A former roommate introduced me to Mama Cella's. It's one of those hole-in-the-wall kind of places, but they always have the best food. His family was here from New Jersey, and they are true Italians, and if they approve, you know it has to be good! We had both pasta and pizza there. I love the red sauce, and the pizza crust was fantastic. There are many options on the menu and it's not even that expensive. A great place to take the family! read more

Glad I looked back at my old reviews... this demands an update! Mama Cella's is one of our family's favorites. The take out station is in the back of the restaurant, and can be accessed through an open door behind the building. Turn left right after the 7-11/Mama Cella's parking lot and park in the first couple rows. Easy pick up, GREAT food, and truly awesome people. read more

I had the worst week ever but the closer was phenomenal! We ordered a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, the chicken parm and the penne alla cardinal with shrimp. Best meal ever! We highly recommend Mamma Cella's if you want authentic Italian fare. Say Hi to Amanda for us!! read more

I have been going to Mama Cellas for years but yesterday was very disappointing.  I ordered the  soap which was warm at best. When the main course came which was ravioli, it too was just warm. I waited three minutes waiting for my server to ask how my dinner was but she never came. I picked up the dish and brought it to her.  At that point, I asked if Tim ( owner ) was there and she said no. It seems as though there was no quality control. I will go back as they might be having a bad day. " The cruiser man" read more

Ordered chicken piccata to go, flavor was OK. The food was not bad at all. It was just missing some thing and the chicken was soggy. That might be my bad because I ordered to go but the wait from the restaurant to home isn't more than three minutes, so maybe we could work on the crispiness of the chicken. Staff was extremely friendly and the fried mushrooms with mushroom marinara is to die for. 8/10 ! read more

I am very disappointed as I loved going here. I recently went and had dinner with my friend, and we split the tab evenly at the end of dinner. My friend was charged correctly and they charged me the whole amount. I understand people made mistakes, but the way it was handled with I believe his name was Tim, the owner or manager was terrible. I called back after calling them the day before because nobody called me back like they told me they would as they knew the charge was wrong. Tim stated that the quickest way to fix it was to refund me the correct amount and asked for cc info again. However, I hung up and found immediately that he charged the new amount to my card as well, not refunded. I called again because now I am angry, and I asked that he take all charges off as a courtesy and he said, no, I won't do that, you had service. I would think at this point there would be some kindness showed to me. He wasn't even going to fix this until end of day because he was busy with other customers. "What was I?" Well I called my cc to dispute it since he wasn't willing. Too bad, as I will never go there again and Folks, if you do, check your cc statement when they post charges. Thanks for reading this and I hope it helps someone else. read more

Ordered a medium pizza with 2 items. It was dry and bacon was burned. I called and the manager hung up on me. I can't believe he's still in business. Check reviews ..* read more

Didn't know they open at 3, called in just before they opened and the owner actually went out of his way to make us some pizzas. Food was bomb and impressed with the customer service. read more

The best Italian food in the neighborhood. The food, people and service is excellent. Listening to Sinatra in the background made me feel nostalgic. Great home cooked meals. Recommend highly. And the prices are just right. read more

Amazing food and amazing service!! Food was so authentic. Ambiance was awesome. Definitely will be going back!!!

We were surprised at how good the staff and food were . We have lived in North County for 20 years and there aren't many good Italian places. The food was fresh and nice sized portions, the sauces were homemade and full of flavor . The staff couldn't be better or nicer . Highly recommend the Chicken Piccata and Chicken Parm and a reservation !! read more

Nice little family run Italian restaurant. Food quality is good. Service is quick and friendly.

