Sorrento

Last night we discovered a new favorite for Italian. We started with the highly recommended burrata e spinaci as an appetizer. The delicate cheese, with spinach, sun dried tomatoes and a balsamic glaze was perfect. Well, truthfully we started before that with some of the best bread and pesto, ever! The rack of lamb with mushroom risotto special was scrumptious. The gnocchi gorgonzola was decadent. My son enjoyed his pepperoni pizza, but I would never order the pizza with so many more amazing entrees and pasta dishes available here. We saw some jaw dropping desserts around us, but we were too full to try any. Our bill, including one glass of wine, was a very reasonable $ 70 for the three of us, and we brought home ½ the pizza, ½ the gnocchi, and ¹⁄₃ of the lamb. We sat on the covered patio, and were very comfortable with the gas heaters. We will definitely go back, and take friends.

This place was amazing. The atmosphere was very authentic and the food was delicious. The staff was extremely friendly and very attentive. It’s also open later than a lot of the other restaurants in Little Italy, which is what drew us in. It was raining when we went, but they had a beautiful patio/​outdoor section that would be perfect for warm nights. Definitely will be back next time we are in the San Diego area!

Came here on a Saturday afternoon with a friend visiting Little Italy for the first time. They were able to seat us right away outside on the patio which was almost full. The inside wasn’t as crowded
Ambiance: I really like the décor and feel of the patio. It was cute and cozy
Food: The bread and pesto dipping sauce they serve at the table was delicious! Very freshly made pesto. I ordered the risotto, which had mushrooms and crab, It was good. Most risottos can be too rich but this was perfect. I added some of the pesto sauce to it just to give it a little more flavor. My friend got the squid ink pasta which she enjoyed, they said its freshly made there. Prices were decent, each of our meals were $ 13
Service: Our main waiter was friendly but we had to reminded him 2xs about getting my friends soda. I understand it happens. He checked on us a couple times when we were eating, but then a group of girls came in and sat behind us and we rarely saw him again after that. He actually came and took our heat lamp that my friend was sitting under sense she was cold and brought it over to the group of girls without asking us if we were using it. We just thought that was kind of rude. Luckily one of the waitress’s helped us out with the bill and to go boxes and she was super sweet.
Overall it’s a good place but next time I would want to check out some other authentic Italian restaurants in Little Italy to compare and try something different

We were a party of 6 we noticed on our bill a 20% gratuity when asked to talk to the Manger he told us it was there policy to charge this. The waiter told us it was a party of 5 or more so both the Manger and waiter did not know the policy, it looks like they just made it up. The Manger just came to the table and told us that is the policy he didn’t care it was a little difficult to understand him as he doesn’t speak much English I will not return.

Our server Andrea started us with warm bread to dip in pesto. Then, we enjoyed a steaming bowl of clams and mussels that was so good that we wanted to lick the plate. For a main course, we had homemade pasta with bolognese sauce and a bowl of cioppino — both were outstanding. A creamy limoncello tiramisu was the final touch to a fantastic dinner. The prices were very reasonable — main dishes about $ 19 each. We rated the whole experience as 10+!

This place is pretty good! Cute little restaurant in Little Italy that I would definitely come back to. Came here for a friend’s birthday and we each got their sparkling moscato and we all LOVED it!
Service:
We had such a SWEET, SWEET waitress! She’s from Spain and could not have provided better service to our table. Such a sweetheart and pleasure to be around! It was pretty chilly outside when we went and as soon as I asked if we could higher the heat in the warmers, a nice gentleman who worked there was on top of it and took care of the matter that very moment!
Bread with Pesto Sauce:
They brought bread to the table and I only wished it was a little warmer and softer when I was eating it, but it might’ve been because it was cold and we were sitting outside in their patio. Not a fan of pesto sauce to begin with so I made an olive oil and balsamic vinegar mix and loved it!
Appetizer:
Carpaccio de Carne — holy moly! This was AMAZING. Can’t wait to order it again! Pretty much want to come back for this appetizer alone. The flavors in this dish worked in harmony and left you wanting more and more after each bite!
Entrée:
I got the Fettuccine Cleopatra and it was pretty tasty! I was already getting full from eating bread and the appetizer so I was pretty satisfied with how this dish came out. Wasn’t too heavy for a pasta dish. The cream with light and there was a lot of chicken in my plate — a definite plus.
Dessert:
They gave us a free slice of chocolate cake for my friend’s birthday and it was great! Nothing extravagant, but it still tasted delicious and satisfied my sweet tooth!

