Costa Mesa’s feels more like a sports bar/nightclub. There is a bar area that serves liquor, unlike Sunset Beach, which just has beer and wine.
The room is bigger and decorated with four flat-screen televisions as well as photographs and posters of famous Italian football stars, like Joe Montana, Lyle Alzado, Mark Bavaro and Tedy Bruschi.
Illuminating the room are the large windows in the front of the room and the roughly 8-by-8-foot skylight on the dining room’s right side. With the bigger room comes more noise, but not so much that conversation is impossible.
This trip I was looking to try the lasagna. The restaurant has three types: cheese, a Bolognese (seasoned ground beef) and sausage.
Being partial to Italian sausage, I went with that one and was not disappointed. The dish comes with a salad, but I would pay the extra dollar and get the soup.
The salad is romaine lettuce, a couple cucumbers and red onion and grated Parmesan cheese. The alternative is an Italian wedding soup, which is chock full of small meatballs and escarole in a broth that is very flavorful.
I liked how the lasagna was presented. It is in a bowl and looks more like a lump than a square. The pasta sheets were thin and not chewy and in between them was ample amounts of sausage and ricotta cheese.
I would have liked more mozzarella cheese, but that is just a personal preference. The sauce used was a mellow red tomato base and not intrusive at all.
The menu at the restaurant is rather diverse and represents both northern and southern Italian cooking. The pasta dishes all give you the option of either penne rigate, spaghetti or fettuccine.
One of my favorites is the house specialty, Rosa. This is a creamy tomato sauce that has a different texture and taste than the restaurant’s basic red sauce. It is very alfredoesque in its consistency and mixes well with fettuccine.
