Prego Ristorante

This restaurant is not located in a typical place, but nestled at the base of one of the many Irvine Corporate buildings off Michelson and Von Karman, just a stone’s throw away from John Wayne Airport. Since its in a corporate area, parking is is regulated. You have a choice for valet parking for $ 4 or self parking (and get your ticket validated by the restaurant).
My boss took us out to lunch, and we had 11:30 reservations on a Tuesday. When we walked in, our table was ready. We were to the left of the hostess station, just behind the bar and their newly renovated «sports bar» area. The restaurant is well lit, with natural sunlight as well lights from the 6 plasma televisions mounted on the wall.
I was surprised, however that the restaurant did not offered us the «express lunch» as posted on their web site
but was given the dinner menu. Well, just because lunch was on the boss didn’t mean I should go crazy.
I opted to stick with pasta, and had the Pappardelle Rustiche, a homemade, large flat pasta, similar to say lasagna noodles but not as wide. It was topped with tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms, rucola (which I mistook for spinach) and EVOO, extra virgin olive oil for $ 18. It was a meatless pasta, and yet had plenty of flavor. I think if it had meat, like a sweet Italian sausage, or bolognese sauce, the dish would have been even better. Overall a thumbs up.
For dessert, the boss said for us to order something so I went with the White Chocolate Ganache with berries and pistachio cake. Simply light and amazing. It was the prefect end to our lunch.
My coworkers ordered soups, other pastas, and one even had the chicken. They all seemed pleased with their choices. Service was good, and drinks were refilled often. The staff did not rush us, and boxed our food to take home.
The prices were not terribly expensive, but can run around $ 25-​$ 40 a person. They have an outdoor area for dining, which today was exceptionally nice. For this experience, I was pleased with the visit and would recommend coming back.

Today I stopped in at Prego in Irvine. I witnessed the most disrespectful behavior of a bartender. Two customers were having what could be considered a heated debate over politics when one got overtly aggressive causing the other to react equally. The bartender obviously favoring one customer began to yell at the other, something she should never have involved herself in. She then used inappropriate language telling the customer to leave. The young lady who now say alone was only trying to pay her bill and leave but the bartender continued to attack her. I felt very sorry for the young lady and highly encourage management to fire that bartender, I have been told her name is Erica. It was a disgraceful way to carry yourself when you should be acting professionally. I will never go back again as I could be the next target. I do not recommend this establishment.

By far the best Italian in Orange County.
Great service, fresh food, and delightful atmosphere for any occasion.
Highly recommend the penne with vodka sauce!
Great for dates as well!!!

Overall this restaurant is fine — solid and friendly service, decent if not spectacular food and I wouldn’t have even though of writing a Unilocal review — then I brought my baby into the large and nice restroom — and there wasn’t a changing table!
This is a pretty large restaurant that has been around for awhile and every time I’ve been its been busy. How could they not think to put a changing table in the restroom?
What did I do? I changed my baby on one of those white tablecloth tables.

Went here for the first time on Valentine’s Day and the service and food was great! The ambience was to my liking as well and I loved how I felt like I was in a very classy «Italian Joint »

Came here for happy hour once, and it was pretty good. The price was pretty reasonable since it was happy hour, and their margarita pizza was just AMAZING! The mixed drinks were pretty strong. The service was okay they could be a little more friendly.

We absolutely love the fresh food, amazing service and phenomenal cheesecake! We keep going back and bringing friends. Their cheesecake is bar none, the best!

******NEVER EAT AT THIS RESTAURANT ******
****** WORST FOOD EVER*****
We were here the 3^rd of January 2016 at lunchtime for a bar mitzva as per a catered reservation of 50people. Giving this 1 star is ONLY because I do not have the option of a negative star. I would NEVER recommend this restaurant to anyone. We were sat on the patio were it was cold, asking for heating lamps… We were never accommodated! The (dried, no flavor having, overlooked) food was served on cheap chafing warmers… As If we were at a cheap hometown buffet The dried chicken… Served with backbone, salmon overcooked with a flakey beef jerky texture. Servers were short and unprofessional. When management was requested… Simply no manager on board… Had to forward complaints to the cook. I can’t even refer to him as a chef due to the distasteful food he set out for the guests. Hope this post has helped anyone who has remotely even thought of dining here.

This is a great restaurant. It is located in a business building which can get a bit crowded. I’ve had a lot of appetizers here and everything seems good. Service seemed fair.

