Found an Authentic Italian Restaurant I love in Newport Beach, California, USAWow, this place was so delicious. Actually, I've been driving by this little restaurant for years, and found them online and thought we'd give it a try, so glad we did. It is a small quaint restaurant located at the address shown below. They have 3 locatioins, but we went to the one in Newport Beach. From what I understand they can get pretty busy, so for the ease of trying it, I suggest you go early for dinner.
They make their own pasta and you can tell, it's done perfectly. The place has comfortable seating, and friendly staff and front of house.
The day we went was Sunday at about 5pm. My husband and I hadn't eaten all day, so we thought we'd experiment and try a few different things. We orderred 3 appetizers and 2 entrees.
The appetizers we tried were:
18month aged prochuitto served with arugula and olives with warm bread;
caprese salad with fresh mozorrella;
butternut squash ravioli,
and our entrees were
Tortelli Carni- a toretelli stuffed with braised beef in a cream sauce;
and my husband tried the
Penne Funghi E Salsicce-pasta with sausage, porchini mushrooms, arugula cream sauce.
You start your meal with a nice herbed olive oil along with warm bread when you arrive. The herb mix is delicious and we had seconds.
Appetizers
18month aged prochuitto served with arugula and olives with warm bread-Their 18mo old aged prochuitto is the best prochuitto I've ever eaten, tasty and surprised me that it went so well with the arugula.
Caprese salad with fresh mozorrella-Mozarella is made fresh, you can taste the difference, perhaps could use a little more salt, but yummy Served with nice roma tomatoes, and basil. Nice refreshing fresh salad.
Butternut squash ravioli- this was served with fried sage leaves in browed butter. DO Not pass on these, oh my. I had put mine aside viewing it as a garnish, and was convinced to give it a try, and so so glad I did, they almost taste like an herbed bacon. Fried sage leaves, hmm, who knew? The pasta was made fresh and delicious but it was a little sweet for my taste. When I make butternut squash ravioli I tend to go more savory. However, it was still good, and when I added some of the herb mixture from the table it was really good.
Last night, I tried these at home with sage leaves from my herb garden, and had the same success my first try, I'm so happy. And now I have some sage browned butter for a dish tonight to play with.
I served them on top of a vegetable salad of iceberg lettuce, avocado, roma tomatoes, and zucchini, and served with artichoke and parmesan in phyllo, and teriyaki chicken leg.
entrees were
Tortelli Carni- a toretelli stuffed with braised beef in a cream sauce-probably that I orderred too much food, and the portions are nice, but I was getting full by the time my main course arrived. It is a rich dish, but good braised beef flavor in a delicious sauce with homemade pasta tortellinis.
and my husband tried the
Penne Funghi E Salsicce-pasta with sausage, porchini mushrooms, arugula cream sauce. He loved his entree as well, he has eaten a lot of differnt types of sausages, bratwursts, etc, and really liked their sausages, saying it tasted homemade as well. The porchini mushrooms added to both of our entrees flavor making it a meal to remember and a restaurant I am anxious to try a second time.
If you live in Orange County, California, I urge you to not miss this gem as I did for so long-it's worth the trip. Oh, and the best part, ok 2nd to the food, is their prices are good and reasonable. So enjoy.
As a note to the restaurant-As a foodie, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of having tried some delicious new foods, got my mind thinking creatively for my home cooking, and I have a new restaurant, thanks for a delicious meal.
Christy
The below information between the lines was taken from their site. I hope they don't mind as this will easily be a glowing review.
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Cucina ALESSÁ - Newport Beach
6700 W. Coast Hwy
Newport Beach, CA 92663
Tel: (949) 645-2148
Open hours:
Sun-Thursday 11:00AM - 10PM
Fri-Sat 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Breakfast will be served on
weekends at 8:00 AM
Other questions please call
Alessandro Pirozzi
Tel: 949-680-8010
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