Papalucci's

Papalucci's in Belmont Shore is our favorite "Go To" local Italian restaurant in Long Beach, CA. Always perfect Al dente, tasty pasta, salads are fresh, seafood, pizza everything great! Sad to see them closing at the end of September due to health reasons but Pasadena location will remain open.

This is a nice little find on second st. The lunch specials are somewhat limited - only a few dishes come with meat. Otherwise it's mainly pasta, sauce and cheese. Still the quality and quantity are there and I'll be back to try something different.

My favorite Italian restaurant outside of Italy!!! I live in Chicago and I make it a point to come here every time I'm in town :) the staff and chefs are great the owner is awesome :) my favorite are the garlic knots, spicy marinara extra spicy on angel hair pasta, and the calzone dessert!!

Frequent-Flyers, since the joint opened... We WILL miss you. 🙄

I've visited this place many times in the past. Excited to revisit, but I think my taste buds must've changed. The lasagna I ordered wasn't anything to write home about, but my friend ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo and it was pretty good. The service was fantastic and the glass of wine I ordered was not worth its price. So sad. My memories of this place are now tarnished. Probably won't visit here again.

Great food (lasagna with meat sauce is my favorite) but lots of other delicious items on the menu too. The Pisano is another good one for me, excellent pizza too. Service is good, we try to get there earlier in the evening since it gets kind of busy later - although the service isn't impacted, with the place full, the noise level goes up a lot. May be the best Italian in Long Beach! 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕

A very homy, family style Italian restaurant. Nice portions, good food and great service. The garlic knots were a really nice appetizer, and the pasta puttanesca was good. Please take this review with a grain of salt, since I was sick at the time and my taste buds weren't working as well as they usually are.

Ordered from them when I first arrived in LB. Not impressed. Food is mediocre at best and slapped together. Ordered chicken addition to my pasta, it was ignored. Service when I called was rude and said no chicken was ordered though it was obviously on my receipt and paid for. Buona Gente is much better, quieter, more personable and the food is far better. These guys wouldn't know Italian or Sicilian if it bit them on the nose!

Everything was perfection from start to finish. We moved to Belmont Shore 5yrs ago and made it a point to check this place out. Fast forward to present day we finally visited and were blown away. The ambiance, the staff, the food, the every single detail they thought of was just perfect. Suggest ordering their signature sausage tomato cream pasta & doing a half/half Domenico's special & ground Pepperoni pizza. We cannot wait to bring all of our guests to dine here. Must try the heavenly Tiramisu dessert!!! Thank you Domenicos staff for being so superb!

Well know for many years...70 years! Tough place to park but no doubt services walk-in locals. A bit dark with many walls overwhelming the area and many "confessional" cubbies seating a max (tight) 4 diners. Larger seating areas are available but you'll need to ask for same. Service was way above average and the waitress we had topped the scale. On time and very informed. Ordered a medium pizza with onions and pepperoni. It came loaded with pepperoni covering every inch of the pie. Too much for me. Also ordered a regular salad which was so so. We brought our own wine with a $20 corkage fee. Checked out the menu and I guess I haven't keep up with Italian restaurant menu costs. $26 for spagetti and meatballs... Our bill was as expected but not what we had 4 years ago and used to be way lower. Overpriced restaurant?...Naaa. It's Trumps fault.

Delicious margarita pizza. We were staying in Long Beach -- it was getting late so we were relieved that they were still open for the evening. We ordered take-out of their margarita pizza and noshed on it at our AirBnB. Nice balanced ratio of flavorful sauce to cheese and basil. The service was also excellent. Thank you!

