by Frank Sabatini Jr.

—[ top five ]—

Alexander’s • 3391 30th St. • 619-281-2539
This small Italian restaurant in North Park delivers the kind of chic dining experience that you’d expect to find in the newly fashionable Monti district of Rome. Colorful pasta dishes and signature pizzas using bright tomato sauces are served against a stark white backdrop that replaces privacy with intimacy in the dining room’s elbow-to-elbow seating area. A cozy and equally stylish back patio accommodates spillover. Favorite dishes include chicken Florentine and baked vodka rigatoni with spicy sausage.

Antica Trattoria • 5654 Lake Murray Blvd., La Mesa • 619-463-9919
Chef/owner Francesco Basile rolls up his sleeves to make some of the best veal dishes and ravioli that only a Sicilian-born chef can give us. Nearly everything is made from scratch, including a range of sauces spiked with cream and wine used for cloaking numerous meat, seafood and pasta entrees. Located unexpectedly in a La Mesa strip mall, a rustic, unpretentious ambience pervades as the menu provides a gastronomic romp through nearly every region of Italy.

Vincenzo • Ristorante Italiano • 1702 India St.• 619-702-6181
Meals at Vincenzo capture both modern and classic recipes common to numerous regions throughout Italy. The simple braising and poaching of meat and fish receive top billing here, as do stimulating antipastos, expertly cooked risotto and densely stuffed cannoli, constructed with pastry tubes imported from Sicily. Located in the heart of Little Italy, the atmosphere is bright and homey. And most of the staff hails from the Mother Country.

Solare Ristorante & Lounge • 2820 Roosevelt Rd., Liberty Station• 619-270-9670
Exquisite furnishings and décor from Bali set the stage for a culinary journey through modern-day Milan. Solare in Point Loma is Liberty Station’s first white-linen restaurant, where organic and imported ingredients appear in mouthwatering dishes such as zucchini tagliatelle with colossal shrimp, pork belly with savory white beans, and potato dumplings stuffed with fennel-rich sausage. Or if you come just to nibble, the Belguardo “super Tuscan” wine pairs swimmingly with the restaurant’s primo meat and cheese board.

Fresco Trattoria • 264 Carlsbad Village Drive, Carlsbad • 760-720-3737
Italy’s Lazio region is famous for its thin-crust Margherita pizzas, fettuccine alfredo, penne marscapone and homemade gnocchi, which is exactly what you’ll find at Fresco Trattoria in Carlsbad. Owner Leone D’Arcangelo introduces us to a bevy of specialties indigenous to his native Rome, as well as proverbial dishes from Italy’s northern regions. The spacious restaurant features a Tuscan-style patio and splashy murals of the owner’s hometown, while the kitchen reveals an imported pasta machine used for making the wildly popular Ravioli di Formaggio stuffed with goat cheese and spinach.