Tigelleria Organic Italian Restaurant in Campbell, San Jose

When I move to a new area, it takes me awhile to find favorite places and spaces around. So when my family visited me in my new Bay Area home last week, I had a mix of new places for us to try that I’d only heard of, with a couple of new things I’d already experienced and loved thrown in there. One of the restaurants I had lined up for us to dine at one night was Tigelleria Organic Restaurant, a small Italian eatery in the Campbell area. I first ate there with my friend Tiffany a few months ago. We both enjoyed our dinner experience there, so I went back with my family last Friday night.

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The restaurant has 15 tables, so reservations are necessary (especially with a group of 6 as we had). I think I tend to gravitate towards smaller, more intimate places like this – especially when it comes to Italian restaurants. It might be a combination of growing up in a (half) Italian family, being from New Jersey – a haven of authentic Italian food, studying abroad in Sicily, and because Italian food is this foodie’s favorite, but I have pretty high expectations for Italian restaurants….and I like this place.

The restaurant is named after the Italian word “tigella,” meaning a small flat bread baked between heated tiles, which is traditional in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. They serve you some warm tigelle when you sit down.

The wine list is mostly Italian, with a few Californian options thrown into the mix. Since we had been tasting local wines all day, I tried a chardonnay from Thomas Fogarty Winery in Santa Cruz, CA.

Here are a few of the dishes that my family or I tried:

Fried croquettes of arugula, fresh ricotta, parmigiano reggiano, and pine nuts in a marinara sauce – 

Rice ball filled with mozzarella, peas, parmigiano reggiano, and roasted pancetta and coated with breadcrumbs – 

Fettuccine al pesto with potatoes and green beans – 

Homemade pasta with zucchini, tomatoes, white wine and bread crumbles – 

Tigelleria has a pretty impressive dessert list, from gelato and macedonia to dark chocolate cake and chocolate mousse. However, this is when I became a bad blogger who lost track of what people were eating. I snapped a pic of my dad’s pretty little jarred dessert…

…and I enjoyed a dark chocolate martini.

Noteworthy: The first time I dined at Tigelleria, I tried their black kale salad with mango, pine nuts, and goat & walnut cheese, which was really yummy. The restaurant has all-natural and organic meat, and the fish they offer is sustainably caught – which is something I obviously support being a vegetarian.

All in all I’ve really liked what I’ve seen from Tigelleria, and definitely have added it to my list of places to frequent in the Bay Area.