pakajunk: NINO'S RISTORANTE ITALIANO

If you live in the area, you've probably been right by this. From back when we lived in North Long Beach, we had been coming here on a few occasions. Usually we'd just come by for dinner, get some pastas or lasagna or something, you know, then bail. This place held a little secret we didn't know about until a few years later.

It's pretty cozy inside. Sasha thinks the place is real cute. Good service, good people. And still family run since 1958. We were getting take out on this night though.

Here's the small anti pasto:

And a side of two meatballs, which can be ordered each:

And the little secret I had mentioned, their pizza. For Just $12, you can get a pepperoni pizza that definitely tastes like it's well on the gourmet side of things. I've tried many pizzas in Long Beach; Big E's, Buono's, Canadian Pizza, Pizza Loca, La Rizza's (horrible), Ecco's, Porky's and many others... but right now, Nino's is by far my favorite.

The dough makes an unusually good crust. The pizza itself is slightly on the salty side, but I'm not complaining. It's also a pizza I don't ever have to add anything to. No parmesan cheese, hot sauce, red pepper flakes, none of that. I like this pizza as it is.