Pirozzi Corona Del Mar

The food is DELICIOUS, The only reason I am giving it an average review is because of the crammed space! Every row has one two many tables… If they would just take out one table per row, it would be better. I just don’t like to have ass in my face every time someone had to walk past me. In addition, I was so closed to the people at the tables next to us, that it was uncomfortable to feel that you were part of their conversations. TOO CROWDED! I will return because of the food, but only if I can get a window seat or one of the tall tables. Otherwise, I am claustrophobic and will not sit in the center of the room again with people’s asses in my face as they walked by.

Our family came here last week to celebrate one daughter’s birthday based on her previous dining experience. She had warned us that the restaurant is crowded and very noisy (particularly on a Saturday night) but we were prepared for this.
What we were NOT prepared for were the issues with a food substitution that caused a severe allergic reaction in my other daughter as well as management’s lack of concern and response to my subsequent email.
We had ordered the octopus/​sashimi grade ahi (as described on the menu) appetizer for our table to share. After a few bites, my daughter told me she wasn’t feeling well and that her throat was quickly closing up. Her boyfriend ran out of the restaurant to get her some benadryl while we inspected the appetizer more closely. We called the server over and told her what was happening and inquired as to whether the fish was indeed ahi. She spoke to the manager/​owner (not sure who he was) and she came back and informed us that they were out of ahi and had substituted smoked trout instead. My daughter informed them that she was highly allergic to trout and that they should have told us they were out of ahi. The server said that she was so sorry and that the chef said he would prepare a special ahi dish for us. What? I thought she told us they were out of ahi. Then a minute later she reappeared and told us that they were indeed out of ahi and inquired if my daughter was allergic to shrimp (which she isn’t) and that they would make us a special shrimp appetizer.
Luckily the benadryl kicked in and we were able to finish our meal. What bothered us the most was that management never stopped by to see if my daughter was feeling better or apologize for the food substitution. So many people have food allergies and diners expect that what is stated on the menu is what they will be served. Or if you are out of something, please advise your diners of this so they can make a decision if they still want that dish. We were fortunate that there was a drugstore just down the block… otherwise we might have had to make a trip to the ER. To add insult to injury, while we weren’t charged for the shrimp appetizer, we were still charged for the «trout» appetizer. All in all, the birthday celebration we had looked forward to was definitely not worth celebrating.
After telling several people about my experience, they all advised me to post a review on Unilocal.I decided to first send an email through the restaurant’s website advising them of my concerns about food substitutions and waited for some sort of reponse. It has been a week since sending my email and no one has bothered to contact me.
It is for this reason that I felt I needed to post this review. In all fairness, our server Jade was wonderful and concerned for our daughter’s reaction. Our issue is with management, their seeming lack of concern and the issue of substituting food.

I’ve been hearing about Chef Alessandro Pirozzi is one of the best Chefs in Orange County… I decided to give him try, he didn’t disappoint me at all. I have no words to explain the flavor of the food. Is just delicious and amazing service … If you guys are around Corona del Mar don’t hesitate to try. Ask ! For Alessio! Just great service. Chef Alessandro is sometimes around which is great.5 stars for this restaurant.
Just Delicious!!!

We have been eating at Alessandro’s restaurants since 2008. He has a variety of amazing food. My hubby loves his Osso Boco, calamari, flatbread pizza wine and deserts. I love the pasta and our kids love his spaghetti. We also return time and time again for the service and his friendship. All of his restaurants go above and beyond food wise and service wise too — 5 Stars

