Domenico's on the Lake — Restaurant in Mission Viejo

This is the newest of the two locations. The original location is in Belmont Shores and has a very unique atmosphere. I am really happy that the menu is so similar even though it's a completely different kitchen and completely different style restaurant.

So for the record I believe Domenico's pizza is specialty pizza. It's very different, unlike any other pizza I've ever had. Normally when I get pizza I get a pepperoni pizza, at this restaurant I get a pizza half ground sausage and half barbecue chicken.

So normally we talk about the flop this pizza has zero flop, the crust is crispy and so delicious. It's like I said a special type of pizza unlike anything I've ever had before. The ground sausage is so good, the barbecue chicken pizza is absolutely delicious. My brother swears by the ground pepperoni but believe you're not a little too spicy for me. Next time I go in I'm going to order just a regular pepperoni pizza and see what it taste like.

Keep in mind I've never taken anyone to this restaurant that didn't say this was the best pizza they ever had.

The pizza is awesome, the cheese, the sauce and the crust all come together and is amazing. They have other items on the menu that are really really good, their minestrone soup is the best I've ever had, they have a house salad that's very unique because the salad dressing is made with Jell-O. They have pasta and they have other Italian dishes but I literally get pizza and soup, that's it.

So I always like to mention in my review whether or not I will ever come back to this particular restaurant The truth is I don't care for this location. One it's difficult for me to get to living in Costa Mesa, I'd rather drive to the Belmont Shores location. Also this particular location is very expensive, in fact one time I visited both restaurants in the same week and order the exact same time in this place was like $12 more.

However, it is safe to say that I go to the Belmont Shores location at least once a month and I have since I was a kid. I lived in Florida for five years and every time we came home we always made a trip to Domenico's.

I gave this location a 7.0 on the One Bite App. I did a 7.0 because again this is a specialty pizza and even though it's super yummy it's not my type of pizza. Also, it's very expensive and again I don't care for the location.

Oh and one last piece of advice, if you go in by the ground pepperoni pizza or the ground sausage pizza always get the biggest pizza they have. Get large and take your leftovers home and the next day scramble up some eggs and right before your eggs solidify scrape all the cheese and toppings into your scrambled eggs and you will have the best breakfast...

My friend and I decided to go to Happy Hour on Saturday after spending the day at the beach on the lake. The wait wasn't too long because several people were leaving. The busboy soon asked if we wanted bread and about 5 minutes later the waitress came over to ask if we wanted drinks. She wasn't overly friendly (truth be told, she wasn't friendly at all), didn't smile and was more concerned about just taking the drink order and leaving. There are no specialty cocktails on the HH menu but I asked if they had any special margaritas. She said they had a blackberry margarita. I asked if it was good and she said she sells hundreds a night. Hmmm, a good sign I thought so I ordered one. When it arrived it had salt on the rim (she never asked if I wanted it with salt which I didn't). I scraped the salt off and tasted it. Much to my disappointment, it was probably one of the worse margaritas I've ever had. I tried drinking it but just couldn't. When she came back for our food order I told her I didn't like the drink. She seemed a bit annoyed and asked what I wanted. (I understand she was busy, but isn't smiling one of the most appreciated things wait staff can do?) I ordered a gin n tonic. We then decided to order individual pizzas. I asked what kind of toppings they had. She said they had everything. I said I'll take spinach and mushroom. She said we don't have spinach. Hmmmmmm!! I ordered artichoke hearts and olives and my friend ordered margarita pizza. We were both excited when we received our order because we are both Italian (I'm Sicilian with Italian citizenship) and we are from the east coast (CT & NY)...next to Italy where the best pizza comes from! We did find out that the owner is half Sicilian. Unfortunately, he didn't get his pizza dough recipe from there!! Sadly, we both agreed that the pizza was NOT good and that a frozen pizza from Trader Joe's was better than this pizza. Good Italian pizza dough (and I make my own) should be chewy texture and crispy. The outer crust was crispy but that chewy, crispy good pizza texture & flavor was missing. Let's face it, the toppings are not what makes a good pizza because the toppings are the same anywhere, but it's the crust and the sauce that make the pizza stand out. Such a disappointment. We will definitely not be returning. And good thing it was HH price because the regular price of their pizzas is INSANE! $30-$35 for a large!!!!! I think I'll stick to making my own...

It was a disappointment after all the noises heard about this restaurant.

The ground pepperoni pizza was salty and dry. The crust was more like a flatbread than "pizza" itself. It didn't have a puffy rim crust, sort of flat across the pie. However, it was crispy and didn't feel doughy. $27.

The build your own pizza was better because of toppings we picked out. The meatballs were so average, dried texture, not much flavors. Again, It was like a flatbread. $36 for medium size, Domino's pizza would taste better for less.

Lasagna was salty and not much flavors.

Shortribs with lemon Risotto was so so. The shortribs was tender and got a good flavor but was on the edge of being salty. The lemon Risotto was kinda mushy and seemed not lemony at all, off flavored, more like saffron Risotto...

Chicken Parmesan: i didnt get to taste but my husband tasted it and said the melted cheese was pretty salty.

Jumbo prawns scampi: didn't taste it.

Cream chicken basil was the best of the bunch. Thanks God it was not salty. Not much chicken pieces and they were small.

The butter cake was good.

The service was spotty. The waiter was attentive in the first 1/3 and kinda slow after that, 2 hrs lunch...

I was on my way to the restroom so passing by the bar, said Good Morning to the lady behind it, she looked up and didn't even acknowledge my greeting...

So 7 of us, just water all around with 2 coffee, our bill was $260 for so average at best food. Not come back or...