Food and hospitality were the best. Everyone was so kind, I cant even explain it in words. You have to experience it. The lobster raviolis are superb and I had the best salad too. The photos of the lobster ravioli on yelp just do not do the food any justice. It's much better than it looks and I'm so happy I tried the item that didn't look so great in photos. Photos don't always tell the whole story. The focaccia bread with olive oil and vinaigrette was great as well. This is a must try if you are in Monterey Bay.

Five star. Excellent prices. Excellent choices. Staff was impeccable. Wine selection was tremendous. We reserved on online over a month ago and I wrote it’s our 28th anniversary. They treated us so special. Even brought out a candle and wished us Happy anniversary. All locals gathering, warm and friendly even if your from out of town like us. Highly recommend.

We absolutely adore this place! It holds a special spot in our hearts as one of the standout dining establishments in the charming Monterey Bay Area. What sets it apart is their unwavering commitment to freshness – you can taste the difference. While reservations are highly recommended, the restaurant's warm hospitality ensures you're in for a treat even if you drop by spontaneously. Paula and Chef Michael, the owners, are not just proprietors; they're {friends} who greet you with warm hugs and smiles, making you feel like part of the family. The calamari and Arancini appetizers are our favorites, and the minestrone soup is a delightful taste of an old-country recipe. For the main course, we always opt for the Tortiglioni with Sausage, Seafood Linguine, and Eggplant Parmigiana – they never disappoint. Overall, this restaurant offers an incredible dining experience. The pricing is fair and the level of personal attention and care from the staff is unparalleled. It's undeniably one of our favorite places and a must-visit every time we're in the Pacific Grove-Monterey area.

Lucky us! We were able to get in only because someone cancelled last minute. Delicious food, nice ambience, wonderful service. Started with their delicious focaccia bread, entree's came with salad or soup. Hubby chose salad, I chose the chicken soup. Hubby had the most delicious freshly made gnocchi with 2 kinds of sauce. I chose the sand dabs. We celebrated his bday w/their strawberry dessert, delicious! Happy tummies :) Will most definitely return!

+2

Beautiful location and excellent service. Food was over the top.

What a fantastic place! It was our 37th wedding anniversary and they had the table waiting for us with wine and small hearts already at the table. The staff made us feel so welcome and my wife was just tickled. The food was excellent and at times, very unconventional, but in a completely wonderful way. We laughed the whole night while our staff came to help us only when we needed it, it was as if they were reading our minds. Fantastic place to spend time with the ones you love.

Wonderful Italian cuisine with excellent food, service and ambience. Such a wonderful reception from our lovely lady host that sat my wife and I to our table. We had multiple servers greeting us and letting us know the specials for the evening. Wonderful service from our main server Richard. For starters, the warm Focaccia bread dipped in the Balsanic Vinegar and Olive Oil was wonderful. We shared a wonderful Tortiglioni Pasta with homemade Italian Sausage and onions and red pepper cooked in tomato sauce. We also shared the Crab and Prawn Cakes and each had their Split Pea Soup with Ham. A glass of Chianti and Pinot Noir. Desserts included a complimentary Spumone for the birthday boy and a Brownie Ala Mode. The Chef was kind enough to greet us after our wonderful meal. What a great experience. Would love to come back here next time we visit. Yummy!!! We left with happy stomachs!!! 😋

+4

Very quiet intimate restaurant with great food and friendly staff. Wait staff was very attentive to our every need. Food was timed appropriately and tasted wonderful. Pasta was tender and sauces seasoned to perfection. Highly recommend checking this place out if you're in the area.

It’s a rare instance that we find a restaurant that excels in quality food, service, and ambiance, and La Mia Cucina was that restaurant! We chose La Mia Cucina to celebrate our baby moon weekend in Monterey. From the second we stepped in, the hostess greeted us with kindness, and we found the ambiance intimate, welcoming, and romantic. We also loved the fact that soft Christmas music was playing! Our server was exceptional; attentive, and professional, and he made sure everything was to our liking. We started with focaccia, Caesar salad, and soup of the day which was a barley soup (each main dish comes with soup or salad). Just by tasting the starters, we realized we were in for a treat! For mains, we opted for the ricotta cheese ravioli per our waiter’s recommendation. It was an outstanding dish! The pasta was perfectly cooked and each bite melted in our mouths. The farfalle with bolognese was also a standout. It was flavorful and paired perfectly with the creamy ricotta cheese it came with. Something that stood out is that each staff member at the restaurant was radiating positive energy. La Mia Cucina was such a highlight in our little baby moon trip, and we cannot wait to be back next time we are in the area. Thank you for providing a perfect experience for us!

