Panetteria

Perfect Food, Perfect Service. Fall in Love with the blond Girl at the Front… Does anybody Know her?:)

Wow just opened. Excellent pastries! Have yet to try the food… and there’s a full bar! Paulo and his staff are friendly. It feels like a neighborhood place.
I love it and living in Little Italy!

This is my favorite Italian restaurant in San Diego. They do something to their tomato sauce, and I have no clue what it is and can’t explain it, but it is so delicious, and unlike anything I’ve had before. Try anything there with a red sauce and you will see what I mean. I don’t like their cream sauce dishes as much, but I still order them sometimes. Their dinner rolls are mediocre, but I just take them home and improve them by toasting them with butter and jam. My favorite sandwich is the Ricco sausage sandwich, with a sweet red sauce. I am very happy with the service, and Paolo the waiter is always accommodating and helpful.
Note: Right now, this is closed for remodeling, but is opening again this spring. Edit: I checked here Fall 2015 and they still had not reopened.

Three star rating at best,

My parents and I went in for breakfast this morning and were pleasantly surprised by the friendly service and delicious food. I got the breakfast croissant and it was the best breakfast sandwich I have had in a while. Savory scrambled eggs, sliced ham, and melted Swiss cheese on a crispy, fresh croissant. It was served with garlic potatoes and fresh fruit. The best part is it is very reasonably priced (especially for Little Italy) as my breakfast was only $ 5.00 or so. I highly recommend it!

Modest atmosphere, but amazing pastries at reasonable prices.
My partner and I went here twice for a morning snack on a visit to San Diego. I agree with a previous reviewer that the cannoli were outstanding. They have a wide variety of great Italian pastries.
My only criticism is that they don’t have whole milk as an option for their espresso drinks.

Cozy Italian restaurant that offers an amazing fusion of flavors and taste of Italy right in San Diego.
We came by on a Sunday afternoon. They weren’t busy, so no wait. They offer both indoor and outdoor seating.
We started out with the large antipasto plate that is perfect for four. This came with an array of meats and cheeses as well as a small spring mix salad in the center drizzled with a light dressing.
We enjoyed that with their freshly baked homemade bread dipped in olive oil sprinkles with salt/​pepper.
For our entrees we tried fettuccine alfredo, farfalle pasta with smoked salmon, and their stracciatella soup and special sandwich/​side salad. Everything was delectable!
The fettuccine alfredo was delicious with a rich and creamy sauce. Their alfredo sauce puts Olive Garden’s to shame as if theirs was poured from a jar from the store. *Tip — dip their bread in the creamy alfredo — it’s great together.
The farfalle pasta with smoked salmon was an amazing combination of salmon with their sauce. A definite if you’re feeling Italian and in a salmon mood.
The stracciatella soup was perfect! Nice and hot and topped with cheese — yum! That by itself almost filled me up with the appetizer too, but I saved room to have some of the special sandwich I also ordered. That was also made with their delicious bread and Italian meats topped with spring mix and light dressing. :)
To wrap things up we tried a few of their desserts. Their tiramisu and Napoleon are a must! Love their cannoli and the Italian cookies you can purchase by the pound. Try this with a cup of coffee or espresso and it perfectly compliments their desserts.
Great service, great ambiance and atmosphere for Little Italy, and most importantly they have AMAZING food!

Hate to be the first bad review, but I came to SD for work and ordered the lox omelet. The lox was mostly dried out and almost the consistency of jerky. I asked the server about it. Instead of apologizing or offering me something else, he politely explained to me what lox was, said it was supposed to be that way and offered to remake the same dish. (I’m totally familiar with lox, already). Though I was suspicious and should have trusted my gut, I just kind of tried to eat around those pieces. Well, now, about 2 hours later, I’m totally paying the price – and I normally have an iron stomach!
So I called and after notifying (who I think was) the same server about what happened, he again tried to explain lox to me. At this point, he did offer to refund my meal off of the bill if we came back down to the restaurant, but he did not seem to think it was their fault, which makes me worry for the sake of future patrons. I guess there’s a chance that it was something else. But I highly doubt it.
Anyway, others in the group said that their coffee was delicious… Would recommend caution with other menu items.

Delicious food and very affordable! Way better than some of the fancier more luxurious restaurants in Little Italy! Love the soups and sandwiches and breads and cookies! Staff is very friendly, try this place and you won’t regret it!

I decided to give this place a try a few days ago. Food was amazing and staff was very friendly. This is my top food choice of all restaurants in the Little Italy area and I am picky about my Italian food.

This review relates to the breakfast I had at Panetteria. I’m a newbie to the neighborhood and randomly walked into this place as it was the closest place open to my new condo. As one might guess from the name and from what I could see inside the place, its mainstay is as an authentic Italian baker. They had a large selection of fresh breads, pastries and even some very tasty and fresh looking thin pizza breads — I’ll have to go back and try those! Let me set the stage by saying that I’m rather picky and critical when it comes to food. Not much stands out to me. And breakfast is an easy category for me to rate as average. Panetteria’s breakfast was excellent. I ordered I believe the Florentine omelette. It’s dominant ingredients besides the eggs were spinach, ham and freshly made Hollandaise sauce. First off, the omelette was prepared very professionally. The ingredients we evenly mixed and floating throughout the omelette and it was prepared with just the right amount of «fluff» and moisture so the texture was outstanding. It even looked like a pretty omelette (and it was quite sizable). The ham used was extremely thinly sliced, diced, plentiful and a noteworthy highlight as was the Hollandaise sauce. I ordered the Hollandaise on the side and just added dabs along the way. A really tasty accouterment to a stand alone winner. The sausage links were outstanding as well. The space is very simple. As mentioned, there’s the large baked goods display on one side and just a basic room with quite a few square tables, Italian music and some sort of Italian movie playing on the TV. The staff was made of of two owner/​operator looking Italian guys. Panetteria will definitely be a staple of mine.

This place has the best cannolis in all of San Diego, including Little Italy, which is where you will find it.

In a word, STALE.
We tried several things;
Pizza: didn’t taste like pizza, it definitely tasted like it had been frozen and thawed. It also tasted like it had béchamel sauce on it and very strong cheese which was very hard on the top. No tomato flavor either, it was terrible;
Assorted cookies: Very stale, especially the pignoli macaroons. they were as hard as rocks.
Cannoli: the filling was ok but the shell, once again, very stale.

Their cannolo pastry has cherries stuffed in each end, has a flattened shape to its shell and isn’t crunchy but isn’t soggy either. I ate this the weekend of the Little Italy Festa so possibly they make them fresh under normal circumstances. The cheese is smooth, had a medium density, no citrus taste and is moderately sweet. It is pretty tasty and slightly above average as far as cannoli go.

Dropped in after a break of a few months and found that it is under new ownership. The previous owner had a particular twist on a caprese salad on the menu that we did not see on the new menu, but they were more than gracious in preparing it.
Food was very good, service was excellent, place is super clean. The new owners are off to a good start and I am certain to return.