After years of "I wonder if that place is any good?", we finally gave it a try! We arrived around 7pm and there was a 30 minute wait, so the hubbies waited in the lobby while my gf and I got drinks for us all in the bar area. We sat at the bar for about 10 minutes watching the servers come and go, as well as the bar backs. Finally, Mike (owner) came over and asked if we've been helped. When he heard that we hadn't, he said he'd send someone over right away. Once we got our drinks from the fantastic bartender who chilled our beer glasses with ice, because they just came out of the dishwasher, we were on our way back to our hubbies. The night just kept getting better. Once we were seated, we devoured the basket of bread with our order of Giant Meatballs ($16.99), and they were delicious! We ordered the Ground Pepperoni Pizza ($33.99). If you've never had it, come here and be amazed. The pepperoni was plentiful and crispy with a little kick. The crust had a great chew to it. It makes you wonder why all pizzas aren't made this way! The Eggplant Parm ($24.99) was the best that I've had. It was served over a bed of Angel Hair and the right amount of sauce. Service here is fantastic. It was a full house and the servers couldn't have been more friendly. Thank you again, Mike, for helping us get our drinks and stopping by our table to chat with us! We can see why your restaurant has been around for as long as it has. We will definitely back!

Service - we had no reservations for a party of 2. Sunday at 7pm dinner - we had to wait for about 10 minutes which was great. Our server was Ashley and she did an amazing job with us and others all night. She was friendly, attentive, answered all our questions about the menu and dishes, refills kept coming, and she just had a really great vibe to her. So friendly and nice! Food - chicken basil cream with penne and sausage pasta with tomato cream sauce. Both were excellent. It was a large portion so great for sharing or a second meal of leftovers. Dessert: I have never tried Spumoni so we ordered that. It was good! Probably wouldn't order it again but that's personal choice - it was made well. Would come again!

Great service and tasty foods would make me want to come back for more. Think the highlight for me were the mozzarella sticks and the homemade meatballs! Man I could eat a barrel of those things lol. Totally hit the spot. We were checking out a few other Italian places but my Mother saw this on the news and we had to try it. Really glad we did cuz I would love to check out the other items on the menu. We got the chicken with pesto, the spicy bbq chicken and I ordered the gnocchi with meatballs. The gnocchi was not the best I had but it was still delicious. I might end up trying their lasagna next time or even their spaghetti! I think I saw ravioli but I didn't want mushrooms in it =P. Give this place a go if you're craving excellent service and lovely foodums.

3.7357 stars Domenico's has been on my radar for years and here I was on a random Monday trying it for the first time. To start, they give you a complimentary basket of focaccia bread with a thick Italian dressing. Bread is delicious. My friend and I shared the following: -mozzarella logs ($11.99 for 3 logs): giant mozzarella sticks served with house marinara sauce -Domenico's special salad ($17.99 for 2-3 people): romaine lettuce topped with tomatoes, black olives, and famous garlic dressing -half ground pepperoni + Domenico's special ($32.99 for a medium) The mozzarella logs were logging. They're literally logs of cheese. These had a nice cheese pull, but they were a bit hard to share and just a bit too heavy of an app to start off the meal. The salad was a nice with its famous garlic dressing. The dressing is creamy though there's some texture to it (garlic? idk). It was healthy because, salad, but the garlic dressing dressed it up a bit. And the pizza - I loved the concept of the ground meats (pepperoni, sausage, and salami). Textually, it's kind of fun to eat and grinding the meat really enhances the flavor. However, the crust was not it. It reminded me of the Totino's frozen pizza I ate a lot as a kid - ground meat with a slappity crust. Of the two halves, I preferred the ground pepperoni more only because it stood its ground while the other half drowned in toppings on a crispy thin crust. Inside, Domenico's is a dreamy date spot with private booths and twinkling lights. I'll be back for another slice of pizza and to try their pasta dishes.

Great experience. My friend came to visit so we went to Ds. I picked the egg plant park, D salad and I tried the tiramisu. All were delish! The eggplant parm was a large portion so I had it for dinner twice. Michael was super friendly and attentive. Will be back.

Omg! The food here was beyond delicious and the customer service is impeccable. I came down to visit my best friend since he just moved to Long Beach. We we torn between between this place and one. We decided to eat here and extremely happy we did.

Great food! Beautiful environment! Amazing service! And the price was out of this world! I'm constantly coming back and I just love the history of the place!