Everything was great. They listen to our orders and make sure we are enjoying the food and service. I'll be there again.

All around great experience. Fresh and delicious food. Staff was very friendly and made it a great dinning experience.

Very authentic Italian restaurant, full of locals, and great food. I had the raviolis with bolognese sauce, and my daughter had the spaghetti bolognese. The sauce was so homey, and light. Service was fantastic. perfect place to eat when arriving to the area from out of town. We arrived on a Sunday. We had a reservation, but some tables were empty.

Just moved to the Pacific Grove area and had one of the locals recommend LA Mia Cucina. AMAZING! The Foccacia bread is made fresh, the Italian sausage and Ravilois are made and stuffed by the owners. You can taste the love in the food. The service is incredible! The servers are friendly and attentive, even the owners came by our table to ask if we were enjoying our meal. I can honestly say this is a hidden gem and I cannot wait to eat there again.

We are long time patrons of this fine establishment. The owners greet everyone, food is plentiful and delicious. We went for my husband’s birthday, as we have for 30 years. They fully celebrated him with well wishes and a dessert. The gnocchi is the best I’ve had. Warm and inviting ambience. Well done, Michael and Paula and crew!

What a gem of a restaurant! From the nice lady who answered the phone to the warm welcome upon entering the restaurant, to the knowledgeable staff... La Mia Cucina really felt like they treat you like family. We shared the lasagna special with the salad, delicious!

Bryon Shea

What a gem of a restaurant! From the nice lady who answered the phone to the warm welcome upon entering the restaurant, to the knowledgeable staff... La Mia Cucina really felt like they treat you like family. We shared the lasagna special with the salad, delicious!

Sandra Vieira

We are long time patrons of this fine establishment. The owners greet everyone, food is plentiful and delicious. We went for my husband’s birthday, as we have for 30 years. They fully celebrated him with well wishes and a dessert. The gnocchi is the best I’ve had. Warm and inviting ambience. Well done, Michael and Paula and crew!

Ruby Yehoshua

Everything was great. They listen to our orders and make sure we are enjoying the food and service. I'll be there again.

Jordan Stern

My fiancé and I had an amazing experience here! Great food and service. Highly recommend!

Alicia Spiegel

Very authentic Italian restaurant, full of locals, and great food. I had the raviolis with bolognese sauce, and my daughter had the spaghetti bolognese. The sauce was so homey, and light. Service was fantastic. perfect place to eat when arriving to the area from out of town. We arrived on a Sunday. We had a reservation, but some tables were empty.

Jessica Johnson

Just moved to the Pacific Grove area and had one of the locals recommend LA Mia Cucina. AMAZING! The Foccacia bread is made fresh, the Italian sausage and Ravilois are made and stuffed by the owners. You can taste the love in the food. The service is incredible! The servers are friendly and attentive, even the owners came by our table to ask if we were enjoying our meal. I can honestly say this is a hidden gem and I cannot wait to eat there again.

Stu

Our favorite restaurant on the Monterey Peninsula and a favorite of my wife for her birthday dinner. The food is superb, tasty and served hot. The activity (of the servers, owners and bus persons) is like watching a ballet. The coordination is perfect, just like the food. Each plate is perfectly presented with care. The ingredients are also super.

Fay Dufort

Five star pasta entree! I had the fettuccine with clams- very good. The strawberry shortcake was excellent also.The ambiance was comforting. The service was average. The owners were very personable and friendly. You can wear jeans or dress up business casual if you want. The negatives are: the chairs are painful to sit in. There is a ring on the seat that digs into your thigh. The appetizer (Arancini) was just okay. It was basically a rice ball in tomato sauce. It was supposed to have sausage and prosciutto, both of which I couldn't even taste. I got the house salad with my entree. It was good but over dressed.

Five star pasta entree! I had the fettuccine with clams- very good. The strawberry shortcake was excellent also.The ambiance was comforting. The service was average. The owners were very personable and friendly. You can wear jeans or dress up business casual if you want. The negatives are: the chairs are painful to sit in. There is a ring on the seat that digs into your thigh. The appetizer (Arancini) was just okay. It was basically a rice ball in tomato sauce. It was supposed to have sausage and prosciutto, both of which I couldn't even taste. I got the house salad with my entree. It was good but over dressed.

