Rosina’s

My boyfirend’s choice for his birthday dinner and he was not disappointed. Owner, Giancarlo, selected a perfect Italian red to accompany an amazing veal dish with the best mushroom rositto !! The intimacy of Rosina’s makes you feel special. We will return for more dining experiences.

What a pretty pretty place. A few restaurants including this one is nestled in this urban residential/​business area. Plenty of parking — in front of the restaurant, side and across the street for tons of street parking.
Friday night at Rosina’s was absolutely called for. After all I’m a pasta monsta and having my poor wisdom teeth extracted a wake prior was no fun. This was my first real meal and pasta was of course my meal of choice.
Bread (sourdough) and dip (olive oil, sundries tomatoes and parm) was fantastic and tasty.
We ordered the lasagna and and spaghetti pomodoro. The house made lasagna was decently portioned (wish it was bigger) but satisfied. Nice piping hot lasagna and layers of cheese, pasta and meat. A must try, it’s their specialty.
I went for the spaghetti pomodoro since that was all I could eat. Spaghetti noodles over marinara sauce and garlic and basil. It was again, decently portioned. I’ve had less and I’ve had more elsewhere. It was tasty, nice temperature and had a great fresh taste with just the right amount of garlic and basil. I could have another bowl, then again it was my first real meal and my stomach wanted more! No mention on home made… but they everything as great. Al… dente!
Service was great and a bit slow towards the end as they got busier, but nothing horrible.
Pricing is typical for an Italian dinner for this range of food.
Great patio with heaters outside and a mini bar inside. Great romantic ambiance for a date night. Would definitely check it out again.

My husband and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner last night at Rosina’s which is right off of the 56. All of her Italian food is homemade and it’s just like being in Italy. We tried the Caponata salad which was a wonderful warm mixture of eggplant, olives and balsamic vinegar… delicious. The pizzas, lasagna, fish and the specials are all great, so it’s hard to pick! Can’t wait to go back!

Great little Italian restaurant in Santa Luz. Pizza was thin crust and delicious. I had the Fusilli all a Vodka and it reminded me of New York. I like this place because the food is freshly made. I will be bringing my kids here. By the way, I do not give good reviews unless I mean it.

Since this is one of the few restaurants in the area, decided to try it for my bday dinner. My honey and I tried the pizza, pretty tasty and he had the fusilli with cream and peas which was tasty but my lasagna noodles were a little mushy. Would go back for the pizza…

I’ve ordered take out several times and the quality of the food was always excellent. The desserts are exceptionally well done, but don’t pass up on the classics, such as the bolognese and lasagna (when avail). The staff is very nice and helpful — what more could you want?

Authentic Italian food in San Diego :) that’s all I have to say. AUTHENTIC delicious food. The make their own bread for the bruschetta which was oh so good! My family and I (5 ppl) arrived around 5 on a Saturday. No wait time. Everyone enjoyed their food. I highly recommend you come and eat. Service was friendly and prices were fair. You are certainly getting your money’s worth. Bön appetite!!!

Great food and atomosphere. Small cute place that obviously takes pride in its service. The owner is super friendly. Definitely coming back.

This restaurant easily became one of my new favorites!
We came here on a saturday night and it was not busy at all !
There is parking spaces right out front.
There is seatings inside and outside.
It felt a little bit stuffy outside so we sat outside instead.
I like that there’s torches and heat lamps outside as well.
There’s a nice subtle romantic vibe here. Dimmed lighting, classical music playing.
Our server Chris was such an awesome character!
You can just tell right away that he genuinely loves talking to customers and meeting new people and sharing stories and experiences which I love! Thanks Chris for being so welcoming!
Food:
+ Complimentary Bread with Balsamic Dipping Sauce
Bread as an appetizer is always a nice treat from an authentic italian restaurant. The bread and sauce was so good, it was hard trying to not eat it all so I wouldnt be full on just bread.
+ Mare E Monte Fettuccine $ 20.95
(Shrimp, scallops and calamari sautééd with wild mushrooms in a
fresh tomato sauce with white wine)
The flavors of this dish was delicious. The dish was very proportionate with pasta and meat. The shrimp and scallops were very fat and juicy. There was a lot of sliced mushrooms that were visible. Everything in this dish went well together. Portion size was perfect.
+ Ciopino $ 29.95
(Mussels, Clams, Shrimp, Scallops in wine sauce with side of bread)
What more can you ask for from a seafood dish? All of my favorites all together in a nice subtle sauce with delicious crunchy bread.
+ Crespelle con Spinaci e Ricotta $ 16.95
(Crepes filled with spinach and ricotta cheese, baked in a tomato sauce and creamy bechamel)
The crepes were stuffed and were delicious. The tomato sauce had good flavor.
We also got another dish that was a special of the day, it was half ricotta crepes with half ravioli. It was also good as well.
Overall the vibe here is great, the customer service is friendly, and the food is very well decently priced and the quality is good. I will definitely be coming back here more!

