The Italian Job Cafe

Totally inferior Italian food. Tried the lamb chops with risotto with a red wine reduction. Risotto had a glaze to it reminiscent of a corn starch glaze. No freshly grated Parmesan cheese was offered. Had to ask for it. Lamb was cooked past the medium stage requested. Dessert was tiramisu. Too «fluffy» with barely a hint of espresso. .
My hubby got a pizza with a barely cooked crust and a ricotta pie that tasted like cheesecake. Two glasses of wine and the bill was $ 75. What a waste of money!

We dined on Valentine’s day weekend. Service was very nice and did not feel rushed. Their patio area is quite beautiful and has Christmas lights, but no real view of the harbor itself. We had the seafood pasta on special and they calimari rings were over done (rubbery), but the green mussels and clams were done well. The bread was quite good, and the wine selection is the best out of all the Italian restaurants in the area. They have really good wine :) The bellinis were a bit unusal and came out of a bottle, so I’d recommend sticking to the wine. The tiramisu was simply the best and must have been made fresh. The tiramisu, wine, service and ambiance more than made up for the overcooked squid rings. Service was wonderful even on Valentine’s day weekend, which I find impressive. We will definitely be back but will probably steer clear of any seafood.

Great place, the service wonderful, food awesome and a huge dessert and wine menu yummmm! Beautiful patio right on the channel islands harbor and its pet friendly too! We will Definitely be back here!

Excellent food and good wine. Service can be a little slow, which honestly reminded me of when I lived in Italy. But it is a quaint little place that you can sit, relax, enjoy and meal and the friends or family you are with. Have been more than once and will return again.
Tip if you go on Sundays it does say they open at 1130 I advise wait until about 1145 or so to arrive as they mop the floors at 1130 so they wait to open the doors. (This is due to the staff not arriving until 11)

Had an excellent experience here this evening. The Frutti di Mare was excellent. It was served over rice which was different than the usual broth. The Pistachio Gelato was great as well.
The service was excellent. 5 thumbs up for this experience.

This is our favorite restaurant and pleasant wait staff makes it feel like family. Ryan and help go out of their way to please you and the food is always spot on. Not your usual spaghetti and meatball place more on gourmet
is always our first place when we arrive in the area and our last before we leave. Dr and Mrs Al Petti

Great place, very good pizza, good salad, nice atmosphere. Good service. Recommend this place!

Friendly but not good service. Asked for salad split — came in one dish. Main chicken dish came like warm. Meatballs poor. Lemon pine-​nut pie dessert horrible.

I’m really sad to write this because this used to be our favorite local Italian spot. It seems like it came under new management or ownership a few years back, and the service has been pretty bad since. They could not care less about customer service or keeping your business. We have shown up and been ignored and not seated for an extended period of time on a couple of occasions. Service is not very attentive. I read another review where the hostess told a guy they were slow, so they were going to close early and not serve him. They turned away a paying customer.
We just had a similar thing happen on New Year’s Eve, when they wouldn’t take a to-​go order from us because they were «going to be too busy.» Keep in mind, this was early, like 5:00 pm, way before busy time. But, if they anticipate being busy, why not staff accordingly to accommodate that? They turn away business and customers like they truly don’t care if they lose your business. My husband spoke to someone named Ryan on the phone who basically said he really didn’t care if he lost our business because he was going to be that busy. (Note: It’s been pretty dead in there every time we’ve gone there.) Customers are not valued there, so they have lost our business. We go to Milano’s at Ventura Harbor now. Much nicer staff there, and good Italian food with a great view.

Was in town visiting family. Saw the favorable reviews and also was recommended by the front desk at the hotel. Called ahead and spoke to Ryan as we were going to be 4 people plus a baby. I wanted to see if they could accommodate us. Ryan assured me that he was setting a table for us. We arrived 15 minutes later and our table was waiting for us with a reserved sign on it. The place was crowded with a really nice crowd of people. The wine list was filled with very reasonably priced wines. We ordered the fried Calamari which was as good as the best I have ever had, including my favorite NY restaurants. We all loved our entrees and the deserts were fantastic as well. The service was as professional and outstanding as can be. They made me feel like a regular, which if I lived in town I certainly would be. I highly recommend this restaurant. You will not be disappointed.

Was there for a quick visit. The staff was nice and efficient. The ravioli was great in the dipping sauce and the beer was cold. What else do you need?

