Cesarina debuts summer menu and — gasp! — a dessert to rival its tiramisù

Cesarina, the charming, new Italian restaurant in Point Loma, introduces seasonal specialties and a perfect cannoli prepared tableside

San Diego Union-Tribune

July 18, 2019 11:02 AM PT

It’s summer and at Cesarina, the charming, five-month old Italian restaurant in Point Loma, the season calls for figs, ripe melon, summer black truffles, mangoes and more.

The menu features new dishes, drinks and desserts, including luxurious homemade gnocchi with porcini, gamberi and sliced black truffles, a legit, housemade tonnarelli cacio e pepe and an appetizer that will send you straight to a piazza in Rome: focaccia topped with burrata, figs, prosciutto, basil and a drizzle of honey.

Pastry goddess Cesarina Mezzoni also makes the perfect cannoli, with fluffy ricotta blended with lemon zest, cardamom, cinnamon and chocolate that’s adorned with chopped pistachios. Prepared tableside, it just may rival Mezzoni’s stunningly delicate and delicious tiramisù.

And because nothing tastes better than free, on the second Tuesday of every month, Cesarina will feature a new tableside dessert that’s on the house with dinner.

Brunch Friday-Sunday, lunch and dinner daily. 4161 Voltaire St., Point Loma. (619) 226-6222. cesarinarestaurant.com

Restaurants Eat | Drink

Michele Parente

Michele Parente is the Dining, Wine + Lifestyle reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Her areas of expertise include the Valle de Guadalupe wine region, fashion, television, women’s issues and coverage of aging, such as the impact of Alzheimer’s and dementia and family caregiving. Michele is the former Sunday and features editor, where she oversaw profiles, special projects, such as the Legacy of WWII and in-depth reports on a variety of topics. She joined the U-T in 2003, supervising coverage areas that have included features, fashion, TV, Food, Consumer Health and Arts & Entertainment. Previously, Michele was the assistant features editor at The Oregonian, in Portland, as well as the Portland City Hall reporter. She spent 10 years at New York Newsday as a reporter on the crime, education, state legislature and New York City Hall beats. She was part of a team that won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting. A native New Yorker, Michele received her B.A. in political science and Italian Literature at UC Berkeley. In 1980, she studied at L’Università di Urbino, in Italy. One of her life’s goals is to make her way through each of the world’s great wine regions.