Cucina Urbana – San Diego

Cucina Urbana (505 Laurel St. in San Diego) is my go-to restaurant with local friends, out-of-town guests, and anyone who wants to go with me. But during these visits, I did not have the kids with me.

At a recent dinner with a friend from New York, I discovered even more to love about Cucina Urbana. They offer kids a ‘build-your-own-pizza pie’ menu option. It’s a personal size, half-baked pizza crust that kids can add tomato sauce, cheese, and pepperoni.

Building their own pizza keeps my kids entertained. And they end up eating their whole dinner with delight because they had a hand in preparing the food. Genius!

Rigel prefers his pizza with no tomato sauce, just cheese and pepperoni. And he’s thrilled to be able to make his pizza the way he likes it.

Rigel’s pizza pie.

Alani chose the angel hair and giant meatball meal which comes with unlimited drink (lemonade or soda) and a scoop of ice cream.

Alani is astonished by the giant meatball. It was so big, we had to bring it home for her lunch the next day.

Cucina Urbana has my favorite salad – the Farmer’s Chopped Salad. The salad has yellow wax bean, cucumber, pepperoncini, gorgonzola (which I take out), and roasted garlic oregano vinaigrette.

Harlen and I shared the family size of the Farmer’s Chopped Salad.

And the Burnt Brussels Sprout with Ivan’s Hot Sauce is a must have. I wanted to recreate this dish at home and bought a jar of Ivan’s Hot Sauce to take home. Usually, I order the Farmer’s Chopped Salad and the Burnt Brussel Sprout for lunch or dinner and am totally satisfied.

I can eat a whole order of these brussels sprouts myself. They are SOOO GOOOD!

Our last visit to Cucina Urbana was to celebrate Harlen’s 39th birthday. Though we generally steer clear of sugar, we had to get the Bittersweet Chocolate Budino for dessert. It’s another favorite of mine.

You cannot go wrong with this Bittersweet Chocolate Budino with cocoa chantilly and salted chocolate cookie.

Because it was Harlen’s birthday, we felt like a second dessert was in order. So we had to get the newly added dessert item – the Zeppole, Italian Style Donut Holes. Harlen loves donuts especially warm ones with yummy goodness inside.

Zeppole, Italian Style Donut Holes with vanilla crema, poached peach, and balsamic syrup. This was an amazing dessert. If we are having sugar, it has to be this good.

For his dessert, Rigel chose the Brownie Ice Cream Sundae.

Rigel’s Brownie Ice Cream Sundae with vanilla ice cream, brownie, chocolate sauce, strawberry, whipped cream, and no nuts.

Happy Birthday, Harlen! Eating at Cucina Urbana was a fun way to celebrate with the whole family.

There’s our fam.

The kids gave Cucina Urbana two thumbs up. The photo below was taken on a different visit just a few days before going to Cucina Urbana again for Harlen’s birthday. We are big fans!

Alani and Rigel give Cucina Urbana two thumbs up! They liked it so much, we went twice in one week.

And for something completely different…the restroom review:

Hooray, the bathrooms at Cucina Urbana are CLEAN! However, for parents of diaper-wearing children, I did not notice a diaper changing station.

The ladies’ restroom is clean, nicely decorated, and even has music from overhead speakers.

Here is where cleanliness really matters to me. And it was so clean. Thanks!