Theresa's Italian Steakhouse

We stumbled upon this amazing place Friday night. We had a group of 8 people and they were very accommodating. Its located in the Legacy Center Hotel and Conference Center. Just go into the hotel entrance and go up the stairs at the right. You can park in the Valet area to the right. Currently there is no valet operation. Once you go upstairs, you can eat inside or out. The decor is traditional, elegant and very comfortable. The service was a little slow to start but was great once we our whole party showed up. Epic food items were the beef wellington, the Brussel sprouts, the sweet and spicy sausage, the calamari and the minestrone soup was EPIC. The salmon, steak and bass were also very good. We finished with dessert. The banana cream pie was amazing and the drinks were great and well priced. Come enjoy this gem!!

+4

As a local family dining on a budget, we’re always looking for places that deliver great quality and value and Theresa’s is a true gem. Located in a luxury hotel, we were a bit hesitant at first, worried it might be just for tourists. Instead, we found professional service, a clean and elegant dining room, and a classy cocktail lounge. The atmosphere strikes the perfect balance neither stuffy nor overly casual. Prices and food quality exceeded our expectations: the crispy branzino ($36) was perfectly prepared, and the roasted rib eye ($48) cooked medium rare was spot on. We’ll definitely recommend Theresa’s to both locals and out-of-town guests.

My friend and I are staying at The Legacy Hotel and decided to try Theresa Italian Steakhouse — it was such a great experience! I ordered the short ribs and crème brûlée, and both were absolutely amazing — flavorful, tender, and perfectly cooked. The atmosphere was comfortable, and we were able to relax, dine, and talk without feeling rushed. Customer service was excellent — everyone was kind and attentive. Parking was easy, and there was no wait time, which made it even better. Definitely recommend dining here if you’re in the area!

+2

Ignore the reviews! I'm traveling and this restaurant was around the corner from my hotel. I hesitated coming because of the lack luster reviews but had an amaxing meal, served by friendly staff, on their nice outdoor patio. It was such a good experience, I'm sitting in their restaurants waiting for my breakfast as I write this review.

Amazing Italian Food!! Service was top notch

Great food and great service. I can't wait to get back there !!!

The food was delicious, the service was great.

Terrific steakhouse! Thanks so much!

Breakfast was great

Food was near perfection and presntation was flawless. Filet mignon was cooked how my wife ordered it, and go figure i ordered chicken parmagian and pasta.Restaurant is all brand new in a beautiful new resort hotel. The restaurant is on the smaller side but very intimate with nice booths for date night or tables for the family. For all this you do pay a price......its worth it.

Great service! My food was horrible. I will actually be back this weekend due to the location and service is great. Hoping the sous chef is not cooking.

Great food and service. Enjoyed our dinner and returned for breakfast while staying at the resort.

I had 4 wonderful meals here durring my stay. The food was delicious. The staff is wonderful

Great Food Awesome Service Very Beautiful Atmosphere

Great steak dinner. Pleasant service.. ni would return.

Wonderful experience…great atmosphere… great service and really great food… highly recommended

I’ve had lunch here several times. Great food, great service.

The entire experience was wonderful from the Moment we walked in and were quickly met by friendly staff. Our server Carla was so friendly and helpful. The food was delicious and the pricing was fair. I wish we had them near our home.

Karla is the sweetest gem! She accommodated my birthday 3 course dinner with no notice!! She was sweet, attentive and so good as what she does. Of course the food was delicious but Karla absolutely made the experience

Food was great, we did the 3 course meal with Filet and Salmon. Service was attentive, pricing very reasonable, overall great experience.

Excellent Italian dishes… Enjoyed their Italian Spaghetti & Meatballs, Piccata Chicken , the Salmon, Cheeseburger, housemade hummus, cheesecake and Tiramisu throughout our stay… everything was top notch !

Friday, Dec 27. Nice atmosphere. I had Prime Rib, medium rare. Excellent. Seasonal Vegetables were great, including Julien carrots and asparagus. Loaded Baked potato. Wife had the arugula salad. Very fresh and nice. Chianti was good. Bread was excellent. We had heard about this place, this was our first time, almost on a whim. I recommend this place to impress friends. Reasonable prices for quality and service. It is upscale and intimate. At least for dinner, I would not consider it appropriate for young kids that may be loud/messy, but they would treat you well anyhow, I'm sure.

