Trenta Pizza & Cucina

My mother and I had dinner at Trenta Pizza & Cucina yesterday evening. The restaurant has a cozy, welcoming vibe, though the small chairs and tightly packed tables made the space feel a bit cramped especially during the dinner rush. I later found out from a friend that they offer hooks for handbags, which would have been helpful to know when our server saw us struggling with where to put ours. The food was okay… classic Italian fare with a straightforward, no-frills menu. The pizza was well-cooked and the pasta was satisfying, but nothing really stood out. It’s a decent option for a casual neighborhood meal, though I wouldn’t go out of my way to dine here again based on the food alone. What did impress us, however, were the drinks. The cocktails were well-crafted, and the wine selection had some pleasant surprises. If I return, it’ll likely be for a drink and a light bite rather than a full meal.

Probably the best italian food we have tried ever in the area. Authentic sicilian food. And we are Sicilian, and we are super picky. This is the first time we have tried meatballs that tasted anything like our Noni from Italys. In this area, it's hard to eat Italian and feel good. After after we ate here, I had more energy than I had before I got there. Nice clean food

It's hard to find a legit Italian restaurant with good food and this one was very good. It's incredibly popular and busy. There is minimal indoor seating and a lot of outdoor seating in makeshift sort of outdoor area, but the ambiance is great outside. We enjoyed everything we ordered.

Wow. The only thing not to love about this place is the outdoor dining when it’s raining. The food however distracted me from the misty air and it felt like a wonderful trip to Italy without leaving the confines of Orange County. Meatball appetizer - holy cow these are amazing. I judge an Italian restaurant by the meatballs. These were absolutely incredible. 3 per order but was enough for a table of 4 to share. Arancini - melt in your mouth goodness. These exceeded my expectation and were soft creamy and served at the perfect temp. Bolognese - absolutely fantastic from the fresh pasta to the portion size, sauce to noodle ratio etc. chefs kiss! Mushroom ravioli - about 6 or so per serving, again, enough to share when doing family style with a large table. Sauce was creamy and delicious, nicely balanced out the meatiness of the mushrooms. Trenta pizza - we went spicy and sweet - all three flavors were incredible. A bit pricey at $75 for such a thin crust pizza and our party of 4 easily crushed this. We left a few pieces to take home for a guest who couldn’t join us. I think next time I’d do individual pizzas and share that way, and it would end up being a bit more food to pass around. The wine was incredible - had a nice Pinot noir which was my second choice, as the first wine tasted off. I sent it back and there was no issue with that at all. Had two salads and both were delicious and plenty to share. I think next time I’d skip this and get more meatballs :) Family owned and you can tell they care and take pride and grace when attending to their guests. I wish there was indoor seating, as it was cold and rainy. Parking is valet only ($8) and I didn’t see any street options available. Lot can fit maybe 6 cars. Food tasted authentic, was high quality and portion sizes reasonable for the price charged. Definitely adding this new find to my OC rotation!

Starting today's pizza crawl at Trenta Pizza & Cucina. Our server, Will, was quite delightful and very very helpful. We ordered the 30" Trio. The pizzas we chose were the Amalfi, Firenze, and Torino. They were all really amazing and the crust was thin and perfect. Amalfi, Mozzarella / Nduja / Salsiccia / Prosciutto Cotto / Shaved Parmigiano / Rosemary. The rosemary is very gentle and not overpowering, and the meat balance was very nice. The Torino has Mozzarella / Gorgonzola / Apple / Candied Walnuts / Shallots / Honey. This combination is really one of my faves with the apples and gorgonzola. The honey and nuts really round it out. I'm a big fan! The third, Firenze, has Smoked Mozzarella / Porcini Mushrooms / Truffle Oil. I don't do mushrooms, so I didn't taste this but it smelled amazing and Leah and Jacqui really enjoyed the entire trio of flavors!

Listen. I have been to New York. And Italy. And for that matter most significant Pizza places including but not limited to Boston, New Haven, Chicago and San Francisco... and I will tell you this - Trenta is one of the best Italian style Pizza establishments in Southern California in general. Compared to Italy and the East Coast, California is essentially inane when it comes to Pizza outside of a few places but almost none of them are in LA besides Trenta. If they are MIchelin Star I would believe it. I'll leave you with that. Outside of say, Jon & Vinny's and this other one Pizzeria Sei this type of Pizza is not that well done in Southern California. Oh what about LA? What ABOUT LA? No. If you want to try one of the best So Cal has to offer, it's Trenta. They have the oven, they have the knowledge of Pizza - they are the ones who can follow up when you recently just had Frank Pepe's or something legendary on the East Coast like two weeks ago. I would say... it is worth 1.5 hours drive for this PIzza max. 45 minutes for sure, an hour - sure. But between an hour 15 - 30 is where I say it's questionable if it's worth it. I don't expect everyone to have the ability to understand why Trenta is so good but Pizza Elitists will understand fully I am sure.

The food, service, and vibe are all five stars. This is a local hot spot where you are guaranteed to have a great time. It's good for a date or bringing the whole family. We had the pistachio pesto pizza with sausage and a goat cheese blueberry walnut mustard vinaigrette salad, which was magnificent!

We went to Trenta for dinner. We had high expectations based on the reviews, maybe that set the bar too high!! We made sure to get an appointment on a Sunday evening. It wasn’t hard, there was a lot of availability so that was good. We got there a good 30 minutes ahead of time. There is valet parking, no public parking around. The valet service was great. When we got to the front, we were greeted and seated immediately. There was plenty of seating both indoors and outdoors and we chose to sit indoors. Picked drinks and appetizers (Rustic Bread and Arancini Verde), they came out quickly. The Rustic Bread was alright, came out with a green house sauce. Overall, average. The Arancini Verde was interesting, above average. The drinks were good, nothing special. For the mains, we got the Napoli Pizza and the Gnocchi al Pesto). Unfortunately they ran out of the Gnocchi so they substituted with another pasta. The pasta was a little underdone (less than Al Dente) so that wasn’t great but it’s better than being over done I guess. The pizza was average at best. The crust wasn’t very good and the slices were very floppy at the center. The sauce was good. The desserts (Tiramisu and a chocolate cake I think) were average at best. Overall, I think it was a very average experience. If I had out of town visitors, this wouldn’t be a pizza place I bring them to. But I think the ambiance and the service was decent that I can’t rate it below average. Not highly recommended but something to go for a change.