Buon Appetito

This is a great place to meet and eat. The antipasto was amazing and more than plenty for 4. Gnocchi with pesto sauce and seafood linguine was served piping hot and quite delicious. In fact the food came so fast and was so delicious that I forgot to take many pictures. The food was fantastic. But the real treat for the evening was the Tiramisu. A hearty piece of heaven on earth. The real deal and almost angelic in flavor. I highly recommend this place for a relaxing and delicious evening!

Been here once before, family was coming to visit so I suggested this spot since it was amazing the first time. The second time did not disappoint at all. Whole family loved their dishes, and we all got something different to have more of a variety of the menu and to taste each others dishes. Service was great and ambiance was pleasant and warm. This restaurant is a must have and one that I will bring loved ones to anytime they visit San Diego. For our appetizer we had calamari which was flavorful and came out fresh with pieces of fried zucchini. For dinner we had five plates:1. Fettuccine Alla Montanara (Wild mushrooms sautéed in a brandy sauce with peas)2. Borsettini Di Aragosta (Homemade Pocket pasta filled with lobster and cheese, in champagne cream sauce with peas and sun dried tomatoes)3. Fettuccine Alla Genovese (Homemade pesto sauce with green beans and shoestring potatoes topped with pine nuts)4. Cannelloni (Homemade beef cannelloni baked in pink sauce with Mozzarella)5. Fusilli Al Ragu ' D ' Anatra (Slow cooked Duck Ragu, served with Fusilli pasta in creamy mushroom sauce)For dessert we ordered the tiramisu and the chocolate mousse cake. The tiramisu is to die for. If you're an extreme chocolate lover, the chocolate mousse cake will not disappoint. Overall, I love this place and look forward to my next visit.

Searching Yelp and saw this place and decided to try this little gem in Little Italy, and we're glad we did! We did a very late lunch around 3pm and was able to get seated immediately on the outside seating. Our server was very knowledgeable and gave us some suggestions. We got the melanzane eggplant appetizer and linguini scoglio and the linguine Nero (squid ink) . The eggplant and both linguini was amazing.We finish off with the pistachio cheesecake and it was just so smooth, right level of cheese abs pistachio taste. Highly recommend this restaurant if you are in the mode for some amazing linguini.

Excellent gnocchi and amazing pistachio cheesecake. I was here for a work dinner and everyone loved their food. Great hospitality, our server was Italian and she had great recommendations. I would visit again!

Buon Appetito means...Good Appetite in English. Well if you find yourself in San Diego and you're smack dab in the middle of Little Italy and suddenly a lil Italian cuisine sounds just about right... You damn well better bring your 'Good Appetite!' And If you come to this part of town thinking you will find let's say a little Mexican or Chinese or a maybe some Thai cuisine...I say..."GTFO hereee!" (Done in my best Italian Maffioso tough guy voice). "This is Little Italy! You come looking for those other cuisines again...I'll feed ya to the F'in fish!" Capiche?----------------------O.k., before the F.B.I starts wire tapping my reviews...Let's get into the pepperoni & gnocchi (aka "the meat and potatoes") of this review. The last time we vacationed in San Diego and made our way to Little Italy back in 2018, my wife was pregnant with our first baby. 6 years later, we now have 3 girls and this certified Girl Dad (Me) still loves himself some Italian food. Last trip, we went to one of the many other Italian restaurants on the Little Italy strip and this time around we planned to return to that same place to take the kids, but the wait was way too long and we were way too hungry to wait and so we decided to give another place a shot. As we walked down the street looking into each restaurant to see which one looked kid friendly and which one was not too crazy busy, we finally came across Buon Appetito and agreed it was the one. We were seated right away and after looking over our menus, we were greeted by a gentleman whom we presumed was our server. He took our drink orders and asked us if we had any questions, but we said we needed some more time. After perusing the menu, another gentleman showed up and he landed up taking our food order... ok, this guy is our server, or so we thought. (more on this later)We went with their Insalata Romana (Caesar Salad), got the kids a spaghetti to split, Cannelloni for me (which I always Love), Gnocchi with Pesto for my wife (which she always enjoys), an Arnold Palmer... And, of course some vino for the table. The Food was pretty good, no complaints from us. The service was fine & trust me I'm not trying to be super critical, but it was kind of unclear of who our actual server was as various people came to our table throughout the evening. Because of this, we didn't really get checked in on particularly when we needed refills on our drinks. In most cases, I am pretty patient and understanding of wait staff and their role. But after waiting for someone to come by or even acknowledge our attempt to get someone's attention, I finally decided to just head over to the bar to ask the gentleman there if I could get a refill on our Arnold Palmer...The look I got was as if I had just attempted to steal his first born; trust me, I've got 3 kids...I certainly didn't want his. ;) All in all, it was a decent meal, but not anything to write home about so I'm just going to write it here for you instead. Take this review with a grain of salt, heck with a grain of pepper if you like it spicy. ;) So...whether you decide on Buon Appetito or any of the other Italian restaurants here in Little Italy, just make sure to bring your appetite, always accept the Parmesan cheese they offer to sprinkle on your entree and for the love of Italy, Get. Some. Vino.

