Camp Cucina

Good Italian cuisine. Very good and broad vine variety, especially the local choices. Plates are quite small and the vegetables were cooked with too much oil for my taste.

This Italian/French restaurant is Walking distance to BALBOA PARK. The FOOD is excellent, and so is the SERVICE. It is loud indoors, maybe because it’s one large room with concrete floors. The appetizers of MUSSELS and BRUSSELS are excellent and enough to make a meal. My husband enjoyed the large salad.

This place has been putting out great food for a looong time now! I love coming here and enjoying the food which is always first class. I do want to mention the wine. We paid $130 a bottle for it but it was excellent and my friend said it was the best wine she ever had. That’s a little expensive for me normally but since it was really good it was with it.

Came here to celebrate Father’s Day. Had a reservation through Open Table and got our patio seating table on time. A couple of us ordered the Short Rib Pappardelle, which was highly recommended in the reviews, and did not disappoint. It’s very flavorful. It is really a rich meal though with the beef, so if you want to keep things lighter, I suggest to order the Bucatini with the egg added. Worth mentioning is the small plate Fried Squash Blossom which was surprisingly good, and lastly you can’t go wrong with the Tiramisu desert for two. Overall it was a good meal but slightly overpriced for the portions. Also note the 3.95% surcharge added on to every bill. We didn’t know until the bill came.

Cucina Urbana (B or 3.5 stars ): Another decent, but not great Italian restaurant on Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list. Good option if in the area and there’s a table available, but not a destination restaurant. Took my daughter for a nice dinner Sunday night before she heads back to Irvine to start year 2. I debated between Cucina Urbana, Ambrogio15 @ Del Mar, and Catania. With no tables at Catania till 8:30pm, and having been to Skydeck Food Hall just a couple months ago, I figured I’d try out another Bib Gourmand restaurant. Ambiance & service (B+ ) : Open, airy, modern vibe, basically one of my preferred styles of a restaurant. The downside given all the concrete and hard surfaces, it’s pretty loud, even at 50% capacity. Not easy to hold a conversation without shouting at each other, and made totally worse when right behind me was a table of 10-12 guys downing alcohol like no tomorrow. In addition to noise, the large table also had an adverse effect on service because we shared the same server, and they were pretty high maintenance with such a large party and I’m convinced some were half drunk :) So we didn’t get our plates changed or waters refilled as quickly as expected, but she was very nice and pleasant. Food (B ) : Grilled octopus (B+ ) This was the strongest dish. If it was octopus alone, I'd give it an A-; cooked perfectly, fragrant and smokey with a delightful savory crunch on the outside, while still tender and sweet on the inside. Unfortunately, the accompaniments were overly salty and acidic, overpowering the wonderful octopus. Cucina meatballs (B ) A decent meatball, but a touch dry and denser than I prefer. I guess I have a bias for Chinese meatballs like lionhead (獅子頭) or even XLB where the meat is typically much juicer. That said, I really enjoyed the whipped ricotta & spicy tomato sauce. Rigatoni bolognese (B ) Nicely cooked pasta with a well balanced bolognese sauce. I definitely would have given myself a pat on the back if I made it at home, but for a bib gourmand rated restaurant, sure it tasted fine, but I expected a “wow” and there wasn’t any. Fig prosciutto pizza (B- ) This was a bit of a let down primarily because the crust was definitely on the tight end, making it feel pedestrian rather than gourmet. The toppings were quite nice, a sweet savory mix with prosciutto & fig, although more prosciutto or something savory would have been nice to tamper the sweetness more. Tiramisu (B- ) This tasted more like a tiramisu flavored cake than a tiramisu - both the cake on the bottom and the cream on top were too heavy & dry. It was decent flavorwise - maybe a touch light on coffee - but the texture, even the appearance, screamed cake in a cup rather than a creamy, gooey, light tiramisu. So, a reasonably good experience, but not great and in my opinion, Catania is still my fave among the Italian restaurants I’ve tried so far. If in the area, go for it, but definitely not worth traveling to. --------------------------------- Food Grading Scale: A+: Life changing. You remember these bites for the rest of your life. Occurs very infrequently and when it does, you’ll know it. You don’t even know how to further improve it with a magic wand. A: Wow! Excellent. You felt happy biting into it. You’re considering whether it’s life changing, but know it misses the mark. A-: Very very good. Whatever it is, it’s one of the best, but you can think of further improvements. B+: Very good. Very enjoyable, not to the point of “impressive,” but worth revisiting. B: Good. A solid example of whatever it is, offering enjoyment, but not enough for making an effort to get. B-: Not bad. If in a pinch to eat something, this offers some enjoyment and is a reasonable option. C+: Mediocre plus. Pretty average, but with one or two positive characteristics you can identify. C: Mediocre. “Meh”. Very average. Not bad enough to make you angry, but nothing good about it at all. C-: Bad. You recognize it for what it is, but a very bad rendition. Your foodie self is a little pissed,