A while back, when we went to the Tierrasanta location of Homestyle Hawaiian, we noticed what looked to be an Old School Italian pizza and pasta place—Gaetanos Restaurant. My wife and I both keep lists of restaurants we’d consider trying someday on our phones. My wife added it to hers.
Last Saturday afternoon, we went. It was very old fashioned. I kind of like that, but it was a bit creepy as well. There were just a few people sitting in the front, though this was clearly not peak time for them. We were there between 2 and 3.
The booth was cramped. My son was kicking my feet and he ended up spilling a glass of water all over the bench seat. My wife was stuck on the inside of the tight booth and couldn’t really get out of the seat as the water soaked into her pants. I suppose we shouldn’t have taken a booth. There were tables that surely would have been more comfortable.
The server asked if my son needed a sippy cup. I thought it was funny. My son did not. She was helpful and moved us to a new booth.
We ordered a pepperoni pizza, an antipasto salad, cheesy garlic bread and a baked spinach cannelloni. The server said the baked shells were her favorite, but I made a weird judgement call based on the shells having tomato sauce. I thought I really wanted the bechamel sauce they use on the spinach cannelloni.
My family didn’t go for the cannelloni. I liked it, but it was a lot of cheese. Burnt cheese as well. I feel guilty admitting I like that sort of thing. It wasn’t elevated in any modern sense.
The antipasto salad was huge and laden with lunch meats. It was basically a submarine sandwich without the bread. My wife loved it. I used to like stuff like that. I appreciated it anyhow.
Something we ordered came with soup or salad—we did the Italian vegetable soup—and a “roll & butter.” The soup wasn’t necessary and wasn’t even that good.
The roll however, wasn’t really a roll, but a loaf of roll. I mean it was basically a hot loaf of bread. It was awesome.
The pizza was very good in an old school way. It’s hard to get pizza like that these days, and especially in Southern California. You have to look hard.
I would call it medium thick, with what most people probably consider way too much cheese. We liked it.
We knew we were overordering, and we were more than right. We had a lot of leftovers and we barely touched the soup.
This Italian pizza parlor feast of yore set us back less than $69 before tip. It was comfort food bargain.
The hand-written guest check was a free bonus.
Their website is: