Asti Ristorante

COFM

This place is expensive and marginal food. Mainly I fault the restaurant for a complete lack of transparency on the «Chef’s Special» section of the menu which doesn’t have any prices. The regular menu has entrees in the $ 20-​$ 30 range. I was with a large group and several people ordered entrees from the chef’s special menu that were $ 75 — $ 85. The waiters didn’t say a word. In fact they were all about up-​selling water, appetizers, etc. Really poor etiquette not to warn someone their meal is 3X-​4X the price of the other entrees which have prices. Worst of all the food was only marginal. The appetizers were of Olive Garden standard and the food only slightly better. My pasta was over-​cooked which is really inexcusable in a good restaurant. Bottom line the bill for 10 people was over $ 1000. For $ 100 per person I expect an exceptional meal. At Asti you get a marginal meal for an exceptional price.
The only reason I gave it a 2 is because the bread was good and the wine list not as much as ripoff as the rest of the menu.
The owners really need to provide transparency on the Chef Special menu rather than ripping off tourists.

Me and my boyfriend went out for a romantic dinner last night at your restaurant. We were seated at a fabulous table outside on the patio. The food was delicious and our waiter, Mark (Marco?) did an outstanding job making us feeling special. Thank you Asti and I hope to be back soon!

Very nice Italian food and ambiance. Waiter, Martin, was excellent. Salmon penne and fettuccine with chicken were our meals of choice and were very good. Would recommend this as a real Italian ristorante. Enjoy!

We started a tradition with some family friends a few years ago and enjoyed a New Year’s Eve dinner downtown well before the hype starts and then head home to enjoy the countdown. This year, Asti was the dinner destination and we were not disappointed.
The family we were dining with luckily arrived prior to us and had gotten the table arranged. As the night went on, I could tell it was a popular place for a holiday meal. It looked as though there were a few regular customers as well as first timers. My wife and I had dined here years ago, before kids, and things haven’t changed much since then.
The restaurant is set up in what you may expect in a New York burrow. It’s smallish and quaint with brick walls and pictures of «famous» people on the walls. The tables are relatively small which creates a more intimate feel as a whole. If you check in, they offer a free bruschetta! Totally worth it.
They had a special menu for New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure how much the prices differed from a regular night since we’ve not dined here in a number of years, but they looked relatively on par with what I would expect at such a restaurant. I ordered the penne with salmon. It came in a light cream sauce with sauteed onions, thin slices of asparagus and a hint of red pepper flakes. The asparagus was fresh with a bit of a crunch while the peppers added a bit of a kick to each bite, but wasn’t overbearing. My wife ordered the seafood risotto which had a nice assortment of fresh fish and shells. We closed out our meal with a shared tiramisu. It was served with a drizzle of raspberry syrup.
Service could have been a bit better as I was without water for much of my meal. I also had to ask for our bread to be replenished after the initial baskets were emptied. My wife had a hard time seeing and hearing the descriptions from across a table for 10. However it didn’t make it around for about 10 – 15 minutes or so. Some of the empty plates sat on the table for a while. Not sure if they were being polite and not removing them while others were still eating or just an oversight.
Overall a really nice way to spend the last evening of 2015.
Keep on Unilocal’n!

Best Italian in Gaslamp hands down… food is always on point. & absolutely love being served by professionals. Try the fritto misto, as good as it gets, all pasta is made to order, steaks, chops, seafood, Asti is the best…20 plus years & counting

Best Italian restaurant in San Diego!!! Friendly and knowledgable staff, and delicious food, thumbs up

This is an Italian restaurant in the Gaslamp District, and it is therefore not cheap. But the atmosphere is pleasant, the service attentive if a little rushed even on a slow day, and the food better than average. Think fresh pasta and tasty sauces. But there are a few rough edges, like a waiter repeatedly asking if he could remove obviously empty plates, and the wines are overly expensive. But I would go back.

As always, great service, great food. Alessandro was super nice and attentive.
This is my go to place every time I go to San Diego :)

This is a place we always make time to go to when we are in San Diego. We have tried many of the dishes and have never been disappointed. This past time my husband ordered the Linguine all Vongole. He (being Italian) said it was the best that he has ever had and even wanted to return the next night to eat it again. I have ordered the Rigatoni Rugantino many times and sometimes just a simple plate of spaghetti. Everything always comes out fresh and hot. The offer Gluten free as well as whole wheat pasta. We always ask for Mark to be our server as he gives us great service and is entertaining as well.
If you are looking for a great place to eat with a full bar and great wine list, this is just what you’ve been looking for! They also have great patio dining.

