We had a reservation for 645 and were not seated until almost 730. We then had to wait almost 30 minutes for our server. Our food took an unreasonably long amount of time to be delivered to our table and that was only after we asked our server to check on the status of our order. The dishes had clearly been sitting under a warmer for quite some time and some were only lukewarm. Our server spilled iced tea on one of our party and was consistently rude, as was the hostess. When we asked to speak with a manager, they claimed there was no manager on site at the time. The food was average and definitely not worth the horrible service.  This is the first time I have ever given a bad review for a restaurant, but the service was so exceptionally poor that I believe I should share this experience. 
Food was good, not great. Pasta was basic, did not taste fresh or homemade. We were seated by the band and it was extremely loud but did enjoy the music. We were a party of 4 and had to yell to have conversation. Will always return as we enjoy this restaurant but the food quality has deteriorated in my opinion.
Minchire
We visited Temecula as a weekend getaway from the desert and wanted a change of pace from the usual sea bass, filet, pork chop, salmon fare. Gourmet Italia was the perfect choice! We're from Chicago where Italian fare is abundant. The bolognese, sausage, fettucine, and lasagna were all delicious. Beautiful antipasto and desserts as well. Great wine list. Our waitress, Karolina, was excellent--and super attentive. We'll be back next year!
Paul King
Totally excellent. Includes drinks and
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Michael Stevenson
Wife and I have been looking for a truly authentic Italian restaurant with delicious food and home atmosphere. The wine was delicious, enjoyed a bottle of Chardonnay. Try the calamari appetizer, it is phenomenal and the best around. My wife had the filet mignon tips with mushroom and spiral pasta, and I had their clam, mussel, calamari linguine special. Can't remember the name right now. We then shared a spumoni dessert which was covered in chocolate. Everything was perfect and they were busy! The owner and server always checked on us, and the owner sung as he topped off our wine. Live band perfected the atmosphere. The whole experience was phenomenal and we will be making this our home! Thank you!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Lynn2
Excellent food, great service and a warm atmosphere, what more could you ask for when celebrating a birthday. Very special place for a special occasion or any other day of the week.
Not only the best Italian restaurant but the best restaurant in the area. Our server Hailey was top notch. So professional. Just a pleasure. The food was amazing. Was told the best chicken Parmesan one of our guests ever had. Former Italia never disappoints.
DavidG
The service was top notch. Our server, Hailey, was fantastic. Very attentive but also gave us our space when needed. She was the highlight of the experience. The food was very good. We enjoyed everything we ordered. The Baratta was great. Our main entrees could have used a bit more seasoning but overall very good
SusanH
This is a great restaurant! Server was Ashley. She was attentive, friendly and competent. Food was amazing! Ambiance is warm and beautiful. We had the filet mignon special and gnocchi with pesto sauce.
Judy Mazzorana
I love this restaurant! I think it is the best in Temecula. Always when we would like to have an Italian food, we go there!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Lasagna Bolonese, Gnocchi Pesto, Caesar Salad, Fettuccine Bolognese
Gourmet Italia is our favorite Italian restaurant in California. We have been coming to this restaurant for almost 5 years. We have been living in Menifee for about two years, and even before we lived in Menifee, we would come out to the area just to eat at Gourmet Italia. Over the years, the quality has never faded, and we are happy to call it our favorite Italian restaurant in California. We often bring our friends and family, and no one has ever been disappointed. In fact, we have many friends who now drive all the way from Orange County and Los Angeles County just to have dinner at Gourmet Italia. Our wedding anniversary often falls on the same night that they do the wine club Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant, and we are more than happy to celebrate our wedding anniversary at the restaurant with the owner, who curates a beautiful Thanksgiving menu for the wine club members.
The hosts and waitresses were very hospitable. The food was delicious as well as the drinks. To top it off, there was live piano playing beautiful music. I would definitely be returning here.
SusanH
We were there for lunch. We stayed three hours without being rushed in anyway. It's true that it was a quiet time; nevertheless, our server was amazing. Her name is Jennifer. Food was perfect. This is an amazing place to have a great meal!
