Reviews for Cucina Alessá in Huntington Beach, CA
Very busy when we arrived 6:30 pm Sat. Oct 8. We did have reservations. Great service, delicious food. Good selection of wine... and Beer. Top floor has great view of area looking west down Main Street. This was our 4th visit to Cucina Alessa'. Read more
Great environment, good service, tasty eats. Reservations and dietary substitutes available (vegan and vegetarian friendly). My... significant other and I went here to celebrate our first anniversary. He is a regular and I'm new to the place, but the serverswere very understanding and kind. Tables are available in the main floor, second floor, and sidewalk patio. There's also a baron both floors. The dining area is clean and quaint, dimly lit and well ventilated. Dining here comes with bread sticks andolive oil dip. Water is free, iced and clean. We ordered Calamari Fritti (light and crispy fried squid with a garlicky tomatosauce on the side). I had the Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina, thick potato pasta and fresh mozzarella in a thick marinara sauce(pomodoro), and my partner had the Rigatoni Toscana, featuring chicken and sun dried tomatoes in an earthy mushroom porcinicream sauce. We also had a glass of strawberry lemonade on the side. Portions are good and the food is well seasoned. There aremeat and dairy substitutes available on the menu, ask your waiter/waitress for availability. The calamari was very nice, friedbeautifully and light in taste, paired with a fragrant garlic tomato sauce. Though the sauce was delicious, we were expectingsomething more similar akin to cocktail sauce. The squid is nice and springy. I would recommend giving it a try. This was alsomy first time trying gnocchi and I have no regrets. I nearly finished my plate enjoying the plump chewy pasta, though the cheesewas my favorite part as they were soft and semi molten from the heat. The gnocchi is a very simple and cozy homestyle dish, wishI can have more in the convenience of my home. (Maybe I'll learn how to make it myself.) Both of us were looking forward to therigatoni because it's one of the reasons we came to celebrate our special day at this restaurant. We love sun dried tomatoes andmushrooms, but I'm also glad I didn't order the same dish he did. Though it's cooked beautiful Read more
What an amazing restaurant! Great options for carnivores, vegetarian and vegans alike. Servers could answer detailed questions... on entrée ingredients. Very Friendly. Great presentation. And beautiful interiors only 5 blocks from the Beech. Read more
One of our regular places we visit for dinner is Cucina Allesa. We like to sit up stairs and wait in the bar area until our... table is ready. Very friendly staff and the food is always fabulous. I was craving the Sea Bass tonight but changed my mindlast minute and ordered the Fusilli Napoli. It is homemade lemon fusilli, fresh garlic, parsley, sauteed jumbo shrimps,calabrian chili glakes in white wine lemon cream sauce. It was to die for. The shrimp were enormous. Out of the 4 dinners wegot, mine one the best meal! Hubby created some sort of pasta with oil, crushed red peppers and shrimp. Not bad, but not asgood as mine. My friend eats like a bird so she gets 2 meatballs and calls it a day. They are huge and delicious but I’m afatty and I need carbs. Speaking of carbs, I didn’t mention the bread and pesto dipping sauce they start you off with. Ithink I can eat 5 baskets of that stuff. The pesto sauce is my favorite. We still had room for dessert (I don’t know how) sowe ordered lava cake and cream brûlée. I don’t know what I like best since they are both so different. Depends on what youare in the mood for but you can’t go wrong with either one. Be sure to check this place out. Read more
Delicious fresh pasta!! This is by far the best Italian I've found in Huntington beach so far. We arrived early and had a... wonderful window seat upstairs. We will definitely be back. Read more
We read a lot of the reviews and we were happy to get very kind customer service. The meal was amazing! Just as we read on the... reviews. Oh and the green dipping pesto sauce was the best we have had! The calamari and shrip w the zucchini was soooo veryyummy! Read more
This was my first time at Cucina Alessa and I had a hard time liking this restaurant (and it's not because of the food). The... entire atmosphere is super loud, especially when there are extremely boisterous patrons who are drinking. Voices, clamoring ofdishes and the sheer small size of the room echo to the point you have to practically shout at your dining guests to beheard. The service was disappointing. Our glasses had lipstick stains and debris in the water. Once we ordered our entrees ittook an extraordinarily long time before they came, and although they arrived hot, I would have appreciated more communication. The server was nice but seemingly stretched to the limits with orders. I would not consider this establishment to be finedining and yet the wait for food is comparable. I don't see us returning. On a positive note, the food was tasty. Presentation leaves a lot to be desired, but the dishes themselves were quite good. They have a fantastic dipping sauce forbread and the Bella Mia meatballs were terrific. We tried the Fusilli Napoli, Ravioli D'aragosta and the Pappardelle Al SugoD'agnello. We also had some burrata that was served with a few olives (one fell onto the table when placed by a server whoclearly didn't care) and a half of an artichoke served over a bed of old arugula. It was strange and we weren't sure if it wassupposed to be served with bread or as is. At any rate, the burrata was decent. But, I'd say go ahead and skip it. Read more
Very good food reasonable prices. I would recommend dining upstairs however if you don't intend on yelling to hear each other... as the acoustics make it very loud. We did ask, and were moved outside where it was considerably more comfortable. Read more