We ate there this Weekend and the food was really tasty! We had a great server Lerins and we would love to come back there again.
I really like the starter bread that has a sun dried tomato and EEVO dressing. After that, we order the Sicilian salad, and then we both ordered pasta dishes.
I loved the homemade Tiramisu… it was one of the best ones I have had in a while!
We will return in a few months!

Cute place in a pretty remote area. I didn’t think the food was very good. I had the Rotelli pasta w vodka sauce, it wasn’t too flavorful. It also said there was pancetta in the dish, but I didn’t find any! The sausage stuffed banana pepper was good.
Starting to think that San Diegans are way too generous with their Unilocal!stars.

A nice little italian ristorante hidden away! Never would have known it existed if not for Unilocal and glad that we were able to check it out.
The place itself is very quaint and has a comfortable, homey feel. They start you off with complimentary house bread with this sundried tomato sauce/​dip/​oil that is SO. GOOD. I could have eaten that all night and been happy, but I’m glad I didn’t use up all my stomach real estate.
We ordered a couple of pasta dishes, one red, the pasta bolognese, and one white, a seafood one with a name i cant recall. Both were very good and the pairing of the two complemented each other well.
The service was excellent and very friendly. The place is a little pricy but you’re definitely paying for quality. The menu had a lot of interesting things to offer and I will be certainly returning to try some out.

Best Kept Secret on our side of town. We walked in late on Saturday Night and there was one open table. We were accommodated quick enough and soon we’re enjoying a lovely red wine.
The owner came by to share the menu and we commented to her that business looked good. She said, well it is on Saturday’s but they were relatively quiet during the week.
We had been in there two other times and the food has always been very good. I had the filet mignon after an appetizer of stuffed peppers. I left completely satisfied. My wife had a salmon dish and she is still raving about it.
Our hope is to get the word out that this quant dinning experience could go away if we don’t get the word out that this is a 5 Star Unilocal experience and is priced completely fair. Go, Enjoy, Go again!

We’ve been to Rosinas many times, since it’s very close to our home. Tonight we had the veal Parmesan and a pasta special. Both were nice, but the veal us especially good.
We often have the veal Marsala — it’s outstanding.
We like that the owner greets us and remembers us. We love sitting on the patio on a warm night like tonight.
Mondays are no corkage when bringing your own wine, and that’s the best day for us to come, so it works out great to bring our own wine from home.
I’d love to see a few more salads on the menu (with proteins and grilled veggies perhaps).

Excellent food and atmosphere. The Linguine with clams was awesome (they call it linguine vignole). We also had a pizza and the Ricotta and spinach Crepes.
It wasn’t cheap but wasn’t expensive either. The atmosphere is cloth napkin and fine glassware. With 2glasses of eine it set us back $ 70.

