**** La Pastaia is now Romanella
Back in May of last year, I noted that Farmers Table was going to be an Italian Restaurant named La Pastaia. I had never been a fan of Farmers Table, as the food seemed very “corporate” and generic and lacking in soul. I was excited to learn that the owners were two women from Italy and the pasta was hand made. And yet, when our good friend “Alle” whose dad is from Italy and both parents live there, who travels to the country quite often, visited La Pastaia and was quite disappointed. Well, it gave me pause. I told her not to give me any specifics; I want to try the place, and see how I thought of things. And, while they opened in June of 2023, we waited until October of last year to finally visit.
We like the al fresco seating, so nice on a typical San Diego evening. Our Servers were friendly and warm.
We started with an apertivo. I found that what I ordered the “La Pastaia Spritz” while rather low in alcohol, was quite refreshing and clean tasting.
We started with the Trio de Bruschette.
This was pretty good. The bread was on the chewy side; but the toppings; especially the mushroom was so good, creamy and earthy. The tomato and Parmesan a good milky-acidic, adding in the pesto. It was probably the best item we’ve had here.
Now, looking at the menu I was intrigued.
Now, having had pasta alla ruota in Italy, this sounded exciting. And of course there the truffle and porcini!
This however, was not good.
The pasta, made inhouse was very good, al dente, so springy. But when putting things together in the Parmesan wheel it was amateur hour, huge clumps of cheese which over-powered everything. The truffle seemed strangely flavorless, one could only be wrestled to the ground by all the mass of cheese; where was the earth-sweet flavors of the porcini and truffle?
The Missus, in full Emilia-Romagna mode ordered the Bolognese, even though I had doubts, since if this was really Italian, they’d call it the “ragu”. What arrived looked like some kind of beef-tomato noodle soup.
Again, the pasta was perfectly al dente, so wonderfully springy, but that gross, watery, bland sauce just brought the dish down. The watery, soupy sauce just wasn’t good to our taste.
After this visit, I had coffee with Alle and we chatted about La Pastaia. It was quite interesting as we both had the same opinion; nicely made pasta, with sauces that diminished the dishes. In fact, we had both asked our Servers if La Pastaia sold their house made pasta (they don’t). Heck, I’d buy it in an instant.
I had fully thought I wouldn’t go back. But recently, the Missus and I wanted a nice date night close by. La Pastaia has an Happy Hour and is just a walk away. We decided to just walk on over.
And of course we started with a spritz.
Nice and refreshing.
And we took a look at the Happy Hour menu.
The prices were so reasonable, our Server so funny and kind. We placed our order.
Things started with the Carpaccio de Manzo.
This was fine. though the slices of beef were super thin, which was mismatched with hard chunks of Parmesan. I would have enjoyed a more assertive olive oil, but this was not bad.
The Missus loves Her meatballs, so we got the Polpette di Carne.
The meatballs were decent, if barely lukewarm. It had a nice meaty texture, though a bit under seasoned for our taste. That marinara sauce though, was really watery and lacking in flavor and even with the sprinkling of Parmesan, this was really bland. And being served at barely room temperature didn’t help things.
For the last item we chose the Pizza Patate e Salsicca, basically a sausage and potato pizza. I was interested to see what this would be.
I cracked up when this arrived. Think of potato chips on a sausage pizza. The sausage was really flavorful, herbaceous, with nice spice, but it was unevenly distributed on the pizza. There was one slice that basically had no sausage on it. And beyond that; the crust was so doughy and chewy, this was not pleasing to eat at all.
It’s kind of sad; the Missus and I really would like to support businesses in our neighborhood; I mean we are regular customers of many places nearby. La Pastaia, in spite of the great service, just didn’t deliver. That said, because of the friendly service, I’m sure we’ll give them another try in the future….though I don’t think we’ll be doing it soon.
La Pastaia
3055 Clairemont Dr.
San Diego, CA 92117
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 4pm – 830pm
Friday 4pm – 930pm
Saturday 1030am – 930pm
Sunday 1030am – 830pm