So my date and I ended up at Prego’s for NYE (our back-​up plan) since our original planned spot ended up being a little too packed…
Worst. Idea. Ever.
We showed up without a reservation a little before 10pm. They were moderately busy, but it was definitely not a packed house. We let the hostess know that we didn’t have a reservation and she told us that they were only offering prix fixe dinners. After quick consideration, mainly due to the fact that it’s NYE, it’s 10pm and we’re now hungry. we agreed to the prix fixe.
Once we were seated with our prix fixe menus. we sat at the table for about 20 – 25 minutes. Nobody came. Nobody took our «order» for our prix fixe.
Servers and bus boys walked by, glanced at us and kept walking. A guy in a suit who looked like the restaurant manager kept walking by, ignoring us.
We sat there and watched other parties come into the restaurant, be seated, and have their orders taken before we even got water. And the kicker is… majority of them were handed regular menus! Why are we made to order prix fixe, but every one else is handed a regular menu?!? And that restaurant manager — he seated a family in the middle of the dining room, had a server take their order WITH A REGULAR MENU and gave them personal service while my date and I are sitting there waiting for water still!
It took us 25 minutes to get water!
I finally waved a random server down and asked him if he could take our prix fixe «order» since the main entrée section came with three different selections. He obliged, then finally other servers started bringing silverware, complimentary bread, bread sticks, and even the centerpiece candle. Yes. it was that bad. I even made the mistake of ordering a bottle of wine, which I do regret doing because why should I give this place more business?
After another 10 minutes we finally started to get our food. Food was ok. actually it was sub-​par given it was a prix fixe menu. I’ve eaten at Prego’s several times and the prix fixe was not what I expected from them. The salad was ok. The stuffed ravioli was a little cheesy for my taste, but that’s just me. The halibut which I ordered was WAY dry, drowned in sauce to mask the dryness and had parts where the crust was way hard. My date thought the salad was ok. Liked the ravioli, but the prime rib she ordered fell flat for being a prime rib.
We were SO fed up with the service and the food that I paid for the $ 200+ meal halfway through the main entrée. Our server rushed to bring us desert, which we took one bite of just for s#*ts and giggles. We ended up leaving with half a bottle of wine, half the main entrée and our desert uneaten on the table.
WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!
We won’t be back. I, won’t be back. It’s sad actually because I work for Greenlight next door. I come here for lunch every now and then.
No more.
I will tell my coworkers how you guys dropped the ball on NYE. Worst experience, worst service, and left a bad taste in our mouthes for a NYE dinner.
Don’t know if it was because my date and I looked younger than your average patrons so you guys stereotyped us, or because you (the manager) was too involved with your VIP party, or because of lack of communication on your staff’s side, or if it was just a series of coincidences… but whatever it may be, our experience is not acceptable. We should’n’t have to be made to order a prix fixe when other patrons get to order off the regular menu. We shouldn’t have to be made to wait half an hour to get water when we’re watching other parties get good service. As paying patrons, we shouldn’t be ignored on NYE!
Oh, and quite honestly… had we been given a regular menu, we would have probably spent more than what your prix fixe cost — at minimum it would have been comparable.

Beware if you order pork chops, it is smothered in a thick gooey sauce, which was burnt. If you order lamb chops, it is smothered with mustard sauce. I could not even taste my meat, but only the sauce. We sent it back and rejected the entire order. Recommend skipping these plates or ask without sauce. Ran out of roasted potatoes and subbed mashed without informing. The veggies were drenched in grease. I eat vegetables for health, not to put my body six feet under.

My friend ordered a salad, and was greeted with a friendly little insect inside the salad begging not to be eaten must of been a really fresh salad! LOL

I have been here a long time ago and came again yesterday. The staff was fixing the door when we walking in. We were not greeted. We even made a comment about being able to seat us that was ignored. Once we were at the hostess stand, one of the staff members walked up to us, asked us to follow her to the right, took two steps, started to the left, took two steps, and handed the menus to a waiter that took us to a table. Um… ok. The waiter impressively rattled off the specials. The wait staff was great. The food was okay. We asked to get the check right away and it was brought right away. Only giving three stars because of the wait staff being so on point.

I was invited to the Halloween Masquerade party. Facebook rsvp’d and arrived by 8:40 to be «early birds.» My husband and I, along with at least another 150 people stood in line waiting for access. We waited for an hour and a half and watched as the restaurant slowly filled up.
The managment or club promoters did a horrible job organizing this event. From what I saw there was 3+ guest lists and there was no clear «line» to stand in for what they had organized. It was all 1 line of people scratching their heads waiting for this «epic party» that had been talked about on Facebook. By 10:30 the «club» had about 100 people inside and a ton of us waiting in line.
After wasting our time & energy, we decided to leave. So did a mass majority of other people standing in line. A lot of business (current and future) was lost. I will not visit this restaurant nor will I ever waste my time with a future event here. I will also make sure to spread the word of the craptastic time we all had standing in line for an event that had a lot of talk, but nothing to back it up.
Thanks for making this Halloween a total fail!

Shhhhh… Nestled between Irvine office buildings is this classic Northern Italian trattoria.
Remember the 80s? The one in SF was my go-​to spot for years. Now, when I crave angel hair pomodoro and want to escape the «scene» restaurants and crowds on a Thursday, I head to Prego.
Great service from most waitstaff, lovely outdoor patio. Can be packed on lunch days and weekend dinners.
Try not to fill up on breadsticks and toasted bread w marinara dip. Mangia!!!

Loved it!
Had lunch here and ordered the scallop pasta and replaced the ribbon pastas with angel hair. It was tasty! the one I ordered had scallops, mushrooms and asparagus! Definitely back to try other pastas there!
while you wait for your meal, they have bread sticks and GARLIC BREAD. Gotta love the bread~~ at least i do: D
Will be coming back here sometime!

I loved this restaurant! Came here for a family reunion and it looks as though they shut the whole place down for us… It was beautiful. The wait staff was flawless! They took a million pictures without question for us for the special event. They also rearranged all the chairs to get the pictures just right (some were standing on them, some sitting, etc… we have a huge family). Anyway, they were great all around. Very timely and friendly.
The reason I did give only 4 stars and not the 5 I wanted to was that, while the food was about a ⁴⁄₅ (which is pretty good!) it came to us cold. Like stone cold. Everything was cold… Not even slightly cold, I am not exaggerating here… straight up cold. Makes me wonder how long it had been sitting out? Honestly, I’m sure it had something to do with the event… and trying to time everything right. So I wouldn’t knock them down and not try the place on your own because of it. But I was pretty upset by that. But hey, it was still pretty good!!!

We shared a lovely dinner at Prego over the weekend. The restaurant was virtually empty, probably due to the holiday weekend and people trying to get home or perhaps they draw more of a weekday crowd. The space is massive, and there are tons of seating options. I’d definitely say this is a good spot for large parties or in our instance a great place to spend several hours relaxing and catching up since they didn’t need to turn over tables to other reservations.
Service was prompt and attentive from the moment we arrived. The hostess sat us without our entire party present which is nice and immediately the nibbles began to arrive. Bread, breadsticks, red sauce etc. to nosh on which is never a bad idea.
We started with a Caprese salad and ordered three different salads which all appeared fresh. My boyfriend and I shared the Cesare but the Spinaci salad also looked really good! I had the Cappellini Alla Checca angel hair pasta with fresh tomatoes and garlic tossed in olive oil, which was very good. My boyfriends lasagna was tasty, his Mom ordered a risotto dish that look really good and his brother had a steak entrée.
What really stood out were their desserts! I failed to get the pastry chef’s business card or name but hats of to him! We concluded dinner with three fantastic desserts each so different but equally divine. A chocolate banana tart, tiramisu, and berry tart. My gosh, these were all very tasty! It’s hard to pick a favorite because they were all so different but each wonderful.
Italian is a hard cuisine to get wrong in my book so I don’t think you can go wrong with much on the menu here but be sure to save room for dessert and definitely try more than one. Trust me!
Their wine menu was also good, we each had a glass of Caymus.

We occasionally go here for lunch since it’s right next to our office.
The food is really good and the servers are always nice. A bit pricey so you can’t really eat here on the daily.
Last time I was here, I ordered the Ruth salad — I personally think that it’s the perfect summer salad. It’s amix of seared tuna, zucchini, crab, and shrimp. Perfect for a hot day!
They also have good desserts here too!

I came here on a Wednesday evening for happy hour. Happy hour people sit on the left side and regular diners sit on the right side. We were moved twice before we finally got the table we were supposed to be seated at. Not sure why it was so complicated since this place was pretty empty anyways.
Happy hour is Monday — Friday from 4:00pm — 7:00pm. There are 7 appetizers to choose from and 4 pizzettas to choose from. The food tasted VERY mediocre but only $ 5 a plate.
–Calamaretti Fritti: Didn’t taste fresh & the batter wasn’t crispy enough. Coloring was off too. I don’t think the oil was at a high enough temperature
–Polpette Arrabiata: This is just regular tomato sauce penne pasta with 3 meatballs. Tastes like something you can make at home. I will give them credit for the yummy meatballs though.
–Primavera & Inverno Pizzettas: Pretty large pizzettas for only $ 5 each! Great value but they tasted mehhhh. I’d rather go to MOD Pizza, Blaze, or Pieology and pay 2 bucks more for yummier pizza.
PS. Valet parking is $ 3. Or you can park at any of the towers parking lots and have your ticket validated for free.