For me it's like out of the movies classic Italian kitchen and old style east coast ambience. 2nd coat ever and we went for the pizza this time around and it was DELICIOUS. Maybe only get one meat because ALOT goes on it. One thing I want point out and it speaks volumes. It is so rare to so an owner work a Friday night, and introduce himself to every table that came. His name is Mike btw. And EVERYONE knew him. That is a whole different level of pride and it shows in the staff. Mike you and your staff nailed it!!!

Meh. I wanted to find a new local spot I've never been and was led by the Yelp reviews. Unfortunately I was disappointed because I felt like the food was very underwhelming. I ordered the sausage tomato cream and also a side of tomato bisque. The favor of the tomato was just lacking in both dishes and I felt like the cream was overpowering.

Domenicos has been a family favorite for decades. It was my grandparents favorite place to grab some yummy Italian food and now all of us grand kids keep the tradition going. Their ground pepperoni pizza is by far one of our favorites, and their mozzarella sticks are to die for. If you have the chance to try their house dressing... DO IT! I honestly can't say enough about how much we love the food there, and the cherry on top is definitely how knowledgeable and just plain sweet the staff is.

Very nice setting for a date. I just walked in and everyone had their own private table. I never ate here. I just picked up an order. Smells like spaghetti. Italian food places are always successful. They know how to do life family love. They stick together.

There are two pizza places in Long Beach that I can't live without. Domenico's is #1. Service is great and the ambience is classic Italian pizza spot. Reminds me of being a kid when mom and dad would take me and my brother out for pizza! Best pepperoni pizza I've ever had. I've had A LOT.

Food Having never been before, but I saw good reviews of this place online, I decided to go here for my birthday. Starting of the meal with the free bread, it was a really good start as the bread was nice, and warm with a good vinaigrette dipping, I would say the free bread is my highlight. For appetizers, we got fried zucchini and mozzarella logs with marinana sauce. Both were really good and fried really well. The sauce was good as well. We got a mix of different pastas, angel hair, alfredo, lasagna, and piccata. Of these, i would highly recommend the alfredo and piccata as they were the stand out dishes in terms of taste. Lastly, we had the ground pepperoni pizza as this was their specialty. I was a bit disappointed by this as it wasn't as good as the rest of their dishes. The pizza was just too rich to enjoy for me. Service/Ambiance In their sign, this is one of long beach's oldest restaurants. The ambiance of the place gives it a nice old timey italian restaurant vibe, with the low lighting and the choice of furniture, which i really liked. Our servers were nice and accomodating. overall, food was pretty okay, not the best, but i'd go for the overall vibe and service.

Lance and Chandavy were a beautiful part of our experience tonight! Thank you for a fantastic evening. My mother's family when she was young frequented this wonderful establishment and a few generations later we still look forward to the amazing meal and experience we are about to enjoy. The crushed pepperoni pizza with salad and soup are the standard for us.

The stand-out item here is most definitely the homemade Gnocchi with Pesto Cream Sauce. I have dined at Domenico's several times and this dish is what keeps me coming back. There is a comforting taste to it. There are certainly better spots for pasta in my opinion, but I appreciate the home-style atmosphere here. The other item pictured here, the Sausage Tomato Cream Rigatoni, was just okay. Not terrible by any standards, but not very memorable either. I also would steer clear of the iced tea. I know, it sounds crazy, right? How do you mess up iced tea? I would love to know as well. There was a peculiar, almost musty flavor to the tea that I really disliked. It's what I would imagine dirty water to taste like. To end this review on a positive, I would emphasize that Domenico's is an excellent spot for groups. They offer many family style portions to fit any party.

