Sonny's Pizza & Pasta — Restaurant in San Clemente

A Truly Unforgettable Experience – For All the Wrong Reasons I’m not sure how to even begin this review, but let’s just say this restaurant left us absolutely speechless. And not in a good way. For lack of better words (since this is being posted publicly), it was… an experience. If you’re looking for a recommendation, I’d wholeheartedly suggest this place—but only to people you despise.

This restaurant has been in San Clemente for what seems like forever, and honestly, I can’t figure out how. I’ve driven by this place hundreds of times, always noticing the line out the door, and finally decided to give it a try this past weekend. I thought, “If this many people are waiting, it must be worth it.” Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. The line Saturday evening was, once again, out the door. I approached the hostess and was quoted a “reasonable” 20-minute wait time. Fair enough, right? Wrong. After repeatedly asking how much longer we’d need to wait, and being told “just 10 more minutes” over and over, an hour and a half later, we were finally seated.

Pro tip: Don’t come here hungry. If you want to survive this ordeal, I recommend drinking a lot of alcohol while you wait—because trust me, it only gets worse if you’re sober.

Now, I don’t blame the hostess. She was polite, respectful, and clearly doing her best to manage the chaos. But the lack of structure made her job impossible. Dear restaurant owner, invest in some sort of reservation system. OpenTable exists for a reason. The poor hostess was like a gladiator thrown to the sharks.

The Food (If You Can Call It That) At last, the moment we had been waiting for—the food. After waiting so long to be seated, you’d think the kitchen would try to make up for it. Nope. The food took another hour to arrive. By this point, I was beginning to wonder if anyone was actually cooking back there.

The Pizzas We ordered two pizzas. I genuinely wasn’t sure whether I was eating cardboard, cauliflower crust, or (best case scenario) a frozen DiGiorno pizza from the local grocery store. The "cheese" was sparse, burnt, and flavorless. The tomato sauce? Bland, lifeless, and utterly forgettable. The meats were just as disappointing, adding no flavor whatsoever. To put it bluntly, I wouldn’t eat these pizzas if they were free—or even feed them to my dog.

The Pasta If the pizzas were bad, I figured the pasta would be better. Surely this place couldn’t mess up both, right? Wrong. The pasta tasted like it had been cooked the day before and reheated in warm water to pretend it was fresh. The sauce? Imagine a can of olives blended with low-quality oil, a splash of lemon, and not a shred of seasoning. The sausage, which should have been the highlight, was shockingly bland. I didn’t even know it was possible to make sausage taste like nothing, but this place managed to pull it off.

Final Thoughts I’ve tried to keep this review fun, but I think you get the point. This was, without question, one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. From the absurd wait times to the cardboard pizza to the flavorless pasta, this restaurant somehow failed on every level.

If you still decide to give this place a shot, make sure to drink plenty of fluids (preferably alcoholic) to make the experience more tolerable. As for me? I’ll be driving by this place from now on, shaking my head at the poor souls waiting in line.

0/5 – An "experience" I’ll...

Been coming to Sonny’s for a long time and have only ever had positive experiences, but yesterday was a bit odd. First off we read online that their patio is dog friendly, but only service dogs are allowed (not Sonny’s fault for incorrect internet info, I only mention so folks with doggos aren’t surprised). No worries, we love Sonny’s so to go is all good, as we’re not in the area often. The server who took our order seemed annoyed when I “waited to be seated” outside and that I didn’t hear her at the inside counter, as I am hard of hearing and a speaker was blaring into my ears, and it was dark inside. No worries again. I specifically chose the eggplant parmigiana, because it came with a pasta side, and my husband ordered the meatball sandwich. They said it would be a 10-15 minute wait and that they would bring us the food, as we were waiting on a bench out front with our dog. I don’t like to rush food service folks (being that I once was one myself), but there were only 3 customers inside and we had been waiting over 30 minutes with no sign of food. I decided to politely check in and the same person who took the order seemed frazzled and started to sort through tickets and talk to the kitchen, while another very polite and seemingly more experienced server found that our order had accidentally been placed in a delivery bag. All good, that happens. We get to a park to eat on a picnic table only to find that my pasta was not in the box—bummer. It was $38 with tip and my husband’s sandwich included only two meatballs. Bummer again. I can’t give Sonny’s less than four stars, but this just wasn’t worth the time and effort. We were patient and nice, even after the confusion, but finding that we didn’t get all of the food at the end was a huge let down.

It’s a long story, but we’ve had a hard year financially and we can only dine out for special occasions. I suppose that’s why I wrote this review, because you never know when someone is splurging more than they probably should, for the sake of enjoying a special moment, with special food. Thankfully we don’t need special food to have a special moment (as my husband and dog are the most special beings in my life), but it would have been a nice cherry on top if the food had matched the energy of the moment. I don’t think we’ll prioritize this spot anymore and we’ll definitely only dine in the next time we do...

Honestly if I could give ZERO stars I would! I had been working with this restaurant to have a dinner here post elopement. I called around restaurants in San Clemente to see if they can accommodate a party of 28 on a Saturday around 6:30pm as I was eloping at the beach at 5:00pm.

I called in and spoke to a hostess, she stated that they can accommodate a party of 50 as a walkin! I was shocked, I asked again just to make sure that was correct and she said yes! I spoke with the Manager, Renee who helped me answer all my questions. She let me know they don't accept reservations after 3:30pm and just to have someone in our party come early to put our names in so we could have a table. She let me know we wouldn't be able to all sit at the same table but she would accommodate us in the same section. She let me know that I can craft my own menu based off their menu to offer to my party like 3-4 main entrée's so it was easier on the staff and myself. She just let me know to email it over 24 hours before so the kitchen had a heads up.

I did just that but I was instructed to send it to Julie. I let Julie know in email the same thing I had spoken to Renee about and everything. Julie was all happy and willing to accommodate us UNTIL I let her know it was on a Saturday and she completely turned us away THE NIGHT BEFORE MY ELOPEMENT! I had 28 guests coming and I had no restaurant to feed them now! I called the restaurant to speak with Julie but she was not in. I tried speaking with Renee as well to get this resolved, she was not in either so apparently during the day there are NO managers or supervisors on staff per the very very rude hostess who gave me one word answers when I called in almost in tears! I emailed Renee asking to call me and all she responded with was:

"Just show up and have Renee handle it if you want to come" - I am sorry but I am not going to HOPE that you can accommodate my guests and I AFTER you told me you couldn't!

JULIE OR RENEE NEVER CALLED ME BACK TO DISCUSS THIS MISUNDERSTANDING AND JULIE NEVER EVEN APOLOGIZED OR ANYTHING FOR THE WAY SHE JUST FLEW OFF THE HANDLE VIA EMAIL. (maybe next time don't email from your phone, be a little more professional)

If you want to host a dinner here DO NOT DO IT! They are not very accommodating to parties, and between the hosts, managers and Julie they have ZERO communication...