When you stay at the plush Rancho Bernardo Inn, it’s pretty hard to leave the premises without a car. It’s sort of like trying to escape Fantasy Island with Tattoo biting you on the ankles and an emotional confrontation with Mr. Roarke that leaves you in tears. Probably over the bill because it ain’t cheap there. But if you manage to extract yourself from the pay-​per-​view movie channels in your hotel room, this is a reasonable dining destination about twenty minutes away in yet another golf course community, Santaluz. Apparently, it’s one of a chain of Italian restaurants, all with different names.
They’re all owned by Rosina Gangale who you may not be surprised to discover is Italian. It’s a modest space that looks like it belongs in a strip mall. The nondescript location doesn’t have much bearing on the food which I found pretty good if undistinguished. OK, maybe it does. Anyway, I came with a work colleague, and we started with hearty salads. He went with the $ 11.95 Burrata alla Panna, which took fresh mozzarella in a ball and surrounded it with thick slices of heirloom tomatoes, all of it drizzled liberally with a rich balsamic and sprinkled with chopped basil (photo:
).
Mine was the $ 9.95 Insalata alla Siciliana, which was more of a chopped salad with English cucumbers, tomatoes red onion and ricotta tossed with red wine vinegar and olive oil (photo:
). Both were good, though his was better because of the heirloom touch. Seguing to our entrees, he decided to ask for a steak, and they obliged with a $ 25 Ribeye over Spaghetti, a middling cut on the thin side and pretty basic carnivorous eating (photo:
). I ordered the $ 17 Fettucini Bolognese, which was touted as a house specialty. I found it a bit too mealy with the combination of veal, beef, pork, red wine and tomatoes somehow refusing to cooperate in a seamless manner with the pasta (photo:
).
A disappointing plate considering Rosina’s pedigree. We ended our dinner with a shared dessert, the $ 9 Limoncello Tart, which despite being a tad frozen, was a genuinely sweet find that satisfied with drizzles of raspberry and lemon sauce (photo:
). I had a decent $ 7 glass of House Pinot Grigio to nurse throughout the meal (photo:
). The server was a nice enough guy, although he disappeared for long stretches during the latter part of the evening. Sorry to admit that there was just nothing truly memorable about our meal there. It was competently executed but little more.
FOOD — 3 stars… reasonably good Italian food in a quiet spot, hearty portions but nothing all that unique
AMBIANCE — 2.5 stars… suburban strip mall in a plusher setting
SERVICE — 3 stars… initially friendly but drifted
TOTAL — 3 stars… o sole mio, Rosina?

And… I’m supposed to be gluten free.
Rosina’s is as charming as Rosina herself! Sometimes you just get things right and this was definitely one of those cases. The service was on point and the food was fantastic. Here are some of my favorite things about this restaurant:
1. 4S/​Del Sur area really needed a good italian restaurant. Before this I would go all the way to Banker’s Hill for Cucina Urbana. Even though I live across the street I never go to Capri Blu!
2. The service is as friendly as it gets. I met Rosina tonight and she was super charming, I even got a photo of her to prove it.
3. Rosina harvest many of the ingredients from her own garden and prepares most of the sauces herself.
4. The food is good. It’s good.
5. If you have a special you really like you can actually call ahead of time and request it. Rosina will make it for you!
I can’t say enough good things about this place. Drove by this place a million times and finally made it. The husband and I signed up for the email club and we will be coming back to try new menu items.

Rosina’s is on the pleasant side of average. Was our Caesar salad for $ 8.95 at Rosina’s the best ever? Nope, it was average. How about my entrée, the Bolognese pasta for $ 17.95? Was this a 5-​star entrée at Rosina’s? Nope, it was ok, but it relied too heavily on salt for flavor. The entrée was also overpowered by way too much meat in proportion to the amount of sauce. The flavor was ok, but it lacked enough fresh herbs or garlic. The pasta was al dente, which is good, but this restaurant doesn’t actually make the pasta itself in house… at least, not the pastas for the «Pasta» section of the menu.
I confirmed with the server that the pastas for the «Pasta» section on the menu aren’t homemade in house. If you look at the «Pasta» menu, you’ll notice it doesn’t claim that those pastas are homemade in house. I didn’t ask about the sauces. I also can’t tell you whether they sometimes offer daily specials that have in-​house homemade pastas.
Both the Caesar salad and the Pasta Bolognese are much tastier at Prep Kitchen La Jolla.
At home, I use organic grass-​fed pasture raised beef, as local as possible, when I make my own version of pasta Bolognese. My hubs and I agreed my version is better than the Bolognese at Rosina’s. I don’t think Rosina’s uses grass-​fed pasture-​raised meats, because it doesn’t say so on their menu. There’s a big difference in taste and also in health value.
I also think Rosina’s used regular Parmesan to sprinkle on top of my pasta at my table, but I prefer Parmigiano Reggiano, which has a deep rich nutty flavor. The Parmesan that they sprinkled on top of my pasta at Rosina’s didn’t have much flavor.
I also tasted my husband’s entrée. He had an eggplant Parmesan for $ 20.95 which was one of the daily specials. We both agreed his entrée tasted a lot better than mine.
The staff was pleasant and attentive. The atmosphere is upscale, but the food is average and is also a bit pricey.
We also ordered wine and had a pleasant date night. But we drove almost 30 minutes out of our way just to try Rosina’s. For us, the food was average overall, so we wouldn’t go out of our way to come here again. But if you live close by or find yourself in the area, Rosina’s may be worth a try for you.