8/18/23 Late 20th year Anniversary dinner with the Hubby, so happy we chose Domenico's, highly recommend! It was a choice between Open Sesame or Domenico's-I wasn't willing to wait 15 minutes or more. Domenico's won-coz I was seated as soon as I walked on as hubby parked the car. Cut to the chase, I understood the reason they've been in business since 1956. Food is phenomenal and service is outstanding. If you pass by this restaurant, you probably will not give it a second look. There may have been 4 team members looking after us which included the manager. Someone was always stopping by to ensure we have what we need. For starters, one we thought was our server dropped off focaccia bread & dipping sauce. So good! Don't fill up on this. Kelly, our server was efficient. Hubby ordered a bottle of wine, a nice chianti from Italy. I ordered 2 large meatballs for our appetizer, I think I was much famished (in hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have ordered it, but....). Hubby chose chicken piccata w/ linguine & I opted for the chicken pesto with spaghetti. Our food arrived in a timely manner, we dug in and were both delighted with our choices. Hubby said, "I can't stop eating this! It's so good!" His piccata was amazingly flavorful. My food was just spectacular, the chicken (breast) was plump & juicy, the sauce savory. Gosh! It's not great for my blood sugar lol. The meatballs were dense & filling, delicious & the marinara could use a bit more tanginess but it was good. Domenico's is GEM in Belmont Shore, will definitely return after I recover from the carb load

Old school Italian food & vibe. Great for family gatherings. We saw college kids eating pasta/pizza family style. We dined at the bar. Enjoyed the variety of foreign beers on tap. Great service, they treat you like family.

One of the better italian restaurants that I've been to. Nothing too fancy, and just how you want to spend your dinner with your friends/family. Calamari - large pieces with a medium amount of breading Domenico's special pizza - thin crust and super delicious Chicken piccata - packs more taste than it looks like it would Sausage tomato cream pasta - wonderful flavor to the sauce Domenico's salad - got this one to be semi-healthy... Tiramisu - got this one to negate any health benefits we got from the salad...

Had a lovely Sunday evening here. It had good wine and great pepperoni sliced pizza there. Can't wait to go back.

BEST Fried calamari and Chicken Marsala ever!! Very warm-friendly staff with excellent service. General manager, Lance was amazing. You must try Tiramisu. You will die! So delicious! Ambiance was very comfortable, cheerful, and happy. I've been living in the neighborhood for more than 12 years. How is it possible I've never dined here? Truly a beautiful dining experience. Grazie Lance and fagmilia Domenico! See you again very soon!

Went here for my friends birthday. This place has been here for a long time and rightfully so! Everything we ordered to eat was delicious. My favorite was the tomato cream pasta and chicken Alfredo pizza. The mozzarella logs are great too (beware, they are logs not sticks. Giant delicious logs). We ordered 2 mozzarella logs, 2 calamari, 3 pastas and 2 pizzas family style for 10 people and we had a ton of food left to take home. The service was amazing as well. We ordered 2 pizzas for the table and the server had it double cut so we could all enjoy a slice (there were 10 of us, pizza comes normally in 8 slices). The inside is cute and simple, good for large parties as well. We brought a stroller and they were kind enough to bring us a chair for the car seat and store our stroller in their office for us. Street parking Great food Good for large groups

It's unnecessarily dark, my plates and silverware were dirty, and the food was overly greasy. If I didn't go during the day I probably wouldn't have seen the shit stains all over my plate. I'm not a fan but my mom loves the place for some reason so I'll give it 2 stars.

The food was good from beginning to end, starting with the bread and vinaigrette (?), the log cheese sticks and marinera are a must, and the lasagna and Alfredo were good as well. The lasagna could use a bit more sauce. The ambience was old school Italian, perhaps mob meeting, restaurant lol The service was good. Not sure if the server was annoyed by our large group and the possibility of splitting 8 bills but in the end he seemed cool about it. The tip was included in the bill (for the 3orders mentioned above)

A little disappointed on this visit. The menu has changed significantly. I felt like the choices were limited and missing some key menu items I would have expected from an any Italian restaurant. Service was good. Tough for large groups but nice for smaller 2-6 max. Going here for many years. I think I'll stick with the pizza from now on.

