D’Amore’s Pizza – OC

Answering machine says it will now be Ameci’s opening in February.

Haiku pizza pie review:
A thin pie steaming /​/​
Light on cheese, heavy on taste /​/​
Perfect ratio
D’Amore’s is currently my favorite pizza place in Orange County. Their pizzas have a slightly thinner crust and subsequently aren’t overloaded with cheese; they’re definitely a far stretch from a deep-​dish experience. There’s a specialty soda fountain inside this location with a bunch of unique spins on classic soda flavors. The to-​go fridge has some unique bottled drinks as well.
The prices are pretty reasonable for a large pizza, and the wait time has always been short for me, even on weekend nights. After dropping in spontaneously a few times for a large pizza, I’ve never had to wait more than 10 minutes.

I was searching for good pizza around my place i found this place. No wonder they have good reviews. I liked the pizza crust of theirs. I would recommend this place.

4 stars on Unilocal?We need to give this place a shot, right? We ordered a large cheese pizza for takeout.
I lived in Boston before moving to Southern California. I am familiar with Boston pizza, which D’Amore claims their pizza is modeled after.
By Boston standards, this pizza was beyond horrible. By less stringent Orange County standards, this pizza was bad. My wife took a bite and refused to eat it. She opted for leftover Pizza Shack that had been in the freezer for a month. I managed to choke down one piece. Our kids (ages 3 and 4) thought it was great!
Never once did I have pizza in Boston that resembled this pizza (maybe Upper Crust, but that is a stretch). Pizza dough should be crispy on the outside and moist and chewy on the inside. Trying to find it in Orange County is like searching for the Holy Grail.
D’Amore’s pizza is so bad it’s hard to say where it goes wrong. The dough (can I call it dough?) was way too thin and had no taste and was just a terrible texture. The cheese combination was gross. Way too much Parmesan, the mozzarella was either poor quality or undetectable. The sauce was gross as well.
The closest comparison is to think Matzo covered in chunky Prego and sprinkled with Parmesan.
I’m in shock that this place has 4 stars on Unilocal.Either Unilocal is manipulating the reviews, or far too many of you have never tasted decent pizza. Note to self, quit trying stuff that claims «New York» this or «East Coast» that. 9 times out of 10, they are horrible.
As for a positives, the staff seemed nice, the place was clean, and I only wasted $ 13 on this pizza.

As a restaurant broker and a foodie myself I don’t usually find myself eating at bad restaurants and hence I’m almost never forced to write a bad review. I looked up this place on Unilocal when I wasn’t to treat some of my staff to an impromptu lunch. Ordered delivery through EAT24.
Pizza showed up (wish I would have taken pictures but my staff got to it before I could, lol)
Not sure where all the amazing reviews are coming from. The pizza was just a notch above edible. The pizza was cold, cilantro was wilted (and why there was cilantro on my bbq chicken pizza is beyond me) the crust was thin, dry and absolutely tasteless and the toppings were scant. It was a $ 17 pizza but a $ 9.95 one from Costco has twice as much on it.
Not happy and never ordering food from here again. I was still hungry after eating this… And we all know a hungry Jason is an unhappy Jason.

Good food. Good service. Friendly employees that give you free drink samples. Cheese pizza was a little small but still delicious and the garlic knots were plenty!
Deserves 3.5 stars but will give 4 because of the friendly staff!

I ordered the large «meat lover’s» pizza on Friday, and boy, was that a great decision!
The sauce had the perfect amount of tang and seasoning and all of the toppings tasted fresh. Amazingly, I even ate the crust and my friends know that I NEVER eat the crust off of pizza.
One thing is, it did take the delivery guy a little over an hour to deliver the pizza – but I don’t have anything bad to say about it considering it was hot, fresh, and at a great price. I definitely recommend anyone in the Tustin/​Santa Ana area order from D’Amore’s Pizza. You will not be disappointed!

Came with my sister & her kids. Small hole in the wall place. The Garlic rolls were very tasty. She got the family meal with the Greek salad. It was fresh & tons of stuff. I like a salad with lots of stuff. Garlic rolls did I say were great & I try to stay away carb.
We did ½ & ½ on the pizza. I liked the thin crust which was crispy. Could have used more stuff but overall rather pleasant.

OK. Well.
Here’s the deal: I grew up in Boston. I mean IN Boston, not an hour away. And I go home every other month to visit mom and other relatives.
The first thing I do is not go kiss my mom. The first thing I do is go get some Boston pizza.
D’Amore’s Pizza is fine, but it’s not the real thing.
The folks who work there are SUPER nice and it is a cute little hole in the wall in a strip mall in Tustin, near the 5, so it is convenient. Also the price is right, $ 13 for a large cheese pizza.
But to echo a previous reviewer, the sauce has NO flavor. Needs salt, sugar, and garlic.
The crust is thin but neither crisp nor chewy, it’s a weird flatbread dealio.
The cheese is ok, actually good quality.
Keep it up D’amore’s please work on the sauce, maybe hotter oven to get the crust a little crispy.
I’m really glad you are there, D’amore’s, it’s almost almost the real thing.