Wow! This was seriously a major surprise finding this gem of a restaurant while scouring Yelp after a long day at the San Diego Safari Park. I'm glad we chose to come here instead of making the trek to Little Italy for dinner. The restaurant is located in a mini-mall next to a 7-11, so it isn't some fancy-looking place to itself. When you go inside, there are a few tables, as the space is small and limited. It was busy for a Saturday evening, as it was pretty much full and lots of to-go orders going out! Luckily, there was a table available for all of us, including my four month-old daughter (who thankfully remained peaceful), to have a nice dinner. We started off with the cheese toast appetizer, and it was gone in a matter of seconds. Absolutely excellent! The homemade marinara sauce is absolutely to die for! I had the spaghetti with marinara, my mom had the meat lasagna, and our dear friend had the eggplant parmigiana. All of us were just blown away how great each dish was. We all agreed that this was a better meal [experience] than the one we had at another authentic Italian restaurant last summer in Little Italy. Service was attentive and excellent, bathroom is super clean -- and it thankfully had a changing table for my baby, reasonably-priced for homemade delicious food, and the nearby patrons were friendly, too. We will definitely make it a tradition to come here after we visit the Safari Park or Zoo, as it a fantastic place to cap off the evening. Thank you so much for providing an A+ place to go to. read more

Excellent service and amazing tasty food. Their portions are large and the food is tasty and well seasoned. The best you can find in San Diego.. the have specials 5 days a week. read more

We were hunting down for a new place to try and Mama Cella's came up and Italian sounded good. We had a great lunch for our party of 4. Service was super friendly and easy going, perfect combination while being professional! We ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo, a medium house special thin crust and two orders of the Friday lunch special (a salad and all you can eat slices of either cheese or pepperoni pizza). All were very good but the pizza crust and sauce were very good. The biggest standout for both the salad and pizza was it tasted so fresh!! Great experience and so glad to add another go-to place to our list. read more

Very good ministrone, lasagne, raviloi, & spumoni. The service is excellent as well. The restaurant is small but very cute.

The people are so nice, however the food is so so. I order shrimp scampi and the sauce was thick and not the traditional garlic, oil, butter white wine sauce. My husband got the Bolognese which was pretty good and the cheese garlic toast was good but too thick cheese for me. read more

Always Outstanding service and great food. Enjoy their Ravioli and spumone ice cream.

Omg their chicken piccata is sooo good! So is the clam linguine! I've had bites of several different entrees and everything is so good.

We found this small family style restaurant on google. It did not disappoint. Our server, Christian, was friendly, professional and made good recommendations. The whole staff was attentive. The food was scrumptious. We ordered a variety of entrees from the menu and they were all delicious! We highly recommend this charming local find. read more

Fantastic little spot for Italian! I had wanted to try mama Cellas forever. Luckily my amazing boyfriend was on board with me. We arrived and were immediately taken care of. Sat us promptly, kept our drinks refilled without asking. Our server who's name we didn't catch(sorry guys we should have asked) She wore lenses, and was very friendly and warm. She and the other staff checked on us often. As for the food we adored everything! We both shared a fried zucchini appetizer and for the mains....I had the chicken parmesan with a house salad(honey lime dressing is so good) and my boyfriend had the linguini pesto with chicken(we both tried each others dishes and agreed they were delicious). We finished our meal with a very tasty tiramisu. All in all a great experience we will for sure be returning and recommending. read more

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On the way back home from this place my husband asked me how I would rate it. I told him 3 stars. He came back with 2.5. So 3 stars it is. Positives: Atmosphere. We expected a very casual, order up front, take out sort of place, but it's actually quite nice inside. Small, but homey with low lighting to provide more atmosphere. Enough to forget that you are eating in a strip mall, and fancy enough for a nice dinner. Service: The waiter was really nice and quite funny. He had a great personality and was attentive. Service was a bit slow, but that may have been deliberate. This is not a fast food place and it seemed like they wanted to allow time for conversation and relaxation between the time they served salad and the entree. Unfortunately, this doesn't really work for us at any time because of our son. Fortunately, he was on his best behavior and did not cause any problems! Food: The food here seems well-executed, but we only tried the minestrone soup, spaghetti and meatballs and the ravioli. I The minestrone was far above average. Usually I find it a bland, unappetizing and watery mix of vegetables and pasta. This one was thick, hearty, and full of flavor. Yum. We both shared our dishes with our son who loved both of them and ate it all up. Negatives: Price: Pretty pricey for the type and quantity of food we thought. Why are most Italian restaurants overpriced? (see my rant on Capri Blu) Fortunately, we had a coupon which helped alleviate the pain. Food: Although well-executed, the food (aside from the soup) was very standard and pretty average. It was good pasta, but nothing I couldn't make at home aside from the raviolis. The marinara and meat sauces were good, but not amazing. Same with the meatballs. In fact, I liked these better than my husband who thought the ones I make far superior. He knows how to get on my good side. I did think the raviolis were really good (and they looked home-made), but they were standard raviolis filled with ricotta cheese. All in all, it was a nice experience but strangely unsatisfying due to the price and the rather average standard meal we received. Food was good, but not exciting. I do have to say that this place has great lunch time deals during the week including all you can eat pizza and salad on Fridays for $6. Unfortunately, we don't work around here so we would never be able to take advantage of that! We will probably never be back here again unless we were in the area during lunch time. read more