The boyfriend wandered into our room the other day after a long afternoon of cleaning out the garage and announced a random date night (He does this sometimes, what a keeper hu?) dinner somewhere in Rancho Santa Fe or the like. We checked out the Unilocal and discovered Rosina’s near 4S Ranch-​we just had to go!
It’s located in a residential neighborhood and its a clear win. What a gem! We got there about 6:15 on a Monday to a quiet dining room and we’re seated by our really sweet waitress. She heard us exclaiming over the menu options and caught on that it was out first time. Who should shortly appear but Rosina herself.
She welcomed us into her restaurant like we were family, went over the menu proudly (as she should, those 5 stars are well deserved) and ask where we heard of her place. Unilocal of course we answered and she explained that outside of the neighborhood its the only way we could have found her. (I love this about Unilocal-​her business is thriving because of locals sharing reviews like this!) Soon after us, another table said the same thing, found you on Unilocal!You could tell she was so happy to have newcomers around. Tip: There is another location in Oceanside for you Northern Unilocalers.
She moved around the room, casually the queen of her realm. I had a moment where I felt like I was in my mom’s domain ya know? The regulars clearly adore her, her staff and chefs and the vibe. The room was full of warm colors and genuine friendly warmth as well.
We started with the Peperoni Repieni al Forno $ 10.95
Baked banana peppers stuffed with sausage and herbs topped with a light tomato sauce. Brilliant dish with three stuffed large peppers on the plate. It was accompanied by fresh bread out of the over and the most lovely olive oil.
The boyfriend ordered the special. A Wild Boar Bolognese on freshly made wide Pappardelle noodles. The portion size was awesome-​generous and like your mom would dish up for you.
I went for the Crespelle, it’s a pasta like Crepes filled with veal, chicken, sun dried tomato and cheese, baked with tomato sauce and creamy bechamel. I died and went to heaven for a second. This dish was out of this world I tell you. I haven’t enjoyed a meal so much in awhile.
I had a glass of a very fruit forward Cabernet with my meal-​the wine list has all you need to accompany the menu. I wish I could have gotten dessert-​whatever the nights offering was I’m sure it was amazing.
On the way home I kept saying «that was really good… I mean… That was REALLY good.» The boyfriend was delighted with his meal and with such a successful date night. After our meal we strolled around the nearby park seething with jealousy that the neighborhood regularly got a mouthful of Rosina’s creations. The area is beautiful but any realtor should just take their clients to the restaurant-They’ll buy in a heartbeat.

A little Italian restaurant sort of hidden in a residential area. I loved it! You get a home-​y feel when you walk in and are welcomed by the staff. I believe the owner helps out too. She’s such a sweetheart. I didn’t quite catch her name though. This is definitely how an Italian restaurant should feel, unlike Olive Garden.
FOOD — the stuffed banana peppers — SUPER good. Not too spicy, just the right amount of kick to it. The meat inside is very flavorful and well balanced. It’s an appetizer, but it’s filling enough to almost be an entrée (I’m ashamed to admit I have a small stomach!). We also ordered the pasta sampler. I don’t quite remember what was in both since they were the special of the day. One side had marinara with wild boar meat, and the other was made with a white sauce. Both were delicious :)
Definitely will come back to try it again. It’s a bit on the pricey side, but it’s worth it.