IL Dolce Ristorante — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

Almost everything is made in house. This place seems to be exceedingly popular and it is good for small groups. If you don't have an overly crazy appetite, share a pizza or be prepared to bring a decent bit of it home.

The staff is accommodating and does try to anticipate needs. We did have to ask for cheese, but I heard the same staff member offering cheese later to another patron so I think they just spaced with us. They're going to bring out a giant block from the kitchen - a cheeselover's dream.

They don't have root beer; I don't think they have standard fountain drinks, but they have a full bar and they have a decent ginger beer in stock (it's a muted one with little bite.)

They make their meatballs and sauce in house, I am assuming the same could be said for their dough. It's a soft dough but sturdy. I don't like a crispy dough, it came out pretty thin, but it was surprisingly soft. If you like the crunch of a crisp dough, this isn't the pizza for you. The sauce is good and I would have more. Sadly, their meatballs felt lacking to me. The pesto was yummy. The flavor profile was solid. It was a satisfying pizza but it didn't 'hit the spot'.

My mom ordered just meatballs and she demolished them. They appear to have a decent wine selection, she didn't comment on the quality, but the staff seemed knowledgeable about good choices.

If you like calamari, that alone is a good enough reason to eat here. It's some of the best I've had. Just be careful, the sauce will drip everywhere despite all manners to avoid it. It's far worth it.

Their lava cake was underwhelming. We were the first patrons in the middle of the day. Maybe they weren't expecting to serve one yet?

Bathrooms are clean with a code locked door. If there was a line to wait, there are some press and celebrity patron photos on the wall to distract you. If you bring a baby and need to change them, there wasn't a specific changing table that I saw, but there is a small white cabinet (most likely holding cleaning supplies) that would be a good choice over using the bathroom floor. The bathrooms are spacious, you wouldn't feel cramped if you had to bring a child or two in with you.

The tables do sport some nice white tablecloths, but fear not. They're topped with white butcher paper. Your messy eater/resident writer/absent minded doodler will be thrilled.

Overall, I would go back and I would be happy about being there. It's in a prime location. The staff is amazing. It would be a great place for a date night or out with friends in...

On 3/16/2025 myself, my wife, and 2 other family members had dinner at Il Dolce Ristorante. Initially the wait staff was attentive and in fairly short order we had water and placed an order for wine and an appetizer. Thereafter, our waiter seemed to lose all interest in attending to us, and he was variously caught up attending to other tables and engaging in animated conversation and conviviality with those tables. Meantime, after 20 minutes or more, we had no wine, no appetizer, and no service of any kind. All the while other tables were being attended to and apparently we were forgotten in the corner. Eventually my wife inquired directly to our waiter and to another lady who seemed to be the manager and/or owner as to what was going on. Eventually my wife’s inquiry spurred the lady to action and finally wine, appetizer, and food arrived. On further inquiry by my wife it seemed the wait staff had a “computer glitch” that caused delays in orders being transmitted to the kitchen and action taken as a result. None of this information or any action was taken by the wait staff to let us know what was going on, or to take proactive action to attend to us. In short, we not only received a plethora of after-the-fact excuses and apologies (and free dessert), but the entirety of our experience at Il Dolce was forever tarnished. Simply put, while I understand circumstances arise in the service industry that complicate the delivery of service, in our case the extenuating circumstances do not forgive the appalling lack of communication, concern, and proactive corrective action. Needless to say we will never return or recommend this restaurant to...

This was my 2nd time eating in here and both occasions were amazing. The first time, about a month ago, I got the special pizza, prosciutto and fig and was very good. The best part about this place and really good pizza places, is the crust. You can tell they have a high degree of quality and its not normal to enjoy the crust as much as you will here. My girlfriend cant eat gluten (for reals…not some health fad) and they make an incredible gluten free crust. The apparent secret is that they do the final dough steps when the pizza is ordered. Meaning, they don’t have a cardboard gluten free crust waiting. And I can tell you, its seriously so good. My girlfriend got the mushroom pie with sausage added and I think I enjoyed it more than my regular crust.

We recently went back with a larger group and the service, atmosphere and food was again, stellar. I got the classic margarita pie, the table got a variety of pasta dishes and again, homerun. I would go back and highly...