Some reviews suggest that there is not room service, but the hotel website says there is from 11 to 9. Breakfast can be ordered by using a little hanger provided on the inside doorknob, then the staff collects those from the outside doorknob after you fill them out. There is also a steakhouse and breakfast is served there until 11 a.m. or sometimes noon.

Had a delightful brunch at Teresa's in Mission Valley! The ambiance is cozy and welcoming, perfect for weekend mornings. I highly recommend the eggs Benedict and the freshly brewed coffee. Service was friendly and attentive. A great spot for a relaxing meal—definitely worth a visit! Happy Mother’s Day!

There is new management here apparently. I almost did not come here due to some very poor ratings. My server was welcoming and very attentive. Breakfast was excellent and they were happy to customize my order.

Wonderful little gem in the Legacy Resort & Spa. The restaurant was a last minute decision before heading out for a night on the town. Our service was fantastic - hard to find these days. The gnocchi was fresh and sauce delicious! My friend had the Caesar salad with grilled shrimp which she loved! We will definitely be back on her next visit to SD!

My family and I stayed at the Legacy during the weekend of a family member’s wedding. We ended up eating here several times and every time the service was great- not perfect, but everyone we encountered genuinely wanted us to enjoy our meals and made every effort to accommodate us. The prices are great, the portions are on the large size, and the food was always delicious. The waitstaff even recalled our food preferences and events that we had planned.

Nice atmosphere, kind service, and good food. What more could you ask for? We started with mussels as an appetizer which were cooked in a white wine, butter, and garlic sauce. I chose the Braised Short Rib as my main course, it fell off the bone because of how tender it was. I would highly recommend that dish. It was melt in your mouth delicious. It paired well with the bottle of Chianti that our server recommended. We also received an order of tiramisu for my birthday 😁 All and all a very pleasant experience. I think this restaurant deserves much better than the 3 stars it has now. I wish I remembered the name of our server, he was very attentive and helpful. He was a tall fellow with curly hair. Good job!

I can't believe I even see one bad review! Ive been many times to The Legacy center and visited the hotel and spa, beautiful resort hotel btw! I finally had the opportunity to have a meal at the restaurant, with a party of 7, & it was fabulous! Great service! Great food! My friends all enjoyed their food and so did I! I got to see and taste a variety and it was all DELICIOUS! Definitely going back again as much as I can to try everything else, lol,and i dont feel that way about all restaurants, but this one is a winner! :)

The number of 1 star reviews posted without any comments, coupled with the reviews of rude service and management- I didn’t have that experience. They are incredibly short staffed, so yes - don’t be in a hurry to get in and get out. If you like a peaceful breakfast with well prepared Food, this is perfect. I walked down from the hotel I am staying at and enjoyed my breakfast on the patio. From ordering, to eating, to leaving was about an hour. It will probably be the most restful and enjoyable hour of the day.

After a beautiful day at Church we took our mom to Teresa’s for Mothers Day Brunch. Jerry was amazing! The atmosphere and food were on point. Thank you for the awesome service!!

Hidden gem. Every bite the best meal I have had in a really long time. Service was excellent. Drinks delicious. Steak exceptional. Caprise salad amazing. I'm so impressed. Nothing left but the memory... No leftovers.

I had the best salmon dish I ever had.

This place has only been around for a short time. The property is beautiful. I’ve only been for dinner and thought the food was very good, you won’t be disappointed. Service has improved a lot since opening. It’s my new go to spot for Italian and steaks.

Joe is the man! Everytime my husband, Val, and I come out here, we always get room service or go down to the restaurant and Joe always takes care of us. Honestly the entire staff here is just wonderful but Joe is the real star of the show. Thank you so much for always providing us incredible service, even that one time we came here with all 4 of our kids and we got room service and each kid had food and a drink (it was a lot!) You are seriously the best and deserve high praise!

We had a reservation for a sunday when they first opened and it was perfect the rush hadnt picked up and we got the best service I could imagine. They make you feel exceptionally special on your birthday and their 3 course meal deal is a steal. I had the filet and it was seared to perfection the service was phenomenal and the food deserts and drinks were amazing. Its located in the legacy hotel so when you first walk in you smell eucalyptus that may be coming from the spa. Then you walk upstairs to the small restaurant. I highly recommend cant wait to come back and try their pasta.

