La Dolce Vita Ristorante

In two words «SIMPLY AMAZING». I’m Italian, so I may know my Italian food and this, despite some funny reviews I read about La Dolce Vita, it is the closest, if not exactly, authentic Italian cuisine. The pizza margherita was the perfect thin crust I always want to have for my pizza, the fresh mozzarella and the exquisite tomato sauce was perfectly balanced with the spices. The bread, mmmmmm that bread, I felt like I was back home, they make that fresh every day, so I was told by our server Luciano, and yes you can tell that bread is fresh. My friend had the special fish, I believe was the Sea Bass, he said was so good that I had to try it, OMG it was, cooked all the way through but so moist and juicy. Our server Luciano was delightful, very accommodating, pleasant and funny, he told us to eat all our main course otherwise no desert wouldn’t be served to us. If the was a sixth star to give I would be happy to give it to this wonderful restaurant. I will, definitely be back.

Please if you are looking to have Italian food do not go to this place.
Recently I went to this place (can’t really call an Italian restaurant) with friends and I have to say that as Italian I’m ashamed that this «place» serves/​sells this kind of pizza.
The pizza was disgusting, the worst pizza I’ve ever had in my 8 yrs in USA.
This is the worst experience ever!
We couldn’t eat the pizza… the taste was horrible… tomato sauce was acid, the mozzarella didn’t taste cheese at all and the topping where testing plastic… very cheap.
They don’t even make the pizza… we all agreed that the pizza was a frozen one… it really looks like enzo has frozen generic cheese pizza and adds a few toppings to make the menu
the buy frozen pizza (like margarita) and then add the toping on top. All pizzas were the same and tasting sxxxx!!!

This place is located nearby some other small stores in an alley. Parking can be very difficult because it’s all street parking per what I know. Basically, the street is always busy, especially during the weekend where there are a lot of people walking around the area. The restroom is located outside the restaurant FYI.
I went here with my daughter and my brother last weekend. We found a parking spot 2 blocks away (2 hours parking). The waiter gave us a highchair for my daughter but apparently the belt is broken. My brother asked for another highchair and after a while, the waiter came back to us, saying that they didn’t have any more highchair. I told him that we needed another highchair because the belt was broken. Meanwhile, the restaurant barely had customers at that time and I didn’t see another baby/​toddler beside mine, so I didn’t believe that they were out of highchairs. Afterward, he asked me, «Oh you mean that highchair? Yes, we have some more.» — I’m shocked that the waiter wasn’t able to understand English properly to begin with. I think it’s very important for any restaurant in La Jolla to employ waiters who understand English really well.
We ordered calamari fritti, penne alla norma, and gnocchi della nonna. The calamari was so good & fresh! It was so crispy & battered perfectly. Penne alla norma was fine as well. Gnocchi della nonna had too much cheese in it, in my opinion. A few pieces would be fine but the whole plate can make you easily saturated.
Luckily when we were ready to leave, the former waiter seemed to have left and this new waiter was friendlier and didn’t seem to have issue with English at all. Food was ok, but considering the parking and the service, I’m not so sure I would go back.

We had a delightful evening dining at La Dolce Vita Friday November 20, 2015 with our friends Ben and Sidne Marchese (they own Sicilia Belle in La Jolla, and thus know Sicilian food!). On Friday evenings La Dolce Vita brings in a changing, charming group of musicians and singers; we had a table near them and it was a lot of fun listening to a wide variety of pieces. It is not every place where you can be entertained by a Naples like singer, a Japanese singer named Tammy, a dark-​haired French lady who was raised in the ex-​French colony of Morocco, a Mexican gentleman with a great voice, a piano, violin, spoons and soft drums. Besides the normal red-​sauced Italian/​Sicilian (owner Enzo is from Sciliy and has been here 20 plus years) dishes, the place has a number of light sauced fish dishes. Bread is very good and comes with the place’s special red dipping sauce. Wide variety of 10 appetizers and 4 salads (I tried one that had prosciutto and melon over spinach topped with shaved cheese and walnuts, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar-​delicious), 8 Pizzas, 15 Pasta dishes, and 8 Second Plates including a 14 oz rib-​eye topped with truffle oil served with potatoes and spinach for only $ 29.95, the most expensive item on the menu (most are $ 15 to $ 20). Service again was excellent; this is a very well run restaurant. Place has a Prospect address in the heart of the Village but it is actually tucked away down a courtyard off of Prospect.

