Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Piacere Mio gets menu, remodel, thumbs up

Former South Park coffee shop becomes cute, neighborhood trattoria

Carpaccio, nicely aged, fragrant and lemony
Carpaccio, nicely aged, fragrant and lemony
Place

Piacere Mio Ristorante Italiano

1947 Fern Street, San Diego

Nicely remodeled interior has more charm than before

“A lack of coziness.” That’s what I identified as Piacere Mio’s “main weakness,” fourteen months ago, when the place was just a coffee shop.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Fast-forward through a prolonged closure/remodel, and the place has transformed into something wonderful. Better lighting, more uniform table seating, and a modern vision of classic Euro cafe style give the place a full complement of coziness, more than enough to satisfy the aforementioned lack.

The full menu of Italian trattoria fare doesn’t hurt, either. It’s seafood-heavy, with dishes like octopus and potato salad ($8.95) and clams in tomato broth ($8) populating the antipasti menu. Beef carpaccio ($8.50) appears alongside, bringing a generous portion of aged beef, lots of lemon juice and olive oil, and a pile of crispy rocket. As carpaccio goes, this is a good one!

Radicchio and pork ravioli

The kitchen churns out lots of handmade pasta, in good portions, and at fair prices ($11-$14). The build-your-own section is five pastas and nine of your favorite sauces (bolognese, ortolana, pesto, et. al.) for any taste. They do plenty of ravioli, and the one stuffed with smoked salmon and served with a saffron sauce looks phenomenal. One of their specials, ravioli stuffed with radicchio and pancetta served with a sage butter, came across a bit intensely on the sage, but delighted otherwise. There is just something about hand-shaped ravioli that delights the little kid inside and the hungry adult alike!

Linguini with clams

Ditto for dishes like the linguine with clams ($14); a huge portion of perfectly chewy pasta, with a bit of a kick, drenched in briny clam sauce. Plump, tender shellfish hid themselves throughout. Sure, it’s a simple dish, but done about as well as it could have been.

Pasta is enough, but the menu hosts a run of “secondi” for anyone with a big appetite. There’s plenty of wine, too, and the above-average house wine in 1L carafes for ~$20 is a screaming good deal.

Eat here, and you’ll be a looking at a heavy table, laden with buttery food, and about a hundred bones out of the pocket. Piacere Mio falls heavily on the opposite side of cutting edge, but the place is cute, well run, and totally legit in terms of the kitchen’s basic cooking skills. You couldn’t do much better for a neighborhood pasta dinner, and you could certainly pay more.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tiny Home Central isn’t solving the San Diego housing crisis

But it does hope to help fill in the gaps
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Stinkfoot Orchestra conjures Zappa at Winstons

His music is a blend of technical excellence and not-so-subtle humor
Carpaccio, nicely aged, fragrant and lemony
Carpaccio, nicely aged, fragrant and lemony
Place

Piacere Mio Ristorante Italiano

1947 Fern Street, San Diego

Nicely remodeled interior has more charm than before

“A lack of coziness.” That’s what I identified as Piacere Mio’s “main weakness,” fourteen months ago, when the place was just a coffee shop.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Fast-forward through a prolonged closure/remodel, and the place has transformed into something wonderful. Better lighting, more uniform table seating, and a modern vision of classic Euro cafe style give the place a full complement of coziness, more than enough to satisfy the aforementioned lack.

The full menu of Italian trattoria fare doesn’t hurt, either. It’s seafood-heavy, with dishes like octopus and potato salad ($8.95) and clams in tomato broth ($8) populating the antipasti menu. Beef carpaccio ($8.50) appears alongside, bringing a generous portion of aged beef, lots of lemon juice and olive oil, and a pile of crispy rocket. As carpaccio goes, this is a good one!

Radicchio and pork ravioli

The kitchen churns out lots of handmade pasta, in good portions, and at fair prices ($11-$14). The build-your-own section is five pastas and nine of your favorite sauces (bolognese, ortolana, pesto, et. al.) for any taste. They do plenty of ravioli, and the one stuffed with smoked salmon and served with a saffron sauce looks phenomenal. One of their specials, ravioli stuffed with radicchio and pancetta served with a sage butter, came across a bit intensely on the sage, but delighted otherwise. There is just something about hand-shaped ravioli that delights the little kid inside and the hungry adult alike!

Linguini with clams

Ditto for dishes like the linguine with clams ($14); a huge portion of perfectly chewy pasta, with a bit of a kick, drenched in briny clam sauce. Plump, tender shellfish hid themselves throughout. Sure, it’s a simple dish, but done about as well as it could have been.

Pasta is enough, but the menu hosts a run of “secondi” for anyone with a big appetite. There’s plenty of wine, too, and the above-average house wine in 1L carafes for ~$20 is a screaming good deal.

Eat here, and you’ll be a looking at a heavy table, laden with buttery food, and about a hundred bones out of the pocket. Piacere Mio falls heavily on the opposite side of cutting edge, but the place is cute, well run, and totally legit in terms of the kitchen’s basic cooking skills. You couldn’t do much better for a neighborhood pasta dinner, and you could certainly pay more.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Coyote tracks in frail San Diego avocado grove

Second place winner in Reader neighborhood writing contest
Next Article

Gilbert Castellanos, Buddha Trixie, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Shane Hall, Brian Jones Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival

Grand Socials, gigs, and record releases in Del Mar, City Heights, Solana Beach, Little Italy, and Ocean Beach
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.