Best Italian restaurant in Ventura County hands down

Love this place!
Some friends and I kayak often in Channel Islands Harbor and have eaten here twice. We were delighted with the food and the friendly service both times.
The first time we opened the menu, it was hard to choose what to order because everything looked so good. The food was prepared and presented beautifully and the vegetables were fresh and cooked to perfection. We both ordered the gelato for dessert. So many different flavors to choose from! It was delicious!
It was nice to be able to sit outside in the small but delightful patio since we often look a little scruffy after kayaking for hours. Lots of parking in front of the restaurant. This will be our go-​to place at Channel Islands Harbor!

i notice that someone has left an adverse review on Unilocal for this great restaurant which i believe is totally unfounded. the complainant said that
he and his «» sweetie””! got sick after eating the gelato. i would suggest that this person did not in fact get an upset stomach from the gelato here as my wife and i eat the wonderful gelato
every week. my guess is that this complainant and his ««sweetie ««,
picked up a bug elsewhere and blamed
this excellent restaurant most unfairly. if he really had a valid complaint he should have reported it to the relevant authority who would have investigated the matter accordingly and traced the infection back to the correct source.
shame on them for an unfounded complaint against the best restaurant in our area. we and our friends eat here very regularly and nobody to my knowledge has ever gotten sick.
i hope that this sets the record straight.

I had no idea there was an Italian restaurant in this area. A friend and I ate in the outside patio area and our food was great! Bread & olive oil was served to us before ordering which was pretty good. Next time for dinner I will have a glass or two of wine with my entrée.

The food is delicious & light. Great fresh made bread. And the service is fantastic. Can’t wait to come back!

The food was excellent the waiters know what they are doing. It is a very nice and clean environment. Oh the food was superb! Recommend 100%

**This review is based on our experience with the gelato.**
The sweetie and I both had upset stomachs shortly after having gelato here. The pistachio gelato had some iciness to it. It could have possibly had been sitting out, then frozen and then back out causing bacterial problems. The vanilla gelato was fine in taste and texture and lacked the iciness. Probably fresh and not refrozen. Generous sized scoops but, unfortunate that we became sick.
This little bistro had potential as it is quaint and charming, nicely tucked away in Oxnard’s lovely marina. Plenty of free parking is available in this little marina mall. The restaurant only had one other table occupied at mid afternoon on a Sunday. Not a good sign. As for the server, she was pleasant enough. Sadly, these pleasantries aside from getting sick are not enough to warrant a second visit.
On a side note, I was just a visitor in this area. There are superior places in the greater Los Angeles area to have delicious gelato. Bummer about The Italian Job. They have such a cool name too.

If you want the absolute perfect Italian cuisine and ambience experience, you must come to the Italian Job Café! Often!!! Brava. The next best thing to traveling to Italy. The bolongese is marvelous. Ravioli, gnocchi, spaghetti & the pepperoni pizza. To die for. The Caesar salad includes the freshest romaine imaginable mixed with extraordinarily fresh Caesar dressing. We love it! Love the atmosphere.

Mmmm. Delicious Italian food close to the beach. The Italian Job is a very cute restaurant that is perfect for a couple or large groups. I went for dinner with three others and the food was delicious! Our waitress seemed nervous but was very nice.
We had the
roasted eggplant soup-​thought this was bland and a weird texture.
Lobster ravioli-​super rich and tasty! Not very many but boy were they good!
Priest stranglers-​yummy pasta and sweet Italian sausage
Mixed veggies were cooked perfectly
Meatballs were little ones but had good flavor with some salt
Tiramisu-​ok
Raspberry cheesecake-​OMG DELICIOUS! This was the best dessert!
Chocolate profiteroles-​mousse was awesome, would have preferred ice cream in the cream puff
Gelato-​3 big scoops and delicious!

Als gebürtiger Italiener bin ich bei italienischen Restaurants in den USA äusserst skeptisch.
Doch dieses hier macht wortwörtlich einen guten italienischen Job.
Trotz sehr grossem Angebot sind die Speisen (wir waren drei Abende hintereinander dort) jedes mal mit frischen Zutaten sehr gut zubereitet.
Auch der Espresso — wenn auch nicht einer der stärksten — ist nicht irgendeine Brühe.
Kann ich allen — ausser den hartgesottensten Italopuristen — uneingeschränkt empfehlen.