Nocciola

Outstanding! We started with asparagus soup, then tried the seared yellowtail with leeks and buratta. We followed with the beet salad, then two pastas, the mushroom, and pappardelle with wild boar. Finally, dessert. Everything was wonderful.

Had a great time in a double date Saturday dinner here.
The menu here is fantastic– so many great choices it makes you want to con back soon!
The drinks were done very good. We opted for the chefs choice 5 course tasting menu and we were not disappointed.
If you find yourself in Ojai and looking for a great Italian dinner you can’t go wrong. For an appetizer, main course, dessert and drink I would plan on a budget of anywhere from 50 – 75 per person.

Overall a nice experience. Sit or on the patio. Great setting. We ordered the tasting menu. Food was great. They tell you each of you get different items. We really like that kind of experience. 2 of the 5 courses, we got the same items. As we like to sample each others dish, that was a little bit of a bummer but hey the food was good.
Now my biggest complaint was the price of my martini. $ 21! I saw my vodka was priced at $ 12. I figured I would pay more than that but never thought it would be $ 21. WAY overpriced beverage. Lesson learned. In the future we will bring a bottle of Ojai local wine and save the high priced drink for another day.

Great place in Ojai. The tasting menu was very well done and drinks were great. Highly recommended!

My husband and I are staying at the Ojai Valley Inn and were told about this new place from the valet helping us to our room.
We love coming to Ojai and experiencing the many lovely eateries in town so Nocciola was a great recommendation.
The restaurant is really peaceful and bright. We were seated out on the patio but the tables inside were also very nice. It really just depends on your preference of inside or outside dining. Outside was delightful.
We really loved everything about our experience. The staff were courteous and attentive. The food was presented beautifully and was out of this world delicious.
We look forward to eating here again when we come back to Ojai.

This spot is an amazing Ojia restaurant. Sit outside to enjoy the beautiful pink at dusk. The wine list was great, we enjoyed a wonderful cab franc. I recommend getting the chefs choice tasting menu. He won’t bring the same thing for everyone at the table so it’s a great way to taste and share. He can easily prepare it vegetarian or pescitarian as well.

Even though I have already written a review for Nocciola, which I completely stand by, I am here to make a reservation for dinner and found myself reading a recent 2-​star review that got under my skin a bit. But then I realized, if you don’t prefer wonderfully fresh, local, seasonal cuisine, and a menu that changes and evolves with the seasons and creative inspirations from the chef, where food doesn’t taste like it has all been buttered and the integrity of the ingredients are showcased because they are not old or frozen, then by all means… this isn’t the place for you.
P. S. A pleasant and friendly staff who are dressed comfortably and are on their game is the only experience I have known at Nocciola. Ojai isn’t an old-​school, stuffy kind of place and I’m glad our better restaurants aren’t either.

Place was nice enough, and the service was ok — food was really bland though. Appetizers, entrees and desserts all lacking any flavor.

Let me first say, I wanted to love this place. I was raised in Ojai and still frequently visit home. The high quality dining experiences in town are good but, I have experienced them too many times. So, seeing a new place open up made me excited. Instead of writing a novel about my bummer of an experience at this place, I will break it down by bullet point:
1. Staff ALL dressed like low-​brow baristas in torn jeans, flannels, converse, with visible tattoos, mediocre personal hygiene and exposed bra straps. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues with dressing casually, but if I am paying $ 300 for I dinner I expect the staff to reflect that level of professionalism.
2. The soup special was billed as «vegan» asparagus soup with a quail egg… okay, so I guess that means, if you ask to skip the quail egg it is vegan. No! wrong, that soup came with scallops in it :(. So gross, not to mention dangerous for a lot of people.
3. Shameless covert up-​selling of appetizers that are not included with entrees «I will have the pasta» «and which appetizer would you like with that?» «is that included with the entrée?» «no»
4. Food was mediocre at best. If I made the dishes at home I’d be thinking of ways to make them better next time by adding some flavor. And yes, that goes for the $ 45 truffle raviolis. Underwhelming at best.
5. Our reservation was made requesting outdoor seating on the patio, yet they placed us in the dining room. In fact, everyone was placed in the dining room until it was full and then they let people sit outside. Nice shameless attempt to look packed guys.
6. Music way too loud, asked for it to be turn down, pretty sure it went louder…
7. If you have good company, which we certainly did, enjoy laughing at the situation if you must try this place. Otherwise you will be pissed you spent so much to wish you went to Suzanne’s.
8. Just for reference we stopped by Vons after and bought Haagen Daas bars to avoid the creepy sounding deserts on the menu…
Overall, we aren’t snobs, we enjoy any hole in the wall that has good food. But here is the bottom line, do not try to mascarade as the bell of the ball when you can’t even come close to competing with a straight face.

Very good service and truly excellent food. High quality cuisine served appropriately in a comfortable atmosphere Good ambiance. Excellent wine list for a smaller town bistro.

