The food was OK for top rated Italian. My wife and I were looking for something for our anniversary and this isn't the most romantic place. Service was slow and hard to come by but the food is good. We both liked our meal but it wasn't anything special. I will say that prices are right for what you get and and would recommend. My rating is based on service and rating expectation. read more

Food and services were excellent. Place is kinda nice. Try their pasta!!! They didn't drown it with salty sauce like some others do. Did find a piece of string in my pizza, they try to tell me it's not a string, but yeah it was... Definitely get certificate from restaurants.com before you you. Got my $25 certificate for like $2. Order a pizza and a pasta and 2 drinks. Still have to pay a bill of $25 in the end. So definitely get the certificate. read more

We went to this place for the 1st time this past Saturday night and my husband and I agreed we had to write a review on this place. We like to try new places, so we tried this place out, with average expectation yet this place exceeded that by far. The look of this place is awesome, the picture on-line don't do it justice, it reminded us of Europe. We were waited on immediately; when you are hungry you can definitely appreciate this. The food was very tasty; I did think the appetizer was a bit small but it was very good and something completely different from anything I have ever tried. I can't recall the name of the dishes we had but the appetizers were rice balls with mozzarella in the center, deep fried and came with a marinara dipping sauce, it was phenomenal. My husband had pasta with chicken that was very flavorful & I had Rosemary Salmon with rice, my taste buds were dancing. YUM..... With some wine on the side...To top it all off they gave us their signature lava cake on the house that we had with Coffee.... We were simply going to get dinner and ended up with an awesome date night thanks to the atmosphere, visual of the place, professionalism & food, it made it an experience and all for under $100, you can't beat that.... read more

Decent ambiance but the farfalle campaigno had very little veggies and almost no chicken. The flavor was pretty good but not worth the price. read more

Very much enjoyed my evening at Operacaffe! We had great and attentive service on Friday evening and the food was wonderful. Had the Ravioli Aragosta (homemade ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach in a light pink sauce with artichokes and lobster), and Risotto Pescatora (seafood variety in white wine or tomato sauce) in white wine sauce. Recommend them both! read more

Great atmosphere with a guitarist strumming away. Our server was outstanding! Attentive and helpful. Homemade Gnocchi was light and pillowy unlike the mass produced kind which is often leaden. Octopus Carpacio was bright and fresh. Pesto and pastas unmatched. If I ever get to San Diego again I hope these folks are still there. read more

The chef tries hard, prepares everything in-house, and what with high rent, and the price of top quality veal these days, no doubt faces challenges. This was shown by the victuals served. Soft focaccia bread is not appetizing, and the veal was not the best. Vegetables were fresh, and the side rice as a risotto, was too on the al dente side, however, tasty. For me, an Italian restaurant is judged by its veal, however. The remaining dishes must follow, naturally, but veal leads. Not to write home about. read more

We sat outside so I can't comment on the decor, but everything else was superb. My wife has celiac disease and in addition to requiring gluten-free fare, she has multiple food sensitivities. We mentioned that up front and they were able to accommodate her. We're from Omaha, so we know a good steak when we see one, and the ribeye we got here was tender and flavorful. The other dishes, particularly the ones the waiter mentioned as standouts, were great. The hostess spent some of her down time talking to us (we were right next to her podium) and she was friendly and fun. I highly recommend Operacaffe for people with multiple food sensitivities, including gluten. read more

My husband and I were planning to come here for Valentine's Day, so I called in advance to see if I could make a reservation and was told they were not taking reservations today rather were having first come first serve dining, and that's all they said. So my husband and I arrived at around 8, with a few gift certificates for this restaurant we had purchased to pay for dinner and right on the hostesses' stand we saw a sign that read no gift certificates,gift cards etc. I was completely caught off guard, assuming that any respectable establishment would have mentioned this over the phone, after all it's not my job to ask, how should I kmow when and why they do or don't take gift certificates? So I asked to speak with a manager and instead of him explaining it professionally or doing anything to even accolade us he just kept saying no we will not be taking those. Would never step inside here, I wouldnt trust an idiot like that or the ones he hired to handle my husband and I's food either, will not be returning. read more