I came here for a birthday party and I was pleasantly surprised by the food.
The restaurant itself gets quite crowded and there are a lot of people crammed into this tiny quaint Italian establishment. There is very little parking and you may have to find parking on the street on PCH and walk a few blocks to get here. They do have a valet but its a bit pricey.
I ordered:
Butternut Squash ravioli — It almost tasted like carrot cake. Its buttery, drizzled with delicate herbs and some tangy olive oil. The filling is piping hot, and the raviolis just melt into your mouth. A Unique appetizer worth buying.
Lamb Ragu Pasta — It is a rich pasta sauce made with melt in your mouth lamb chunks. It comes in a long thick pasta, similar to fettuccini (I could be wrong!) and the sauce has robust flavors. You can taste the spices and the tomato flavor is almost smoky and roasted in the sauce. It is a very tasty dish.
For Dessert they had tiramisu and chocolate ice cream. The dessert here was pretty good.
Overall this is a modern and contemporary little Italian restaurant and I will come back again maybe to try their lunch specials.
The staff is friendly and the bathrooms are clean. My only gripe is that its really jam packed inside and it can get REALLY Loud. I felt like the party in the tables next to us were all listening to our conversations (Because heaven knows we could hear everything they were saying! Yikes! and no, I wasn’t being nosey…)
For now I will say they are A OK…
A Cool modern hip Italian place in Newport Beach!

Amazing food — love everything… butternut squash ravioli… chicken parm… fettucini alfo — all great!

The food here is amazing. You must try the Butternut Squash raviolis! They are simply divine. They also have delicious plates of cured meats and gourmet cheeses for a fair price.
The service is always excellent as well! I would definitely recommend this place.

I have eaten here or gotten take out at least 5 – 6 times since it opened. The reason is that it is close to my house. The fact is that the food here is just not very good. I’ve always found the staff to be very nice and pleasant (although there are sometimes glitches with ordering over the phone). I also find this place to be overpriced. Typical of CDM.

Half star for sure!
Piece of crap place.
Almost two hours to get a F-​ing plate with less than two ounces of food for almost 30 dollars.
A rip off if you ask me.
I appreciate the company taking us there but that restaurant is worthless. I don’t care how high class they want to pretend to be.
It is ridiculous to have to learn a whole foreign language just to order arugula with lemon juice.
I’m not Italian, nor do I want to be. I just want to eat good food, which is non existent in this place.

I was so excited to finally have dinner here given that I’ve always been a fan of the other concept. Even just a glimpse of the selection of meat and cheese selection, I knew the restaurant would carry the finest ingredients that I would indulge on…
With that said…
For the price point, it is horrendous with the portion and execution
The way everything was sliced to shreds is not the way to taste the finest iberico or prosciutto
And the entrees were inconsistent and did not wow us
We spent about $ 200 per person
Mozza or Andrea would have been a better option if we wanted to splurge on some good Italian food for the night
Maybe they had an off night
Service was good so 2 stars… for now
I hate not giving 5 stars
I will be back after the holidays

I must say this restaurant was wonderful. The service was great and every dish was delicious. We tried everything — kale salad, prawns, bruschetta, butternut ravioli, olives, fettuccini — all was very good!
It was a nice find, and I look forward to coming back.
One note: make a reservation! While other establishments may be pretty quiet in the beachside town — this secret is out with the locals.

This place was great… My friend and I started with a meat and cheese platter. We let our server choose which one’s would be the best. Each one was delicious, but the black truffle salami was my favorite. Such a wonderful place to have a glass of wine, amazing Italian food, and catch up with friends/​family.

When it’s good it’s great but they had an off night last night.
We started with a carrot salad which was excellent, perfectly dressed, flavorful and crisp. Add a super Tuscan and we were feeling like a great dinner is next.
Sadly it was average last night. My pizza was cold when it arrived and while the flavors were obviously really good so that was unfortunate. My husbands pasta looked not so great it had a lot of congealed oil/​runny sauce pooling all over the plate. Not sure what happened.
Sadly we were starving and it was just good enough (when you are hangry) so we didn’t bother to complain. Our server was also so nice and attentive while still being quite busy. I kind of wimped out on sharing the less than positive feedback for these reasons. Too bad because as mentioned when it’s good here it is really good. I know I will give this neighborhood gem another try and hope for better.