Lover heard of this place mainly because they try to make their pizza similar to the East coast. And being that he is a pizza snob, we had to give this place a try.
We arrived 20 or 30 minutes after they opened and we were their first customers of the day. We weren’t too hungry and so the «Buy the slice special» caught our eye. For $ 6, you get 2 regular pizza and a drink. Opting for the plain cheese, he’d figure that if they got the most basic right, the other toppings would be just as good.
The 3 criterion to the perfect slice
1. Dough
2. Sauce
3. Cheese
Being as we were the first ones, they haven’t made the pizza yet, we were giddy to think we’d get the freshest slice. Our cashier handed us 1 drink and asked me if I too wanted a drink. «Water’s good» I responded. But he wouldn’t have any of it. He gave me a water cup but told me to try their soda’s. They were East Coast famous Boylan’s Soda. Lover explained excitedly that Boylan’s soda were very good and only existed in the East and that he’s never seen their soda fountain till now. After trying every flavor, I realized they were right. These soda’s were so fresh and so sweet in a natural way. I ended up with the crème soda that the cashier originally recommended.
Now to the main course. Our pizza arrived steaming hot and of course thin crust.
Bread– Crunchy but not hard and had a good flavor. Although, lover said it wasn’t chewy the way the East Coast does it.
Sauce– Flavorful and fresh. Not too tangy and not too thick.
Cheese– Perfect amount of gooey cheese on top. Carefully and lightly dusted.
To the disappointment of lover, the pizza wasn’t as greasy as NY’s. But other than that, we both gave the pizza above average marks.
We had a little chat with the pizza cook/​cashier and he said he’d taken over for another pizza guy, who wasn’t doing so great, just 8 months ago. So I guess that explains some of the 1 & 2 star reviews.
Either way, great price, good food, good drinks, and AMAZING service will keep us coming back. Thank you!

I am so sad. I wanted to LOVE D’Amore’s, since I’m always looking for East Coast pizza. D’Amore’s in Tustin is locating in an unassuming strip mall with plenty of parking. I walk in and it’s charming, with its decorations of Boston, etc.
The gentleman at the counter was so friendly and nice. I ordered a slice and a soda (they have a Boylan soda MACHINE. Boylan sodas are flavored with natural cane sugar, which makes them delicious. The machine has like 8 flavors, including root beer. Root beer is a must for pizza. This is AWESOME). The slice comes out and it’s paper thin. Score. I pick it up and it holds its structure. Double score. The cheese looks great.
I take a bite. The sauce tastes like tomato paste, a bit tangy and lacking flavor. Hmmm. There is no discernable crust. Double hmmmm. There’s something weird about the crust… it’s thin and dense. And where is the crust bubble with the delicately browned spots?! As I am contemplating this, I watch another pizza being made. A ball of dough is being pressed onto a pan. And pressed. Getting thinner and thinner. I will the chef to pick the damn piece of dough up and start tossing it. I hope, I hope, I… I watch the sauce go on. Oh. my. god. That’s why there’s no crust bubble! The crust isn’t tossed! WHAT?! NO. This can’t be.
You can’t claim to be East Coast pizza if you don’t toss it. 1.5 stars for pizza. An extra star for the Boylan soda machine (yes, it’s THAT good), and another half star for awesome service. I’d give D’Amore’s a second try, but they’re going to have to toss that pizza.

It should be telling that I am leading this review with a complement on the sodas at the pizza joint. They have craft-​ish sodas on tap, all made with real cane sugar, and beyond the typical, they have ginger ale and black cherry soda on tap. I don’t drink a lot of soda, but more places should do this.
As for the pizza — «meh, I have had better.» I like NY style, so it was not that, it was just that the pizza was really just flavorless. The crust was a little too dry as well, perhaps a tad overcooked. I grew up on pizza like this, and it can be good, but this version just wasn’t. I was in for lunch, for the 2 slice combo. The portion is decent size, but the flavor was missing.

My pizza preferences;
1. Thin, chewy crust
2. Juicy but not salty
3. Cheesy
4. Not greasy
5. Simple toppings
I ordered cheese pizza with mushroom only topping. It came out freshly baked right off the oven. It looked like an ordinary pizza, but when I took the first bite into it, I knew I found my favorite pizza. It is thin, crispy yet juicy and chewy.
Nothing on the pizza was overwhelming. Everything was perfectly balanced.
They also have some helthy choice of beverages in the refrigerator section.
The staff was very friendly, they also offered some samples of their homemade unique flavored gelato ice cream. They even offered for a delivery service all the way to Irvine! This is definetely my go to place for pizza.