DutyToReview
We had a reservation and arrived fifteen minutes early. When we arrived we were told that they were running 20 minutes late. We were not seated for 1.5 hours. It was a birthday dinner so we didn't just leave. No one updated us on status of wait time throughout the whole thing and the hostess and owner were not particularly welcoming. We were not pushy or rude at all and just accepted it. Would have thought they would have comp'd something but they did not. In fact there was a mix up on desserts ordered and they ended up charging us for both. The wait staff and band (live music) were great so tipped 20% but pretty weak experience other than that. Impression is the owner values profit over customer experience.
We are new to the Temecula area and learning where the best dinner experiences are. We made reservations almost 2 weeks in advance to celebrate my wife's birthday. Our reservation was set and we arrived about 5 minutes early. When we entered the restaurant it was loud and standing room only. The hostess area was packed with people and the line extended into the dining area . They had one hostess and she was absolutely fabulous despite the fact she had no support. Occasionally the owner or manager would lend a hand, but for the most part he was arrogant, dismissive, and flat out rude. Even though the reservations were set, it was first come first serve based upon your check in time. Three people were seated before us and we discovered their reservation times were up to 30 minutes after our reservations. But because they checked in earlier they were seated first. Didn't make sense. The restaurant later turned into madness because patrons with reservations were waiting for up to 45 minutes after their actual reservation time. I'm sure if the Fire Marshall showed up they would have sited this restaurant for over capacity. The owner/manager was actually putting up tables in walk ways/hallways instead of turning people away. Everyone questioned the owner/manager, but he was very dismissive and actually told one person he could “leave if he didn't want to wait”. His party had already waited 45 minutes beyond their reservation time. Food was great. Server was great. Hostess was wonderful. The restaurant was overcrowded and extremely loud. One can make reservations, but understand they'll still be a wait to be seated. I think the Fire Marshall should do a surprise inspection. We were very disappointed with the owner/manager. We will never return nor will we ever recommend this restaurant. Not for another reason but the management.
We had a reservation for 645 and were not seated until almost 730. We then had to wait almost 30 minutes for our server. Our food took an unreasonably long amount of time to be delivered to our table and that was only after we asked our server to check on the status of our order. The dishes had clearly been sitting under a warmer for quite some time and some were only lukewarm. Our server spilled iced tea on one of our party and was consistently rude, as was the hostess. When we asked to speak with a manager, they claimed there was no manager on site at the time. The food was average and definitely not worth the horrible service.  This is the first time I have ever given a bad review for a restaurant, but the service was so exceptionally poor that I believe I should share this experience. 
Food was good, not great. Pasta was basic, did not taste fresh or homemade. We were seated by the band and it was extremely loud but did enjoy the music. We were a party of 4 and had to yell to have conversation. Will always return as we enjoy this restaurant but the food quality has deteriorated in my opinion.
We visited Temecula as a weekend getaway from the desert and wanted a change of pace from the usual sea bass, filet, pork chop, salmon fare. Gourmet Italia was the perfect choice! We're from Chicago where Italian fare is abundant. The bolognese, sausage, fettucine, and lasagna were all delicious. Beautiful antipasto and desserts as well. Great wine list. Our waitress, Karolina, was excellent--and super attentive. We'll be back next year!
Totally excellent. Includes drinks and
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Wife and I have been looking for a truly authentic Italian restaurant with delicious food and home atmosphere. The wine was delicious, enjoyed a bottle of Chardonnay. Try the calamari appetizer, it is phenomenal and the best around. My wife had the filet mignon tips with mushroom and spiral pasta, and I had their clam, mussel, calamari linguine special. Can't remember the name right now. We then shared a spumoni dessert which was covered in chocolate. Everything was perfect and they were busy! The owner and server always checked on us, and the owner sung as he topped off our wine. Live band perfected the atmosphere. The whole experience was phenomenal and we will be making this our home! Thank you!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Excellent food, great service and a warm atmosphere, what more could you ask for when celebrating a birthday. Very special place for a special occasion or any other day of the week.
