• 2025-08-25
• oakland restaurants
• oakland dining
• college ave dinner
• rockridge dinner
• review
• pasta
• belotti
• italian restaurant
• cocktails
• authentic italian
• oakland
• restaurants
• Belotti
• 25 August 2025

The 411 on Belotti Ristorante #

Address: 5403 College Avenue
Rockridge, Oakland, CA
Website: https://belottirb.com/
Phone: 510-788-7890

The Vibe: Belotti is a treasured purveyor of pasta in Oakland. In addition to the restaurant I’m reviewing, they have a pasta shop in the Piedmont neighborhood, which offers to-go dishes and pasta and sauces sold separately. But I prefer having other people make my dinner. 😉 So I was delighted when a friend asked if we could head to Belotti for our next meetup with our spouses. Pasta is one of my favorite things in this existence, after all. As Belotti is known for sophisticated dishes that please the palate and the eyes, it’s an automatic yes.

The restaurant feels crammed into a tiny spot in Rockridge’s always busy lower College Ave, but the pandemic gave the owners a great excuse to add outside dining just around the corner. I recommend requesting an outside table to feel less cramped and to better enjoy conversation with your dining companions.

Reservations are essential—Belotti books up regularly. Oaklanders love it!

My Take on Belotti Ristorante #

The Food: Belotti offers a nicely sized list of European beers and wines in addition to house cocktails. I opted for the Belotti take on a negroni, using Campari Bitter, Carpano Antica Formula, and Suntori Roku gin.

Admittedly, it just tasted like a negroni, which is to say, good. A friend had this beautiful cocktail, which I believe is a Campari spritz, but I’m honestly not sure.

Everyone seemed pleased with their beverage choices. And with the complimentary bread service with a delicious olive oil.

Our group of four opted to share a couple salads to start the meal. The Anguria watermelon salad with lime dressing, toasted almonds, mint, and feta was the one miss of the night for us.

It missed because the watermelon was not flavorful. I appreciated the almond crunch, though.

The insalata burrata was delicious because when is creamy, perfectly salted burrata not delicious?

It was served with a spring greens mix, celery, nectarines, crostini, and surprisingly, crushed amaretti cookies. Those added a perfect savory–sweet crunch to the dish. I would have liked more of the aged balsamic on the salad, rather than on the plate, however.

Pasta all-around for the main course! Let’s start with the most colorful, the pasta alla ligure. This was a lovely, bright dish that I should have tried more of, featuring stuffed basil pasta with green beans, potatoes, pine nuts, and plenty of cheeses.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed my husband’s pazza idea, Belotti’s answer to all the diners hoping for pizza options on the menu (there are none).

The tomatoes tasted addictively fresh, likely because the sauce is uncooked. More tomatoes are then mixed in with the sauce and the tomato-flavored pasta. Tomato heaven! Of course, that buffalo mozzarella was also delicious. This dish indeed tasted like an amazing pizza with the choicest toppings you’ve ever had.

I went for the bigolia al sugo d’anatra, in large part because I really enjoy long noodles. Bigolia are a thick spaghetti-type, with lots of texture from their al dente cook.

The sauce was a duck sugo topped off with Grana Padano cheese and orange zest. A very rich, flavorful, and filling dish.

Perhaps the tastiest dish was the casoncelli bergamashi, described on the menu as “my Mom’s Bergamo-style stuffed pasta with beef, prosciutto, pork shoulder, Grana Padano cheese, smoked pancetta, butter, and sage.”

This dish sang of the autumn to come and provided the perfect filling-to-pasta ratio for me.

Belotti offers a trio of meat- and seafood-based secondi courses, but we figured the pasta would be filling enough on its own, and it was. Someday I’ll try one of their secondi … but who am I kidding? I’m always going to prioritize pasta. I just need a bigger stomach. Though my current stomach always has room for dessert …

Our table opted to share two desserts, which was just the right amount. The tiramisu was unique, going more for a custard texture than a whipped one for the mascarpone layers. The lady fingers are made in-house, and there was plenty of espresso flavor as well. I do prefer an alcohol bite for tiramisu, and that is not customary for this style, so I missed it.

The fragolotti, strawberry pasta filled with chocolate, was a fun try!

The warm chocolate in the pasta tasted cozy and contrasted well with the slightly sour strawberries. I enjoyed it far more than I expected to.

My meal ended with a caffe coretto, a short espresso with equal parts grappa.

It’s stiff, but I felt like a true Italian for a moment, proud of my tolerance. However, I would have enjoyed one of Belotti Ristorante’s many amari more.

Would I Go Back? This is only my second time at Belotti Ristorante, which is shocking with how much I love pasta. Going back is a must, and hopefully without a few years passing in between visits next time. It’s possible to make a full meal out of just the pasta, and those plates are mostly around $20, so it can be affordable, too. But multiple courses at an Italian restaurant? It’s best to splurge and enjoy. 😉

Visited 12 July 2025.