EXCELLENT! We were on a «staycation» (we live downtown but thought we should just stay in Little Italy for a night) and passed by this new joint. WOW. The Happy Hour is INSANE! $ 5 for a pizza, $ 5 for these amazing mushrooms in sautéed calamari, $ 5 for meatballs with spinach and pasta sauce. We are currently on Janu-​Wagon (IE not drinking for January because we had our fill for the other 11 months), but the cocktails looked quite tempting.
A+ and we will be back. Everything had a very unique taste and wow factor. Staff was incredibly attentive and friendly.

The wait staff attentive without being overbearing. It was fairly busy, and kept an eye on the tables. I had the gnocchi Neri with calamari, spinach, cherry tomatoes and asparagus. .very tasty. .most of the gnocchi were light and fluffy. .some were a bit doughy… I also went for dessert. .lemoncello tiramisu. .I was disappointed.. . Missed the lemon in it… leaving an odd flavor in your mouth. .
Wish now I got something chocolate. .but overall good food… good service

My wife and I stopped at Sorrento’s earlier today for a late lunch. We ate in the outdoor patio which was just a great setting. Our waiter immediately greeted us and was very courteous. We ordered a «misto» appetizer and pizza margarita and a bottle of wine. Our waiter suggested another wine for a few dollars more and his suggestion was excellent. Be sure to get the war bread and presto which was homemade and delicious .
I would highly recommend and would encourage others to try it.

Ok so I was super excited to go here because I had heard such great things about it but for starters I called to make a reservation, the person who answered the phone barely spoke English and it was difficult to ask questions I had. A «manager» was given the phone during my call in making the reservation who also didn’t understand me. I ended up calling the next day and asked to speak to a manager. I explained to him that no one could help me yesterday and I wasn’t even sure if my reservation was even made. The manager confirmed the reservation and also answered my question which was about caking cutting fees (which they do not have).
Now the day of the reservation they called me at 8 asking if I was still coming in and I said yes I’m on my way and explained that I had made the reservation for 8:30 not 8. Got there. Good. It took forever for the server to get to the table, mind you it was a party of 8, and yes a few ppl but it shouldn’t have taken almost 30 mins to get the drink order. The drinks took FOREVER to get to the table as well. One of the guest in the party had to continue calling the server over basically to stay on top of him. The food was then ordered. Good came all together which was great but at the time of paying, we asked for it to be split and they said no. Then we had to give them 5 cards and that was a disaster to say the least. Paying took another 45 mins… So imagine by the end of this almost 3 hours there we were not happy ppl.
In conclusion don’t go there with a big party

Came here on a Saturday night with my boyfriend after watching a show in civic center.
For food, we got the scallops as appetizer and squid ink gnocchi for entrée to share. Both of which are delicious. I think the deal-​breaker was definitely the sauces, which were flavored to perfection and enhanced the main ingredients of each dish.
Our server was an Italian guy and he was very kind and explained every question I had on the menu with a friendly manner.
The only thing that I would change this place was that there was no music playing so all my boyfriend and I could hear was the people at all the bar talking. Nevertheless, I had a great time here and would definitely come back for the delicious food!

A quaint & friendly pizzeria in the middle of Little Italy in San Diego. Their simple thin crust pepperoni pizza, cooked in a wood-​burning fire oven, was amazingly delicious! The calzone was packed with flavor & filling & truly offered up an authentic «taste of Italy»! The wait staff was knowledgeable in their recommendations & did not steer wrong our choices for wine & dinner. Our server was attentive & made our experience here truly wonderful.

