Pino's Cucina - Ladera Ranch

The epitome of an old fashion family owned Italian restaurant!! Pleasant atmosphere, friendly service, and wonderful food. Everything is fresh and prepared to order. Various wines including Italian and domestic. Located in a strip mall, but could have been relocated from a small village in Tuscany. Much more than pizza and pasta at a reasonable price.

Years ago, my wife and I had the pleasure of dining here with some close friends and we all enjoyed every bit of the food and the service. A highlight of that night was meeting Pino himself, who stopped by our table and taught us about all things Italian, particularly what was on our plates.Although the atmosphere did seem a little outdated, it was easy to ignore it due to the quality of the food and the friendly attentive staff. After all, it isn't often that the magician behind the curtain introduces himself and takes the time to explain how his culinary magic tricks work as well.We then made several efforts to replicate that experience over the years since. However, unfortunately Pinos's seemed to always be closed on the days and times we were in the area (we live in another area of south OC).More recently, we discovered Pinos again after we were invited to a wine tasting dinner there. Not only was the food and staff still fantastic, but the atmosphere had been updated to compliment the experience. Moreover, Pino himself still came out the check on us and explain how he made each dish (with the same passion and attention to detail as he did all those years before).We enjoyed that experience so much that we dined there yet again tonight. To make it even more memorable, we also invited those same close friends again. I am happy to report that it was yet again a hit. Simply put, I think Pino's Cucina just may be our new go to Italian restaurant, regardless of the drive.Indeed, the food, service, wine list and ambience will make it hard to stay away for very long. I likewise highly recommend you plan a night out to see what all this fuss is about... hopefully you'll get to meet the man himself too!

Good wine selection, great food, and nice, attentive staff! It's definitely one of our favorite restaurants!

The food is really good and Pino is a very nice and wonderful chef.

Had an amazing lunch, and watched an artist paint a beautiful mural on the wall. What a wonderful lunch!