Great food and service but a bit noisy.

Delicious dinner and cocktails!

I have been to San Diego twice and both times I have come to Barbusa. The food is excellent and there is something on the menu for everyone!

Took my husband here for Father’s Day. We were promptly seated at our reservation time and Vince took care of ordering for us! This is our favorite restaurant in Little Italy!

Restaurant was beautiful but the music was SO loud I couldn't even hear the waiter and I got a headache at the end trying to just talk to the people at the table. Also the tables and chair height should be looked at. My husband is 6'4 and when sitting he could barely put his legs under the table the chairs were too high. I would recommend some one to go for Happy Hour in the bar area only but I wouldn't recommend anyone to eat at the restaurant.

It was a great experience the staff was so nice and helpful the food was 10/10 and the ambiance of the restaurant really helped my date and I to settle in and really get to know each other.

The food is delicious! I always go for the polenta, it never disappoints. This past visit we had the crab pasta, I will go back for more!!

Food and sevice was outstanding. Only complaint is it is very loud and is tough to carry a conversation with people at your own table but again food and sevice was GREAT!!

The pasta was absolutely amazing! We ordered the roasted bone marrow and it was rich and creamy while not leaving you feeling sluggish afterward. Great quality for the pricing.

This was such an enjoyable experience. There were 6 people in our party and we were seated quickly. Out waiter was phenomenal and the food was delicious. I will definitely go back the next time I’m in town.

It was great! Good service and friendly staff

Very Good Italian Food. Food was very close to eating in Italy. Highly recommended.

Service is about as bad as it gets. The good was pretty good overall. Wouldn’t come back. Plenty of good places to eat in SD without the attitude

Barbusa has great food and wine. We were there on a Saturday, and it was hopping. Great service, too. The only negative is that it was so loud it was hard to have conversation at our table. But I bet on a weeknight it would be just fine.

A little too noise, each birthday happening an Opera was sang. And the service took a while to come made my order, and the food went to fast after it, even not having time to end the focaccia from the appetizer.

This place was great! I went for my birthday and they brought out a brownie with a sparkler. It was perfect for a birthday dinner! We went to Born and Raised after for drinks, which was a perfect birthday combination.

Food was not very tasty...very bland.
Waiter was clueless...actually charged my credit card 3 times and then gave my card and receipt to another table. Still waiting to see of I get all 3 of the charges on my card. I never saw any cancellations. When I pointed it out the guy was clueless as to how to fix it.

We had a reservation for 3 people and they pulled a chair over to a two person table and sat us there. It was very awkward because the table was too small and one person was staring directly at the other two person tables nearby. It was a shame to have such an uncomfortable seating arrangement after making the reservation several days in advance. The restaurant is quite loud and the service was incredibly slow. It took 20 minutes to order a glass of wine.

Place is loud, food is so so, waiter is funny, and will not go back.

Good food. However, the waiter was very pushy and the noise level was unbearable. You cannot carry on a conversation in this place.

Truly wonderful service and cuisine

This is one of my favorite dinning spots in San Diego . The decor is trendy with a modern look. The menu is great with various and delicious options . The service was great I always taken care of, we had a Italian server that make the experience even greater. The food was amazing and for the price 👌🏻. Everything we tried was delicious. I highly recommend this restaurant.

Went to Barbusa for a dinner out with my mom and sisters. It was fantastic! Service was excellent, amazing cocktails, yummy focaccia, My mom is a tough critic and she ate every bite of her salmon with sweet potato! The brussel sprouts risotto was also amazing. Don't miss the deconstructed canoli for dessert! This is a great place I would recommend to everyone.

