By George Christopher Thomas, Travel Writer
SAN DIEGO, CA – On a weekend trip to San Diego, we were in search of a great place to eat among the countless options all over the city. This was a special meal to celebrate our two sons’ close-together birthdays, and we wanted a place that would please the kids – one happy with a kids’ menu, the other eager to discover new flavors – and the adults alike. My wife and I chose Cucina Urbana in the Bankers Hill section of San Diego, a stone’s throw from Balboa Park.
The location was ideal, and the restaurant appeared to offer fine-dining refinement while being welcoming to all ages and all occasions. Cucina Urbana in San Diego is one of a local family of restaurants with the niche of running retail wine shops inside their dining spaces. They specialize in bringing together Italian flavors with locally sourced, seasonal California ingredients, all with an inventive and ambitious approach. Pastas, charcuterie, cheeses, artisanal breads and more are made in-house, with the restaurant’s wood-fired oven put to excellent use making pizzas and other creations. It is the kind of place where everyone in the family will be happy with the whole menu, plus the portions are shareable.
The four of us were a little early for our 8:15pm reservation, so we circled the restaurant and drove around a little. About a block away, we watched a couple get into their car and drive off, leaving us with free parking. Is there anything better in this world? The answer is no, and this was already kicking off a great dinner and an enjoyable time with my immediate family.
Our first impression of Cucina Urbana, which offers both indoor and outdoor dining, is that the space felt light and airy, like a cold white wine on a summer afternoon that is refreshing and pairs well with fancy cheeses. Cucina Urbana means “urban kitchen” in Italian, and the bright aesthetic matches that with high ceilings, walls of windows, open wrought-iron shelving, funky upholstery, and varied seating options from high bar stools to intimate tables for two to four.
Fairly busy that evening, diners were laughing and enjoying themselves, drinking wine and having an excellent dinner. There were couples without children out on a fancy date, probably talking about the stock market or NATO. The vibe was upbeat, lively, and focused on great food. This would be a perfect restaurant for a first date, or to celebrate an anniversary, graduation, a birthday, or just the cherry on top to a long and successful work week. For our double birthday celebration and San Diego sojourn, we couldn’t have picked a better restaurant.
We ordered drinks and appetizers almost immediately. The drinks menu is impressive and varied, with wines by the glass plus the option to purchase bottles from the retail shop to enjoy with your meal. The beer options lean heavily toward San Diego breweries, and the zero-proof section shows just as much attention to details as the Cucina Urbana Cocktails list. My wife chose the “figgy stardust,” a concoction of bourbon, grapefruit, fig, contratto and bitters, garnished with a half-moon of grapefruit dried until glistening in the wood-fired oven. Our waitress told us the cocktail was a new one, and that oven-fired garnishes were a signature. She even brought some just-roasted apple slices to sample – they were simple yet delicious enough to be a stand-alone treat.
My first-born loves octopus, having tried it a while back and scouring every menu since for the uncommon item. So, this option among the all-tempting antipasti items was decided a couple of days prior to our reservation. He is just like his mother and reads the menus of the places we are going to days before we show up, and there is something to that approach, for sure. So we already knew what we were getting for an appetizer 48 hours before our reservation.
There were zero regrets over the order (the tempura fried stuffed squash blossom would have been the second choice), as the octopus was divine. On a long oval plate, perfect for divvying up equal portions, the meaty octopus arms sat on plump pillows of pressed creamer potatoes, draped under paper-thin slices of kohlrabi and dressed with a sundried tomato relish spiked with colatura, an Italian fish sauce made with anchovies. The octopus had a charred exterior around perfectly toothsome bites, with the skinnier ends crisped up for a masterful touch of textural contrast. I could have ordered three of these plates and just had this for dinner.
My second-born couldn’t care less about how fancy a restaurant is or what type of cabbage the octopus is served on and came for the pizza. We were at an Italian restaurant after all, and it made sense to me to order pizza as well. The kids’ menu offers a make-your-own pizza – “modo mio pizza”, so he went with his go-to sausage and pepperoni, no sauce. The kitchen did double-check on the no-sauce request (makes sense) and of course honored this custom creation. I chose the more decadent, and sauce-inclusive, soppressata and fennel sausage pizza, also featuring house-made mozzarella, piquant pepperoncini, red onions, and roasted garlic. Being not very well versed with exotic Italian sausages, I had to ask what soppressata is and how it is different from other cured meats. The waitress knew her stuff and informed me that soppressata is a dry-cured meat that is like a cousin to salami. It has a distinct flavor that is a bit spicy with hints of garlic and oregano. I thought it was fabulous and will be looking for that topping the next time we are at the local pizzeria. The pizza oven they have in their open-view urban kitchen produces wood-fired masterpieces. This pizza was cooked to utter perfection, with a crispy crust and little pockets of deliciousness.
My wife ordered the braised beef cheek, which we all immediately tried to delve into across the table. This was the first-ever taste of this uncommon cut for all of us, and it was one of the most delicious pieces of beef I have ever had. It was beautifully plated, too, a weighty disc of beef, barely holding together until prodded with a fork, on a bed of crushed potato in a pool of deep mahogany gravy. The sauce and meat had, presumably, melded over many hours to yield soft, deeply flavored bites that melted in the mouth. The dish also starred a rich mix of beech mushrooms and pearl onions, plus a topping of sweetly earthy parsnip chips and a pinch of shredded Swiss chard for bright greenery. There was not a bite, nor a smear of sauce, left at the end of dinner.
My oldest ordered the rigatoni bolognese, a beautifully straightforward classic elevated with its blend of veal and pork, plus ricotta cheese. We came up with several different ways to pronounce bolognese, all of them probably incorrect, and all went in for multiple samples. The short, ridged rigatoni trapped the rich sauce and held it all together under pillowy pinches of cheese. The wide, shallow bowlful soon disappeared. We were, however, happy to save some of the two pizzas to take home and eat the next day, further extending our positive experience at Cucina Urbana.
As is the custom with great restaurants, the wait staff came out with dessert for the kids’ birthdays: Adorable little glass pots of chocolate mousse topped with whipped cream and a birthday candle each. We sang the customary song and enjoyed that moment in time, especially because they brought four spoons.
The Cucina restaurant group has additional locations in Del Mar, Irvine, and Newport Beach. The menus are similar but not exactly the same, so the experience will be delicious and new. If they’re available, stick with the octopus and beef cheeks. And a pizza. And definitely a pasta dish, too. Just order something from each section of the menu and you’re in for a treat!
All in all, this was a great dining destination for celebrating the kids’ birthdays and enjoying fine dining on vacation. For more information, or to read the menu days before dining at Cucina Urbana, check out their website and prepare for an excellent dinner at this very fine Italian restaurant in San Diego, California.
https://www.urbankitchengroup.com/cucina-urbana-bankers-hill/
