Ciao! Deli & Pizzeria

Costa Mesa, United States

4.2

Open now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards
Free Wi-Fi

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 714-979-8669
Website:
www.ciaodelipizza.com
Address:
891 W Baker St Ste A-18, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
2.9 miOCTA
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
Yes
Delivery
Yes
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Lunch
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
Beer & Wine Only
Outdoor Seating
No
Wi-Fi
Free
Has TV
Yes
Dogs Allowed
No
Waiter Service
Yes
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 11:30 am – 9:00 pm
Open now
Local time (Costa Mesa) 6:50 PM Thursday, May 29, 2025

Business hours

Monday –
Tuesday 11:30 am – 9:00 pm
Wednesday 11:30 am – 9:00 pm
Thursday 11:30 am – 9:00 pm
Friday 11:30 am – 9:00 pm
Saturday 11:30 am – 9:00 pm
Sunday 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Stop by for lunch between 11:30 a.m. — 3:30 p.m. for our delicious Pizza by the Slice or come try other daily lunch specials, including our quality meat subs, homemade pasta sauces, salads and fresh baked bread. Lunch starts from $ 3.50 for a HUGE slice!

Be sure to try our Margherita or House Combination pizza, Ray’s Italian Hoagie, our Meatball Sub made with homemade meatballs or our homemade Oven Baked Meat Lasagna, just to name a few. We promise you won’t be disappointed!

Before you leave, be sure to save room for homemade desserts.

We take pride in serving the best foods to our customers and that starts with using the highest quality and freshest ingredients. You will get ALL FLAVOR and NO FILLER.

Starting 10/​18/​2012 we will be serving GLUTEN FREE pizza!

Thanks for your time and hope to see you soon.

History

Established in 2009.

Ciao! Deli & Pizzeria is the establishment of proud owners, Ray & Carmina Casso. When deciding to move to Orange County from the Bay Area, Ray and Carmina really wanted to open a restaurant that could showcase Carmina’s homemade recipes and love for cooking Italian cuisine as well as Ray’s love for sports, music, and BEER.

Carmina takes great pride in her cooking, using only fresh and quality ingredients. From the sandwiches, to the homemade lasagna and pasta sauces, to the thin and crispy crust of the pizza, the quality and flavors really show in the food.

The charming décor is the mad creation of Ray. When you walk through the door, you eyes will wander to the classic collections of sports memorabilia to the original concert posters and collages put together by Ray himself.

Ciao will prove to be a true feast for all your senses.

Meet the Business Owner

Ray and Carmina C.

Business Owner

Ray and Carmina moved to Orange County from Pleasant Hill, CA (located in Northern California 20 miles east of San Francisco) in July of 2008. It had been a long time dream of theirs to open a restaurant/​bar since they loved to entertain friends and family. They wanted to be the neighborhood’s hidden gem. After all, the best food and hangouts are «Mom-​n-​Pop» establishments. After searching the coast from Corona Del Mar to Huntington Beach for the «perfect location, they finally found «the one» and opened Ciao! Deli & Pizzeria in Costa Mesa on March 30, 2009. The food is freshly prepared using homemade recipes that Carmina has collected and perfected over the years. And when you meet Ray, you’ll feel like you’ve known him for years. It’s a winning combination that will keep you coming back for more.

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20 reviews of Ciao! Deli & Pizzeria

