Laventina's Big Cheese Pizza — Restaurant in Newport Beach

They always said god was in the small things well, if that's true, then he's slouched somewhere behind the grease-smeared window of Laventina’s watching drunk kids puke up pepperoni in the gutter smiling

this place isn’t about the pizza — not really the dough’s too chewy, the cheese is too salty, and the sauce tastes like it was born in a can but at 2am, none of that matters your bloodstream's half gin, half regret your legs are tired from standing at the bar pretending to have something to say and what you need is salt, heat, grease, and something to remind you you’re still alive

Laventina’s gives you that not with love but with obligation like an ex-girlfriend who lets you crash on her couch because she feels sorry for you

I used to come here in college Thursday nights were bloodsport shouting over house music with the trust-fund kids and the dead-eyed bartenders then crawling out into the black night and letting Laventina’s mop it all up

once, some poor bastard told me he puked in the alley after inhaling a whole pie said it came out slow like Play-Doh I told him that’s life he said, “no, that’s pizza”

the other night I found myself back there I hadn’t eaten in hours saw the old sign, the yellow light buzzing like a dying fly walked in and ordered a couple mediums and a meatball sandwich pepperoni, jalapeños, chicken, garlic held the shame

no seats, of course this place doesn’t want you to linger just grab your box and disappear into the fog of Newport

I stood on the sidewalk and ate alone like always like a king without a castle like a man without a reason

it tasted like memory like sweat and vodka and the worst decisions of my 20s and somehow it was beautiful

if you're sober, this place is average if you're drunk, it's religion either way, it's honest

that’s more than...

I don’t normally leave reviews but I had to because of how bad my experience was here. My boyfriend ordered us 2 slices of pizza- one plain and one pepperoni, to which The guy told us it would be about a 20 minute wait and we said that that was fine. 45 minutes go by, and we still did not receive our slices. Finally, they give us two large whole pizzas- One was a barbecue chicken pizza and the other one was pepperoni and bacon. Not even remotely close to what we ordered. My boyfriend brings them back up and says that it’s the wrong order and they start yelling at him arguing with him and trying to tell him that they were right about it and we were wrong. The workers started getting very aggressive and threatening even though we were not being loud or aggressive. After over an hour of being there, we left without ever getting our slices - they also overcharged my boyfriends credit card- they charged $50 on it for two slices and then said “my bad” and gave us $40 in cash back. It was the most unprofessional and ridiculous experience I have ever had at a food establishment. I have never witnessed employees being so rude to a customer that did absolutely nothing wrong and was being incredibly patient the entire time. Fast forward to today, I was walking past this establishment with my friends and the workers started whistling and cat calling us. Who runs this place??? Their pizza is honestly pretty good tho, so If you don’t mind being harassed and waiting an hour for a slice of pizza that you may or may not ever get, this...

Service is terrible. There are two lines: a $20 line where you get your pizza immediately and a $12 line where you have to wait 10-15 minutes to get your pizza. The pizza for $20 sits behind the cashier for who knows how long; I'm not sure really how fresh it is. For the $12 pizza line, I assume they make a fresh one because you have to wait 10-15 minutes. When I realized this, I told the cashier I'd rather wait and get a fresh pizza, he responded by rolling his eyes and muttering stuff under his breath. When my pizza was finally ready after waiting 10-15 minutes from the $12 line, the pizza came out lightly warm. It was obvious that the pizza sat there for a while too. After coming to this realization, I went back to the $12 line cashier and politely asked for a hot pizza. He looked confused and slightly offended. He went to the back, talked to another guy by the oven, and grabbed another pizza that was in a stack of 8 to 12 pizzas just sitting there ready to go. I get the feeling that the 10-15 minute wait was not necessary based on the number of pizzas I saw and the number of people I saw in line. They just wanted me to wait because I was in the $12 line instead of the $20 line. The new pizza he gave served was actually hot and tasted good. The guys behind the counter have an uppity attitude. My friends also had similar bad experiences and don’t give them business anymore because of their poor service and...