I've never had better Italian food than I did tonight! The ravioli with mushrooms are a must-have. And the rigatoni with sausage from Italy is delicious. The mozzarella cheese logs are the first course, but the fettuccine Alfredo sauce is beyond wonderful! We wanted some Italian food while my family visited the area. We made the decision to visit this location. Since the location is so adorable, you should definitely go shopping after. To start, we had the cheese sticks, and they were delicious! Those cheese sticks are sure to please any cheese enthusiast. They are enormous. We were happy to find parking just in front of us; the day was lovely and there are a few little shops and restaurants around. Parking is metered. The eatery exudes a real Italian vibe, and one can observe the chefs hard at work. Although small, the bathrooms are tidy. They are spherical and roomy booths. The wonderful thing is that you can make two pies with separate flavors. We therefore had half pepperoni and half chicken Alfredo. Additionally, a half Domenico's special and Domenico's supreme. The vegetables and peppers were delicious.

Great service Tasty food Cool neighborhood Reasonable prices Love their bread Just wish they had more locations

Another home run. Went there to celebrate my birthday with my boyfriend. Service was wonderful. Food portion sizes incredible, so many options for a vegetarian. The server was warm and welcoming. I love the ambience of this old-fashioned Italian restaurant. I even got a little tiramisu treat for my birthday! We'll go many many times!

This was our very first time here and they have been around for 79 years this year! Anyways, service was excellent! We ordered some appetizer, the mozzarella logs and they were okay nothing great. We then had the tomato pasta for 2-3 people plus the chicken parm. The tomato pasta with the sausage was really good but the parm was meh... tasted burned and not appealing to me. Our bill was about $100 with the 3 things we ordered so definitely not a cheap place. I wanna go back to try the pizzas next time!

It was my first time and won't be my last! I'm sad I didn't get photos but I promise this place didn't disappoint! We were greeted by a nice host and he said 15 minutes and we waited less! There were checkers in the waiting area which was pretty cool, kept us busy! We sat in a comfortable booth with perfect lighting! Our waiter provided delicious warm bread with a tasty vinaigrette oil! The hostess was great about recommendations! We ordered the supreme pizza and the basil cream pasta! They both were amazing! Can't wait to come back and try the lasagna! And leave some room for dessert next time!

I have been to this location in the past and I believe the quality of the pasta has gone down. I ordered the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo and the chicken was completely bland. The sauce was ok but they could have added more in the dish. I also ordered the tomato bisque soup and out was amazing. I'll try again down the line but I'll most likely order a pizza instead.

I've been a local for a while but never made my way over here. Came for dinner and the food and the service were superb! Food was delicious and manager somehow knew we were first timers and he took time to thank us for dining there and gave us a little history about the place. I felt very special dining here and would go back. Thank you Lance for your hospitality!

Some of the best pizza I ever had. I recommend getting the chicken Alfredo pizza which is amazing and the spicy BBQ pizza which is also delicious. And the restaurant is beautiful and the people are nice and always have a smile.

Spaghetti and meatballs is one of my old school favorite dishes, and I have searched high and low for the perfect meatball w/sauce. This is not it. Not horrible, as I've had much worse. But not good either. Sauce- ordered the meat sauce. It was watery and bland. I dumped a ton of Parmesan on it and it still didn't help the situation. Meatball- this is where the 3 stars come to play. The consistency was was spot on with the amount of moistness & softness. I can't stand a dry, dense meatball. Plus they were ENORMOUS. Had the flavor been added, it would have been a 10/10. However there was zero flavor and that accounts for a lot when it comes to food, lol! Pasta- regular, from a box. I could care less about this, if the sauce and meatballs carried the rest. And the search continues...

I really liked the vibes and ambiance of this Italian spot on 2nd Street! It feels fancy, and it is an overall good date spot. The checkers were a great touch in the waiting area. I played while waiting for my table when it was a busy night during the Naples Boat Parade. We started our dining experience with complimentary bread with an interesting tangy and creamy sauce. My date was laughing at how much sauce I was putting on the bread; it was delicious! We each got pasta; I got the Chicken Basil Cream, which I enjoyed, but just a heads up that it is super rich and oily. The pizza here was unique and "award-winning." We split the Ground Pepperoni; the pepperoni kind of tasted like bacon. Next time, I'm getting a large pizza! It was a great touch having Mike, the owner, walk around and asking customers how their food was.