We went for saturday lunch today and we'd absolutely be back for the weekday lunch special! It's a small cozy restaurant and our first time to dine there. We shared: Breaded Mozzerella $7.75 (8 sticks)- ranch and marinara on the side. good, but not amazing. Meat Lasagna dinner $12.99 (included cup of soup/salad and garlic bread) The cup of minestrone soup was actually REALLY good: thick, chock full of tender meat, beans, & potatoes. And the two pieces of garlic bread was soft, buttery, just right. I would have enjoyed more! The lasagna was pretty good, nice thick marinara sauce and plenty of cheese in the lasagna. But unfortunately the service was a little too slow albeit very nice and helpful; Our server actually split our lasagna (no split charge fee!) and checked on us, refilled an arnold palmer. So knowing this, I'd recommend going when you are not pressed for time, and definitely take advantage of the weekday lunch specials. The same lasagna portion is available at only $6.99 on wednesday lunch special (Lasagna, Bread and drink) yep... now that's a deal. Count me in! read more

Incredibly subpar Italian food, but can't expect much for the price. Interior is sad. Lunch is the only time I would ever go here, the specials are under $8. But if you want to add meat (meatballs, chicken, or sausage) its a ludicrous $4 - that's half the price of the meal. Meatballs are also too densely packed and not yummy. Tried the penne on a Tuesday, which really tasted like jarred pasta sauce with mushrooms added. Pasta was the box kind, and I didn't expect handmade pasta or anything but it seemed like cafeteria food to me, with no care going into the dish. In an effort to diversify our lunch options we had went in, but will probably avoid unless craving tons of carbs or something. read more

Definitely the go-to spot for take out Italian. We had a serious hankering for carbs and we came across this gem just down the street. The food has an old school flavor and the prices are just right. I had the eggplant parm and it was delicious. The ravioli was also really good. I have to say the sauce here is done really well. Not too watery and plenty of flavor. We also ordered the cheesy garlic bread and it was phenomenal. Dipping marinara was beyond good. This is the kind of place where you go to get your traditional Italian fix. No fusion, no gimmicks, large portions, and that home style feeling. Any other place in the area doesn't compare relative to the quality and the value. Love it! read more

This is my and my co-workers' favorite restaurant for lunch. We try to get there on the lasagna lunch special day. They have the best red sauce I've ever tasted. The service is always spot on and it's reasonably priced. There is just something so special about a small business that does food well that makes you want to write a review when you're reminiscing pre-COVID times. read more

Ok.. so, we chose this place to meet up with our good friends Chris and Kaka. None of us had tried it and we wanted to try a new place. Some of the Yelp reviews weren't so hot, but we decided to live on the edge. If I were only judging this place on the food, I would have given 2 stars because the food was just ok. I had the Chicken Piccata and though I KNEW it couldn't possibly compare to my wife's version, I was hoping it would be in the same ballpark. It wasn't. The chicken was pretty bland.. with only a hint of lemon.. very garlic-y... which wasn't bad. My wife got the Eggplant Parm.. it was supposed to be one of the house specialties, but it disappointed. It tasted like the end of the eggplant... very tough in places and spongy in others. She's Italian and admits to being a bit of a food snob when it comes to Italian food. Our friends got a pizza and a house salad. They enjoyed theirs more than we enjoyed ours. If we do decide to go back, I'll go for one of the pizzas... The $19 bottle of merlot our friends ordered was a good value as far as bottles of wine in restaurants go. And it was delish! I finished my meal with the creme brulee. Sadly, it was disappointing.. the creme was more soupy than a creme brulee should be and the brulee was tough to crack with my spoon! I didn't mind that as much as not having a good thick custard underneath though. Now, the reason I gave 3 stars was the service. It was excellent.. what you'd expect from a well run, family owned business. The waiter was a young guy who was attentive, personable and present enough to take care of all our needs without being too present, if you know what I mean. What put it over the top for me is that the owner came out after we had finished and introduced himself to us. He asked us about our meals... I mentioned that I would have liked more lemon in my chicken picatta. He told me that it was a set recipe, but he certainly could accommodate me if I mention it to the waiter. All in all, I'm pulling for these guys.. I hope they can improve the food and do really well here. read more

