Find friendly vibe at Roman Cucina

Where to find good Italian food in South Orange County? (Specifically the Saddleback Valley area). That is what someone mentioned back in October so consider this a first step in the search for Italian dining destinations in South Orange County. By all means, this is a call to send in your favorite places and the reason (s) why. Enjoy! Roman Cucina Italiana in Laguna Hills is a lively when patrons gather, as they did during our stay Thursday night. Pictures fill the brick walls like tile, even in the bathrooms. Glow from chandeliers gently meaders through the dining room, with both booths and tables, and bar. The menu is pretty straight forward – divided into sandwiches, salads, pastas, antipasti, lasagna, pizzas and calzones. Pasta choices include a side house salad with a red wine vinaigrette and your selection of style (penne, spaghetti or fettucine). The sausage mozzarella ($13.95) emerges with two Italian sausage links atop penne in red sauce with soft, sweet ricotta spheres in the middle. Sausage is flavorful with fennel seed and has some heat. The pasta is cooked ideally and the red sauce is full of tomato flavor. The smooth ricotta is airy, pillowy. The salad has appealing crunch from sliced cucumbers and romaine chunks and, for me, is overdressed. The well-balanced, salty red wine vinaigrette is made in-house. Shredded parmesan tops the salad. 

Among the antipasti are mushrooms sauteed with olive oil and a white wine lemon garlic sauce ($8.95) and steak milanese, a lightly-breaded thin cutlet of top round served with red sauce and lemon wedge ($7.95). You can get this on pasta or salad or in a sandwich. Pasta offerings also include shrimp scampi, served in a lemon-garlic sauce ($16.95) and ala checca, olive oil, garlic and Roma tomatoes ($12.95). Televisions propped on white-brick walls show a college basketball game and there appears to be ample conversation flowing throughout the restaurant, one of four in a chain owned by brothers David and Giovanni Roman. Our server is friendly and offers fresh cracked black pepper with the salad and crushed red pepper and parmesan with the pasta. We linger for two hours, 45 minutes, but our server tells us to take our time. Despite a steady stream of customers coming through the door, we sit and talk at a restaurant that brings friendliness with your meal.

Roman Cucina Italiana

25214 Cabot Road
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
P. (949) 380-4228

Open seven days a week at 5 p.m.