I have been coming to Domenico's ever since my family moved to Long Beach and it has been so amazing celebrating their 70th year in Belmont Shore! I brought my boyfriend to visit for his first time and Mike, the owner, was so excited for him to try the amazing food that he brought out their amazing terramisu (AMAZING) for him to try! Mike was so nice and treated us spectacular! Needless to say, Domenico's is a must visit for anyone looking for the best Italian food! The ambiance in the restaurant is so romantic and inviting. The string lights in the restaurant are so cute! Domenico's is the best!

Hands down, this was one of the best, if not the best Italian restaurant I have ever been to. The little bread pieces they brought with that sauce was delicious, the pizza and lasagna my lady and I ordered were outstanding. The service was good, and the atmosphere was a good vibe.

This rating is based on take out. I was really excited to try this place based on the stellar reviews on here. However, I wasn't impressed but my partner thinks it's because it's take out. I'll have to dine in to update my review. I ordered the creamy pasta and the scauce was good but not as creamy as i was expecting based on reviews. And the mozzarella sticks were also disappointing. Since it was take out I had to reheat them and I wasn't a fan how the mozzarella tasted. However, the plates are large. My pasta plate could definitely fill two people. And the mozzarella sticks are enormous! I ordered the large, but the small would have been enough for two people.

Food, delicious. Service, amazing. Ambiance, 100% Italian. This place is great, if you haven't been, go immediately.

We are a family of gluten free members. Not by choice. We were not pleased with the gluten free pizza. It was too moist in the middle and too hard on the outside edges. Perhaps a quick prebake then add toppings n perhaps some vegan cheese. Makes it easier for everyone to enjoy dinner together with non gluten members of the family

This was me and my boyfriend's first time at Domenico's. Love the ambient and food. We would definitely come back. I got the giant meatball sandwich and my boyfriend got the small pepperoni pizza (with basil). Marissa S. was our server and recommended the moscato cupcake wine. We trusted all her recommendations and the general manager, Lance, was very welcoming. 10/10 service and food. Highly recommended. (They don't take Apple Pay btw so just make sure you bring your wallets.)

Salad was good so much I had to take the extra home. Was able to finish the chicken parmesan with no leftover. The Service was fast and attentive. Love the ambiance and decor of this restaurant. chicken fettuccine alfredo was filling the person had a little bit leftover but not enough to take home.

Ground Pepperoni pizza and the Meatballs were delicious! The Mozzarella logs were both unique and tantalizing!

My coworker recommended this place to me so many times and I finally visited. My party of 5 went for my brothers birthday. On a Saturday at 3:15p, we got sat right away with no reservation. Btw they don't take reservations unless your party is over 8 people. Parking is metered parking, and we got lucky with something right in front; the day was beautiful and there is a small, stores and other eateries in walking distance. The restaurant has a authentic Italian look and you can see the cooks working hard. Bathrooms are pretty tight but they are clean. The booths are spacious and round. The cool thing is you can do a duo pie of different flavors. So we did half chicken Alfredo and half pepperoni. Also a half Domenicos supreme and Domenico's special. The peppers and veggies on here were divine. I got chicken Alfredo, chicken Parm, a side of steamed veggies, mozzarella sticks, calamari, and meatballs. Everything was fresh and hot. I loved the mozzarella sticks, they are huge too. They give lots of sauce and the bread was also fresh. They serve in cubes. They have pizza sizes by the inches of small; medium, and large. We got two smalls. We got stuffed pretty quickly. I loved the Alfredo. The calamari was okay, a little rubbery. And the root beer was a little flat but everything else was cooked perfectly and even the leftovers we had was just as much of a hit!

Our perfect order is ground sausage pizza, antipasto salad, and sausage tomato cream pasta. To die for!! Everything is so delicious. THIS is authentic local Italian!!

Delicious food with large portions. Gives a very old time Italian feel along with great taste.

Sorry to say but this was a disappointing experience. The reviews on here did not exactly live up to great food. But some of the critical remarks on here were very true. The reason for not going into lots of detail is that the management and staff are nice people. Who knows sometime in the future I may visit again. Just because the people there were so welcoming.