Venue Review: Cucina Alessa

Alessa serves warm Italian food in a relaxing beach-side setting

By Anne Valdespino
OC Register

This colorful café, with its own parking lot and perky awnings visible from PCH, serves a lunch that’s an incredible value, with many dishes for $10 or less. Salmon salad ($9.99) has a lunch-sized filet perfectly grilled and set atop a bed of organic baby greens with asparagus and tomatoes in a citrus vinaigrette. There are panini such as portobello mushroom with crispy, crunchy bread ($7.99), oozing fontina cheese. Lasagna ($8.95) was a favorite: tiny meatballs, tender sheets of pasta and a fresh tomato sauce. The wine list has many choices by the glass with lots of Italian and California selections. Scarbolo Pinot Grigio was a nice match with the salmon salad and didn’t break the bank at $8 a glass. At dinner there are more pastas and thin-crust pizzas like the Bianca ($14.50) with thinly sliced salty prosciutto, fresh mozzarella and ricotta and baby arugula piled on top after the pizza is baked. Alessa makes a great little escape from some of the usual beach hangouts – why get the same old burgers and fish tacos when you can eat fresh Italian dishes and get a little atmosphere for pretty much the same price? Alessa serves breakfast too, every Saturday and Sunday.

Worth a try: Salmon salad ($9.99), Lasagne ($8.95), Pizza Bianca ($14.50).