What a great new addition this is to SD! The patio is adorable and the service is perfect as long as you’re willing to wait and enjoy a relaxed environment, which I thoroughly enjoy! The outside patio is so cute and has that authentic Italian feeling to it. Plus they offer Happy Hour every day of the week!
My parents had been in a few weeks before me and then booked us for a table of 9 for my Mom’s birthday on a Sunday. We had several bottles of Chianti, spritzers & several other cocktails. We had several appetizers which were all delicious; shrimp & beans, margarita pizza, grilled artichoke and the spinach & Burrata cheese which was my favorite dish. I was quite full after all of the delicious appetizers so I only had a Ceasar salad for my main, which was exceptionally delicious for a basic salad. Everyone else at the table enjoyed their meals but the majority of our party raved over the lamb dishes.
Overall great service (as long as you’re not in a rush), fabulous food, great cocktails and an adorable patio.
My only negative is that it was a chilly night and they have propane heaters that kept burning out, I’m a cold blooded person and had my jacket on the entire night, we were there from 4−8pm. They really need to build gas heaters into their patio and get rid of the ones they have. Our table alone could have done with 4 heaters but we obviously had to share with the rest of the patio :(

Wandering around Little Italy, looking for some place to each lunch, we passed by Sorrento and the hostess, with the nicest smile said hello. After checking out the menu, we figured, why not?
We had a table out on the patio. I remember this spot was called something else. We were brought some bread with the most amazing pesto dipping sauce! I would’ve just drank wine and ate this bread for the rest of the hour! Nice wine list, some I’m familiar with. We ordered a bottle of Malbec… and I was happy! No need to order anything else… LOL!
Our first waiter was a friendly in a rough and tumble kind of way and his Italian accent just added to the experience! Then our second waiter, Luis, took our order. As we sat there, we spotted the owner who also owns Il Postino, one of our regular restaurants. He explained his concept here and that he will be opening up Solunto across the street soon!
When our food came out, we chatted with Luis about how we went to Il Postino a lot and we came to find out that he knew Jason and Kayla. I ordered the carbonara and it also included some thinly sliced zucchini… very good! The partner had tagliatelle with bolognese… also a very good dish. It was pretty pleasant and it was fun to watch people walking by. And low and behold, dessert magically appeared! This was very nice! I can add Sorrento to my rotation.
We walked around Little Italy some more, and then going back to the car, the doors to Solunto were open. We peaked in and the owner said to come in. He has really turned the old space into something beautiful. Can’t wait to check it out when they open.

I’m writing the review since I’ve been sitting here for an hour and a half and finished appetizer and still have not gotten dinner. Done talking. Nothing more to chat about. Just hungry tired kids. Bread is good. Not sure about dinner. Hope it shows up before my kids falls asleep. It’s a little busy but for god sake. This is too much.
As if it couldn’t get any worse. We are stirring outside and the heat tanks ran out of gas. 3 of the 8 gas heaters just ran out. One side of our table is now freezing. If they had brought our food in a normal timeframe we would have been long gone. But no. We’re still sitting here «fhangry. Fucking hungry and angry! And the guy says they will have more propane tanks tomorrow. Hopefully our food arrives before then. 2 hours and still no entrees. What the fuck. Do we leave? My kids are hungry. What would you do? Sort of a dilemma.
Cace Pepe sucked. No fava beans, ran out. Basically was buttered noodles and cheese. Normally it’s the best and most simple if Italian foods. This was an immense miss. Bolognese was marinara with ground meat. And my kids even dissed on the carbonara. It was good but not carbonara they said.
Only good thing is now we are done and can walk and get warm again. NEVER COMING BACK!!!

To be honest, this wasn’t the restaurant we were aiming for the afternoon we stopped here. I was with a group, and one of the girls was leading us to the restaurant she’d been raving about for hours… only, she got confused about the name. And the location. And the restaurant type.
She told us that we had arrived, so while two of us were talking to the hostess, she (the girl with the idea) was standing off to the side, kind of gazing down the sidewalk. Right when the hostess said, «Okay ladies, follow me», our friend said, «Oh! This isn’t the place I wanted to go!» We were mortified, but our friend relented (she was starving, and a tiny bit embarrassed), and the hostess graciously took us to a table on their covered patio.
The patio itself was very nice. There was a water feature, a nice breeze, and some comfortable chairs. The table was a bit small for four people, plates, silverware, two drink glasses a person and a large water carafe, but we made do.
They brought us fresh bread and a pesto dip («homemade!»). Both were tasty. Our waiter was friendly and patient — one of the girls at the table was observing a pretty strict diet, so she had a lot of questions and requests that day, but he never batted an eye.
I went with the Bolognese («with homemade noodles!») The other girls ordered the Carbonara, calzone and the cioppino.
The food did take a bit of time to get to us, but the company was fantastic and the weather was beautiful, so we didn’t mind… too much.
My Bolognese was very tasty, and there was a lot if it (enough for leftovers, which the hubs got for lunch the next day.) You could absolutely tell the noodles were homemade, and the sauce was hearty without being watery. It wasn’t as chunky a sauce as I would have liked, but the flavor was there.
Three of the girls loved their meals. Only one (the one who was trying for a different restaurant) was less than impressed. She said that her meal, the Carbonara, was too salty. She ate what she could, but couldn’t get past the saltiness.
The rest of us really enjoyed the afternoon. And, my husband was impressed by the food — even warmed up the next day.
I think I’d go back, the next time we get a hankering for reasonably-​priced Italian fare, for the filling portions, friendly service and tasty meals.