Not only the best Italian restaurant but the best restaurant in the area. Our server Hailey was top notch. So professional. Just a pleasure. The food was amazing. Was told the best chicken Parmesan one of our guests ever had. Former Italia never disappoints.
The service was top notch. Our server, Hailey, was fantastic. Very attentive but also gave us our space when needed. She was the highlight of the experience. The food was very good. We enjoyed everything we ordered. The Baratta was great. Our main entrees could have used a bit more seasoning but overall very good
This is a great restaurant! Server was Ashley. She was attentive, friendly and competent. Food was amazing! Ambiance is warm and beautiful. We had the filet mignon special and gnocchi with pesto sauce.
I love this restaurant! I think it is the best in Temecula. Always when we would like to have an Italian food, we go there!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Lasagna Bolonese, Gnocchi Pesto, Caesar Salad, Fettuccine Bolognese
Restaurantji Recommends
Gourmet Italia is our favorite Italian restaurant in California. We have been coming to this restaurant for almost 5 years. We have been living in Menifee for about two years, and even before we lived in Menifee, we would come out to the area just to eat at Gourmet Italia. Over the years, the quality has never faded, and we are happy to call it our favorite Italian restaurant in California. We often bring our friends and family, and no one has ever been disappointed. In fact, we have many friends who now drive all the way from Orange County and Los Angeles County just to have dinner at Gourmet Italia. Our wedding anniversary often falls on the same night that they do the wine club Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant, and we are more than happy to celebrate our wedding anniversary at the restaurant with the owner, who curates a beautiful Thanksgiving menu for the wine club members.
The hosts and waitresses were very hospitable. The food was delicious as well as the drinks. To top it off, there was live piano playing beautiful music. I would definitely be returning here.
We were there for lunch. We stayed three hours without being rushed in anyway. It's true that it was a quiet time; nevertheless, our server was amazing. Her name is Jennifer. Food was perfect. This is an amazing place to have a great meal!
We had a reservation and arrived fifteen minutes early. When we arrived we were told that they were running 20 minutes late. We were not seated for 1.5 hours. It was a birthday dinner so we didn't just leave. No one updated us on status of wait time throughout the whole thing and the hostess and owner were not particularly welcoming. We were not pushy or rude at all and just accepted it. Would have thought they would have comp'd something but they did not. In fact there was a mix up on desserts ordered and they ended up charging us for both. The wait staff and band (live music) were great so tipped 20% but pretty weak experience other than that. Impression is the owner values profit over customer experience.
We are new to the Temecula area and learning where the best dinner experiences are. We made reservations almost 2 weeks in advance to celebrate my wife's birthday. Our reservation was set and we arrived about 5 minutes early. When we entered the restaurant it was loud and standing room only. The hostess area was packed with people and the line extended into the dining area . They had one hostess and she was absolutely fabulous despite the fact she had no support. Occasionally the owner or manager would lend a hand, but for the most part he was arrogant, dismissive, and flat out rude. Even though the reservations were set, it was first come first serve based upon your check in time. Three people were seated before us and we discovered their reservation times were up to 30 minutes after our reservations. But because they checked in earlier they were seated first. Didn't make sense. The restaurant later turned into madness because patrons with reservations were waiting for up to 45 minutes after their actual reservation time. I'm sure if the Fire Marshall showed up they would have sited this restaurant for over capacity. The owner/manager was actually putting up tables in walk ways/hallways instead of turning people away. Everyone questioned the owner/manager, but he was very dismissive and actually told one person he could “leave if he didn't want to wait”. His party had already waited 45 minutes beyond their reservation time. Food was great. Server was great. Hostess was wonderful. The restaurant was overcrowded and extremely loud. One can make reservations, but understand they'll still be a wait to be seated. I think the Fire Marshall should do a surprise inspection. We were very disappointed with the owner/manager. We will never return nor will we ever recommend this restaurant. Not for another reason but the management.