Italian Restaurants in and near San Diego, CA

Italian food can feel like a well-worn staple, but plenty of San Diego Italian restaurants are elevating the cuisine to new places. At Cucina Urbana, restaurateur Tracy Borkum and her team put inventive spins on classic dishes, offering up rabbit-sausage-and-ricotta ravioli and goat-cheese panna cotta with walnuts and citrus. And over at Bencotto, dishes with handmade gnocchi and hand-cut fettuccine keep alive the traditions of Little Italy. San Diego restaurants don’t have a monopoly on fine Italian, though. Take, for example, Piatti, among the best suburban eateries around. Interestingly enough, one of its big draws is the complimentary bread, which comes with an olive oil, balsamic, and garlic dip so popular guests can buy it by the bottle.