Pirozzi in Italian loosely means the power of expression. Okay, I’m gonna pirozzi myself about you.
The Vibe: This is an indoor/​outdoor space and the lighting is as dim as your prospects at the Bar. It does not look out at the Bay at Positano but rather directly onto PCH. (Surgical masks optional.) Who’re you gonna see there? The Botoxed, detoxed, the prefabbed, the rehabbed, no brainers with personal trainers. (Yes, that was harsh, but what else rhymes with personal trainers?)
The service is as uneven as the Tuscan countryside.
Want a Cocktail? Don’t bother. It was amateur hour. Whiskey sour with a mix? Never mind, pass me the wine list which had some nice options.
The Bread service (made in house) Focaccia was as soft as your favorite furry mule and came with a mixture of pesto, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I’d say it was great with a nice libation from the bar but you’d have to go up the street to Mozza to get one.
Settling in for some prime people watching, appetizers were ordered along with the entrees to follow. I ordered a pizza as my main course which showed up before the nibbles. Oh well, I’m all about sharing so I pronounced my main course an appetizer. I asked for chili flakes and Parmesan cheese. A server came by shortly and spooned the pre-​grated cheese onto my pizza until I said something like, Hey, Basta (enough). Does the server pour the syrup over your pancakes? Who decides what toys go in the bath tub with you? These are all very personal things. No? A sign boasts a Certificate of Appellation from the Napoli Pizza Society… hmm. The thing was soggy and gooey with sparse toppings. No meeping at my table. I simply rolled it up into an ersatz Stromboli and soldiered on.
The main course having been dispatched the appetizers arrived. Fried Castelnuevo olives stuffed with Fontina cheese, I think. They were merely rolled in bread crumbs some of which held on all the way to the table. No aioli or funny mustard. Just lonely little olives longing for a Martini. Me too.
The Carpaccio of Octopus and Ahi Tuna held great expectations. Alas, they remained expectations after the plate was picked at. It was pretty, no doubt. Disks of razor thin octo and ahi arranged as a pinwheel swimming (well, no longer swimming actually) doing the dead man’s float in a wading pool of olive oil with some arugula and tear drop tomatoes scattered around.
The Caeser Salad was forgettable. A dream of anchovy laced garlicly creamy dressing were dashed on the culinary rocks by the thin watery dressing. The crunchy house made croutons were also MIA and only one Frico (Fried Parmesan) was leaning against the salad saucer. Caesar Cardini would have shared this small plate with the floor.
And then there was the Spaghetti and Meatballs. Now, finally the kitchen followed the Pinterest recipe and got finally hit their stride. The tangle of al dente noodles were anointed with just the right amount of tangy sauce. The meatballs (think meaty Matzah Balls) were absolutely perfect. Yup, they were. They were as light and fluffy as the stray kitties at the bar. Now, who doesn’t like a really a nice light and fluffy… ball?
So, there it is. I pirozzied myself good and proper. Your choice, if Mozza won’t have you, is to go here and just order the Spaghetti and Meatballs, a chilled glass of Vermentina and the check please, or simply hit the freezer case at Gelson’s. It’s a toss up.

We chose this restaurant knowing nothing about it. At 8p on a Sunday night, we were having trouble finding a reasonably priced, quiet place. We drove by, it looked cute, it had a good crowd, so we stopped.
The food was good! I had a Cesar salad which was chopped. The dressing was on the thick side, but not too heavy. My date had the carrot salad which was good but overdressed. Date had the meatball «appetizer» for his entrée — three gigantic meatballs which tasted great. I had the orchiette pasta with sausage and spinach, which was recommended by our waiter. It was perfectly cooked, tasted great, and the portion was large. The prices were average for upscale Italian with entrees in the $ 20-​$ 27 range. We sat outside and only took a quick peek inside. It’s a cozy space and there is a small bar. Very warm atmosphere and not too loud.
The only low point was the service. It wasn’t bad, but only because our young Italian waiter was committed. When we walked up to the host stand, the young lady on duty was on the phone with another employee discussing schedules and it was clear she had no interest in ending the conversation to greet us. The waiter hustled up behind her and sat us and the people behind us. We saw the same thing happen several more times while we dined. Our waiter seemed to be taking care of all the tables outside while also watching the host stand. He managed to give us the time we needed to talk about the menu, but we had to remind him about the second glass of wine and I don’t think he ever checked in on us once the food arrived. There were quite a few employees inside the restaurant, so I’m not sure why this poor guy had to do two jobs.
Overall, a nice experience. We are not from the area, so we probably won’t be back, but if you are in town, it’s convenient, has a lovely atmosphere, and the food is good.

