Pan Bon

Best Italian I’ve had in the Little Italy area and that’s saying a lot! Had several sandwiches and combinations of meat and cheese, and each time I was left licking my fingers.
Only reason I’ve giving 4 instead of 5 stars is because of the negative experience I had with the «all you can eat» Wednesday pizza. Guess I was the only one who was partaking and they said they could accommodate making pizza for me! I understand not wanting to make several different pizzas for just one person’s desire to try a few different pies, but the (male) server was obviously uncaring as to the incredibly negative customer service experience he was giving me. Even when I explained it, he just look at me with dead eyes and repeated his inappropriate earlier statement. Not impressed, but then again, I’ve learned that the male servers are not very good here. Maybe if I were a long-​legged blonde?
Female workers seem to be far more attentive and helpful, trying to give the best possible experience.
Never ordered the pastries, but they look amazing. Maybe if I order less food, I’ll be tempted to try the sugary stuff? That’ll be a hard sell, given how tempting the food is.

Truly sublime, wish could eat here every week, great atmosphere, happy staff and food is fabulous. Love all dishes just pick and choice you won’t be disappointed

This place has a great look and feel to it and food and drink to match.
Place: In Little Italy, great! High ceilings wood paneling spacious seating areas and everything was brought over from the owners hometown in Italy. Large area and yet they managed to accomplish the warm and inviting feeling as well.
Service: They do have good service but for some reason the girl behind the pastry counter does not seem to be very friendly and helpful if she is busy, kinda needs to work on her customer service skills however, everyone else is very helpful and nice.
Price: Okay the place does seem to be a bit more on the pricey side, but only for dinner, breakfast and lunch is quite reasonable. They quality of the food though definitely shines through.
Food/​Drink: Great food, you can order from the cases of food on offer or go to the full service area for their menu items, its all very good. Also, their wines are very tasty, just ask for any recommendations of what would pair well with your food selection if you don’t know what to order, they will guide you in the right direction. Enjoy!

Wonderful Italian restaurant with probably the best salad bar in all of downtown — pick your fresh and tasty greens, choice of 32 toppings and dressing, and they toss it and pile it high on a chilled plate for just $ 10 — only for lunch. Or, they have made-​to-​order panini, pasta, burgers and specials. For dinner, there’s pastas, pizza or entrees, such as scallops, steak, chicken, lamb chops and fish.
Wednesday nights, they have a pizza special, where they bring around various wood-​fired pizzas– just $ 15, plus wine for $ 6/​glass and beer for $ 4/​glass. Tried this with some friends, and it was wonderful. The pizzas were all so good! Nice ambience, and friendly service too!

Delicious and tasty breakfast this morning at Pan Bön! Salmon with eggs and green tea… perfect way to start the day :)
Pan Bön is a really cozy and beautiful place ! Highly recommended

My husband and I LOVE Pan Bön!!! Giancarlo and Moira are amazing! They are so welcoming and kind; we often order from their gastronomy cases. Everything can be put in the oven, toasted, add a salad and you’re in wonderland. We love the fresh meats and cheeses that are also available along with the fresh bread and olive oil. Do NOT get me started on the desserts! Everything is made fresh that morning and any of the mignons are to die for! A selection of 3 – 5 is enough for any couple to share. Everything coming out of the kitchen is expertly presented like a work of art. I highly recommend Pan Bön. It’s our go-​to secret place. For our anniversary the owners gave us free dessert (a gorgeous assortment of mignons). The attention to detail and personal service is very important to us. :)

I went here for my company’s holiday breakfast last month. The space is really pretty and I like the concept — quick service in the front with ready made food items, baked goods, and desserts, and a restaurant in the back. The foods I tried were eggs, bacon, yogurt with granola, potato cake (similar to a latke), a croissant, a latte, and a vanilla latte. Other items that were available were breakfast pizzas, mini croque monsieurs, and a selection of desserts and additional breakfast pastries.
The best items were the croissant, potato cake, and vanilla almond milk latte. However, the croissant is only good when it’s fresh. I went back on another day in the afternoon and got a couple of croissants to go since I liked the croissant in the morning, but they weren’t very good unfortunately.
I’d like to go back to Pan Bön for lunch or dinner at some point because other reviewers seem very happy with their experiences.

