The Gossiping Gourmet:

As your new food writers, we would like to take a moment to introduce ourselves. We have been writing restaurant reviews and food articles for the Coastline Pilot in Laguna Beach for the past five years, a job we love and will continue to do. Prior to that, we were the owners of A La Carte Gourmet Restaurant and Catering for 20 years.

Our reviews are critical as well as balanced, and we try to cover a wide range of dining experiences, from high-end to strip-mall. We hope you will find our articles entertaining and informative and enjoy reading them as much as we enjoy writing them. We love to get feedback (no pun intended).

Because they have recently acquired a new chef, we decided to begin with Andrea at the Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast. This spectacular beach resort sits on a hilltop overlooking the sea with architecture inspired by the famous 16th-century architect Palladio.

Andrea is their fancy restaurant, and although it is elegant, it’s not stuffy, and the prices are not intimidating, especially when you consider the whole dining experience. Besides the gorgeous view and the dining room, with its high ceilings, tall windows and Tuscan vibe, it has beautiful round leather booths that create a feeling of comfortable intimacy once you are seated.

The restaurant is done entirely in shades of tan with marble floors. Full-grown potted palms grace the room, and flowers are everywhere. However, we suggest that when making your reservation, you request a table on the slightly more casual enclosed terrace, where the view is exceptional.

The service here is impeccable, and as we perused the menu, we noticed that the linens were actually linen. As you may have guessed by now, the food is Italian and in the competent hands of Stefano Chiarugi, who hails from Tuscany.

The signature offering here is the house-made pasta. It is made fresh daily in their Pasta Room using stone-ground wheat flour, organic eggs, filtered water and natural salt from Italy. It is definitely the thing to order.