Oltre Mare Reviews

Really delicious and very good value Italian food in very pretty restaurant. Currently no licence to sell alcohol so you can bring your own. They don't charge for corkage. Service a tiny bit slow but owners very friendly and charming. Would definitely return.

We came on a Saturday night. It was busy but there was seating available. The ambiance and decor is quaint. There was pop music playing in the background which I guess fit with the Pacific Beach vibe but maybe did not mix so well with the restaurant decor. Odd choice for an Italian restaurant. While the music was not loud, I did find the restaurant noise level to be above average. Conversation at times was difficult. Our server informed us that they were BYOB. There is a liquor store three blocks away if you are in a pinch. We found service to be friendly but perhaps a bit aloof. Overall average performance. The salad was arugula based. I enjoy arugula and found the salad crisp and fresh. The dressing was Italian. The bread was fresh with a coating of oil. Quite delicious. Seafood pasta then arrived. The server deposited my dish on the table and left. I was never offered cheese? I found the spaghetti to be a little overdone. The sauce was hearty with a hint of garlic. The seafood was fresh. The Margherita pizza was interesting. The crust had the taste and feel of a New York style pizza but the appearance suggested that of the classic Italian pie. We were not fans of the pizza. We skipped dessert. They do have a few vegetarian options.

My girlfriend and I decided to have an early dinner on a Friday night witout reservation. We have dirven by this restaurant in the past but never stopped. It is located off the beaten path on Cass Street, south of Grand Ave. We arrived at 5:30 pm with no one in the restaurant. This family owned and operated restaurant offered authentic Italian cuisine. The special was Lobster Pasta and it was an unexpected delight. Oltre Mare is light on ambience but heavy on service and food quality. Highly recommended. BYOB is accepted.

We ordered for delivery, fish of the day and Pappardelle ai funghi Porcini. The food arrived hot but the fish was undercooked to the point of being partially raw. The potatoes with the fish were excellent, but the mushrooms in the pasta although edible were over salted. The restaurant ignored our calls to remedy the problem with the fish, so we wound up leaving a message. They have so far not bothered to respond.

Food is good but one of the people running the restaurant is racist. To my people of color, don’t spend your money here. Trust they don’t want it

Nice family atmosphere. Food is pretty amazing. The owners are straight from Italy so you cannot get anything more authentic than that. Plus it is BYOB which helps to keep the cost down

If you love really good food. A cut above everything else. This is your place. It is like going to some ones home for dinner. These owners are really nice people. Don't go there is you are a demanding self centered person.

V Good Food. Nice that you can byob (they have no liquor) I enjoyed a nice green salad of arugula and feta and tomato, with Italian dressing on the side. My server recommended the pasta with clams in garlic sauce, and so I got it. It proved a very good choice. Loaded with clams, the garlic sauce was a good pairing. The pasta tasted home made and was cooked a perfect al dente. Service was attentive. Looking forward to another visit. NOTE: Make a reserv, this is a small space and some folks were turned away or had to come back later

We had been in Alta Marea 11 yrs ago to meet the owner of the restaurant (a friend of my mate) and we discover a friendly little piece of Italy in San Diego. Today we can say we can feel the same atmosphere of our first experience. The restaurant is not so big so is better reserve your table. When you arrive, all waiters welcome you with a big smile and manage to give you a sit. We ordered three main dishes and during our wait we had been served with focaccia bread. The cherry upon the cake was the Tiramisu dessert, absolutely amazing (we ordered twice).

Beautiful food and staff … miss this place . Back in march …thin crust pizza is really good but the sea foo pasta is to die for ..English Brian

Love, love, loved everything!!!! Pizza and pasta dishes we amazing. The owners are absolutely wonderful people. This place is an absolute must!!! You won’t be disappointed.

A really charming spot in PB. Owned by a man Italian family. Service is brilliant and the food is fresh and delicious. The bread they serve is very good as well. We shared a plate of mussels for the table, they were bigger than I have ever seen mussels but they were delicious. We had pizza and three pasta plates and all very very tasty and fresh. For dessert we shared a panna cotta with a caramel sauce on top; delicious!!! It is, for right now, a bring your own beer/wine, but hopefully that will change soon.

This is a very special restaurant. Christian and Sara have created authentic Milanese style foods. My family and I decided to have our son's wedding there and it was quite a memorable feast. Our hosts designed the menu with us, also allowing us to bring in our own wines. We had 3 antipasti, 3 pizzas. 4 primi pastas and 2 secondi of meat and fish. For dolce, our hosts made some great cannoli. Our event was private, intimate, not rushed and totally enjoyable. Consider having your special event at this fabulous ristorante.