This place is great! The food was amazing and the service was great. The waitress was very attentive and the food arrived pretty quickly. I have no complaints. This place is great for groups or dates but probably not kids. They have a good selection of wine. The place is small and cozy and on the darker side, which we liked. Overall, yes! read more

Excellent service and food. I came here with my friends for dinner before our senior prom. The food was phenomenal and authentic. The taste was better than I expected. The price was reasonable too. The prices were $30 and below. Well worth the price! read more

Great food and AMAZING staff. The entire staff was so friendly from beginning to end. We arrived around 8 pm on a Friday night, planning for a long wait since we didn't make reservations and the indoor dining wasn't very large. They had open tables on the patio, so we were actually able to be seated right away. The location is nice...walking distance to anything in the Gaslamp district. Food portions were perfect...not too huge, not small, and prices were extremely reasonable. All in all, this was a great cozy Italian restaurant! read more

Truly pleasurable dining experience. Showed up without reservations and were given a table within 15 minutes. For dinner had Fettuccine Alfredo, a sauce of the caliber I have only had in NYC. Desserts were delicious as well (Catalina)! read more

I hate to give this place a bad review because the server was nice but the food was awful and the negroni cocktail tasted like bad aftershave. For an Italian resturant, their Marguerite pizza was embarrassingly bad, it was a cheese pizza with one big basil leaf in the middle. Come on, really? read more

On December 2nd, 2015 we went to the Gaslamp district to see a musical. We stopped by the Operacaffe for dinner an Italian restaurant. They served us beverages quickly and the waitress was tentative and quick to take our order. We both had calamari fritti, spaghetti di mare and risotto pescatora. The calamari was excellent but the spaghetti and the risotto were terrible. even the waitress ask us not to use any parmesan cheese because she said there was too much salt already in the food. She wasn't kidding, it was terrible and tasteless. We had to ask twice for bread to be served. Our total bill for water the three plates was $61.00. It wasn't worth it. read more

Walking Around downtown San Diego, my husband and I walked in on his birthday, The food is absolutely amazing! Best real! Italian food we had in a very very long time! Thanks :) read more

The carpaccio was so delicious my Hubby and I ordered twice! Also had the crab and lobster ravioli -homemade pastas, and the flavor of the cream sauce was outstanding. There are many places to chose from in Gaslight district -but why go to a chain restaurant when you can have something as wonderful as real homemade Italian food? Also ordered dessert -it was a Neapolitan ice cream covered in hard chocolate shell. Not sure what it was called since husband ordered -it was good if you love ice cream -I liked the chocolate shell part read more

This was our second visit and purchased a Groupon - we made reservations for Saturday night and was looking forward to the experience. Unfortunately, the cook apparently didn't pay attention that my husband ordered spaghetti noodles instead of menu's penne pasta on the dish he wanted and instead of redoing the order and apologizing to us for any delay caused, the cook had the audacity to have the waitress serve it to us the way she made it with her apology - seriously unacceptable and this restaurant lost permanent customers - we did learn our lesson to never again accept the restaurants mistakes as we are paying patrons - as for the food itself my spaghetti bolognese was good but bread was cold - my husband barely touched his plate. read more

Great food. Exceptional service. Hostess went above and beyond in making suggestions about where to visit in San Diego. She even drew us a map! read more

We got the fried rice balls as an appetizer. Pretty good with an excellent sauce. For wine my wife got the moscato dasti and i got the syrsa. Very good. For the meal chicken parm and the ravioli del fattore. The ravioli was great. Highly recommend. My wife ate as much of the chicken parm as she could. And then the lava cake. Nossa senhora. Yeah. This place is good. read more

The food was good, not great. The veal Romano was the highlite. My wife's lobster/spinach/cheese raviolis cosi cosi. Suggest bring your own wine to be "corked". The atmosphere was a little cramped and loud. I guess no opera singing on Christmas. I'll keep looking for a more cozy Northern Italian restaurant in San Diego, being spoiled by the Bay Area Italian cuisine I was brought up on. You should change the dollar sign rating to 3 or 4. read more

Authentic Italian food. Highly recommend. Great service too. Good portions and value. We asked to move tables, and they gladly moved us do we could watch the NBA play offs. Gracie! Again, highly recommend. Bravo!! read more

