If you want to try a restaurant that is entirely unique to Newport Beach – something only the locals know about – head to Sabatino’s. Tucked away in the Lido Peninsula Marine Center at 251 Shipyard Way is this tiny little restaurant with Italy oozing from its building. They are famous for their sausage started by the Sabatino Family in Sicily in 1864. The sausage is blended with a special goats milk cheese from Sicily which makes the meat juicy and flavorful. The menu has every kind of sausage dish you can imagine including Sizzling Sausage Platters, sausage pate, Rigatoni and Sausage, and Italian Sausage Sicilian Sandwiches.
My guests had the sausage sizzling platter which they raved about for days. They even took home fresh sausage! Since I am not necessarily a “meat” eater, I went for the Eggplant Parmesan which was wonderful!!!
I love the quote from Sabatino Ognibene, 1864 which is printed on their menu “Knowing you can’t believe what you hear, read and sometimes even see, you can believe what you taste.” Ahhhh how true!
Abbondanza Bistro is a jewel of an Italian Restaurant. When I moved from New York City, I thought I would never find another Italian restaurant like the ones in the city…quaint, fabulous original dishes and unbelievable pizzas. Well, I have to eat my words; Abbondanza has all of those qualities and more. Owned and operated by a husband and wife team, Patrick & April Derkacz, makes it even more appealing.
One of my favorite dishes was the fresh fish of the day, which happened to be sword fish. The piece of fish was huge and could actually be shared as an entrée along with my second favorite dish, the Bianca pizza. The pizza has the real thin crust and ingredients were the freshest I have experienced since living in New York. Located in on Balboa Blvd., it is walking distance from the tourist district yet backs up to charming neighborhoods.
Special events happen throughout the year such as “No Corkage Thursdays”, “Warm Winter Tuesdays with 25% off thin-crust pizzas, and wine tastes. I will be bringing back my “very Italian, very picky” husband for dinner here and would recommend it to everyone.