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Place rating: 5
Costa Mesa, CA
This place makes awesome pizza! I have only had delivery service. I can’t see myself ordering pizza from anywhere else but here. The meatballs are badass!
Only thing, they take vacations and close their store. I have called twice for a pizza when they were closed. Not enough of a reason to take stars away. Good food is worth waiting for.
Place rating: 1
Corona, CA
This place sucks, the service is bad and the waiter is not friendly. The food is not good, the pizza tastes likes dominos!
Place rating: 5
Fresh Meadows, NY
Coming from New York City, this is the closest thing to actual pizza that I find appetizing, now that I’m away from my beloved haven of all things pizza.
I love how their pizza tastes more savory, and less sweet, and the smaller sized pepperoni slices are more flavorful. This is the place to go if you just want a good, straight forward, pizza with amazing flavor.
The delivery wait is long, about an hour. I won’t remove any stars for this, because it is worth the wait, and the owner sometimes delivers, himself. He’s always bantering and incredibly nice.
Place rating: 5
Placentia, CA
I’m a fan! Working in a corporate office, it’s hard sometimes to get out and get lunch– especially when our group is as big as it is and we need to be in and out in under an hour (preferably). Cue Ciao! We tried their delivery service out and were super impressed. They had a slight hiccup on the order but made good and took an item off the bill and redelivered the correct item. I love the online ordering feature, as it removes the human error potential of writing down the wrong thing, or something getting lost in translation. That and it leaves a hard copy record of your order. They always deliver in approximately an hour and allow my coworkers and I to have a delicious lunch without leaving the office.
The food really has a homecooked feel to it, as the owners are a husband and wife duo where the wife cooks and the husband delivers. It’s authentic east coast Italian that will be sure to leave you satisfied. Highly recommended!
Place rating: 5
Irvine, CA
GARLIC KNOTS WITH CHEESE and Ray’s (Owner) wife’s lasagna. OMG!!! I can’t find the words to describe their food. So delicious and the staff is extremely helpful and friendly.
I’ve only gotten take out, but would love to sit down and enjoy a meal there.
Place rating: 5
Irvine, CA
Best pizza in Orange County. No contest. And I am a pizza nut. Beyond the pizza, their pasta is fantastic and their cheesy garlic knots are amazing. Everyone I introduce Ciao to loves it immediately. Ciao has ruined me because I can’t eat pizza anywhere else. Eating a slice of roundtable or dominoes tastes like dog food to me now.
Place rating: 2
Newport Beach, CA
I don’t understand the great reviews. Came here once and it was just ok but I thought I’d give it another try… based on the reviews.
Just wanted some hold olé spaghetti and lasagna. Pretty simple right? You’d think? But there was hardly any sauce and what we got was just not good. No flavor at all. Very disappointing.
Place rating: 5
Costa Mesa, CA
I keep coming back here and it just keeps getting better what can I say? I love the pizza, Love the garlic knots love the special desserts! If your lucky they will be serving the absolute best fresh cannoli. Seriously, it was the best I’ve ever had. I love the passion that goes into the food!
Place rating: 5
Martinez, CA
We were in town for my buddy’s MMA fight and thought we’d stay in and order pizza. It was delicious! They cook everything to order, so it’s fresh and authentic. This is not the place to go to if you’re after a quick, previously frozen meal, this is the real thing.
The owners are awesome, friendly, down to earth folks. I definitely recommend checking this place out.
Place rating: 4
Orange County, CA
Saturday night, friends over, had too much to drink, STARVING! Ordered the house pizza and a sausage and mushroom pizza. It was pretty good when it arrived but let me tell you, it was GREAT the next day heated up in the oven. Usually, pizza losses its freshness after its cooled down but the next day, it was amazing!
Place rating: 5
Costa Mesa, CA
Such good food and nice people! We were having our joint board and area manager meeting today and they brought over a few trays of the tastiest food we’ve had this year. It’s all homemade and is as good as mom makes it and those garlic knots are better then mom makes it. Don’t tell my mom. I just told them how many people we needed to feed and they put together a very nice mix of vegetarian and meat dishes that made all of us happy. One thing extra special was when they called back last night saying they had inadvertently planned too much food and were revising the menu so we didn’t have too many leftovers.
Very nice. We had plenty of food but not too much.
Place rating: 5
Commerce, CA
We have missed Ciao so so much! This is our favorite Italian Resturant in all of So-​Cal! Not just that the food is delish… momamia!, but the friendly people make it very special.
Salute! We are having some of our favs, clams and linguini, pizza with meatball… yum!
Place rating: 5
Austin, TX
Changed things up a bit on this trip to S Cal, stayed in Costa Mesa, rather than Newport Beach.
Ciao Deli was a short walk from my hotel, found myself craving Italian, so gave it a try. Orfered the baked ziti with sausage, and, you know what, tasted like home made, very nice. Small, but freindly place, Ray, the owner came around and chatted, nice guy, why don’t more more owners/​chefs do this?
I reallly enjoyed the food, loved the small simple atmosphere. I am looking forward to going back again to try the pizza next time.
BTW, the baked ziti was way to much for one meal, so left with enough for another meal!
