de’Medici

This place is just PHENOMENAL! From service to ambiance to food, I’m really impressed!!! They treated us like royalty and Sal, the manager and Sarceño, our waiter hosted us perfectly. We started with Caesars salad made from scratch and created right before our very eyes. It was delicious! Best Caesars salad I’ve ever had! We ordered their signature dish called Sol Portofino, a seafood dish, paired with red wine and it totally blew my mind!!! For dessert, I really enjoyed their chocolate cake/​soufflé with vanilla ice cream! It was baked to perfection. The dining experience was totally worth it in this restaurant. I would definitely go back and recommend it to others.

This was a great place for dinner. The food was good and the drinks were strong. The service was amazing-​thank you Sarceño! I had ordered the steak and lobster, but I was a bit let down by the filet mignon and some sauce that was on it. The lobster was delicious and a large one at that; not a skimpy lobster tail. They are a bit pricey, a little more than Lawry’s but it was worth a try.
Must try: espresso martini & gummi bear martini.
You can hold on the filet mignon; it’s nothing special.

We went for our anniversary tonight, and since we are not from San Diego we didn’t know what to expect. Wow is all I have to say!!! From the moment we walked in, we were treated so nicely and the booth we got was amazing. My wife ordered the fettuccini bolognese and I had the chicken piccata. Both dishes were excellent and the calamari as our appetizer was great too. I also had the lobster bisque, which was delicious! From the Malbec wine to the tiramisu, we couldn’t see anything with a flaw. We highly recommend if you are in San Diego to have dinner here! You won’t be disappointed.

Great service! The feel is definitely of an old Italian place you would see in the mobster movies. It was decorated for Valentine’s Day with balloons and everyone was very friendly. As for the food is would say it was above average. The lobster ravioli and lobster risotto were both cooked perfectly but missed that wow factor. I wanted to love this place but was left wanting more. I might come and try something different but we will see.

Our server Juan was fabulous. The table side Caesar salad was delicious but my main entrée was lack luster. It’s not that it wasn’t good it was just not something I was ready to shout from
The rooftops about.

Best Italian in SD!
I know that is a bold statement, but I make it willingly.
If you are in the gaslamp and hungry, stop by and grab the Veil Parmigiana.
I have yet to find a better seasoned and literally flattened amazing dish like this.
Each bite was balanced, full of savory goodness and not too bready.
The juices will fill your mouth which each bite from the tender and well picked veal.
The Sole is also a good choice for any seafood fans out there.
I have been coming here for over a decade, and there is a reason they continue to get my business time after time.
Consistency, Quality, Ambiance and Service!
What more is there in a restaurant?

WOW! The service is 5 star, the Lobster Risotto 10 star! The sole house special was out of this world. Each carrot was a delectable dish unto itself, the greens were crips and delicious. Everything is OUT OF SIGHT! We will be returning, for sure, especially with out of towners.

Had dinner there Saturday night with my husband and niece and her boyfriend, wonderful food, the Lobster Bisque was amazing! Fantastic service, the owner himself came by several times to say hello and check on us. Its a beautiful place and definitely with visiting! I’ll make sure I got back the next time I am in San Diego.

My parents took me and my boyfriend here while we were in San Diego for the holidays and it was absolutely amazing! We both loved everything we ordered and definitely plan on going back! My parents shared the Carpaccio di Manzo while me and my boyfriend had the Prosciutto di Parma e Mozzarella, both of which I highly recommend. The buffalo mozzarella was so delicious. Next we ordered the caesar salad for the table which was prepared so beautifully table side of us. Our server Antonio was fabulous and he prepared both the caesar and bananas foster artfully and both came out tasting so so yummy! For my main course I had the veal Piccata which I also enjoyed. Overall it was an amazing dinner and we will be back :)