Food was good. Meatballs appetizer was amazing. Entrees were good, not great. Pasta was cooked inconsistently, one dish cooked perfectly, one was too firm. Service however was excellent! They have way too many tables packed into this space. Servers can’t maneuver through the space between the tables, making it actually uncomfortable.
As a result the noise level is deafening.
The food is worth a return visit but since the space is small and crowded not sure it will be on my regular rotation.

If you are in Rome… Vatican is a must! If you are in Newport Beach or Corona Del Mar you should have dinner in Pirozzi !
Marcello Mastroianni picture on the door of men’s restroom and Sofia Loren on the ladies room is a cute touch :)
They are the «King» and the «Queen» of Italy and would be proud of the their fellow countryman Alessandro the chef and the owner !!
Authentic Italian food, delicious, creative and beautifully presented. Great service. If the locals love it, you know it’s good.
Highly recommend Zucca-​butternut squash ravioli (no one does it better), organic kale pizza (thin crust, perfect), black linguine with seafood (we had asked for white wine sauce just not a big fan of pomodoro sauce), panna cotta is very delicate and melts in your mouth !
Bellissimo !!!
We Will be back :))

Ok, first and foremost, I am a pizza snob. So sitting at a high top in the middle of a crowded restaurant in Southern California my expectations were not too high.
I could spend a great deal of time talking about the soup, it was a bit chilly and I wanted something quick and warm. Basically a veggie soup with an option to add lamb. I did not and it actually blew me away. Amazing flavor.
But the Amanti Pizza was so far and away the star that I did not even take the time to take a photo … Seriously, this was heaven! They have the Vera Pizza certification as an authentic Neopolitan Pizza craftsman … 00 flour, San Marzano tomatoes, 900 degree wood fire oven with bricks from Naples … Yes, this is the real deal.
Seriously … The Amanti pizza will blow you away!

This place was lovely. Marco was excellent. When our table heard him giving the specials and talking about the different options we knew we were getting a great sense of humor, I mean server. So when he asked us what we wanted I told him to bring me anything, whatever he thought was the best dish on the menu. He did not disappoint.
I don’t think I’ve had better pasta. I don’t know the name of the dish, but I do remember that it had no actual sauce. The water the pasta was boiled in was used to make it creamy. I couldn’t believe it when Marco told me.
My cousin got the lamb, he also believes that he’s never had better.
I can’t wait to go back!

The vibe here is something special. Small, intimate, but full of energy. Be sure to make reservations or plan to wait for quite some time. As first timers we found ourselves gazing over each table at everyone’s order to try and get an idea on what dish was most popular. Every table had a little bit of everything and we came to the conclusion that everything was probably delicious.
No matter if you’re coming for the wonderful wine selection and appetizers, lunch, dinner, or just dessert, you’ll be so pleased you stopped by. The ambiance is inviting so don’t be surprised if you find yourself spending a little extra time socializing with whoever it is you came with. It’s that great!
The complimentary bread is warm, fresh, and served with pesto olive oil that is oh so good. We ordered the Heirloom salad, Chicken Parm, Meatballs, Ravioli, and ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ pasta dish. We were all very pleased with our meal choice. For dessert I ordered the salted caramel gelato that was so perfect I would return just for another bite of that alone. Can’t wait to go back!
Tip: If you do have to wait a while to be seated, walk to Porto’s to wait it out. It’s a nice little bar that shares a parking lot with Pirozzi’s. Sip on a glass of wine, cold beer, or cocktail to make the wait seem painless.