Buona Forchetta — Restaurant in Newport Beach

3 couples with reservation were greeted warmly, seated promptly and our server came to the table quickly offering to get us water (sparkling or Newport’s finest) and help with wine and menu. Wine and were reasonable.

We started with a $45 Daou and 2 pizzas that came out quickly and looked beautiful. Our server (Mario?) had sold us on the thin but puffy pizza dough, and he was spot on. Terrific pizza - some char on the bubbly crust, nice red sauce (could use a hint more spice) and fresh mozzarella (maybe a toouch more fresh basil). I love pizza and give it a 8.5/10 - certainly in top tier of OC Pizzas (that bar is sadly not very high - but 8.5 won’t disappoint any pizza lover).

Guys ordered pasta, meatballs. Ladies salmon salad. Pasta was terrific - homemade and fresh. Huge portions. Freshly grated cheese and black pepper. So good.

Ladies didn’t love the salmon - one thought it fishy. They did love the salad. I tried the salmon and thought it was very good. Also large portions of fish and greens.

For dessert we had Nutella pizza twists (I don’t know if this is in the menu - if not, it should be!)

After dinner we talked with both the managing director and pizza chef (owner) and both were so nice and wanted honest opinions - which we shared (here too). We learned the pizza oven is still being broken in, and we can expect even better results on future (definitely) visits.

I’ll close this review with a solid 5 stars across the board and my only misgiving - I suspect the food/atmosphere/ staff/location will result in a very difficult reservation, especially when the warm weather brings the tourists back to the peninsula. Great for the owner and staff, but bummer...

It was our first time here and I came with my whole family so we were excited. The location is in a beautiful spot right next to the harbor with nice outdoor seating. Service was also excellent and we were able to order right away. Here’s what we ordered:

Eggplant Parmigiana: this was alright. It’s usually my favorite dish to eat at an Italian restaurant but this wasn’t. The eggplant wasn’t seasoned at all but was totally blend. The presentation was great but lacking flavor.

Piera pizza: the best dish on the menu! Wish they added more pesto pesto but I may just be getting greedy. All ingredients were fresh and delicious.

Gnoki: it was overdone and the texture was off, not flavorful either. We would never order this again.

Calamari: my in laws absolutely loved this dish! It was crispy and delicious.

Carbonara: my in laws also enjoyed this dish - can’t go wrong here.

Fatorre: delicious salad - the veggies were fresh and the dressing was on point.

Chefs special salad: my wife enjoyed the grapefruit and I enjoyed the creamy burrata. Fantastic dish overall.

Buono forchetta: this was my wife’s favorite dish! The sauce was creamy and extremely mouth watering. A truly warming dish.

All the wines my family had they also loved. Overall, a solid restaurant but definitely room for...

I had a reservation on11/17/2024 at 12:30pm but they never acknowledged it. A rude Italian server came and sat us and poured us a sparkling water in a cup with a lipstick mark. When asked to change the cup due to the lipstick mark, he did not apologize; instead he just said no worries. Then he finally replaced the cup but he did not replaced the sparkling water so we ended up asking him to replace the water since it was half empty and we have purchased  it. Then his attitude started to change and started pushing us to order when we weren't ready and recommending us to a menu that we weren't interested in. When we told him that we weren't interested. He literally said, Do you even know what it is??? By then we were pissed off and getting ready to leave. Luckily, we ended up getting a new waiter and we ended up staying since it was my wife's birthday and it was too late to look for a new restaurant at that hour. Overall, this place has good food and polite manager, but the service really depends on who you get. Just stay away from that Italian rude server and you...