Would love to give it 3.5 stars.
Nice décor, nice food, terrific service. As locals, we’ll be back.

It’s definitely a good place to eat. The Atmosphere is great, the service is great, and so is the food. It’s a bit on the pricey side, but it’s definitely a good place to go on a date or with friends.

La Dolce Vita has been our go-​to Italian place forever. Enzo and La Doce Vita staff were so amazing when we held our wedding rehearsal dinner there on ¹⁰⁄₁₆. LDV was already one of our favorite spots in La Jolla, and so when we decided our wedding was going to be in SD, we instantly knew where to have the rehearsal dinner! Thank you again Enzo — you guys are so fantastic and see you soon!
If you ever want AMAZING food paired with excellent service – this is your place!

Food is mediocre at best, I tried the pizza, chicken Parmesan, and vodka penne and none were anything to remember. What was really disconcerting is the service and shady business practices this establishment engages in… I went with a date and three times named the bottle of wine I ordered, however upon receiving the check noticed they tried to charge me for a bottle $ 50 more than the one I ordered. Second, they included a gratuity of 28% on a check for two people and the service wasn’t even that good?!? I will not be returning nor recommend anyone else does either…

The spaghetti pescatore is amazing! I love that dish. Their pizza has been known to be pretty good too. The service here is excellent. One week, I took a friend with me and the next week a took a different friend. The waiter remembered me and what I ordered. He didn’t even mention to my current date that I was with another chick last week! Now that’s service! He got an amazing tip. This is a perfect date spot location because you have to go thru an alley way hidden from the street view. In the evening, eating outside is an impressive sight. Then after dinner, walking down to the cove is a good way to continue the evening.

We came here for my bridesmaids asking dinner on Wednesday. Very cute little spot off the main strip. The servers are friendly.
Bread & Dip — they give you complimentary bread and dip. The dip was tomato/​olive oil flavored. It was okay. Definitely nothing like Piatti’s dip.
Fettuccine Bolognese w/​Sausage — This was okay. Not bad but not spectacular.
Vodka Penne — This had an interesting flavor. Did not blow my mind though.
Gnocchi — My future sister in law got this dish and she said it was really cheesy.
Overall it’s a cute place but the food is not amazing.

The cannelloni was absolutely fantastic! Loved it. My girlfriend got the steak medium rare and it came out medium well. They took it back right away and made up for the mistake. Nice ambiance, fantastic bread as well. I will give it another try for sure.

My bf and I were in the mood for Italian and wanted to try something new and use our Passport Card, so we decided on this place. The food and service were excellent, their wine, not so much. We started out with the burrata. It was nice and simple, but excellent. For our entrees he had the gnocchi and I had the lobster stuffed ravioli with scallops. The gnocchi was great, just very rich. I think they could have added a little more sage to cut the richness. The raviolis were perfect, the scallops were cooked perfectly, definitely no complaints, and the lobster reduction sauce was out of this world! The only thing that we didn’t like was the wine, I don’t remember which kinds we both ordered, but they both tasted cheap.
The reason for the 4 stars is because they added gratuity. I have never seen a place, especially in La Jolla add gratuity for 2 guests. He would have gotten a little more from us if he wouldn’t have done that.