Iit was a good choice to celebrate my birthday. It was a pleasant and a warm experience. We found good in all we ordered except for the salad, while, it's tasty my salad was overloaded with croutons. The service was good, but, bread came late after we have eaten dinner. The place is small but quiet and intimate. Even the other customers seemed to be enjoying the good ambience as well. Servers were friendly and accommodating too. I would recommend this restaurant.

+1

Food was delicious and reasonably priced. First visit was with one of my dearest friends I have not seen in years. We enjoyed our visit. It was not too loud and we were told that there is also Happy Hour at this location. I enjoyed the food and came back later that week for a bday dinner for a loved one. They thought everything was 😋 as well. We would love to come back to visit

We were excited to discover a steakhouse located in the Mission Valley area which we had never eaten at before. It’s located inside the Legacy Christian Conference Center called Theresa’s Steakhouse. It’s located in the back area of the huge property and inside the hotel and up the stairs to the right. We dined here with another couple who had recommended the restaurant. The dining room area has quite a view of the Mission Valley area facing north towards the Town & Country Resort and RiverWalk Golf Course. The dining room was still decorated for the Christmas holidays. Our server that evening was Stone, and he took very good care of our table. Two of us opted for the Crispy Branzino seafood entree, and two of us ordered their Chicken Piccata entree. Our table split a bottle of Italian Chianti from the wine list. I also a Opted for a cup of their Zuppa Toscana (minestrone) soup. Stone also served us complimentary warm focaccia bread after my wife asked if we could be brought some. I had preconceived concerns prior to dining here as reviews from Yelp, Google, and Open Table were consistently meh to bad and many of the negative reviews were recently posted ones. Trying to focus on the positives, we liked the restaurant’s location, parking access, the dining room’s decor and ambiance, our server couldn’t have given us better service. The dining room was 10%-20% occupied the entire time we were present. No onto the food… The two who ordered the Branzino dish said they liked it despite both only eating half the entree, and taking the other half home. They both said the food was good, but it filled them both up, and were unable to finish. Me and my buddy’s wife who ordered the Chicken Piccata finished our dishes, but my chicken was difficult to cut with the knife and was a little drier than I’ve had elsewhere, there was no white wine lemon sauce which the chicken, pasta, and vegetables on the plate. The veggies didn’t taste fresh, nor did the soup I had prior to dinner. The soup tasted like it was canned and not made from scratch. I seriously wanted to like my food served that night, since I was scared to order a steak based on the prior reviews I read. But because half our table loved the seafood dish they ordered, and the other person who ordered the Chicken Piccata dish didn’t have as negative comments regarding her dish, I can’t really say my average experience was shared by the entire table. The restaurant could definitely do much better as far as the food was concerned. The prices were actually quite reasonable. I believe their filet mignon was only $28 for comparison. Don’t take just my word for it, definitely look at other reviews posted recently if you’re considering dining here. If you still opt to dine here, it’s a safe bet that the Branzino seafood dish will be a good choice. Oh, and their focaccia house bread was very tasty! Make sure you ask for it after your drink order is taken.

The food was just so-so; nothing remarkable. Had the buffet for 34.99. The braised beef was tough and the chicken was dry. The salmon was pretty good. Mashed potatoes were middle of the road but the gravy made them likeable. My tab with tax and tip was $115. Not thinking we got our money's worth. Probably one and done.

Made reservations for Valentine’s Day, after being sat me and my beautiful fiancé were ignored for almost a half hour. There were three waiters who for some reason just chose not to assist us. After having to ask to be helped they finally figured out we hadn’t been helped and the guy who had been chatting with all his tables finally comes over with no apology and a rude tone just asks if we were ready to order when we didn’t have water or anything. I appreciate the hostess offering us a free drink but 3 waiters choosing to ignore a table was so off putting, even the people at the tables around us started to notice we were being ignored. Tables coming in after us were getting water while we just sat there. Food was fine but the service makes sense as to why this was the only restaurant I could get reservations at on Valentine’s Day.

Very slow diner. Go after you had a proper full meal because you'll be waiting for a while.

Terrible, terrible customer service, have no management, and rude employees.

Very bad service

Slow and overpriced.

Bad service

On vacation here... tried Theresa's and wouldn't recommend... waited 65 mins for rubbery overcooked calamari. Ordered two alcoholic drinks and they tasted watered down. Total rip off. Go to Tender Greens instead.