For those of you that may not know 4 stars from me is a very good rating. I have only given out like 12, 5 star ratings ever. As you have to really pull off something truly amazing to warrant 5 stars. I just think that this is how the star rating should work because if you hand out 5 star ratings constantly they lose their special meaning for the business you are reviewing.
Well we went back here as I said we would. Our experience this time was drastically different than the last time. Upon entering I made mention to the guy behind the bar that he’s not the same guy that was there last time. He asked about this and I explained to him that there was a «bread» incident. He just looked at me and said that he read the review, and assured me that this experience would be different, and it was.
We were seated in the bar area outside on the patio. I think that the bartender mentioned to the manager about the above review because the service was spot on and we had bread on the table almost before we sat down. They were kind enough to allow us to move to a table under a heater and turn it on for us. The staff was incredibly accommodating, also it was a Friday night and we did arrive right at 1700 as they were opening. So we did get in before it got terribly busy. I will say that the bread was really good, it’s a sourdough based bread. The wife said it was better the last time she had it, but that’s a sign that they make it fresh in house daily. As it turns out they make everything in house. The bread comes with a pesto sauce for dipping. I will tell you that I personally can’t stand pesto sauce. However their peso here is AMAZEBALLS! I will say that it was so good that we went thru 3 baskets of bread and pesto. It was hard to not fill up on bread.
I ordered a Caesar Salad and I’m here to tell you that is a meal in itself. It was one of the best salads i’ve ever had. It is right up there with the quality that I’ve only seen at the «Inn of the Mountain Gods» in New Mexico. I’m normally not much of a salad guy but this one is so worth the $ 7.50.
For an entrée I had the «Rigatoni Picante» this was listed as spicy on the menu. As many of you may know my definition of spicy is drastically different than most people’s. But while this did not qualify as «hot» it did have a mildly noticeable tingle to it. All in all it was really good and I’m glad I tried it. I’m normally a chicken parmesan type of guy, but decided to try something different here. Now what you have to remember here is that they say everything is made in house. This includes the pasta. I initially thought the pasta was slightly undercooked as it was not quite as soft as what I’m used to. But then I remembered that it’s made fresh in house, and it has a different texture than the dried boxed stuff that I’m so used to having.
The entire wait staff as well as the manager were all very attentive and friendly. It may have been due to their knowledge of my previous review, I’m not totally sure. They also had not gotten super busy yet as it was still early. Which is the time I love to show up at a restaurant because the head chef is typically on site and not overrun with orders yet.
I will go back here as they have great food, a good bar selection and the service I received during this visit was stellar.

With so many amazing places to choose from its always a struggle when selecting which Italian restaurant we want to hit in beautiful Little Italy. Tonight we had bookmarked a spot that had a 2 hour wait so off we went to seek someplace with a more reasonable wait time.
Enter Sorrento!
Given that it was at prime time on a Saturday night we were quite pleased to be seated immediately and attentively. Our server greeted our table right away and was very friendly and we knew we were off to a good start.
Beginnings: Peroni, Wine, bread with pesto dipping sauce. The latter of which I could have eaten with a spoon with no shame. Perfect balance of fresh basil, pine nuts, EVOO and delicious Parmesan.
The next was the Cesare salad which had the perfect balance of creamy but light dressing with just enough anchovy flavor to know it’s good but not too much that it tastes fishy. Add the obviously homemade and crispy croutons and we were excited for an amazing meal.
The entrees arrived: variety of pizza, chicken, tuna, pasta, risotto, and filet items.
My risotto was absolutely amazing: scallops and shrimps were cooked beautifully and the arborio rice was the perfect al dente.
Everyone was quite pleased with their dishes save for my husband. Sadly, his Filet was not rare as he had ordered but, well done and completely dried out. We are not big complainers but, I figured it couldn’t hurt to mention. I let the server know and while he thanked me for making him aware, didn’t make any offers to replace or ask if my husband wished to try anything else. We let it go as I knew we planned on ordering dessert so I thought, maybe in the end they will comp a cannoli to make good? Sadly, the $ 200+ bill came, no comp, no discounts, nothing.
I must also state that after the entrees were served it took forever to flag someone down to place dessert and additional drink orders. And the bussers came by several times trying to pick up dishes that we were obviously still eating from. I felt like we were being rushed but had really only been there for an hour from start to finish.
What’s weird is that there were many empty tables and no one waiting outside when we left so it didn’t seem to be super busy. I don’t believe they’ve been open very long so maybe we will try again once some of the kinks have been worked out.