de’Medici was recommended by a friend and our experience was AMAZING! This restaurant is a destination, an experience for your senses, each and every one who enters de’Medici is made to feel like a VIP! We have dined at de’Medici many, many times; year after year! Impressive each and every time! Please read on…
Imagine if you will
You are greeted at the door by a beautiful Hostess who escorts you and your guests to the perfect table. Next, you are greeted by your Waiter, who is wearing an impeccable suit. He introduces himself to you, you immediately know this man is a professional, a man who takes pride and pleasure in serving the perfect meal.
The décor is impeccable, white table cloths, beautiful paintings, chandeliers; you know you are about to be treated to a feast of the senses!
The wine list is extensive and your waiter is an expert on food and wine pairing. There is also a full bar if it’s cocktail you would like while you peruse the menu.
Each and every menu item is hand crafted, receipes have been handed down from generations of love and experience. Whether you order the more traditional Osso Buco or their Signature Sole Portofino, your waiter brings to the table a tray; which displays each protein to demonstrate their commitment to serving you the season’s freshest offerings.
The Insalate de Caesar is prepared table-​side with the finest local seasonal produce. de’Medici’s pasta selections are clearly prepared from scratch; sauces or gravy from Alfredo to Arrabbiata, to their Bolognese and Pomodoro, each dish is masterful!
Just when you think your dining experience couldn’t get any better, you’ve made the decision to have dessert too! Whether it’s the Banana’s Foster or the Raspberry Flambé, these delights are also prepared table-​side with a flourish of style! If you can stand more adventure, I highly recommend a fine, refreshing champagne to add to this culinary adventure!
In this highly enlightened era of elevated expectations in dining, de’Medici excels not only in excellent cuisine, they are also at the pinnacle of service!
de“Medici is by far and above our FAVORITE dining destination! Its safe to simply say that we really love this place and appreciate Sal for his passion and dedication!

One of my favorite restaurants. Professional staff. Beautiful presentations. Great food. Keep up the good work guys. The espresso margaritas are popular and tasty.

Linguini Pescatori was a delight. This dish had it all, sitting in a light tomato sauce accenting each bite. Seafood lovers will not at all be disappointed with this generous serving of seafood jumbled in linguini. excellent service, comfortable seating.

I’ve been to a lot of Italian restaurants and man all I can say is that I’m blown away. You guys have to experience it for yourself to understand!

Check in for a free Cannoli!
My family and I were in San Diego for a week for work, and were craving Italian food one night. I knew there’d be excellent places in the gas lamp district, so I Unilocaled and de’Medici was the closest restaurant to us with the most reliably solid reviews. Since this was a Friday night and it was already 7:30 ish pm, I decided just to call in about reservations so we wouldn’t just show up at the restaurant on a whim and end up having to wait around. The next available table they’d have for 2 adults and a toddler would be 8:30pm, so we didn’t leave our hotel until after 8pm — we decided we’d walk the quarter mile to the restaurant since parking in gaslamp can be such a nightmare on the weekends.
5 stars for the customer service: All the waiters, waitresses, the owner/​co-​owner, and the receptionist were all soooo accommodating. This restaurant isn’t exactly suitable for kids, but don’t worry, kids are still definitely welcome! The entire staff: The receptionists, waiters, waitresses, and the manager, were all incredibly kind to us.
Here’s what we ordered for the evening:
Antipasti: Lobster Ravioli Two (2) pasta pillows stuffed with Maine lobster, topped with a delicate pink vodka sauce. $ 15. This was good, but I honestly don’t feel it’s worth the price. With all the cream sauce, I couldn’t differentiate between this lobster ravioli and your typical cheese ravioli. There are soooo many other great items on the menu, so I suggest you pass on this one.
Insalate de’ Medici: Arugula, avocado, hearts of palm, fresh mozzarella and parmigiano topped with extra virgin olive oil. $ 14 — This salad was just PERFECT to me. Though simple, I loved it. So refreshing, made with such fresh ingredients, pretty large portion — enough to share with 1 other.
Lasagna: Fresh pasta layered with a blend of ricotta, parmigiano-​reggiano and buffalo mozzarella, then oven baked in our delicate marinara sauce $ 19.
(Add Bolognese sauce $ 3.00) — My better half ordered this & he did request the bolognese sauce. Absolutely divine and delicious, he said. The ingredients were definitely high quality with a custom, home-​made taste. Generous portion size! Luscious layers of lasagna noodles, rich & hearty meat sauce with velvety layers of melted cheese… mmmm… I took a few bites and it certainly tasted just as good as it looked!
Sole Portofino (Their signature dish): Fresh filet of sole stuffed with lobster, crab & shrimp then oven baked to a golden brown and topped with a parsley butter glaze $ 38. This dish was definitely impressive and delicious. I am really happy I ordered it since I wasn’t in the mood for a large plate of pasta. The sole filet was tenderly flaky and very flavorful, and combined with the crab, lobster, & shrimp embedded within, it all made this dish simply wonderful! I can see why it’s their most popular and most requested dish of all time.
The service here was impeccable, the ambiance is quaint and cozy, and the food is both authentic and fantastic. Hope you’ll have an enjoyable experience like my family and I did! We’ll be visiting again soon!!!