We walked up to Buon Appetito on a Friday evening without a reservation and everything fell together wonderfully and smoothly. Things you should know: I. PARKING Little Italy can be a little difficult to park at. You're going to want to keep your eyes peeled for parallel street parking spaces. II. SERVICE Attentive and accommodating. Our drinks were never empty! The food comes out in a timely manner as well. If you're splitting dishes, let your waiter know so they can plate them separately for you.Also, there's complimentary bread to snack on as you wait for your order. III. QUALITY We ordered the Linguine Neri and were pleased to see the dish was packed with seafood and not "filler" materials like extra noodles or extra sauce. Great value for what you pay. IV. CAPACITY Fair amount of available seating for Friday dinner hours. We were pleasantly seated right away without a reservation!

This is our third time eating at Buon Appetito. First time was really good, however the second one was not that good. But, we went again for the time and this time it was as good as the first time. The service is always amazing, the servers are very attentive. We asked to be seated once inside and twice outside of the restaurant, both were nice. We ordered the Ossobucco alla Milanese and Linguine Neri, these two we always got, since the first time we tried it, were amazing. This time we also tried the Linguine allo Scoglio with white sauce, this one became our favorite now, recommended. As well as the Borsettini di Aragosta which was a recommendation from the server which we thought was just okay, but still good. We'll be back again if we went back to San Diego!

If you are looking for a Large, fun delicious Italian restaurant in the heart of little italy, look no further. They were able to see our large group and provided amazing service to 15 of us. Don't forget to bring the cash!I tried the spinach ravioli and it was delish. I snagged a couple bites and the lobster diavolo and immediately became jealous and a little bit resentful of my coworker.Great atmosphere and a wonderful experience. Highly recommend.

We took my family here for lunch before dropping them off at the airport. Everyone enjoyed and FINISHED every single bite of their entrees. Took a video of all the food but only managed to take a photo of some of the dishes. Portions were good and flavor was allll there. I had the lobster borsettini since I prefer a white cream sauce over tomato based sauce. It was delicious! Other entrees we ordered included the classic lasagna (I tried a bite of it, and I'm definitely getting it next time!), penne bolognese, linguine allo scoglio (seafood) with white sauce, and some wild boar pasta (I forgot the name). We also ordered 2 tiramisus; it's pretty big and each one can be shared between 2-3 people. Will definitely come back (maybe will try them for dinner this time), and will definitely bring our future guests here again). Attentive & friendly service from our server & thr busboy (he came very often to take empty plates from our table). I got authentic Italian vibes. We entered from one side of the restaurant (where the ambiance seemed more casual), and when I went to the restroom, I noticed there was an entirely other side to the restaurant that had a brick ceiling with more people. Not sure what was there / if there's a difference in the menu. Parking is always a pain in Little Italy, so I just paid the $15 at the small ACE parking lot a short 2 min walk from the restaurant. We usually circle all the streets several times for parking, but we had a reservation & didn't want to be late.

Al fresco dining in the heart of Little Italy at its best. The food was prepared well, and the bread service with accompanying marinara basil sauce was appreciated for us hungry diners while we eagerly waited for our food. Service was friendly and attentive. Bonus: lunch prices are a few dollars less than dinner prices but with the same portion sizes! Even on a Sunday, we did not need a reservation for 2 people. The seafood pasta and cioppino are similar but with different sauces (pasta is alla vodka). Both are great choices, as is the octopus appetizer! Yummmm