Hubs and I found Cucina Alessa about 2 years back when we were looking for an Italian restaurant to spend our Christmas eve. I'm a carbaholic, so I'm naturally drawn to pasta dishes. Also, I was hooked on Giada's cooking shows many moons ago and she made pasta look so delectable.
I remember having a very satisfying meal that Christmas Eve even though we were seating in the cramp patio area with not much decor to speak of. I don't know why it took us so long to go back, but hopefully it won't be 2 years until our next visit.
Cucina Alessa has 2 locations, 1 in Newport Beach and the other in Huntington Beach. We opted for the Newport one since there were more post dinner activities nearby. Do note that if you go to the Newport location, you have to go about 20 minutes ahead of your reservations time to ensure you have sufficient time to find parking. Cucina Alessa has only a few parking spots outside the restaurant and chances that they get filled up when you are there are very high. It being a beach city also means you're competing with many other people for the scarce roadside parking.
Dinner at Cucina Alessa started with warm bread and a flavorful pesto. I like that they serve pesto instead of the olive oil + balsamic vinegar combination you usually get at other Italian joints. Don't get me wrong, I love olive oil + balsamic vinegar, but the fact that Cucina Alessa went the extra mile to churn out the pesto just made it extra special. The bread was warm and pillowy with a hint of herbs (I'm guessing it is thyme).
I was pretty bent on getting burrata as a starter as it was something we don't get to eat very often. I had wanted to get burrata and prosciutto, but when our waitress was telling us about the specials for that night, both hubs and I decided that the fried burrata in marinara sauce was the way to go. I mean, how can you go wrong with fried cheese? This appetizer definitely did not disappoint. The fried burrata had a thin coating of breadcrumbs on the outside. Cutting into it yielded a soft stringy burrata that oozed out slightly. And the sauce, oh, the sauce. I was afraid it might be tart like most marinara sauces are, but this one was sweet and after we finished the burrata, I was sopping it up with the bread. So so good.
For our main dish, hubs and I both ordered pasta and I must say we made very good choices although I think it may be hard not to at Cucina Alessa. I chose the Pappardelle Bolognese which had homemade pasta with traditional bolognese sauce. Hubs went for the Livornese which consisted of fresh fish, shrimp and scallop with white wine oregano tomato sauce and linguini pasta. I apologize for the bad pictures, we were sitting outside where lighting was bad and I didn't want to keep taking pictures with flash and annoy other customers. My pappardelle bolognese was a simple dish but hit the right spot. The pasta was rolled out thin and held the bolognese sauce well. The livornese was chock-full of seafood. The scallop was huge, with radius of around 2 inches. The fish was very fresh as were the shrimps. The sauce had a hint of spiciness to complement the freshness. I wish I had a better picture for this! The portions were pretty big, or perhaps we ate too much of the bread, so we doggy bagged around a pretty substantial amount for lunch the next day.
We enjoyed our meal thoroughly and I'm glad we are near this unpretentious Italian restaurant that serves such delicious food.
Cucina Alessa (Newport Beach)
6700 W. Coast Highway
Newport Beach, CA 92663
(949) 645 2148
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