Everything here is a la carte, so plan on buying a salad separately from an entree.

Entrees were good enough but pretty pricey for what they are -- a lot of pasta and a little sauce. It isn't unique to this Italian restaurant, but $21 for a plate of pasta with butter and cheese and a little prosciutto on top is pretty expensive.

We didn't have any wine, so can't comment on the wine list except to say that it seems extensive. It took up the entire back of the menu.

Do support your local restaurants to keep them up and running, though.

Father’s Day dinner night before

Tasty food, great ambiance, just the service was a little slow (could be in part to reduced staff because of COVID-19).

Absolutely wonderful dinner with family after a long week. You will not be disappointed with anything. The food, ambiance and especially the service. One of if not my favorite restaurants in Laguna Beach.

My family came for our first visit to celebrate two birthdays. We had an early reservation but the place was already packed. Our table was ready, and we were seated immediately. The venue wasn’t large, yet there were so many tables packed into the small space, it felt like a fire hazard. Staff was friendly and attentive, but service was slow, probably because there only seemed to be two servers. After we placed our order we were served warm bread and a delicious pesto olive oil. We shared a Baby Kale Salad, which was more than enough for three. Next came our entrees: Lobster Ravioli, Black Tagliatelle and Superfood Ravioli. Each was delicate and delicious. After our plates were cleared, we opened presents, feeling I rushed by staff. When we asked for the check, the server surprised us with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for each of the birthday guests at our table, which was delicious. Our overall experience was extremely positive, with our only complaint being the extremely loud noise level. We could barely hear each other as we friend to carry on a conversation during the meal. We resorted to a lot of shouting, which left us slightly hoarse by the end. I have no doubt I will return again to enjoy another delicious meal.

Excellent service, and great appetizers made fo ra wonderful dinner out. Highly recommend Salerno's

Fast service and good tasting dinner

Wonderful wonderful service. One of our favorites ❤️

My favorite restaurant in US. Amazing food, drink, service... everything! It's completely worth every single dollar.

Best Italian food I have had since I moved to California 5 years ago!!!

My wife and I chose this restaurant based on Open Table rating. It exceeded our expectations. The food is authentic Italian (and this is coming from a full-blooded Italian-American). The meatball appetizer was phenomenal as was the fettuccini alfredo. The pasta is homemade. Finished up with an excellent dessert. Finally the service was exceptional. Highly recommend Salerno.

The food was excellent. A nice cozy restaurant with great service and great food. I would highly recomment it.

Excellent food, on the more expensive side for dining out. On a holiday you may find yourself struggling to find an appropriate volume to speak at to hear your party as it is relatively small and packed tightly. Service is quick and friendly. I will be dining here again no doubt!

It was Valentine’s and everything was perfect.. the rose at the end was a nice touch 😊

I ordered the Healthy Salmon & Pasta, which was outstanding. My wife ordered the Eggplant Parmigiana. She was disappointed that it was fried slices of coated eggplant. Stick with the Salmon & Pasta!

The wait staff was over matched by the crowd… We are being served by the bartender which was not efficient. Also, prices were pretty much the same as sister restaurant Alesso but the ambience was not as nice here.

Actually.. always a good experience!! Seems we end up here w 2 other couples.. so we are a large group of 6.. we sit tightly together.. but we still enjoy our dinners.. service is timely and helpful.. food hot and tasty!!
You guys don’t disappoint!!

Actually a family get-together. Each of the four dishes we ordered were excellent. Everyone really enjoyed his/her meal. We will be back!

Visited to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. Initial “greeting” (by outdoor receptionist girl) was not punctual (while she was speaking with someone else, not even acknowledging us) and honestly shockingly rude (as she basically pointed us to a table without even escorting us there.)

Took quite a while for waitress to arrive to greet us. Calamari appetizer was mediocre but our two mains (seafood linguine and lamb pasta) were very delicious. Given I had mentioned (when making our reservation - then directly to server given fact initial receptionist had no idea nor interest) it was our wedding anniversary the server kindly brought us a single scoop of delicious gelato.

All-in-all, not sure we’ll be rushing back as there are many outstanding dining options in Laguna Beach.

