Trenta Pizza & Cucina — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

Wow. The only thing not to love about this place is the outdoor dining when it’s raining. The food however distracted me from the misty air and it felt like a wonderful trip to Italy without leaving the confines of Orange County.

Meatball appetizer - holy cow these are amazing. I judge an Italian restaurant by the meatballs. These were absolutely incredible. 3 per order but was enough for a table of 4 to share.

Arancini - melt in your mouth goodness. These exceeded my expectation and were soft creamy and served at the perfect temp.

Bolognese - absolutely fantastic from the fresh pasta to the portion size, sauce to noodle ratio etc. chefs kiss!

Mushroom ravioli - about 6 or so per serving, again, enough to share when doing family style with a large table. Sauce was creamy and delicious, nicely balanced out the meatiness of the mushrooms.

Trenta pizza - we went spicy and sweet - all three flavors were incredible. A bit pricey at $75 for such a thin crust pizza and our party of 4 easily crushed this. We left a few pieces to take home for a guest who couldn’t join us. I think next time I’d do individual pizzas and share that way, and it would end up being a bit more food to pass around.

The wine was incredible - had a nice Pinot noir which was my second choice, as the first wine tasted off. I sent it back and there was no issue with that at all.

Had two salads and both were delicious and plenty to share. I think next time I’d skip this and get more meatballs :)

Family owned and you can tell they care and take pride and grace when attending to their guests. I wish there was indoor seating, as it was cold and rainy. Parking is valet only ($8) and I didn’t see any street options available. Lot can fit maybe 6 cars. Food tasted authentic, was high quality and portion sizes reasonable for the price charged. Definitely adding this new find to my...

We went to Trenta for dinner. We had high expectations based on the reviews, maybe that set the bar too high!! We made sure to get an appointment on a Sunday evening. It wasn’t hard, there was a lot of availability so that was good. We got there a good 30 minutes ahead of time. There is valet parking, no public parking around. The valet service was great. When we got to the front, we were greeted and seated immediately. There was plenty of seating both indoors and outdoors and we chose to sit indoors.

Picked drinks and appetizers (Rustic Bread and Arancini Verde), they came out quickly. The Rustic Bread was alright, came out with a green house sauce. Overall, average. The Arancini Verde was interesting, above average. The drinks were good, nothing special. For the mains, we got the Napoli Pizza and the Gnocchi al Pesto). Unfortunately they ran out of the Gnocchi so they substituted with another pasta. The pasta was a little underdone (less than Al Dente) so that wasn’t great but it’s better than being over done I guess. The pizza was average at best. The crust wasn’t very good and the slices were very floppy at the center. The sauce was good. The desserts (Tiramisu and a chocolate cake I think) were average at best.

Overall, I think it was a very average experience. If I had out of town visitors, this wouldn’t be a pizza place I bring them to. But I think the ambiance and the service was decent that I can’t rate it below average. Not highly recommended but something to go...

There are many places to begin with this review but I must start with the first steps coming to this beautiful ristorante. When we first came we were seated and Marco greeted us. He spoke of the opening of the restaurant and welcome us like Italy has done for us in our travels. First we start with the antipasto calamari! Fried to perfection and well seasoned breading that is thin and crispy as it should be. The spicy garlic aioli was a perfect match! In addition my wife had the limoncello spritz that was well balanced with the prosecco and very refreshing on this warm sunny day. Next was the main course! My wife had the linguini alle vongole. The pasta was perfectly aldente and with the cherry tomatoes was balanced perfectly! Finally, we come to pizza. I was convinced by the pizza oven in the picture that this was the place to have lunch. The Firenze pizza was so simple but the care and the ingredients made this pizza the BEST I have had in the US and number 3 in the world for me. I've traveled to many areas of Italy and Europe from major cities to small towns of the Italian alps. The smoked mozzarella with the truffle was a perfect paring and the porcini mushrooms! It's difficult to find porcini mushrooms at any grocery store and I have tried! The dough had the perfect chew and crisp and best of all held its form through the whole meal. No floppy sloppy pizza here, perfect char! We will definitely be back to try more delicious true...