I work next door and my coworkers and I stop in almost daily to get snacks, coffee, food to-​go, etc. They have a layout that you wouldn’t find at most restaurants, it’s pretty unique. It’s kind of a modern cafeteria style/​vibe.
They have the most AMAZINGGGGG double chocolate cookies!!! If you have a strong love for chocolate I highly recommend you try one. I always come in for hot chocolate or coffee and a quick snack or dessert. I haven’t had any entrees or sat down for an actual lunch or dinner but everything looks delicious.
It is family owned and the staff is very friendly. Very great place, definitely stop by if you’re in the Little Italy area!

This is the third time coming here. What really makes me come back are the freshly baked brioche. So much fluff and the crisp flaky outside crust. I usually get the Nutella or Bavarian-​like cream filled ones. So worth the additional 3,000 steps I tracked on my fit bit.
The other time I came here I ordered the three egg breakfast which came with bacon, small salad, toast. Got my eggs poached and they were perfect. A little different from the usual Pan Bön Breakfast. Most breakfast bang for your buck at this fancy place.

Charcuterie? Please! I think they have a solid selection of charcuterie with the best pricing in town. They’re dinner is also well execute and provides finesse that is difficult to find in little Italy.
They also do breakfast so they’re an all day resource that is more than satisfying.

We’ve been regularly coming here almost every Saturday after the Mercato. We tried the Chicken of the Day, we shared a plate and it was really really good. The chef added in extra chicken for us. They are extremely nice and the food is awesome!!!

Pan bon breakfast was great, croque sandwich was decent, kids loved their chocolate brioche and pizzeta (mini pizza)
We also tried their cappuccino and mocha which were both delicious, and it was great how the server refilled our cups with their house coffee for free.
Will definitely come back again, it’s a nice looking café/​bakery, maybe lunch or merienda next time

Found this place off of Thrillist’s «50 must try brunch places in San Diego». Hah. What a joke.
Let’s just say, the big deal is the ambiance of this place and probably the food. Not too sure about the taste of the food, but it looked cute. Hah. I say cute food bc we didn’t even get a chance to try it due to the rude hospitality– and apparently other Unilocalers agree.
We walked in. Sat down for 15 min, NO ONE greeted us or came to our table to tell us that they will be right with us. A few people made eye contact with us but said NOTHING to us. Mind you, it was not busy. Also, we sat down in the service section of the restaurant and not the self serve front part of the restaurant.

Came in here on a slow Sunday night to check out the good reviews. First of the the space is beautiful. Once you walk in it really opens up with modern tasteful décor. While nothing was occurring on a Sunday night had we come another time we would’ve been able to see all the baking magic happen before our eyes.
As for the appetizer we ordered antipasto meat and cheese plate with marinated veggies. Delicious choices. Some were quite strong though, next time I will be more careful about the order and taste things milder to stronger.
For our main courses we got the special Uni scallop pasta and the Rack of Lamb. Both were tasty to say the least, as well as aesthetically pleasing. Maybe it was because there was more time for the staff but they were attentive and made sure we were taken care of. The pasta especially was light yet creamy. Uni pasta is quickly becoming my favorite iteration of pasta!
For dessert we decided to skip anything too heavy and just picked out a pair of little pastries they had prepared on display. Not bad, but we both decided that it would be a better representation if we came back when i twas all fresh and they had the full variety. And a bigger treat for us of course=)

I just fell in love! XOXO This place is dessert heaven! I’m taking all my loved ones here for breakfast lunch and dinner on their birthdays! You’re welcome :)

came here in the PM to try out the food since the interior looks soo pretty! Got a cheese and meat plate that’s pre-​set and a couple of white wines to wash it down, i really wish they can let you pick and choose the cheese on the plate because they served only hard cheeses and I’m a sucker for gooey, runny, bloomy/​wash rind cheese. Also tried some of their breads but wasn’t too impressed because it tasted a little bit stale. most likely would not return because there are so many other places to eat in the little italy area and the food here just isn’t enticing enough for me to return

We were walking home after a late dinner at another nearby restaurant and our friends were feeling sugar deprived so we stopped here for a quick fix.
We ordered a fruit tart and profiteroles. Frederica made our plates as we ordered, and we quickly devoured the two desserts.
10 minutes later we were on our way home again, fully contented.

