Cucciolo Famiglia - Southpoint

Such good food and service! Best Italian food I’ve had in this area by far

My favorite new place...

We are so happy that the Cucciolo group has chosen Sutton Station to began their new journey. It is a welcomed culinary addition to our community. We ate there on August 23rd, opening night, and had an overall wonderful experience. Food and service were what you would expect from a Cucciolo restaurant and we loved what they have done to create the atmosphere. Our experience on the patio will be the first of many.

All of our food was deeeeelicios! We were able to enjoy the outside seating and receive prompt and consistent attention from the staff. The dress housemate pasta options were my favorite!

Had a great time here last night with friends. The atmosphere is lively and the drink menu is awesome. Don't skip the arancini appetizer or beat salad- both were super yummy!

Welcoming restaurant with friendly and attentive staff and authentic Italian food. Indoor and outdoor seating options. Our waiter was helpful and attentive. The food was delicious with fresh ingredients and delicious pasta.

We come in once every couple of weeks; the servers all remember us, the food is phenomenal, and the atmosphere is lovely and welcoming. It’s a wonderful restaurant and a great location!

Our food was awesome. Really enjoyed our pastas. Definitely will become a neighborhood favorite!!!

Had Charlie as our server super sweet and understanding with out questions and modifications

Every item we tried was delicious, but more importantly, outstanding service and an attention to detail that my family truly appreciated.

Food was excellent service was good Tara was very attentive drinks were inspired matt is a great bartender

What a wonderful experience! Food and service were amazing. Will definitely be back!

Great atmosphere, service and food! I appreciated the gluten free options too!

Amazing service and quality of food! Would recommend to anyone looking for a cozy night out.

3 diners all enjoyed our dinner greatly!

best italian food in durham!!!!

Absolutely fantastic experience at Cucciolo! We started with the calamari and mussels, and both were perfectly prepared—fresh, flavorful, and beautifully balanced. For our main course, we had the chicken parm with pasta, which was comforting, rich, and cooked just right. Truly classic Italian done exceptionally well. What made the evening even more special was our server, Gia. She was attentive, warm, and genuinely caring, elevating the entire dining experience. Her recommendations and timing were spot-on, and she made us feel truly welcomed. We’ll absolutely be back. Highly recommend for anyone looking for excellent Italian food and outstanding service in Durham!

New favorite spot in Durham! ​I’ve heard great things about Cucciolo Famiglia, but it honestly exceeded every expectation. The atmosphere is the perfect balance of cozy and welcoming—it feels like a great neighborhood spot you'd find in a bigger city. ​The food was the real star. We started with the Calamari and Artichoke Pecorino Bruschetta, and it was incredible. I’ve never had that specific combination before, but the pecorino and artichoke worked so well together. ​For the mains: ​White Ragu: This was easily one of the best pasta dishes I’ve had in years. It’s rich, savory, and the pasta was perfectly cooked. ​Vodka Rigatoni: My friend ordered this and I had to steal a few bites. The sauce was incredibly silky and flavorful. ​I also can’t say enough about our server Brandon. Everything from the service to the pacing of the meal was fantastic. It’s clear they really care about the quality here. If you’re looking for authentic, delicious Italian food, this is the place. I’ll definitely be back soon!

My wife and I decided to try Cuccilio Famiglia for New Year's Eve, a more casual sister restaurant to Cuccilio in Durham. It was well worth the 20 minute drive from Chapel Hill. We sat at the bar, tended by Matt, a real pro. We had custom cocktails, a fabulous Pino Noir from Bordeaux, shared a roasted beet salad and a walnut pesto Arancini appetizer, then had generous chicken piccata and chicken Marsala entrees. Finally we shared a pistachio gelato. All were exceptional. We can't remember the last time we went to a restaurant where EVERYTHING we ordered was exceptional. The settings is upscale casual with plenty of spacing between tables. Entree pricing (~$23) is about $10 lower than Chapel Hill prices. Will we return? You bet.

If you like craft cocktails and delicious Italian food, this is the place to be! I’ve been here several times and it’s never disappointed. The bartender is fantastic and creates some next level cocktails, and the wait staff are always friendly and attentive. Very happy to have this open up in my neighborhood!

Went to Famiglia last night to have a drink at the bar with girl friends. It was packed and I was so impressed with the vibe and energy after only being open a few weeks! They handled the busy night with so much grace. Great cocktails and simple, classic presentation of the appetizers let the food speak for itself. Glad we have such a fun and authentic family run spot with a cool bar and outdoor seating in South Durham!

We came into town on business & started searching for a place close to our hotel (Hyatt Place Durham / Southpoint) for dinner. Cucciolo has great ratings & the Famigilia location does not disappoint! Bartender Matt is a gem & helped us choose a great wine 🍷! Thank you for a fantastic dinner!!

Absolutely love the newest Cucciolos restaurant ! Pasta is out of this world and the cocktail menu is amazing. So excited to finally have a great restaurant in south Durham . I’ve sat outside and inside and both were great experiences. The staff is so attentive. Great for the entire family . I highly recommend! I’ll be coming back all the time

We had a small family birthday get together catered from here and the food was excellent! Everyone enjoyed it and came back for seconds and thirds! The catering team was very attentive and communicative during the process. Thanks so much and we’ll be back!

My wife loves Cucciolo Osteria downtown, so we were excited to see they were opening a location in South Durham. It certainly lived up to our expectations! The food was fantastic. The fresh bread with oil and balsamic was a great start to the meal, and we crushed the arancini appetizer. I had the lasagna and my wife had the rigatoni, both were excellent. The service was also top notch—the manager is a veteran of the triangle restaurant industry and he and his staff were incredibly thoughtful and attentive throughout the evening. It’s also far more kid friendly than you’d expect. My two boys (6 and 2) loved the kids menu options, reusable silicone coloring mats (we immediately wanted some for home), and the option to play in the grass next to the patio. Excited to have this as a new SoDu staple!

