Al Forno Caffe — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

Al Forno Caffe is the best restaurant addition to Costa Mesa in ages, yet there are not nearly enough people.

It would be a shame to ever lose this restaurant; I wish I'd have happened upon it sooner.

Supurb chef. Exquisiite presentation, texture, and rich flavor; as good as any.

The atmosphere is earthy and charming, comfortable and pleasant.

The food is robust and brave, while nuanced and delicate.

Al Forno's panini lunch specials, of which I have tried all but one, are all amazing; $7, with homemade soup, amazingly good.

I have also tried 4 things away from the lunch specials:

love the arugula and beet salad; rigatoni bolonese ... added sausage, so good; though not generally a fan of tiramisu, this is heavenly -- 3 times; and pizza, excellent sauce, mingling flavors, and construction -- I am looking forward to the $5 pizzas during Happy-Hour.

Pizza critics, pizza-dough snobs, might take issue with the crust, either density or firmness. I like light dressing as much as anyone, but one friend's salad was light on light dressing.

I have never given a review for a restaurant before, but I feel (rather quickly) quite strongly that the people of Costa Mesa will be well-served to cherish this establishment.

I know great food when I find it. Give this...

When you walk into this place, it almost gives you an old school saloon/dive bar vibe, but the food surprised us all! I got the rigatoni bolognese but you need to order a side or pomodoro sauce to add to it, if you like your bolognese more on the saucy side like I do. My friend got the Bucatini All Amatriciana and hers was by far the most tastiest of all the pasta dishes! You have to order a side of their peppers (there was a name I can't think of it though), it adds a little spice to each bite. My husband got the Pasta Al Forno, thats the image that has all the baked cheese on top, he loved his- ate it all. And my friend's bf got the Orecchiette Baresi (only because they were all out of their lamb meat balls that go with their Spaghetti Polpette). I liked all the pasta dishes, would recommend trying all of them. We also got the Funghi Pizza, which is small (comes with 4 slices), to start as an appetizer along with the marinated olives and their fried artichoke hearts. I would definitely come back here during the week when they have...

I really wanted to like this place me and my mom came in the other day because of the reviews they were shortstaffed, but that wasn’t the issue I ordered the house salad just came with lettuce and two tomatoes Clams, which were very spicy, which overpowered the whole dish, and on top of that I ordered chicken piccata, and the chicken was rubbery, and the sauce was so over powering And there was a smell, I wasn’t going to write a review, but what really upset me is that the owner came up to me and started arguing about how her chicken is the best chicken and no one has ever sent it back and she told me just tell me you didn’t like it which I thought was weird why are you arguing with Customer trying to prove to me that your Chicken is the best well I’m sorry in this instance it wasn’t that good maybe the chef had an off day but the owners very condescending there’s way better Italian restaurants save your money and your time food is mediocre I would never come...