Pan bon has been on my list. The desserts and the fact that it’s Italian really drew me in. I really like their website too. They have really good marketing. The vaulted ceilings and the walls makes this place gorgeous and very welcoming.
Italian Yay! I think I just want to hear them talk. I’ll definitely come back for that. I can’t understand them but that’s ok. I like their accents.
Breakfast Meh… I ordered the salmon and eggs. You don’t understand how I miss going out to brunch. My brunch outings suddenly stopped and I’ve been wanting to get it started again. I thought my food was ok but it wasn’t that filling. I usually never finish my food since I get full fast but I finished this because it wasn’t that much. It was 4 tiny pieces of bread with salmon on top and 2 poached eggs and a tiny salad. It needed something more. I felt tired also. I don’t know if it was from going out the night before or eating late in the day. The coffee could also be the reason.
Service Mehh then yay! Lol. It was hard to get their attention and pretty slow. My cousin’s order didn’t come out so we said something and the waiter forgot to put it in. He was very apologetic and comped her order. He also offered desserts for us to try which was very nice.
Desserts YAY! My weakness. Especially tiramisu. I used to love just getting tiramisu at another place in little Italy but then it started to suck so I didn’t come down as often. I thought their tiramisu was amazing and I would love to get more. The cannoli was really good as well. I preferred the desserts with chocolate in it that we did try. I don’t know all the names of what we tried but everything was delicious.
I think I would probably prefer lunch over breakfast here. It was an ok visit and I know they are still fairly new. I tried my friend’s pizza and I did like it more than my order. I’ll probably like some pizza or pasta more than their breakfast items and i’ll definitely love their dessert. Hopefully I can come back again soon.

Love love love love this place!
My fiancé and I stopped by one Saturday because we wanted to see what the hype was all about! We were absolutely blown away at the space and how beautiful the architecture was!
We shared an order of the Pan Bön Breakfast and a Cannoli for our breakfast dessert. The food was delicious and we enjoyed our lazy Saturday afternoon in this beautiful restaurant/​bakery. The service was great and the prices were decent. This place is definitely better than Café Zucchero (another Little Italy breakfast spot).
We will definitely come back for breakfast (and one of those giant croissants that they have displayed in the bakery section)! I highly recommend you stop by.
NOTE: Parking is a bit tricky in Little Italy. This is right across the street from Rite Aid so there’s a few meter spots. Meters are free on Sundays and street parking is hard to find. Be prepared to walk a few blocks!

Breakfast was in order when I stopped in the Pan Pon for breakfast. After seeing all the wonderful desserts, I was very tempted to have some, but I stuck to ordering the Vegetable Omelet with a potato cake, a side salad, and some toasted bread. In addition, they also offered some complimentary table bread and butter. For me beverage, I ordered and iced coffee. The omelet was $ 11.
Although I thought the omelet was on the small side for my taste, it was well prepared, very lightly seasoned, so I added a little black pepper, and the egg portions was flavor and fluffy. The vegetables inside the omelet were interesting, in that they were finely chopped. They tasted good, but the omelet needed something, and quickly realized that was cheese. Some nice feta or Provolone would of been nice and would elevated the omelet’s simple flavor profile.
The potato cake that came on the side was a bit of a disappointment. It had a very nice golden brown color, but it was laden with oil, which made its texture inside on the mushy side. The flavor was okay, but I think they need to work on this one.
The salad was petite was light and lightly dressed with a balsamic reduction. It was good, but it did not excite my taste buds to want to get it again, unless I was on a salad diet. The breads that came with the meal were most excellent. They all had great flavor and wonderful texture. It was not had to pat some of the fresh butter all over this bread. I enjoyed the bread the most.
I believe that this place is much better than I experienced, so I plan to return to try some of those great looking desserts and perhaps another meal.