Great spot. Wonderful food - friendly service and bring your own wine. Went with a pizza, burrata, mushroom pasta and wild boar pasta. Highly recommend

Friends recommended this family owned restaurant to us. The menu is limited, so everything on it can be good. I would alway recommend the specials, as did the chef. We had them all. The gnocchi were about as light as you can find in any Italian restaurant. All of the pasta was excellent. We loved the ox tail dish, the wild boar dish, the pasta with mushrooms and the special seafood pasta using squid ink. They started us off with with very delicious focaccia (exactly like I make at home). We have lived in Italy and this is like many of our favorite trattorias. We will be back for sure.

This place was recommended by friends who live locally... We weren't disappointed! The Italian family who owns this place is lovely! We felt like family. The wife was serving during our visit and we had a lovely chat. The pizza is just like in Italy! She was telling us that she makes the dough for the pizza and bread fresh every day. All the food was excellent but I must say the bread, made out of pizza dough, is one of the best I have ever had. Crunchy on the outside, warm and chewy on the inside with sea salt flakes. It would pay off to go there just for that. We brought our own wine (Alta Marea does not own a liquor license) - there is no corkage fee and we ended up sharing the bottle of wine with the owners..we would definitely come back! Give it a try!

We had a great authentic Italian meal here and love the fact that it feels like such a homey small place next time we are in Pacific beach we will definitely come back.

Lots of good here. Small and authentic. Bring your own wine with No Corkage fee. We had the whole fish of the day... terrific. Service can be slow, and the place can be crowded, but heh. It's at the beach and the food is worth it. Bring your own, and be amazed at the reasonable price of a good meal.

Great welcome and service, the real Italy. The boss and the boss come from Milan and brought us the flavors of the country. Thank you.

My friends and I stopped to get some Italian food for dinner. The place is small inside, but it does offered outside dining. It does get busy and they are short on staff. It's a family run business and the owners are really friendly and attentive. We ordered 4 main courses and 2 desserts. Wild boar bologna (good flavor, wasn't too heavy). Spaghetti alla prescatora with claims, mussels and giant shrimp (fresh seafood, good flavor, but it could use a bit more sauce). Spaghetti alle vongoie is a must have! Fresh clams, great flavor and the white wine sauce was really good. Pesce al cartoccio o grigilato is another must have dish. A whole fish grilled served with arugula and cherry tomatoes. The grilled frish was moist, flavourful and the skin was crispy. A bit too much salt added to my liking, but the fresh salad helped. For desserts we got tarimasu and pana cotta. Both desserts were really good. Not too sweet at all, but the Panna cotta was the start dessert. Perfectly made and not heavy at all. They don't have a liquor license, but there is a liquor shop 2 blocks away. Byob! I highly recommended this place. Great date place and away from the noise too.

A family restaurant with friendly unpretentious atmosphere No liquor license can bring your own wine or beer

My favorite restaurant in San Diego. Food is always excellent. The pasta is all house made. It reminds me of a neighborhood place in Italy. Don’t miss a chance to eat here

Alta Marea is a quaint little restaurant in Pacific Beach across from the PB Library which is very nicely decorated with a handful of tables and a small patio area. Tables and ambiance was nice and open - decorated in sort of a rustic fashion with a few more modern touches. There's no bar service so you can bring your own wine (or beer) with no corkage fee. Our waiter, who I believe was one of the owners, was very nice, accommodating and attentive throughout the dinner. (We ate early so there were only a handful of tables being served.) I could imagine the service being a little slower with more tables but that’s part of the family atmosphere. The first course was mussels in some sort of buerre blanc sauce (or the italian equivalent). The mussels were fresh and cooked perfectly and the sauce complimented them well without overpowering. Additionally, it was a simple dish - all about the mussels. No chorizo or other items thrown in to take away from the mussels. They served focaccia bread before the meal that was great with the sauce. For the main course, we ordered the Ribeye plate and Wild Boar Bolognese with Pappardelle pasta. The Ribeye was served sliced with tomatoes over a bed of arugula and was amazing. We were warned a couple of times that it was served sliced over a salad. Not sure the menu really conveyed this so it was a good thing she told us but it didn't matter (to us, although some people might not like that style). The steak was cooked perfectly complimented the salad and fresh tomatoes perfectly. Had a light dusting of sea salt that of course made everything taste better. But the star of the night was the Wild Boar pasta. This dish was so good I got teary eyed - no joke. The boar was just amazing with a very light cream sauce. The boar was fantastic on it’s own but combined with the pasta it was phenomenal and the dish really came together! The only unfortunate thing about the dinner was that we were a bit rushed to make our play and couldn't spend more time there. But we boxed up what was left of our meals and finished it under the stars at the play downtown - which made the night even more magical. The staff was very helpful in getting us out on time. I don’t know what authentic Italian is, but this is what I’d imagine it to be! I'm so glad PB has a new "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant and this one didn't disappoint. I almost don't want to write this review to keep away the crowds but would rather see them do well and if they keep serving food like they did for us they will - reviews or no. Check it!