Nina V

We came here enticed by the 4.6+ rating. The service is wonderful - warm, kind, committed. The ambience is fun with the colorful vintage posters lining the walls. The crowd is full of loyal local patrons so I trust that this is a much loved restaurant. So the 3-star rating is more about the food. The crab/prawn cake appetizer was tasty but the rubbery chewy pieces of prawn made the dish less enjoyable. Kudos to the staff for letting me share my candid feedback directly with chef. How often do restaurants send their chef to chat with a patron? Not many I think. The Caesar salad was dressed in a fresher dressing than I expected 👍 and topped with softer cheese than aged Parmesan. The arancini was sized like racquetballs and the rice grain texture inside was mushy. I extracted the homemade sausage from the core and enjoyed the tomato-herb sauce circling the 3 rice balls. The lobster ravioli dish overall was too sweet. Some of the pillows had a nice portion of filling. Other pillows had a lot less. I wonder whether the mascarpone cheese dominates the filling and the taste of fresh lobster. Our waiter recommended a really nice wine to accompany our dinner. Experience overall was 4-stars.

JEONGBUM SEO

The taste was insane from antipasti to dolci !!!! i am fanatic of italian pasta but The reason why i don’t eat out for italian foods recently is because most italian restaurants don’t have any philosophy or seriousness about italian cusines. This place blows my taste-buds! Even my daughter ate all dishes served from focaccia to creme brulee. Server was so knowledgeable, nice guy! What a dish!!!! I strongly recommend this place if you are into pasta, next level of Italian experiences. Ordered lists were veal soup, tortiglioni, lobster ravioli based on mascapone cheese, arancini(best ever!) creme brulee, blood orange sorbet, dopio espresso! [Update] They served cold pasta, also pasta noodle was so overcooked!! i give it 3 stars!

The taste was insane from antipasti to dolci !!!! i am fanatic of italian pasta but The reason why i don’t eat out for italian foods recently is because most italian restaurants don’t have any philosophy or seriousness about italian cusines. This place blows my taste-buds! Even my daughter ate all dishes served from focaccia to creme brulee. Server was so knowledgeable, nice guy! What a dish!!!! I strongly recommend this place if you are into pasta, next level of Italian experiences. Ordered lists were veal soup, tortiglioni, lobster ravioli based on mascapone cheese, arancini(best ever!) creme brulee, blood orange sorbet, dopio espresso! [Update] They served cold pasta, also pasta noodle was so overcooked!! i give it 3 stars!

+2

We came here enticed by the 4.6+ rating. The service is wonderful - warm, kind, committed. The ambience is fun with the colorful vintage posters lining the walls. The crowd is full of loyal local patrons so I trust that this is a much loved restaurant. So the 3-star rating is more about the food. The crab/prawn cake appetizer was tasty but the rubbery chewy pieces of prawn made the dish less enjoyable. Kudos to the staff for letting me share my candid feedback directly with chef. How often do restaurants send their chef to chat with a patron? Not many I think. The Caesar salad was dressed in a fresher dressing than I expected 👍 and topped with softer cheese than aged Parmesan. The arancini was sized like racquetballs and the rice grain texture inside was mushy. I extracted the homemade sausage from the core and enjoyed the tomato-herb sauce circling the 3 rice balls. The lobster ravioli dish overall was too sweet. Some of the pillows had a nice portion of filling. Other pillows had a lot less. I wonder whether the mascarpone cheese dominates the filling and the taste of fresh lobster. Our waiter recommended a really nice wine to accompany our dinner. Experience overall was 4-stars.

The service was very slow and not attentive to our needs. It took 45 minutes to get our meal. We ordered 6 meals & only one of us was satisfied with the food. We asked for more focaccia bread and the waiter ignored our request. Then we asked again and they said that they couldn’t give us a second plate because they were running low . The only time they moved quickly, was when they were clearing off the table. We were very disappointed and will not return.

Shelley Gibson

The service was very slow and not attentive to our needs. It took 45 minutes to get our meal. We ordered 6 meals & only one of us was satisfied with the food. We asked for more focaccia bread and the waiter ignored our request. Then we asked again and they said that they couldn’t give us a second plate because they were running low . The only time they moved quickly, was when they were clearing off the table. We were very disappointed and will not return.