We were waiting to be seated at 10:55am The waitress showed up at exactly 11am, to tell us that starting at 11am they don't serve breakfast anymore. Thanks for nothing.

All around pour service. Went in at 6:30 pm and didn't get even HALF of our food by 8:15. Manager and waitress were also very rude. All around bad experience for the price we paid. Not worth it

Service is slow and everything is overpriced. They will charge $20 for a Bloody Mary for a mix they just bought at Costco. Staff is unapologetic.

very slow. manager is so rude and everything is overpriced when you could literally get it at a store for less than half what they charge.

After a 3 Hour drive from LA we decided to celebrate Father’s Day at Theresa's Italian Restaurant ( it was our fist time at this place). We sat unattended for 20 minutes before we could get the attention of a waiter named Arturo. Far from being apologetic, he appeared to treat serving us as a huge favor. Despite the initial delay, we tried to brush it off and requested Arturo to take our order, his attitude was more of annoyance than service. When asked about beer choice we got the same response 3 times in a raw - “read the menu”- it was not only unhelpful, but outright disrespectful. When my wife asked to speak with the manager, Arturo stated that no manager was on-site and suggested we lodge our complaints at the hotel reception. Once we came to the receptionist to see if there is anyone in charge of operations present at this time, we saw Arturo running towards us and screaming “I won’t serve them and they need to get out of the restaurant with their kids right now”. Not sure why did he feel like he is authorized to decide if we were allowed to stay with our kids at the restaurant or not and to be served by someone else but that was just absolutely insane. As the situation spiraled, we requested for a different waiter to finally get some food, as our 3 year old kids were starving after a long drive, only to be told that no one wanted to serve our table ( it looked like there were only 2 servers on a floor). When we asked Arturo why he is acting this way - he demanded that we leave again, threatening to call security. We left without tasting a morsel of food, feeling extremely frustrated, deeply disappointed and mistreated for no reason. Would not recommend Theresa's Italian Restaurant or step my foot into this restaurant ever again! It’s a chaos that lucks any respect, hospitality or responsibility.

I really really can’t understand the ratings that give this place 4 or 5 stars. Honestly one of the worst places we’ve experienced in a while. Service was really not great, we were there for lunch and one of two tables that had people at them, yet it took forever to get our order taken or water refills. The food was the most mediocre food we’ve had. Fine, but should have been half the price.

I never leave reviews but the food here is just plain terrible and overpriced. We ordered room service for the spaghetti, fettuccini Alfredo and a hamburger. The meal was so bland and basic. The best thing about the meal was the water they forgot to bring…. I called the front desk to complain but was told the hotel and the restaurant are managed separately. Do not recommend at all.

The first normal question I would have for this place would be how is the food? I truly wish I could tell you. My problem with this place is the lack of service and poor management. My wife and I came in at 1pm with a 1:15 reservation. There were already 10 people in front of us and no person at the reception area to seat anyone. 4 people gave up and left before anyone showed up to start taking names to seat anyone. I overheard a dispute with someone who seated themselves, and they just ended up trying to fit them in. Once the host finally started putting names on the seating list, we were able to mention our reservation as if it could make a difference. Total waste of time, as everyone was left standing there looking at empty tables, while the host stood there in a dumb silence. My wife asked her if this was a busy time for them. The host said that they had an event, and it was busier than expected. My thought was that if there's an event, why wouldn't you make sure that you were staffed properly? I saw one overwhelmed server constantly running back and forth, every now and then with plates, (mostly hamburgers and fries). I asked the host why we couldn't sit at one of the many empty tables. She said there were no servers for those tables. I'm thinking the management must be idiots to allow us to just stand here crowding the host desk and no progress being made to seat anyone. I finally see a gentleman come up slowly and bring menus, and four people who were standing there when we showed up finally getting seated. It was 1:30pm. We finally get seated at 1:50pm (1:15 reservation, remember). I'm sitting there looking at the most basic lunch menu and looking at my wife, and wondering how this menu could be creating all of this delay as simple as it was. I told my wife that I can't do this... this service is so ridiculous, I can't trust that I will enjoy this experience after all of the inattentiveness that we just witnessed. So, we just got up and left without saying a word. I doubt if they noticed that we left. I guess the food here will remain a mystery for this foodie. I can't put myself through the lack of service when there are other options out there that are better managed.