I have never been to New York, so I can’t really compare how a NY style pizza should be, but after trying the pizza here I hope my future travels plans to NYC pizza experience is like this one. Stumbled upon this hidden spot in a plaza while looking for a quick bite to eat before working a after hours shift for work. Walked in just expecting a normal slice of pizza for on the go. I prefer my pizza thin crust and crunchy, so the pizza came out to perfection the way I liked it. After a few bites, I told myself «wow! This is a dam good pizza». This place prides themselves as having authentic NY style pizza with all their ingredients shipped from the east coast, even the water! I will be back for more!

The pizza here is low calorie.
I think it is pretty good. I am vegetarian and I believe the owner is Indian.
I like that because they have actual pizza choices that do not require meat.
Plus Indian food is great too. Overall, they have good service and are pretty spot on.

I haven’t had a decent slice in OC for years til I came across D’Amore’s. so glad I did.
This is a great place for a legit, thin crust slice. I never get toppings when a pie is really good — I always stick with the regular cheese pizza here. The sauce is good, a little tangy, not overly sweet like it should be, and topped with good quality mozzarella cheese. The thinness of their pie is pretty perfect; nice and foldable with a little droopiness at the tip. This is actually one of the few places where I wish there was just a little bit more crust on their slices, and I could do without the corn meal on the bottom of pizza… but hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
The owners and staff at D’Amore’s are great, friendly people who really take pride in their product. You can tell when they show off the imported East Coast water that goes into the dough and Boylan sodas that these guys care about a quality pie!
Haven’t tried anything other than their pizza and gelatos (which are also really good), but just that and the fantastic service have made me a regular at lunchtime whenever I’m in the area.

Another cool find! My husband came across this place through an Entertainment Coupon for a buy one get lunch entrée, and the Unilocal reviews were good, so we decided to check it out. This place is pretty easy to miss in my opinion.
The menu is a decent size, nothing overwhelming that has you having a hard time making a decision. There is pizza, as well as salads, and pasta dishes. There is also a meatball sub now but it is not on the menu.
I had the cheese ravioli lunch special and it came with a garlic knot. My raviolis were drowned in sauce. (This was a good thing!) and the garlic knot was yummy. It looked like a little cinnamon roll. They also have these as a side. My husband had the baked ziti and really enjoyed his well.
They have New York style pizza here. While I ended up not having it this trip, I will have to make another one down to try it. They even have New York water. I take it this is a good thing, as they even pointed it out.
Real sugar sodas, and gelato as well! Unfortunately there was no gelato when we popped in right after they opened, but I hope to catch this on a trip soon also.
Service was friendly, they are proud of their business. Nice selection, and fairly priced. I hope to be back real soon to try some more items here.

Closest to Ny pizza as you can get.
They even ship there ingredients from the east coast.
YES it makes a difference..

I’ve eaten at most of the pizza places in town and I have to say that this is by far one of the best, if not the best. My family and I were the only ones there at the time and we got first class treatment. They went out of their way to make our dining experience memorable, which is rare for a hole-​in-​the-​wall pizza joint. The staff was exceptionally friendly and welcoming. Some things of note:
1) Their ingredients are from the east coast, including their water, so the taste is very authentic.
2) Their soda has real sugar not high fructose corn syrup.
The food was really, really, really good. Ninja turtle pizza quality!

We saw all the high reviews on Unilocal and decided to give it a try!
We went in around 3 PM on a Sunday afternoon and the place had 2 customers dining in.
I ordered a large pizza with sausage and mushroom. I also checked-​in and showed the guy working my free slice of pizza offer… When I mentioned the offer, he looked puzzled. I told him it was from Unilocal since I had checked-​in. He then took my phone and stared at it for a good 2 – 3 minutes and once he gave me my phone back he told me to «erase the offer». Ummmm yes, I did already since I chose to use the free slice «offer now».
Once we got home, we ate our sausage and mushroom first and it’s okay. Not the best but not the worst but to be fair, we compare all of our pizza to A Slice of NY in San Jose and nobody has measured up yet. One thing I will say is that the pizza dough/​crust on our whole pie vs. the free slice we got, was dramatically thicker. I wish our whole pie was as thin as the free pepperoni slice that we received. Also, Our whole pie had a lot of corn meal on the bottom so the entire pizza was «crunchy». Pizza sauce was good but they are skimpy on the sausage topping.
They have gelato at the store that we didn’t try and they charge per topping ($ 1.25 I think).
Overall, it was okay so don’t go out of your way to try it.