Mama Cella's - Italian Near Me - San Diego, California

amzing place THOUGH I HAVE TO ADMIT I SINCERELY THOUGHT IT CAME WITH A HAPPY ENDING their food is great and im surprised that they are very inexpensive for the quality they provide. read more

I ordered the eggplant Parmesan and it was really really delicious. I don't come up to the Rancho Bernardo area often but this place is good and I will come back again. I liked the side of pasta that came with the eggplant Parmesan and it was very flavorful. read more

Mama Cella's - Eggplant Parmigiana - Italian Near Me - San Diego, California

Wow it's so packed in here I'm so impressed. Smells amazing in here. I have had the pizza here before but never went in. It's small cozy makes me wanna eat here like something bom!!! Is all just mouth watering drooling bomb.I'm only not giving them 5 star's because there was no room for me to sit is all read more

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I went here the other night when it was takeout only but I was craving Lasagne. Let me tell you it was hands down amazing. I went here and met the nicest lady I ever did meet it made me feel like I was back in Italy. Whoever was in the kitchen cooking the food was fantastic. I went home ate like a king and then slept like a baby. I must say this place doesn't get enough credit as this was some of the best Italian food I ever had. thank you read more

We just had dinner at Mamma's and it was great. The food was good but the service was great. I didn't get her name but she was awesome. She told us she was family and really kind and friendly. My wife and I both said we would go back just to see her. I had veal parmigiana and my wife had eggplant parm, the pasta and the sauce was delicious . All in all we will be back read more

I had dinner here with my family and everyone loved it! My kids loved the pizza and my wife and I had the best chicken piccata! Family restaurant, very welcoming with amazing service: thank you Amanda! read more

Rude experience placing take out over the phone. Way too tables still allowed for dine in service in this small restaurant during pandemic . Mediocre fettuccine Alfredo and good not great meatball sandwich. Overpriced for what you get. Will not be returning read more

Out of Towner's just driving through and hungry. Read some solid yelp reviews but nothing will do it justice, you need to come and experience it. It was an awesome little find, it's pretty tiny, the decor is cute and quaint. Service was stellar! We ordered the caprese salad to start and it was perfectly done so simple so fresh. For our meal we shared a "your way" pizza and it was sooo good. I am going to go as far to say that it's now one of the best we've had.. yes that good!! My guy wanted to order another to go. Prices are great too, very inexpensive. I had a glass of Pinot noir and my guy got a beer all for $43. Definitely do your stomach a favor and give this place a try!! We will be back when we find ourselves in the area again. read more

This is one of the finest dining experiences I had. He staff is friendly and the food is very delicious It's the best Italian food in RB. Here is a tip go try it out you won't be disappointed I highly recommend this place read more

Have had great lasagna, chicken piccata, pizza, and chicken Parmesan lately. Works definitely recommend!

We had a take out dinner last night and it was fantastic. The thin crust pizza and the salad was delicious. The family was so grateful for our patronage. Great place! read more

Family run restaurant with friendly service and delicious food. I ordered the Lasagna which was a good portion with lots of sauce and meat. Garlic bread and Caesar salad was also very good. read more

Very good the pizza is yummy! I'm Italian and I know good pizza. Meat ball pizza was delicious and the deserts are all homemade. My go to pizza place. read more