One star for the great service from the hostess. Zero stars for our waiter, busser/​runner and I would borderline say the owner or manager whomever was bossing around the waiters…
Long story short from the very beginning we asked the hostess if they were able to squeeze us in (party of 3) specifically for coffee and dessert! Hostess was very accommodating and was able to get us a table. We sat down and it took a good 7 minutes before the waiter acknowledged us and when we told him we were there for just coffee and desserts he literally yelled for the runner and said «postres». He grabbed the beautiful tray of displayed desserts and took our order. He relayed our order to our waiter and while we were waiting I saw the owner/​manager talk to our waiter and the waiter literally POINTED to our table and said «there are three people and they only ordered coffee and one dessert» it was very rude and condescending. #1) it’s a business, you want business or not? #2) we specifically stated we were there solely for dessert and coffee #3) our bill for 3 coffees and one dessert was $ 30! The dessert was not even that great. Furthermore the runner (who was doing ALL of our waiters work … From bringing us bread, water, dessert, and coffee) was not knowledgable of the desserts/​what was in our apple turnover. Before we ate it we asked if there were nuts inside. I have a deathly allergic allergy to nuts and he clearly said «no, there are only raisins.» I took a bite out of the dessert and instantly my throat started to get itchy and i knew instantly there were nuts inside. If I ingested that one bite I literally could have went into anaphylactic shock. I stormed out of the restaurant with swollen lips and ran back to my hotel to grab my epipen.

Asti’s service and food are out of this world. We haven’t eaten there in literally 4 years and happened to have the same server Mark and he remembered us! Being military family we’ve traveled a cross the world and Mark is by far the best server we have ever had. Food was great, we both had managers specials and they did not disappoint. We even had our photo taken by the staff and that was a good momento to take home with us. We’ll definitely be back again and hopefully Mark will be our server.

There are LOTS of Italian places in downtown San Diego, Gaslamp district, and I’m an Italian obsessed person so of course I’ve pretty much tried all the places. This place so far has been my FAVORITE! I had the cheese ravioli with Alfredo sauce and I ate the entire thing. Basically licked the plate! It was the best dish I’ve had in a long time! The service was great, and the whole atmosphere made me feel like I was in Italy. Highly recommend this place if you’re walking around Gaslamp and picking between the Italian places!

Had a bad experience here several years ago and decided then an there to never come back. Well walked by again last night and decided to give them a try after my bad experience.
Lasagna and Ciopinno were good as was the service. My only complaint is the manager/​owner and his pals like to stop by and hang around on the patio. It seems more like a social hangout than a fine Italian dining experience. He really should spend more time talking to customers.
While the food was good I cant see myself returning anytime soon.

We visited recently and I had the Mixed Grill, it was very good.
Our waiter Sandro, was super nice, very attentive and made our night extra special. He spoke italian with my mother law, she was very happy. We are looking forward to returning and trying more items from their menu!

Asti, in my opinion, is the top Italian restaurant in San Diego hands down. From the moment I stepped in I was treated like I was special. I felt like I was a guest at someone’s home. The décor is beautiful. From what I understand, they had recently undergone a two month long renovation. I overheard servers speaking Italian. The owners also came to introduce themselves to me and asked if my experience so far was pleasant. They recommended a wine to me (I prefer to listen to the experts) top compliment my dinner.
The calamari was excellent, served with vegetables and a delicious red sauce. We had the filet mignon rigatoni and the Chilean sea bass special.
My overall everyone was excel and I highly recommend for any occasion: a romantic dinner, a corporate dinner, a fine birthday dinner, etc.
I will make sure that I never leave San Diego without stopping her first.

Made a reservation here for 20 people on May 18^th decided to stop by the night before to look at the restaurant and found out that they were closed for whatever reason! Not even the courtesy to call us back and tell us what was going on!
Very unprofessional disrespectful and poor customer service! Definitely never going back !

We came here as a group from a conference, and had a party of 12 with us. they immediately sat us down and served up wine and bar drinks to get us settled in. We ordered their recommended appetizers, which were delicious, although not enough to share among us all. Next, entrees included lobster pasta, chicken, fish and an assortment of seafood dishes. While checking into Unilocal,I noticed they also had a 10% Unilocal coupon, so we immediately got this to our waiter, who graciously discounted our food purchases; I think it’s illegal to discount booze, because that was the majority of our $ 1,100 bill! If you enjoy an Italian atmosphere in the gaslamp area, this would be nice, but I would just nosh on the appetizers and light entrée, and stay away from the libations, but that’s just me…

Awesome service! Jordan took care of us excellent !
Definitely will be back soon
Went for Valentine’s dinner and we really had a fabulous time !!! We were absolutely amazed about every detail out waiter Jordan had prepared for us. Our table looked marvelous

I had to update my review based on my experience tonight. First, the restaurant smelt like wet rag or a pipe burst that made it smell like sewer. ASTI no longer has my favorite dish which was the shrimp wrapped in bacon. BOO! Lastly, the lasagna lacked flavor and cheese but more tomato sauce instead.

First time here. Jordan is one of the best server.
Rib eye steak that he recommended made my day.
Try Rib eye steak. You will never regret.

La pasta riquísima, bien hecha, caliente y muy buen gusto. Las entradas también, cada detalle hecho con dedicación. Caímos de casualidad y sin duda es para volver nuevamente. Totalmente recomendable !

Nice ambiance, a bit loud because is a small place. Had the lamb curry pasta, nice indi-​Talian fusion, not spice as expected however it was well balance, the eggplant parmigiana was ok not as expected, the tomato sauce was excellent. Generous dish portions, good assortment of wine