This is the best Italian restaurant in San Diego. If you don't get this place then you don't get REAL Italian food. And I'm Italian so I know! The ossobuco is so good and tender. Patrizia was an excellent chef! Federica her daughter is welcoming and knowledgeable. A true family run, authentic gem in SD!! read more

There is something about the smell when you first walk in this Italian restaurant. It smells like home cooking - you get a whiff of basil, oregano, and rosemary. Though every Italian restaurant has spaghetti and meatballs, I would say they have the best I have ever tasted. Every time I've eaten here, the service is professional and fast, and my waiter or waitress always has a smile. This cozy restaurant and the mouth-watering meals will make you feel like you're on a vacation to Italy! read more

With all the Italian restaurants to chose from in the Gaslamp district I randomly selected the Operacaffe and very glad I did. The ambiance was very mellow with a piano player. Service was good and the food was fabulous. I'm not a big Lobster Ravioli guy but it was unbelievably delicious as was the Spinach salad. Thumbs up! read more

Amazing food and good quality service and a nice atmosphere. The chocolate lava cake made our night.

Yummy food but drink selections are limited to basic bar drinks, beer, and wine. My seafood pasta was delicious and free bruschetta with check in! read more

Good for dinner. We enjoyed everything we ordered. Wife had veal scalloping porcini and I had porcini ravioli in a cream sauce that was very good and very rich. read more

Took my guy here for his pre-theater birthday dinner. We enjoyed sitting outside on the patio street side. Where else but San Diego can you do this in October? We started with the meat and cheese antipasti. Very tasty and inventive, albeit pricey. For entrees, I had the seafood risotto which was cooked to perfection and packed with a wide selection of shellfish and filet. A wonderful value. His chicken parmigiana was rather boring - a very large piece of chicken with cheese melted on top - it was almost like they were saying "no one eats chicken parm in Tuscany!" The pasta that came with his chicken was lovely - fresh, and the sauce was excellent. I would have preferred a bowl of that over the chicken. Service was good and they got us out in plenty of time for the curtain. read more

I enjoyed sitting in the window seat and sharing a nice Margherita pizza, truffle ravioli and a chicken pasta with sundried tomatoes. Very good! read more

Wonderful ambiance. Incredible tortellini. I usually don't like cream sauces but this one was SUPERB

We stopped in before the show at the Balboa. We let our server know we had only an hour to dine--no problem here! The service was friendly, efficient, and FAST. As soon as we were seated and handed the menus, someone else approached with the carafes of water and baskets of bread. We ordered. Perhaps 5 minutes later the calamari fritti was served: we were still dipping and eating the bread and were surprised at how fast the dish was served! It was light, crisp, and the squid was tender, not chewy: perfecty prepared, and the dipping sauce was a slightly spicy and thick tomato sauce. Absolutley delicious. We had just finished the calamari and the dishes cleared when the pastas were served. Fettucine with pesto and shrimp was bright with lots of fresh basil, and the portion satisfied a 16 year-old boy (granted, he was the one who ate most of the calamari fritti...). Penne with bolognese sauce was good, if a bit too meaty. The best dish for my taste was the farfalle with a tomato cream sauce (my husband's dish). We shared a creme brulee for dessert. It was creamy and dense (not a jiggly custard), just the way we like it, and the sugar crust was perfectly scorched. Again, delicious. We'll definitely come back. read more

I went here with a group of 12. They set up the tables for our group in a ridiculous layout. I mean it was pretty obvious how the tables should be setup to accommodate our group, but for some reason they set it up like a big 'T'. We asked them to move them to a more functional layout and they didn't seem happy about it. The restaruant was not crowded at all at 7PM on a Saturday night so I thought they should have been happy to have our business. I ordered a clam and shrimp pasta dish. It came with 3 tiny clams and 3 small shrimp. One of the clams wasn't even open, so I know that one was bad. There seemed to be a good amount of sand or something crunchy throughout the dish so I think that means they didn't properly prep the seafood. The dish had a very fishy taste and overall the flavor was just not appealing. I think between the 12 of us we ordered almost everything on the menu. Nobody was happy with what they ordered. To top it off the service was quite bad because it was very slow (understandable for the size of our group, but just getting water took about 10 minutes) and because the servers were noticalble rude. They were rude immediately after we asked them to move the tables and they were rude for the rest of our dining experience. I would give this place 1.5 stars if it was possible. The only reason I won't give it 1 star is because its relatively cheap for downtown and because I didn't get food poisoning. read more