We had a terrible Saturday evening at Barbusa. I had friends from out of town visiting and decided it would be fun to take them to Little Italy for dinner. The meal started off with a rude greeting from the hostess who informed us that although we had made a reservation several weeks in advance that there would be a short wait. No problem. Our party of 5 waited about 15 minutes to then be seated at a table that was meant for 4 with an extra chair shoved onto the end of the table that was directly in the walk way. I sat at the chair in the walkway where throughout the whole meal, I was repeatedly run into by guests and the wait staff without any apologies. The restaurant was beyond loud and very hot. The windows were shut to the restaurant yet they were not running any AC. Our waiter greeted us after 10 minutes where we proceeded to go ahead and order all of our drink and food at the same time. The waiter was sweating profusely and could barely hear our order. We waited an unusually long period for our bottle of wine to arrive which was shortly followed by our salad and our entrees which arrived within minutes of each other. We had no time to enjoy our wine and salad before our entrees arrived. The food was okay at best. The prosciutto and burrata pizza was the only redeeming part of our entire dining experience. However, one of us ordered the gluten free crust which was burned and inedible. We spoke to our waiter all of two times our entire meal. The entire ordeal was very disappointing. I would NEVER recommend anyone eat at this restaurant in Little Italy. To summarize, the meal was loud, hot, short, and overall disappointing. Save your time and definitely go try somewhere else in Little Italy. I would especially emphasize skipping this restaurant if your party is larger than 4 adults as most of the tables can not accommodate a large group without placing a chair in the walkway, and no one wants to be repeatedly run into throughout their entire meal.

Very good food, reasonable price and excellent service!

It was our first time at Barbusa and we loved everything about the place, food wine wait staff. We are definitely going back soon!

The Ossobucco ravioli was out of this world delicious. Nice selection of wines, but a bit on the pricey side. The decoration is really nice and the ambiance was perfect. Service was very good. Definitely one of our new favorites in Litte Italy.

Everything was amazing! We will be back very soon!

Our first time at Barbusa. It was a Friday afternoon, around 6pm. The interior is very nicely designed. The wait staff was fantastic - very attentive, very well informed. Our waiter helped us select a fantastic wine. We started with the melanzane bruschetta appetizer - absolutely delicious. Then things fell a little flat when the dinners arrived. Among the people in our group, we had carbonara, aragosta and Bolognese. After the wonderful bruschetta experience, we were surprised because all the dinners were just ok, kind of flat. No one was excited about their food. Things picked up again with dessert - lemon cheesecake and chocolate cake were superb. One issue we had throughout the meal was the noise level. It was so loud in the restaurant we couldn't hear each other across the table, so we had to shout. Perhaps it was a Friday night thing - maybe if we went on a Saturday, things would have been a little quieter. I'm sorry to give a less-than-stellar review, because I really wanted Barbusa to work out as a new go-to place.

We loved our lunch. Will come back!

Very good food, great flavors and fresh. We ate later so we expected a louder crowd and that was true to expectations. The Sicilian influence lended all dishes a bit more flare and outreaching flavors than traditional Italian. It was different, but in a favorable way. I would eat here again to try more menu items.

Good place- past was good

Overall very disappointing. Service was cordial and reasonably attentive but the food did not taste remotely Italian. We had several appetizers and the meatballs were okay, the shrimp did not smell fresh and the Margherita pizza was a gut bomb. For pasta course, the lobster had no flavor, the sauce watery and the pasta rubbery; the ravioli had an unusually smokey flavor; the crab had spaghettini that was over cooked and glommed together; the cod with pasta seemed okay, but was unusual to have red sauce. The wine was okay. The price ran about $50 per person and was not a good value. We later wandered the streets of Little Italy and found many other, more reasonable alternatives.

Awesome! such an amazing place. I will be a usual client for sure.

What a great nite! Our server Roberto, for whom we were his first table, provided amazing service. The food was spectacular with the exception of my hubby’s pork chop which was a bit fatty. We were there to celebrate my bday but I wasn’t sung to, which was a bit of a bummer. But overall a great night and would totally recommend. Note to Barbusa...if you are going to offer “bread” the focaccia you served was a bit of a joke. It tasted amazing but the portion size was a bit of a giggle (5”x5” max) for a table of four. Perhaps just skip that as part of your service.

Thumbs up. Thanks for the dessert

This has now become one of my all time favorite Italian restaurants in San Diego. The food is so flavorful and different. the atmosphere is very energetic and is quite loud, but fun! The service is outstanding and honestly there were zero negatives and only positives. We had a reservation at 8pm and the place was hopping on a Saturday nite.

Amazing food! Cheese plate was great. Roasted chicken was amazing. Pork shank was to die for.

Todo estuvo muy bien. La comida riquísima y el servicio de primera!

Great food! Authentic and homemade pasta! Noodles never purchased from the store! Great location!