Since moving to Durham ten years ago, been looking for a good, fairly priced Italian restaurant. We found it tonight at Cucciolo’s. We’ll be back. The food and the service were outstanding.

We’ve been to this restaurant several times. We’ve always had great service and I’ve really enjoyed the food — in particular, the beet salad, eggplant parm, pasta primavera, and spaghetti with meatballs. Prices are also reasonable.

Overall good, but portion size was a little off for the price for me.

Service started out amazing! Our server was super personable and attentive. As dinner went on, the restaurant got very busy and things slowed down quite a bit but our server stayed on top of it and worked really hard to keep us taken care of — props to that! The techno music felt off-brand for the cozy vibe, but overall we still enjoyed our visit. The food was great — we loved the white ragu, and our kids adored the chicken fingers. The patio was also a perfect spot for them to play. We’re excited to have this new Italian option in Southpoint!

My pasta dish was good, but the mussels were awful. Most of them were all stretched out and stuck to their shells. I had to twist my fork around them as if they were spaghetti to try to tear them off their shell, and even then they wouldn't come out. I don't know what has to go wrong for mussels to turn out like that. Some looked so weird they went straight into the bowl I was given for empty shells. Others were so tiny they were barely there at all. I probably should have sent them back, so that's my fault. On a positive note, the restaurant has a big list of non-alcoholic drinks, and waitstaff was friendly. I hope they figure out their mussels.

The food was mediocre at best. My "spicy" Rigatoni with vodka and tomato cream sauce came out cold, overly al dente, and not spicy at all. Both my husband's and my salad where over saturated with dressing and did not taste fresh. They provided TINY portions of bread with olive oil and overly acidic Balsamic vinegar. It was bad. My husband ordered the lasagna. He said it had a sour/acidic taste. We will not be going back. On the positive side, the service was good. Overall, this place is not worth the money.

Hands down THE worst piccata sauce I’ve ever tasted in the 30 years I’ve been eating it from restaurants domestic and abroad. Chicken parm had clearly been sitting for a while before it was served (cheese was barely melted, chicken was soggy). Bread as a side. Seriously. 25-30$ per entree and the side was…more bread. Kids enjoyed their fettuccine Alfredo but we opted to split an entree order as opposed to two kids portions. The adult entree was a side portion at best, barely enough to satisfy two small children. The server was really friendly and the patio was decent even if the music was rattling the speaker cone above our heads. We will not return. This was extremely disappointing, underwhelming and overpriced.

We were very excited about having an Italian place so close to our house but after visiting were not impressed. We have a couple of appetizer that were ok. But then I got the chicken parmigiana and was quite disappointed. I have had chicken parm in four countries and this is the first time it came with no side, no pasta or anything, just the chicken, literally. My wife also had the truffle mac and cheese and she was not impressed, as it wasn’t Mac, and have very little cheese. Overall, for the price the entrees could be a lot better and food presentation could improve.

As someone who eats Italian food regularly, I am truly shocked by the five star reviews of this place. It’s neither impressive nor authentic. It seems unclear what it is. It’s like it’s trying to be a family Italian eatery but it’s not that comfortable or homey inside. The outdoor patio is lovely and where we requested to sit after we noticed the indoor seating felt kinda sterile with no good mood lights and just an open space with no true atmosphere. You’d think they’d have nice classic bowls for their pastas or cute grandma inspired plates. Something special. But instead, everything was served on plates that looked they should be in a diner. Aesthetics or a clear coherent concept seemed to be an afterthought and clearly was never realized. The food was forgettable. It wasn’t awful but nothing noteworthy except for the beet salad. The presentation of the dishes was lacking. The bruschetta was just two random slices of toast on a cutting board. They should serve it with the spread on the side with a knife on the board or something. They may as well have served it on a side plate. I ordered the truffle mac and cheese which came with rotini pasta and very little cheese flavor. So a mac and cheese that had neither the Mac nor the cheese. The arancini was the worst I’ve had in the triangle. Mushy, not seasoned well. And while it was a more unique flavor attempt, it still very clearly needed tomato sauce. My husband got chicken parm that didn’t even come with pasta. The server was very friendly and seemed like he wanted to be attentive but our waters weren’t refilled and someone else had to come take our order when they realized no one had yet. We spent over $100 for mediocre food. We spend the same at Mothers and Sons or Osteria Georgi for infinitely better dishes. We question if we would ever want to try the other Cucciolo restaurants after this experiment.

I’ve been a fan of Cucciolo’s sister spots, Osteria is one of my favorite restaurants. So I walked into Cucciolo Famiglia with reasonable expectations: not the same elevated vibe, but still solid. Unfortunately, this was one of the worst meals I’ve had in years. The atmosphere doesn’t match the name. It’s not cozy or family-friendly, it’s just an open space with tables. The patio is cute. Drinks were decent. Service was genuinely good. But service can’t save food this bad. From the complimentary bread to the appetizers to the mains, everything fell flat. The ricotta and honey starter was dry bread, bland ricotta, too many pine nuts, and barely any honey. The white ragu was salty and bone-dry, nothing like the rave reviews claim. The “mac and cheese” wasn’t macaroni, wasn’t cheesy. Portions were large, but presentation sloppy. Definitely recommend Osteria but Cucciolo Famiglia is a miss.