I have been here more then a dozen times, I have NEVER been dissatisfied with anything I have ordered, I love authentic Italian and it's not easy to find, being able to bring your own wine without a cork fee is unheard of. The ambiance is quaint, the Owners are friendly and hospitable. I will definitely be back, again and again!❤️

Away from the commercial area this tiny restaurant has an extremely limited menu. The bread was not at all as other reviews described. It is not crusty on the outside but rather soft with pockets of garlic butter. Tasty but we expected crust and there was none. The first problem I ran into was my request for red sauce over pasta with shrimp. The dish comes with saffron sauce and the chef was not pleased with my request. Sara, his wife said he will make the dish reluctantly. My wife ordered the lobster ravioli. I learned not to piss off the chef by requesting something different. The sauce was not red and the two whole giant shrimp on top must have spent their life in a concentration camp as there was so little meat in them. I took a photo of the amount of shell left over. The sauce was unexciting but creamy and barely palatable. On the other hand the wife's dish was great. Not only was the lobster ravioli wonderful but so was the claw and leg which was a real extra. I was I wasn't allergic to lobster or I would have had a much better dinner. How does one rate an experience where one dinner is disappointing and the other wonderful. I split it between terrible and excellent for a good rating. Sara gave us a complimentary tiramisu. The chef was apologetic when I complained but did not change the bill.

We just had a fantastic dinner here with friends and loved every minute! This is a REAL Italian trattoria, the kind I absolutely love, just like in Italy! If you like Italian food, this is the real deal! Everything we had (table of six) was wonderful; they obviously spend a lot of effort to source the right fresh ingredients. I had the cinghiale (wild boar), a favorite when I'm in Italy, and it was superb! The seafood my friends had was also wonderful, as were the desserts and the foccacia bread. We have a lot of family in Italy, and this is the type of place we go with them when we visit. I am really happy to have found this here. The BYOB with no corkage is a real bonus, too, on top of the very reasonable prices; just bring your own wine and pop the cork. I love this restaurant!!

Visited this small restaurant late Jan 2018. Family owned, friendly staff and great value. No alcohol licence so bring your own, no corkage fee. I had the beef risotto, the beef was falling apart, just as I like it. My wife had the lobster ravioli and enjoyed it so much she had the leftovers the following day for brunch. With a salad starter the cost came to $70, what’s not to like about that, great food, super value, check it out at 4286 Cass Street

Good Italian restaurant with a friendly service . The price is really reasonable for the quality and the quantity of the food !

This restaurant is relatively new, intimate, and in an off the beaten path location. It appears to be a family operation so is casual, friendly and affordable. Our group all ordered delicious pasta dishes and you can bring your own bottle of wine. The mushroom special was a standout.

The owner here is a warm, wonderful woman who cooks from her heart! The food is delicious! Warm crusty bread starts the meal off. Mushroom Risotto was incredible. Wild Boar Bolognese with Pappardelle is a favorite. Just a warning! There are pits in the olives on the pizza (don't break a tooth). The owner said that's the way it's one in Italy because it's more flavorful. BYOB We held a rehearsal dinner here---easy for a vegetarian to eat here, a bit more difficult for a vegan (cheese is prolific) but they did try.

We ordered the lobster pasta for two. Before our pasta they brought out focaccia bread that had a nice crust but not chewy. They brought olive oil and vinegar in cruets with the bread. The lobster pasta was fantastic! The pasta was al dente but not hard, there was plenty of lobster in the shell that was easy to get out of the shell and eat, the sauce was perfect and not overpowering and the tomatoes were fresh. Bring your own wine since they don’t serve alcohol but also they didn’t charge a corkage fee. We highly recommend this restaurant!

from Italy with love! a really good way of cooking.. as Italians (my boyfriend and I) we had some doubt about the "italian restaurant" but we actually made a great choice. Pasta and gnocchi are exactly as they should be. Thanks to Sara and her husband! Recommended!

This is a small , cute ,family run restaurant. All the food we had was delicious, and soooo fresh! We chose the fish of the day done in the oven with potatoes, tomatoes and olives. The fish which came to the table whole , (like in Italy )was moist and fresh, fresh , fresh! Our niece ordered the lobster ravioli which was accompanied by part of the lobster tail. Again fresh and seasoned just right! We also tried the pappardelle with boar sauce. In house prepared pasta with sauce containing tender big chunks of meat. If I closed my eyes I would think I was in Italy! The family here is friendly , hardworking and run a neighborhood gem. Bring your own wine! The tuna tartare for an appetizer is also excellent. They are open Tues - Sunday. Dinner only. They take reservations. Thanks! We will be back !!!!

We’ve been visiting this restaurant since they opened and always have an amazing meal. This is a family owned and operated restaurant and we’ve watched their two sons grow each year. They don’t serve alcohol, but welcome you bringing your own bottle of wine. It’s a great date night or family restaurant. You will love this place. Husband is the chef and wife waits tables. The mussels are incredible!