Il Dolce Pizzeria

Behind the tall counter at Il Dolce, a new Costa Mesa pizzeria and restaurant, silver-haired owner Roberto Bigne stretches pizza dough over the backs of his hands in a sure, practiced gesture. The pizza oven behind him glows a fiery orange. Bags of almond wood are stacked on the floor in front of the counter; the 2-month-old restaurant is so small there's nowhere else to put them. Meanwhile, the smell of pizza dough cooking in that wood-fired oven wafts over the counter into the simple dining room with bare-topped tables lined up in rows.

hungry lunch guest drums his fingers on the bare tabletop impatiently, although it's been all of five minutes since he's ordered. "Dude," his friend says, "think about it. This is artisanal pizza. Everything is made from scratch." Not everybody understands what that means. First the waiter has to take the order, then bring it to the kitchen, where the dough is stretched into a round by hand and the toppings assembled. It goes into the hot oven to bake. Even if your pizza is first in line, it cannot possibly be ready in five minutes. "Chill out," he admonishes his friend. This isn't Domino's or Pizza Hut.

Those who expect to have their food served up pronto are not the ideal customers for this Argentine-Italian hybrid, which moves at its own pace. If the service is sometimes confused in the heat of the moment, the food, and especially the pizzas, more than makes up for it.

S. Irene Virbila, Times Restaurant Critic, 2/11/10