Here’s The Deal
1.carpaccio (delish and the old school presentation I love)
2.lobster ravioli (seriously the best in town. Huge lobster chunks) amazing sauce.
3. The Caesar salad (made table side) so so so so good… (Garlic haters be weary of this
4. Ambiance… Imagine walking into a Scorsese film (goodfellas, casino etc.)
5. Absolutely love this place;)

One of the best restaurants I’ve been to In my travels. Salvatore and Juan made us feel like we were their only customers. Their wine choice was perfection; steaks, pastas and fish were amazing. Juan makes some kind of ceasar salad like you’ve never had before. The stuffed sole was perfection.

Man, so I work downtown and never was able to come in until last night. Tom took care of me and my family from the get go. He made An amazing old fashion for me and I also had his espresso martini that was absolutely delicious. Great service, great food, I had the arribiata penne and it was to die for! I also had the Tiramisu which was the best I’ve ever had in San Diego! I definitely will be coming back very soon!

Amazing experience. My friend and I are in town for work and had dinner here on a spur of the moment decision. We are so glad we did too!
He had fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and I had the chicken parm. Both were delicious. We liked that the fettuccine was not made with cinnamon or nutmeg. It was rich and filling. The chicken parm was tender, cooked perfectly and delicious. We also had the table side Caesar salad. Hands down the best I have ever had!

I absolutely love this place. Awesome food, great atmosphere, and great staff. Very friendly from the moment you walk in and throughout your entire dining experience. If you have the chance, get the ribeye steak! As a man that usually uses steak sauce, this piece of prime meat did not need it at all.
The turnover rate in Downtown San Diego is pretty ridiculous, but this restaurant is one of the few that have been for a long time. That alone should indicate how much people love coming here for a nice dining experience.
James, our server, is a friendly and knowledgeable person about the food and wine he serves you and about the history of de’Medici. I hope you get a chance to meet the owner, Sal. He is a kind man who enjoys giving people a positive dining experience and showing his guests his family’s recipes. Will be coming back for years to come!
Oh and get the tiramisu and a cappuccino at the end of your meal, trust me, you’ll thank me later.

Don’t get the gnocci. It was like puddles of goop floating in a lovely sauce, more like soup. As the gnocci melted off my fork and plopped into a blob I showed my waiter and asked if they were supposed to be so mushy because if so well I would have ordered the lobster ravioli instead. They are unlike any gnocci that I have had before and I have had a lot of gnocci. I did not like it. He said they would redo it. I said ok fair enough.
When the second plate came they at least stuck out of the sauce and I though OK that’s more like it. But when i bit in poof a squishy puff of melty sludge again. I gazed down and some of the others were deflating into sludge right before my eyes. I didn’t eat it and the waiter took the full plate with out asking if I wanted it boxed or if it was better or anything. I had to go talk to a manager to get it removed from my bill. Everyone in our party had already eaten so it was too late to reorder. The sauce was really good so it was a damn shame they can’t get the texture or consistency right.
There was a free cannoli with check in. I did take a bite of that and gave it someone else. I have had better. I tasted my friend’s spaghetti which was just average and a bit acidic. Not a lot of flavor there. My other friend had the fish that was their signature dish and loved it. 2 other friends had chicken piccatta and chicken parmigana. Both said it shrugged and said «meh it’s alright» but they had had better too.
So for the value and the mediocre food well I don’t think it’s worth it. Also if your in a large party they charge you $ 25 for every no show. WTF? Who does that? It’s not a wedding? We had 6 less in our party of 30. We would have been sat in that room regardless. This seemed ridiculous. I guess if you do reserve for a large group go UNDER on the estimated the number of people going. I am sure they would accommodate adding more people with out charging $ 25 a person. They did only charge us for 3 no shows instead of 6 which they acted like that was a favor. I asked if we got to order of togo food for that fee and that was a big no/​ignore. WOW.
The cool thing was they split everyone’s checks accordingly and did not screw it up. That was nice.
Another over rated place on Unilocal.here’s a tip Volare in point loma is way better in price and flavor and a fraction of the cost. However it’s a dive but if your going for good authentic italian it’s way better than this place.

