The best Italian pizzerias and restaurants California

Opened in 2004 in Santa Monica, this excellent Italian restaurant has also set up shop in Venice. It offers delicious homemade pasta prepared by Sicilian-born chef Antonio Murè. With the experience gained from many trips to his native country, he specializes in the typical cuisine of Emilia-Romagna, a culinary region of great wealth. His specialty: potato and fig tortellini served on a bed of melted parmesan, with hazelnut butter and sage. Reservations recommended.

Paesano's is considered one of the best Italian restaurants in California's capital, and it's easy to see why. This trendy downtown restaurant is divided into a large, high-ceilinged room and a terrace that is very pleasant in good weather. The service is impeccable. You can eat delicious wood-fired pizzas, classic pasta dishes and current specialties always inspired by Italy. The antipasti are also very tasty. Due to its success, the company has opened two other restaurants in Elk Grove and Davis.

An institution of the Fisherman's Wharf district with its Italian colors. You can eat on the terrace near the wharf under the umbrellas or in a large room. It is crowded, but the service is efficient and attentive. The menu features fish from the nearby bays. The speciality of the house: the Cioppino which marries with talent tomatoes, fennel seeds, clams, fish, shrimps, crab... But the pizzas are delicious too. This family business has been in existence for over 20 years and has built a solid reputation.

If Little Italy is full of good restaurants, this Calabrian-born establishment opened in 2015 stands out in particular for the quality of its homemade pasta. Another special feature is the second menu, specially designed for vegans. Choose from lasagne, fettuccine with mushroom ragout, or eggplant fusilli. In the "mainstream" menu, special mention goes to the delicious pappardelle brasato, cooked with rib stew, Cabernet and Parmesan. Another highlight is the excellent selection of wines.

This family story began in Padova, a small town in northern Italy, where chef Paola Da Re, her sisters Luisa and Patrizia, and her brother Carlo, spent their afternoons helping their mother, Maria Giovanna, in the kitchen. A passion and love for good food is evident in every dish of homemade pasta served at Pasta Sisters. A special mention goes to the gnocchi, the family's oldest recipe. In addition to its Culver City location, Pasta Sisters also has a Mid City restaurant.

What drew us to the Prince of Venice were the homemade pastas and the adorable little outdoor square with its string lights. Less interestingly, the dining room resembles an Italian diner. On the menu: simple but effective recipes such as bucatini with carbonara, orecchiette with pesto or casarecce with vodka. An address we recommend above all for small budgets, as the plates are extremely copious, so you can easily take one for two, or bet on the takeaway to make two meals out of one dish.

One of the cheapest restaurants in Tiburon. Soups, salads, pastas and pizzas... Here you can try the Thai style pizza or the shrimp and pesto pizza. Beware, there is also the much disputed Hawaiian pineapple pizza, the source of endless debate within the pizza community. You can also create your own pizza. Regular movie screenings are held here, sometimes even in 3D. But you can also take your order and enjoy it on a bench facing the ocean.

Next to the Farmers' Market, which takes place every Wednesday and Saturday in Little Italy, this restaurant has a pretty little terrace where it's pleasant to sit in the sun. You'll find tasty, hearty dishes, from the must-try pasta and meat dishes to oven-baked pizzas. Don't miss the incredible display of desserts: cassata, orange and pear tarts... You'd think you were in an Italian bakery. Our favorite: the cannoli, which transport us to Sicily.

A small, cozy brand that serves good pasta and pizza. Just next door, a grocery store makes it possible to buy all Italian products.

It is one of the few restaurants in the area, located at the entrance ofPoint Reyes Station.Popular with visitors and locals alike, this establishment specializes in pizzas: from the dough to the sauce, the emphasis is on homemade. Moreover, all the meats are guaranteed 100% natural and nitrate-free, while the ingredients come from local producers. Between the excellent value, the personalized service and the good atmosphere - with lounge music in the background - Cafe Reyes is a particularly nice address.

Hidden away from the beach of Ocean Beach, this wine-cellar restaurant is one of our heartbeat. They eat in the middle of local and international bottles, bottles that can be bought and consumed during their meal at the boutique price. The atmosphere is very warm with a few jazz notes. The menu, Italian inspired, is not with refined and rich dishes. You'll be advised in particular of the seafood risotto. It is also possible to take a seat around the long bar for a glass of wine, which is found at unbeatable prices during happy hour.

The favourite address of local customers seduced by the huge pizzas and pasta just right.

Located off Route 66 at the northern entrance to town, this is a place that can't be missed for its fun exterior design, with a multi-colored cow on the roof and a white and red checkered water tower.

On the menu: pizzas, salads and burgers in a very successful setting, quite in the tones of the preview given on the street. In addition to the quality of its dishes and an excellent welcome, the Cross Eyed regularly organizes live music evenings with local bands or karaoke evenings. Good meal and good mood guaranteed.

Fior d'Italia was rebuilt in the Hotel San Remo after a devastating fire. A very old-school establishment established in 1886, it is, according to its owners, "the oldest Italian restaurant in America"! The menu, a traditional Italian version focusing on northern Italian specialties, offers a wide variety of antipasti, pasta, meat and fish dishes, served with great pomp and circumstance. The stars of the menu are the perfectly seasoned osso bucco, lasagne and clam pasta. The bill, however, is steep.

Here you can enjoy a clin of tomato sauce washed with tomato sauce. We recommend Monday evening menu Monday Night Supper: three dishes at $ 15, while the wine bottle is $ 12. The rest of the week, the prices are higher in this trattoria in the retro look, but we will come for its good pizzas. If you come to many, you can share the dishes and get out at a more reasonable rate. The focaccia bread is appreciated especially since it is enjoyed by two.

This is probably one of the best addresses on Melrose, where both the menu and the atmosphere lend themselves equally well to brunch, coffee or lunch. Slightly off the street, access to the restaurant is via the adjacent parking lot. Once inside, the smiling, friendly welcome makes you want to settle in, while the décor and ambience invite you to make yourself comfortable, both on the large terrace and in the whitewashed wooden interior. From typical Italian dishes to freshly baked pastries, everything is good.

The Pescatore Trattoria at Hotel Zoe, a terrace café on Fisherman's Wharf, is very good. We recommend it for the house specialty, Italian-Californian cioppino, a soup of crabs, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish, then tossed with fresh tomatoes in a white wine sauce. But you can also opt for fried calamari with shrimp ravioli, chicken fettuccine or spaghetti bolognese. For dessert, tiramisu also works wonders.

A good pizzeria that also offers American and Mexican cuisine. The establishment has a good reputation, even if its location on Route 66, which is a very wide boulevard here, is not very attractive. The interior, rather well arranged, makes you want to sit down and compensates by its decoration the rather ordinary exterior of the building. On the walls, pictures of Route 66, again and again... One of the last places in the city to eat before going on in the heat of the Mojave desert.