the ingredients for the dish that she wanted. The alcohol is on the steep side, but its booze at a restaurant so its not that shocking.

Went here with my brother and sister.
Yummy free pickled olives.
Food is good and Service is Excellent!