I don’t even know where to begin. This has to be by far the best Italian food I have ever had in my life! The food was so exquisitely delicious and fulfilling.
The service was beyond courteous and the atmosphere is just amazing. If you are a fan of Italian food and don’t mind spending a good bill on the food, this place is a must! You definitely get what you pay for– great service, delicious food and an amazing time. Don’t forget to check out their desert– the puff pastries are to die for!

The atmosphere was cozy inside the dining room. We were at a small table for two, with other two-​tops near us… very close to each other. I thought it was okay, but we were all able to hear each others conversations.
I had the beet salad as a starter that was excellent. The next course we had scallops that were large and delicious — a signature dish that I highly recommend. I had the salted cod ravioli and pureed peas — a very unique and distinctive flavor combination that I really enjoyed. It certainly wouldn’t be for everyone, since it has a strong flavor (a la anchovy type salty) but as a fish-​lover of all types, I enjoyed it very much.
Overall, my husband and I enjoyed the meal, the server was charming, and the atmosphere comfortable. We were very pleased for our first experience there. We will be back.

Order the Abufatta (kings meal) it’s the chef ‘s choice — 4 courses plus dessert. If you are with someone you really like and they really like you then you can share each other’s courses and have the opportunity to taste a lot of really good dishes. You can’t go wrong with the Abuffatta. We just pulled into town, made the reservation on Unilocal,and when we arrived, there was a line of people waiting at the door for the restaurant to open.
The film festival was in town. There were celebrities at a large table near us. The restaurant itself is in a house with the owners living upstairs. They did a really nice job enclosing the patio area, you forget you’re outside of the main house.
Our waitress was training a young man so it was entertaining as he was a bit nervous. The restaurant was sold out for the evening so we were very fortunate to sneak in as we did at the last minute.
I’m not going to list all the items we tried because most of them I took pictures of and hopefully remembered the captions.
All the locals we met this trip recommended trying it out. Located up the hill in a residential area.

Amazing meal and wonderful service! I highly recommend this restaurant. The tartara and the carrot and ginger soup were excellent starters. The salmon was fresh, flavorful and well prepared in a mild curry. We tried the venison pasta special and it was the perfect balance of meaty but not heavy. Save room for dessert — they were divine. Worth every calorie!

The restaurant itself is really nice, I think it used to be a house. It’s really cozy and classy, and the staff are all friendly and attentive. The food was good, but overpriced in my opinion. For the cost I expected more flavor. I got the pappardelle with wild boar. It was good, but not $ 23 good. More like $ 15 good. Based off of the reviews I now wish I had gotten the beef ravioli. A word of warning, DO NOT EAT THE BEET SALAD BY YOURSELF. Seriously, share with a lot of people. It tasted good, but resulted in the most rancid gas of my life. And maybe tmi, but I am a very un-​gassy person. Like my SO and I are in separate beds because of it. If you want a romantic evening, just skip it.

The best meal that we have had in Ojai. Despite the challenges of servicing a full house on their first New Year’s Eve in business, we enjoyed an outstanding, 7 course, prix fixed dinner. The lamb carpaccio was fantastic, as was the scallop. Pastas highly recommended, with effective use of truffle. The half lobster, also, was done to perfection.
The proprietor and his wife did a great job of making us feel welcome. We were sad to see Auberge go, many years ago. This is a delightful successor.

I had the best night here at Nocciola and was served one of the most unforgettable meals of my life from 2 of the best people I have ever known! Julie and Pietro are incredible and rare souls and eating at this beautiful establishment makes you feel warm and inspired. Not only does it have amazing views, it is beautifully decorated and the staff is amazing! The beet ravioli was unreal and the flourless chocolate port infused cake was possibly the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten. do yourself a favor and spend a meal at Nocciola!

Four stars for the view patio, food presentation, and setting. The food was okay. Underwhelmed by the caprese salad which was a lump of soft mozzarella with some untasty radiccio, minimal balsamic vinegar and ham. No tomatoes, no flavor for 12 dollars. Hmm. Beet salad was pretty. I was anxious to try the beet ravioli that came highly recommended. Again, pretty, 8 small ravioli with hardly any brown butter or flavor. The special truffle pasta was good, but not $ 30+ dollars good. My husband’s duck was just that, sliced duck. His favorite part was the spinach. The moment of pink cocktail was good as we watched the pink moment on Topa Topa bluffs, but at $ 230 for 3 people including a $ 60 bottle of good chardonnay, we will definitely think twice before eating here again.

An amazing meal at a wonderful restaurant. Absolutely loved everything about our visit. Terrific ambiance, sat outside on the patio — beautiful and comfortable. The food was incredible: Italian inspired using unique fresh ingredients. The most delicious scallops I ever had and the beet ravioli was superb.
A wonderful evening in a truly special place run by a very inventive couple. The chef is top notch and the wait staff, run by a gifted and lovely manager, were friendly, knowledgable and showed their love for the food.

That casonchelli (beet ravioli) was the BEST. ORDER THAT. Make sure to request Thane as your waiter, EXCELLENT service.
Good authentic italiano food. Pleasantly surprised, good vibes