Love the food at Operacaffe! The food is authentic, you can get a good glass of Chianti at an affordable price, and the service is generally great. Chatting up the servers in Italian is a definite plus, as all of ours have always been Italian! The focaccia bread is salty and yummy and we have loved every dish, every time!! Definitely try the pizza, as an appetizer or just as a take-home, you won't regret it! read more

They service was great because we went in at midday. It was a nice sunny day, but if you decide to sit outdoors when the sun's hot sit in the shade. For having the restaurant.com gift certificate we got a really filling meal. Complimentary bread was a bit unsatisfying, stale and store bought-like. The olive oil and balsamic tasted old. Bruschetta was perfect for the weather, refreshing dish. The tomatoes were fresh and flavors were good, not too garlicky. Was not a fan of the La Cesare aka Ceasar Salad. The salad came out warm, maybe because of the sunny day. The dressing was a housemade dressing that had mustard in it. It wouldn't have been bad, but it just was too much mustard taste to consider it anywhere near a Ceasar's dressing. The Farfalinne Campagnole (bow tie pasta, chicken, broccoli and sun dried tomatoes in a cream sauce) was creamy but light enough for lunch time. We had the lunch portion were served generously and packed half the dish to go. The Ravioli Del Fattore (Spinach and Ricotta stuffed, in a vodka sauce with porcini mushrooms) was really good but kind of rich, so we ate about 8 pieces out of the 15 or so. Sweet tomato, red bell pepper sauce. With the constant promos by restaurant.com, the bill comes out to a one $ cheap meal including tax and tip per person, but you get a lot of food and portions for it. I'd go back for everything I ordered but the salad. The specials sounded appetizing, very similar to stuff already on the menu, just with daily fresh ingredients. Parking 3 hrs free with validation inside the mall at Horton Plaza across the street. Shop after to walk off the meal. Tasty and full. read more

Way too casual for me - we could hardly talk in an almost empty restaurant given the raucous conversation between the waitresses and the kitchen staff...and the loud clomping of the hostess's shoes. Nice wine list and menu. We tried the Caesar salad - mostly romaine core including the base of the romaine which no one eats. The salad was over dressed and had a hint of garlic and anchovy...but was just tease of a real Caesar. We had the veal osso bucco - it was very tender and the sauce was lovely. It was served with a brick, yes a brick, of rissoto. Wolfgang Puck would have gone into the kitchen to show chef how a real risotto is cooked. We shared the cheesecake for dessert which was served "warm"...really strange. It was touted to be a real new york cheesecake but was primarily egg based and more like a souffle in consistency..very disappointing. The server was pretty inattentive and did not make any attempt to connect with us. Will we eat here again? Probably not. read more

Great meal. Probably 4 1/2 stars but the bread is just white bread. Spaghetti and meat balls were excellent. Sauce was delicious. Wife had pear salad and it was a whole pear and was so good. Staff was excellent as was the waiter. Nice place. Can't go wrong. read more

Found this place by mistake and I am HAPPY about it! Fresh bread, imported olive oil & blasamic. We ordered an appetizer of fresh tomatos, fresh mozzerella and basil which was amazing and the cheese was fresh & perfectly salty. Also ordered a bottle of wine with the meal and it was great as well. I ordered raviolis with spinich and my roommate got spaghetti with meatballs. I have to say this is officially my favorite restraunt in San Diego. I parked at the Horton Plaza Mall garage where the 1st 3 hours are free. I will be back here for sure...again & again! read more

Had dinner here and had a pasta to remember. The shrimp pasta was memorable. Location was nice, was seated right away and service was good.

In Sunny Diego for my wife's Bday, so I decided to yelp out a nice Casual Italian place. Operacaffe was just perfect! Service was on point, Food was superb...the cannelloni's were off the charts! read more