Adorable and rustic patio with dreamy Italian waiters? Done and done.
It’s hard to choose an eatery in Little Italy when the place is literally flooded with authentic Italian restaurants. I used to go in circles on Unilocal trying to sift among all the Italian options but now that we’ve moved to the neighborhood we just walk in to the next one we haven’t tried.
You start with free warm, fresh bread and a pesto garlic oil spread. Their original cocktail menu seems to be a big hit on Unilocal.My friend got the Mangopeno. While tasty, it was probably the biggest letdown of the meal. Not spicy at all for a jalapeño cocktail. They did have some other interesting options like the garden cocktail with fig and arugula and the basil leaf cocktail with avocado and apricot liqueur. But my roomie and I have a weird obsession with gnocchi and this was probably the best gnocchi I’ve ever had (pretty comparable to what I had in Italy). I know the gnocchi and raviolis are house made here so I recommend those. I also got the quinoa/​shrimp salad. It was huge! And for 12 bucks for a seafood salad at an Italian restaurant? I mean it was just shrimp but even back in my cheap hometown I’ve paid $ 16 for something similar with smaller portions and baby shrimp.
Anyways, I’m not sure how it compares to some of the other places around since I’m new here and we didn’t get pizza which is always a good way to judge Italian places but we;ll definitely be back for the gnocchi!

I have to say, this new Italian eatery is a nice addition to the Little Italy area. Dinner was on the menu when I came in and sat myself at the bar. After some small talk with the bar keeps, I ordered the Orecchiette E Cime Di Rapa or orecchiette pasta with Italian sausage and broccolini in a white wine sauce for $ 15.50 and Cesare salad for $ 7.50. As a compliment, they offered house table bread with a fantastic pesto sauce on the side.
I started out with the bread of course and after my first bite, I was determined to finish the whole basket full because it was that good. Then coupled with the garlic infused pesto sauce, well, that could of made my meal right there, but I was determined to push on wards. The pesto sauce was well balanced between the freshly chopped garlic and basil, the pine nuts nuttiness, and the rich viscosity of the quality olive oil. The sliced, which I am sure was a baked Ciabatta loaf, was terrific. It had a great moist soft texture inside and a pleasant crust on the outside, not to mention a nice rustic color.
Insalata Cesare was great. Made from 100% Romain lettuce, the salad had a great fresh crispy freshness, but would stood out the moist, was the very well made Cesarean anchovy base dressing. It was not to strong, but just right. The croutons were house made and provided great texture to the salad, and the shaved Parmesan on top was quite the treat. It had that great salty and nutty flavor that played well with the Anchovy dressing.
The Orecchiette E Cime Di Rapa was quite the flavorful dish that had a lot going on. The orecchiette pasta was perfectly prepared with just enough an al dente appeal to remind you that is was there. The broccolini tasted very good, but I felt it was a little over done, hence the texture it needed was not there. The Italian, which was an outside source was very tender and tasted great with all its herbs and spices. I did feel it was a little over salted when you ate it on its own, but when you ate with the rest of the ingredients, it was much better. The best thing about this dish, was that they did not skimp on the amount of Italian sausage. The dish also came with a some great cherry tomatoes and a well reduce flavorful white wine sauce.
Service at the bar was very good. The bar keeps were very friendly and kept my beverage filled. I liked that they offered me more bread, but I was stuffed unfortunately. They provided good conversation regarding the eateries ins and outs.