Via Italia Trattoria

Excellent food including homemade pastas.
Best Happy Hour deal around. Excluding meat and fish entrees, half of everything including wine.
Staff is great and make you feel like you are eating in their home.
Penne Vodka heavenly as well as the Apple and Pear Torta.
Go there. You will not be dissappointed.

Real Italian cuisine! Delizioso! Came in for happy hour (50% off beer, wine, cocktails, appetizers, pizza, pasta, and salads). Such a great deal. Cute place. Service was good and not overbearing. They tend to leave you alone which we appreciated. Can get pretty loud. And can get pretty hot inside. The food is wonderful. Flavors are authentically simple and vibrant.
Had their Tirolese Pizza (prosciutto, arugula, onion, walnut, tomato sauce, and mozzarella). Loved the flavors, dough, sauce, and the size (large). Thin crust, chewie, and leans toward sweet. Cooked perfectly.
For pasta we tried their Bigoli Pomodoro (kind of like a thicker, chewier, spaghetti noodle with a sweet tomato sauce, parmesan, and basil) soooo good. Loved the noodles. Reminds me of a type of asian noodle.
For dessert we had their rosemary and olive oil cake and pistachio gelato. Really great flavors as well. Overall, a great dining experience. Will return.

Not bad, I would return if a friend requested, but the food was just average. Pricing seemed a bit dear though admittedly portions were ⁵⁄₄ of what they should be.
The waitress’s exuberant friendliness solidifies one of the three stars. I saw her assuage many modest complaints by other guests and always responded professionally. My only complaint regarding service was this same server appeared to be serving 7 – 10 tables at a time. She was a trooper and should be much appreciated by the proprietor; but even Wonder Woman can’t provide timely service to so many tables.

I wish I could give this place less stars! It was the absolute worst! The guys were practically begging us to leave! They were very rude and our waiter literally went on a smoke break instead of giving my mother her drink she asked for!!! Negative stars!

This place has got it all: Great food in a great room with great staff. Even the little things are right, like the way the chicken was grilled and seasoned atop the salad, or the bread. And the entrees were amazing. Next time I go, I’m going to let the waiter choose something I’ve never tried for me.

Fantastic food, the best meat sauce I have ever tasted! My wife had the filet mignon and it tasted perfect. A bit crowded but for this food it was worth it… Dan was a great server… we loved it and would recommend it highly!!!

We were immediately seated and the restaurant was less than half full but very festive. The waiters and assistant waiters were very animated and entertaining with great personalities.
Finally, service arrived. The food was very good, and the service became very attentive.
Our food order from the Happy Hour menu consisted of salsacia pizza (½ off), tagliatelle amatriciana… they do not skimp with the guanciale — so rich and delicious. Various drinks on happy hour as well.
We enjoyed ourselves, and will look forward to returning.

It was so loud when we came here. There was a huge party in the middle of the room and no carpeting so it was echoey and loud. BUT… Food and service were both amazing! Fresh seafood and the best calamari!!! Seafood linguini was perfect! Everyone in my party loved their food!

Absolutely AMAZING FOOD!!! I have not had food this good in YEARS!
The Rigatoni Bolognese is to DIE FOR!!! The pizza with mushrooms… amazing! The Risotto with TONS of seafood on it… there are no words!!!
Staff is fantastic and are really sweet! Our waiters Tom and Matt made it really fun :-)
Décor is lovely as well. They have a happy hour in the entire restaurant from 3 to 6pm.
We’ve lived in this area for 20 years and never knew about Via Italia,
where have you BEEN all my life??? YUMMMMM!!!

Good value for skilled preparation. Good food with a foodie flair, like bruschetta with a chopped liver option, and some of the best lasagna I’ve ever had with beef cheek meat (yes, it’s good and not scary), veal and pork. The lasagna uses fresh noodles which is very rare for lasagna. This ain’t Olive Garden, it is Italian — upgraded.
I’ve been very dissapointed by places rated highly by Unilocal and then having average food. This place is quality. Portion sizes are good but not giant — the place is a great value — because it is expertly made and not your average fare. The closest equivalent to this place in OC is Peppinos but they are more traditional Italian whereas Via Italia has a modern twist that is very good.
While this place has two dollar signs for price — think about it — if you are in Encinitas, you can pay maybe 30 to 50% more for top quality food over that «diner» option with boring, greasy selections.