Great find ! Friendly local feel with individual authentic dishes, not over priced, great wine list

A tiny little gem. We have been here several times and just love the small personal feel. Service was excellent. The Chianti Riserva was so smooth. My husband always gets the lasagna because he loves it. I got a linguine dish with seafood in a tomato and wine sauce. It was good but I felt that the clams were way too small to be able to be tasty. There was some octopus which was delicious and I wish there was more of that. I probably won’t get this dish again though I will definitely come back and order other entrees

Excellent authentic Italian cuisine and excellent service!... We will be back!

Best Italian restaurant in Laguna. Best staff and waitress.

Our annual Christmas Panto play at Laguna Beach Playhouse.

Great little restaurant, we had a LOT of fun and all four different meals were awesome!

Never disappoints always good food. The new superfood ravioli was delicious and as always the short rib pasta is so good. Cheese cake light and tasty and I don’t even like cheesecake. A go to favorite restaurant.

We loved the intimate setting. The place looks great during Christmas, great job on the decorating! We brought two of our Italian friends and they absolutely loved the menu! The food was authentic to the way they remember growing up.

There were 4 of us and we all loved our meals! I’d never heard of Gouda stuffed fried olives so we shared them... soooo good!!!! We will be back!!!

Always a pleasure to dine here. One of our favs!

I love this restaurant and Alessa, the food is excellent. The service is very disappointing. There’s annoyance from servers if you ask for more pesto dip or bread. We asked for a small plate of parmigiana cheese and were told they can’t leave it on the table (?). So the host waited for us to sprinkle some and took the rest. Service starts with big ‘Hello’ then just spirals down from there. It would be nice if they had servers that were more attentive and welcoming. Food is amazing so I might consider take out moving forward.

Our food was very good, but the menu was somewhat unusual so it seemed somewhat limited in choice. The restaurant is smallish so tables are close together, which generates more noise.

Unfortunately, we waited almost 45 minutes for our food to come out. Our waiter never even came to our table in that time to explain the back up in the kitchen or apologize - nothing. Very disappointed with the service and timeliness.

Walking into Salerno by Chef Pirozzi felt like a disconnect from Southern California and a connect to Italy. The people inside are enjoying themselves a lot and the food is absolutely amazing. It was the perfect way to end the evening.

We have dined at the restaurant numerous times, but this time we brought friends with us and the experience was such that we cannot envision returning. Service was very slow and generally poor and the waiter simply rude. The manager when we ultimately complained was similarly rude and hostile. While the entrees were very good as usual that could not make up for the overall experience. We apologized to our friends.

Service: It was slow and employees seemed unhappy. Could be their hot and cramped work area? Open Table reservation did not make it to their reservation list but they sat us anyway. Had this been a busy night we would have been in trouble.

Food: Salad was fresh, could have used more shaved parm and a little less dressing. Dressing was a little on bland side but we still enjoyed it. The Black Taglerini was excellent and loaded with fresh clams. Very hard to find squid ink pasta, initially why we stopped by. The portion size is big, a little too big for me. To each his own. The Spaghetti Verde was excellent as well. The fresh arugula pasta was brilliant. Wine selection is very good too. We will return to try other items.

Ambiance: The space is “cozy” so you bump into each other from time to time. There is a “homey” Italian feel.It’s also noisy, if you don’t hear well you might not be happy. For those of us with good hearing, remember the folks next to you can hear your conversation. 🙃

The restaurant was closed . We made our reservation , drove to the restaurant and it was closed . I called the restaurant and it’s voice mail had their hours and it says they were to be open !

I went with my husband for a date night. The server was really sweet but she admittedly said she was unfamiliar with the location considering she normally works at their other restaurant. So the two times we have been we have had to wait a fair amount to even talk to a waiter let alone get our order in. This is not ideal. And it’s a super tiny space rather loud and on top of each other (think NYC) If that’s not a deterrent then it’s definitely worth a try. The pasta special was the best - lobster ravioli! Otherwise the food is pretty good. Decent but not worth the price in my opinion.

Best Italian food in Laguna Beach! Newport Beach native, now living in Vegas.

Food was bland and boring. Service was non attentive and dismissive. Went to Aleysa recently and poor service there as well. Very disappointing and will not return.

This neighborhood gem has very good food. I had the caprese salad and delicious Eggplant Parmesan. The service was very good and I recommend Salerno.