Place rating: 3
Costa Mesa, CA
I was hoping for a really good experience here, especially considering the reviews. My uncle from Vietnam was in town and loves pizza, so we wanted to show him what really good pizza would be like. I actually enjoy deep dish pizza, but I think my uncle would have thought it was too heavy, so my favorite go-​to spot was not an option. I’m not a big pizza person, so we decided to go here since it was close by. The parking here is awful since it’s in a little plaza with several other businesses, and it’s always packed in this plaza for some reason. so come early to scope out parking.
We ordered the family special, which seems to only be advertised on their website. It came with a 2-​topping E-​Large pizza, a salad, and 6 garlic cheesy knots (with cheese is a dollar more, I believe) for $ 24.99. I’d say a really good deal. The garlic knots came out and were pretty tasty, as good as they say. However, the pizza took over 45 minutes to get to our table. Now if this was a deep dish pizza, 45 minutes would make sense, but it was a pizza with normal crust. Why would it take 45 minutes? Turns out, it looked like they forgot our order or something. They did offer us dessert, but none of the options sounded appealing. It was mostly cheesecake stuff and a lemon tart. No one liked any. We got one anyway but didn’t even eat it all because… well, we didn’t like any of the options in the first place.
The service here was ok, but I don’t know if I would recommend this place to my friends. With so many options for pizza, I wish we had just gone to a BJ’s or just gotten the deep dish despite it being too heavy for my uncle. But at least now we know.
Place rating: 4
Los Angeles, CA
Pretty good pizza.
I ordered for takeout online.
12 piece buffalo wings ($ 10.95) — the wings were good. Slightly breaded, and probably baked– they weren’t too saucy and the skin wasn’t gross and slippery. These were great… although a bigger ranch would have been great appreciated.
I also ordered the House Combo ($ 20.95 for a large). The pizza was topped with pepperoni, sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and olives. The pie was generously peppered with toppings. The marinara had a nice kick to it and the crust was a tad too toasty for my preference, but all in all, solid pizza.
Parking situation is a little hairy during dinner hours, but they try to their best to accommodate you if you’re picking up. Good value and taste for pizza outside of the usual chain establishments. Treat yo self and get a pizza here.
Place rating: 4
Cerritos, CA
The pizza was good and although the cheesy garlic knots are tasty, they are VERY garlic-​y so beware! (Although too much garlic is never a bad thing in my book).
The owner, Ray, was super friendly and easygoing and so are his workers. I would dine here again.
Place rating: 3
Fountain Valley, CA
Finally came here yesterday. I was excited but I was a tad disappointed afterwards.
Personally, I like some crunch in my crust. It had a bit but not enough. My friend and I decided on a pizza with sausage, meatballs, mushrooms, and dollops of ricotta. If you get 3 toppings, they are 50 cents each, but after that, they’re $ 1.50. Premium toppings such as ricotta/​pesto is $ 1.50.
It came out in a timely manner and a medium sized pizza was relatively large. The crust was a tad thicker than say Pizza Press, which probably resulted in there being 3 pieces leftover. Pizza itself wasn’t an explosion of flavors but I might be biased cause I’m comparing it to Pizza Press/Dean’s Pizza (which has thai curry pizza).
I actually ended up bringing sriracha from a Vietnamese place to spread over the creation. Don’t knock it til you try it, but it makes the pizza way better! :)
Service was fine.
Overall, this place is okay. It’s solid for the price. I’d stick with others but I wouldn’t say no if I’m in the area.
Place rating: 4
Irvine, CA
Cheesy garlic knots are on point! You get 6 small delicious hot rolls covered in cheesy goodness and fresh garlic everywhere. Don’t eat that on your first date. Haha. I added some red chili flakes for heat and devoured my half while eyeing my bf’s too. But luckily I had some control and waited for our pizza.
We ordered a medium meat lover’s pizza and it was plenty to share with left overs. The pizza was really good, not the best ever, but still good. There was plenty of toppings and I liked the thin dough and crust. I went wild and dipped my pizza in my side of ranch ($.50). Their pizzas didn’t have too much of the excess grease and oil like other places do so I didn’t feel too guilty.
Pizza prices are a teeny bit more expensive but their service and food was good so it was worth it.
Place rating: 4
Newport Beach, CA
3.75
I ordered a medium meat lover’s pizza to go with olives added, because it didn’t come with any, priced at around $ 17.50. The meat lover’s comes with pepperoni, italian sausage, meatball and bacon. The crust was a medium thickness and had a fairly good, fresh doughey taste. As you can see from my photo, they are fairly generous with their toppings. The italian sausage stood out and had a very good flavor. I really couldn’t taste any bacon on the pizza despite it being advertised to have some. The red sauce had a good tomato taste with the right amount of tang.
I would say that Ciao Deli makes one of the better pizzas that I have had in OC. It was good but it didn’t knock my socks off. I still have yet to be completely wow’d by any pizza in OC.
Place rating: 4
Orange County, CA
Ordered our food to go, had the fettuccine alfredo w/​spinach + mushrooms along with cheesy garlic knots.
Everything tasted great, it wasn’t greasy either. Portions are generous.
The woman answering the phone was professional.
Definitely coming back…