I had a taste for some Italian with my daughter and we picked the right spot. The service was excellent! I split a spinach salad garnished with gorgonzola cheese, candied walnuts, and fresh pears tossed in balsamic. I ordered the linguine Scoglio which was a delicious pasta with seafood and tomatoe sauce. My daughter ordered the Bigoli Neri a delicious thick squid ink pasta with seafood. Fresh bread and water served to us upon arrival and through out meal. For dessert, we had the tiramisu which melted in our mouths! Biggest surprise came to us when the check arrived, I was astonished at the low price. It wasn’t until we exited the restaurant that we saw the Happy Hour advertisement-​turns out almost everything on the menu including cocktails, beers, pastas, pizzas and salads are 50% off Monday-​Friday 3−6PM!!! Will definitely be back soon!

I loved the food here and was so impressed with the service– a gentleman was working here during lunch when I first came. He was very accommodating and such a pleasant server. I give him all the Unilocal stars!
The bread and calamari here are excellent. The pizza and pastas here are spectacular. My favorite part of the meal was the moscato! I’ve been searching for the bottle but haven’t been able to find it… I need that particular bottle of moscato!

Great food! I was also impressed with the service and how it arrived in timely manner. I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Excellent food, great service. East coast Italian reminds me of home. Recommend this place to anyone that visits.

Walked around Encinitas checking everything out. Victor, our server was outside, nicely presented the restaurant’s history. Great atmosphere, loved the free glass of Prosecco, ended up ordering a 2^nd:)) My boyfriend and I shared everything. Spinach salad, lasagna… our favorite, butternut squash soup… a little bland but we still loved it. (I like everything spicy so I’m a little biased) great gnocchi with filet mignon. And AAAAMAZING flourless chocolate cake. Victor was a doll, we loved him

One of my favorite Italian restaurants in Encinitas, great happy hour, gluten free pasta, and Thomas our server was fantastic!

If you’re going for the food alone, it was mediocre the night we went. We ordered two pasta dishes, one with seafood and the other with chicken. The one with seafood was off in texture, almost as if they reheated the dish, and the chicken dish was lacking in flavor.
But the service is what really disappointed us, especially for a nice night out. When we walked in, we sat for about 10 minutes before anyone came to talk to us, and when they did, they asked if we knew what we wanted to order. We had to request menus before doing so.
From there on, we experienced poor communication, almost no follow-​up, they got our orders messed up with another couple, and they didn’t ask us how things were or if we needed another beverage. The only thing they did right all night was to get our check. Love the ambience, and chalking it up to a bad night, but we have to share our experience.

The best Italian food and experience I’ve had in San Diego. Great pasta, appetizers, wine and atmosphere. You gotta eat there if your in Encinitas.

The most delicious Italian food ever! The service is amazing, everyone is very friendly. Every thing I’ve ever ordered is absolutely delicious! I will always come back!

The location is good, the food is great, but the service was exceptional!
My fiancé is 8.5 months pregnant and where she was gluten and dairy intolerant pre-​pregnancy, a pleasant surprise from having the bun in the oven is her ability to process those foods. Cue her begging for Italian food!
We were originally going to go to a smaller place down the road, but when it was a 30 min wait we came here and were sat no problem. The wait staff were friendly, but not in the fake, forced way that screams «I’m going through the motions and only pretend care about you so I get a tip and avoid a bad Unilocal review.» No, these guys made us feel as if they were happy we were dining there and wanted to make the experience as great as possible. They achieved that by helping us select meals based on all of our (we were double dating) unique preferences. Everyone was stoked on their meal.
Something I was interested to see was that they have a 3 and 4 course prix fixe menu. I went with the 3 and there was plenty of options to get something you were looking for. The ambiance was intimate with great people watching views of passerbys.
Overall, can’t wait to come back. As a local, I’m thankful for discovering Via Italia Trattoria.