Barbusa

Tasty food, personable service and great drinks!

Best italian in San Diego! Atmosphere was fun and energetic, with amazing service. From the oysters and cheese and meats to start, to the handmade pasta I was Impressed. I will definitely be back!

good Italian food. Not much for side orders which is a shame.

A bit of a problem on arrival in that I changed the reservation to an earlier time and to standard seating instead of high top. The hostess claimed the seating remained high top. After a conversation she accommodated the standard seating. The food was delicious. Overall the experience was good.

Fresh ingredients, great flavor! Love the calamari and Sicilian meatballs. My favorite in little Italy!

Love this restaurant! Everything is always great. Wonderful cocktails, delicious appetizers, fabulous food & desserts. The waiters do a fabulous job, attentive but not pestering!! Definitely a must go. We had meatballs, burrata appies. Truffle Gnocchi, ragu type dish & pizza. Plenty of food for 4 to share.

noisy restaurant. good food and reasonable esp at happy hour!
enjoyed the cocktails.

Great food, drinks and service! This was my first time at Barbusa and it did not disappoint. I was with a party of 6 and we all loved everything. Get the gnocchi!

They have changed their menu and the new menu doesn't even come close to the items on the previous menu. This used to be one of my favorite restaurants in San Diego and I was so disappointed at my last visit. I couldn't believe it. I am not sure why they changed the menu but the food quality has definitely suffered. The staff also seems to have changed. Our server was rude, but we tolerated it because he was an older gentleman. I don't think I will be coming back anytime soon.

Great , great ambiance and service. Just a little too noisy and had to wait 20 mn even with a reservation

Service was rushed but satisfactory. Certainly understandable.Atmosphere is electric. Food is delicious sampled pizza, polenta, Osso Buco and meat balls. All were very good

Such delicious food, great busy ambiance, knowledgeable and kind staff. Food is so fresh and they have very reasonable prices!

Solid! Get seafood, everything else was meh

Once again we went on Sunday for happy hour and some dinnerafter a concert
performed by S D Symphony . The restaurant was packed and the noise level higher than our previous visits. They have very good house wines, really fresh oyster. The yellowtail small plate was really good as were the Sicilian meatballs. From the dinner menu we chose stuffed zucchini blossoms and grilled octopus, both were excellent. I subtracted one star on food for the pizza since the dough was thin almost like flatbread and warm but not hot. We are not a fan of their pizza. Otherwise perfect food. Grazie.

The food was delicious however our service was slow. We had to keep asking for refills on drinks. We were disappointed that as an Italian restaurant they did not serve bread. You have to pay for garlic bread and it was $10.
Also they forgot our birthday even though they were reminded at the start and did not celebrate the birthday girl.Food was good but you cannot taste sea urchin in the pasta.

Second time going while visiting from Chicago. The food is impeccable, drinks delicious, service was really nice. I keep enjoying my time there and the seasonal menu. All good things to say, and that's really good coming from a girl who lives the Chicago food scene regularly

Food was great but the restaurant was so incredibly loud, it was practically impossible to talk to one another. Just wanted to eat quickly and get out.

Fun time! Wil

Food and service was excellent, just very loud atmosphere

Dishes were okay, I was expecting the carbonara to be amazing and authentic however this particular restaurant serves it with a raw egg yolk, peas, and caramelized onions. Not the recipe I’m used to. It is Sicilian so maybe that is the region that serves it like that. However my friend that was dining with me, his father is from Sicily so I was weird for both of us to experience my dish. Don’t get it, you will be disappointed. If you ask for bread, all they have is this big giant garlic bread that is enough for 10 people. We were dining for two. Don’t order that, we were hoping it would have just been a few slices of bread so we could wipe out plates with it... but no it was just too much .

Wonderful place to go, outstanding Italian food

Fantastic & the waiter was wonderful - he sang a beautiful Italian song for my son’s birthday!

One of the best Italian restaurants in San Diego

This is one of our go to places in San Diego. It's always full of energy, friendly staff and just great food. It reminds me of NYC restaurants.

Always a mainstay when we visit San Diego. Food is outstanding and the value is excellent.

Birthday Celebration

Absolutely loved the place!

Good food! Great atmosphere! Fun night out! Great location!

Amazing happy hour. Attentive service. Beautiful dining room. Luxurious food. A++

Noisy place.

I came to Barbusa with my family (two teenagers!) and we all loved it. The food was great. I had the Sugo Busalacchi, which was delicious. Literally meat and like 10 gnocchi, but I still had to bring some home. My son was disappointed at first when the Margherita pizza looked more like cheese pizza than the “usual” sliced tomato and fresh mozzarella, but first of all, I was impressed that the runner left the basil on the side (just in case!) and he loved it.
My daughter was over the moon for the squid ink pasta and my husband loved the Osso Bucco.
Sara, the waitress was the best!! So sweet to the kids and really nice. Great job, Barbusa!

I have been to Barbusa for lunch and dinner during the week and it has always been wonderful. The weekend, however, is very crowded and the noise level didn’t allow for easy conversation in my group. Aside from the issue with noise, the food was wonderful and service was great.

The food was excellent, loved the service, but a lot of details were missing.
There are no vintages on the wine list. Probably the most glaring error.

The table look improvised. And service was very slow

Great food! Loved the area!

It was very loud and hard to hold a conversation in a group.

Fantastic dining experience! Nice atmosphere, great food, and wonderful service!

Our experience during New year's Eve was outstanding! The staff was great, and the food was amazing!! The music was good too, there were plenty of times the whole restaurant was singing along to the classics. It was pretty loud in there but hey everyone was celebrating and having a great time. Overall great experience and we will be back for more!

Best Meal and service ever! Barbusa staff are incredible and it’s overall an amazing dining experience!
Love Barbusa and I am so happy to ring in the year with them!

Had NYE dinner with friends at Barbusa and we loved it! The food was delicious except for my stuffed shrimp with crab; I think it was over cooked, but the risotto was good. The best dish was the osso Bucco. The arugula salad was also fabulous. I loved the playlist they had going during dinner with 90s hits. Would definitely come back to try other items in the menu.