A menu from Laventina’s Big Cheese hangs on just about every refrigerator on the Balboa Peninsula, a crucial take-out text for all those weekenders crawling from one bar to another. The restaurant has never put its clientele out of mind, either—the place knows full well that it’s the go-to spot for anyone with even just a single drink in their system, staying open on the weekends until the unheard hour of 2 a.m. But the restaurant’s biggest pull is that it’s easy on the drunken sense of value, cooking up a medium cheese pizza for just over $5. Round up to a large and it’s still barely more than $6. Add on toppings and things logically build toward double-digits, but cheese is all you really need at Laventina’s. Here, you get that kind of pizza burdened by the very weight of itself, bland to some but turned into a perfectly pleasurable cheese pizza with just a dash or two of hot sauce. And while a medium will usually fill you up just fine, the idea at Laventina’s is to order big—you’ll need some for the morning after.

LAVENTINA’S BIG CHEESE 2819 NEWPORT BLVD | NEWPORT BEACH 92663 | 949.675.1980

Tags: Food, laventina's big cheese, newport beach, SIDES