Nice old school Italian restaurant right in the heart of the Gaslamp district !! The owner (Mr. Salvatore Vitale) spent time with us at our table making recommendations and informing us many of the dishes were his mother’s recipient dating back to the traditional Italian roots. The atmosphere is relaxed with many large booths to get comfortable in. This is a great experience for anyone wanting traditional Italian !!

We have been coming to de’ Medici since it opened almost 20 years ago. The owner never fails to come by our table and spend a few minutes to chat with us.
This is an old school, upscale Italian establishment in its food, service and ambiance.
So, if you want the best veal Milanese you have ever tasted along with table side hand made Caesar Salad and traditional Italian desserts then this is your place. If you don’t appreciate quality ingredients or personal attention and prefer trendy or nouveau riche Italian then «Fuhgeddaboudit» — Go somewhere else!

While on vacation, my family and I were wandering the Gaslamp District looking for something yummy to eat and stopped in here purely on a whim. I’m really glad we did. I rated this restaurant a perfect 5 stars for a few reasons, including ambiance, quality and quantity of food (it IS pricey for what it is, but what it is is damn good. I’ve only had better Italian food when it was prepared by actual Italians in their own homes.), staff attentiveness, but mainly those five stars were earned for the hospitality we experienced.
The owner himself greeted us as we walked in, talked about specials, and really just talked to us like people. He was very conversational, and kept checking in on us throughout the meal, and when we left, staff offered goodbyes and thanked us. So professional and welcoming.
They use a Caesar salad recipe here that is one of the best I’ve ever had, and is an original recipe from 1929. The server will come over and prepare it for you at the table, in a very personal display that made me feel like I was having a personal cooking lesson. I am not sure why they put egg beaters in there instead of the regular way, but I digress, my taste buds were not complaining later. Our salad was prepared with perfect consistency and balanced all the tastes effortlessly.
I also ordered a spectacular penne with red sauce that had a nice zesty bite to it. A little disappointed that there weren’t any Italian Moscato or Prosecco wines to choose from. That’s just me being a foofoo whiner though. We did sample a house Cabernet from the owner’s Napa Valley vineyard, and that was fantastic.
All in all, great place where they certainly do treat you like family. I really appreciated that business model and if I’m ever in the area again, I will come back.
Also: Lovely date spot for anyone looking for one!

Going to eat Italian grub tonight. I’m in the Gaslamp District. Haven’t been here in years.
The hostess brings us garlic bread. People want to keep petting my dog. It’s a female Jack Russell wearing a pink sweater that says, «Spoiled and loving it!» People think it’s cute. The dog keeps barking. We’re watching the Padres game on TV.
Wait staff is courteous and professional. The guy pours beer in the glass for me. We order immediately. Everyone loves my dog.
The ciopinno is a mound of seafood sitting in a pool of red sauce. Everyone else ate spaghetti or chicken parmesan.
I dive in. I black out. Next thing I know, the bill shows up. Fifth Street is definitely getting crowded by this time. It’s loud out here.
They honored my free cannoli offer from Unilocal,thumbs up to that. The waiter walked off with my phone to verify it with his manager though, lol, he was gone for like 10 minutes.
With my iPhone still stuck on the redeem screen, The manager comes back and said she wasn’t able to redeem the offer but brought the cannoli anyway, but gave it one last try and tapped the screen to accept the offer. Strange.
Were they trying to read my review? I sense not.
The pasta was not al dente. Nevertheless, it’s the kind of place you’d want to take the wife on your anniversary.

From start to finish the entire meal was exquisite. The attention to detail this place has, especially when it comes to the food, is nothing short of wonderful. Everything is made fresh to order, authentic Italian cuisine. The service was equally lush as the food; my water glass was always full, which is a pet peeve of mine at restaurants when my water is not replenished in a timely manner, friendly and engaging staff, that is also very knowledgable about their food.
We started with the wedge salad, which had lots of bacon and blue cheese, nothing worse then being stingy with the cheese! I then had the fettechuni alla bolognese, with fresh ground veal and filet mignon, all in a delicious sauce on a bed of fresh made pasta. My date had a filet mignon, which has been aged for 21 days and just melted like butter in my mouth!!! And of course you have to end the meal with one of their fresh cannoli, tasted just like I was back in Sicily, especially with a cappuccino to wash it down. This place is definitely worth checking out. Ask for Alessandro to be your waiter, you won’t regret it, authentic Italian gentlemen who will knock your socks off with charm and will make your entire experience!