Catania

Excellent meal and exceptional service!

We were celebrating our anniversary ~ sadly seated by a raucous 4 top ~ our waiter had to lean in to try to hear us ~ good food ~ not sure if we would come again ~

The pasta was under cooked the pizza was salty. And it was very loud and one table was excessive loud.

Took my life partner here for his 33rd birthday and everything was delicious. The view was also beautiful. We loved everything, simply amazing!

Loved the duck mousse and branzino. Good presentations and perfectly prepared.

The bartenders at Catania are reliably talented and this is our go to place for martinis in La Jolla.

Really good food and lovely service. It’s a little dark inside for dinner but good for date night. I really love this place.

Great flavors! Excellent service!! Homemade pasta was unbelievable. Branzino melted in my mouth. We will return.

Wood fired pizza is excellent and their salads are fresh but the table we were seated at was so wide we couldn’t hear each talk. However I could hear every word from the party next to us.

From the host to the servers, best service in town:)

Pizza is good. Full bar and decent wine. Patio area is great especially during the warmer months and during sunset. Noisy!

We sat out on the patio at night time and it was very comfortable with the heater by us. We tried the five fish feast which was a great deal for the amount & quality of food we got. Food was very good! I'm really glad I got to try Catania.

Group of four women on Xmas eve- food was overpriced. One small pizza hardly had any cheese and cost $20! Other foods on menu were very rich and not much choice of mild.

I have been to Cantania twice, both times for lunch. I have had great attentive service both times. Not crazy about the 4% that is automatically added to the bill. But the octopus appetizer, this will keep me coming back. The mushroom pizza was also excellent.

All around favorite restaurant! Never disappointing, just an enjoyable meal every time. Grilled octopus, best pizza in SD, (loved the squash pizza) tagliatelle, duck sugo orriocchette are just a few faves.

Catania continues to be one of our favorites anywhere.

Always a lovely time

The food was outstanding. There were four of us and we shared two appetizers: lamb meatballs and fried octopus. We had 2 salads and the ladies shared the Branzino and a pizza and a pasta dish with a Duck ragu. All of it was very, very good. A great find in La Jolla.

We were impressed with the food, ambiance and service.

Class act customer service always makes Catania stand apart from the rest. Superb

After reading the reviews we thought this would be a wonderful restaurant for our daughter's 32nd birthday but we would have had better food at the local pizza place.

First, the service was -WAY- subpar for a restaurant with these prices.
Second, what restaurant runs out of bread AND steak by 8 PM on a Saturday night?
and
Third, we felt the restaurant was unprofessional and not run well (there are too many small details to list here.)

Overall we felt the food and restaurant and entire experience was from "someone who has no experience but thinks this is what a restaurant might be". (Interestingly said by 3 of us at different times the next day.)

(I have many friends in the restaurant world and I like to be generous and unforgiving of 'bad nights' but I don't think we arrived on a bad night. I get the feeling this is the norm for this restaurant.)

I love Italian food. My husband booked at Catania because of all the wonderful reviews he read. We weren't disappointed at all. Food was delicious, our waitress was excellent and helpful when it came to ordering, will definitely be back.

I thought I would take my wife out for a nice upscale meal. We started out with the citrus salad, and it was very good. I ordered the squid ink spaghetti, and was disappointed in the dish. The noodles were well prepared, but the sauce was below quality. The sauce was clumpy, not saucy at all and had to many bread crumbs which probably absorded the sauce. We sat outside for the ambiance and it was perfect until they seated an office party of 24 people. It was so loud we could barely hear each other. We made reservations and when we arrived we were given both options, inside or outside. If I would have been told of the large party coming after us we would have sat inside. Better restaurants in the area, won't be back.

It was so awesome! Complimentary dessert for my bday and we were treated very well. Romantic as welll as family friendly

The best meal I had but was greatly impressed by the attentiveness of the wait folks, loved my waitress, food was very very good, loved the homemade pasta.

Food and service was excellent. Some of the best Italian food I’ve had. We will be coming back.

The food here is amazing! No matter what my friends or I order, it's always delicious. Everyone who works here is always super friendly and the waitstaff is always on top of everything from refilling our drinks to removing our empty plates out of the way. This is definitely one of the best restaurants to go to for amazing pasta!

Amazing food and service ! I enjoyed the butternut squash ravioli, mushroom pizza and Nutella semifreddo. Our waiter was knowledgeable and friendly. Great location and outdoor patio

Quite possibly San Diego’s best restaurant. Consistently excellent food, drinks and service.

Ate there for lunch with a friend. Service was superb both greeter and waitress. Ahi appetizer good. Steak salad fabulous. Halibut fabulous. Patio was quiet and warm enough on a cool day. Very enjoyable experience. Highly recommend.

Fantastic service and the food is always extremely consistent every tine we have visited.

Dining here tonight was fantastic. The service was exceptional both at the bar were we had drinks and small plates while waiting for our reservation and though out dinner. Our server Bridgette was friendly, attentive and knowledgeable providing an enjoyable experience without interruption of our family conversations. The atmosphere was perfect for enjoying conversation. All this is the bonus to the food we chose. From bar food to dessert everything was delicious and expertly prepared. i highly recommend the octopus appetizer and the panna cotta with huckleberry. We will definitely return.

Excellent food and service

I've been here three time and have never been disappointed. The experience is everything I hope for. I'm pleased.

The Octopus is the best!!

We visited with our son and daughter-in-love, at their recommendation.
Absolutely amazing!
Every dish, from appetizer to entreé was exquisite. We had to all share every plate because we had to let each other experience the delight we were enjoying.
The staff was wonderful, caring and careful, ever present - yet not hovering.
In all - perfect!

Loved their lamb meatballs as an appetizer.

Delicious food and cocktails and a fabulous view of the water from the rooftop

The bronzino was recommended to me and it did not disappoint, but what we didn't expect was how phenomenal the duck orecchiette would be. And gluten free? How do they do that? Only con is the inflated wine and cocktail prices. Par for the course in La Jolla I guess but that doesn't mean I like it. I will be back to try other things on the menu for sure.

We were extremely excited to visit at this restaurant as we saw all of the high ratings for this place. We went on a Friday evening and were extremely disappointed by the quality of the food. The service was great. The waitress was vert helpful and accommodated us with our meal choice.

The meal however, was mediocre at best. I had squid ink pasta and added shrimp and both the squid and the shrimp was over cooked. The shrimp was like eating rubber. It was extremely chewy.

For the price point, this restaurant was over rated. We will most likely not attend this restaurant for dinner again. I think this restaurant is more ideal for lunch as they offer a good amount of different pizza options.

They really took care of us on our anniversary. A special night!