This was hands down one of the best chicken parmesan’s I’ve ever had. The sauce was very unique, and the chicken was perfect. The bread was good and the dipping oil, again, was very unique. Haven’t seen anything like it. Quaint little area, tucked away off the main street in La Jolla. Not too pricey and good service.

we met a lovely women name Audrey at another Resturant one nite and she told us she play piano on fri nites at LaDolce Vita to come see Her. WELL I am s glad we did
aside from the food being amazing and the service excellent the music and the entertainment was price less some amazing talent of singers I felt like I was at the opera and LUIGI he is something else Cant wait to go Again and bring my Friends
MUST BE ON A Friday nite

This place is cute and the food is good.
I came here for a date actually and I loved loved the outdoor patio atmosphere but honestly, while the food was good– it wasn’t great. I really expected something much more mouth watering even from my dates dish and he wasn’t too impressed with it either!
I had ordered the pasta gardiani or something like that. It was a red penne pasta dish with zucchini, broccoli and mozzarella cheese sprinkled on top. It was good. I think the broccoli was a bit overcooked and the combination of all wasn’t really my favorite. That and I expected the sauce to be fantastic and it was pretty average, even for something you can make a home so that was disappointing.
But my date ordered the special. Lobster ravioli with scallops and it was overly drenched with sauce and he mentioned the scallops were «chewy».
Nonetheless I did have a good red glass of wine, called the dolce vita I liked.
This place was nice. I liked it. But like I said I did expect the food to be far better especially for la jolla than it was. But it wasn’t bad. And the service was good.
I’ll try maybe another shot :)

Chicken with spinach and potatoes is a good option if you’re gluten-​free. Just remember to not eat the free bread, so you don’t look like a hypocrite.
Chicken was a little dry, as it tends to be in most restaurants. Potatoes were a little hard in the middle — parboiling would have helped.
Spinach was great. The dipping sauce (for the bread I remembered not to eat, since I am gluten free today, as all the cool kids are doing it lately), goes well on the vegetables.
Wait staff and outdoor seating are great. The depressed looking real estate guy gives away free Gospels of John, if you’re into that (not me). Should I list that as a tip?

Ein angenehmes Ambiente mit Tischdecken und Stoffservietten. Als Goodie wird Brot und Pfefferoni Öl angeboten — nicht zu scharf und sehr lecker.
Ceasar Salat ließ ich mit Hähnchensteak zubereiten. Er hatte eine angenehme Rauchnote.
Tagliatelle mit Pesto war reich mit Schrimps verziert — vielleicht 7 große Stücke.
Dampmaschine hat Espresso generiert, die man von zu Hause kennt.
Auf dem kleinen Raum wurde viel für die optische gemütlichkeit gemacht. Speißen unter dem freien Himmel ist möglich.

Great service. Veg lasagna was good and enough to feed two people. I never felt rushed like other places too often make you feel.

We will be here anytime we are in La Jolla. We’ve been here twice now, and the food and service have been great. The tomato bisque should not be missed! The entrees are good sized, and they can split it for a few extra dollars. It was perfect sized with some soup and bread. Hope to be back soon!

If you go to this restaurant with a Passport card, your table will be ignored for most of the evening. The moment our server saw that we were using our Passport cards, it was a switch off moment for him. This is a big server with curly hair. He simply avoided our table the rest of the evening. We changed our minds and skipped desserts as we didn’t want to be there till closing. I like the food here but based on this experience I won’t be going back.

I do not have much to say about Dolce Vita… nothing baaaaad but nothing amazing, and I do not remember most of the dished we ordered.
We were there 7 people: a family of 5, my husband and myself.
The patio looks very pretty and the inside is nice too.
We sat in a kind of separated room where you can actually be with your family and feel like none else is eating at the restaurant.
The food was very good, but the desert not so much.
The kids loved their Spagethi Marinara and Penne a la Norma.
My husband has a Rossotto with Lobster, the Rissotto was very tasty but the lobster was not good. I had a salmon with vegetables and I truly enjoyed it!
The Tiramisu was good, but the Cheese Cake was frozen :(, we returned it!
The service was great, but the place is too expensive!
The 3 starts are not because of the service or the food, but because of the deserts, the price and the parking situation.