20/20 in Laguna Hills Serves Up ‘Perfect EYEtalian Food’

Is there anything more agonizing sometimes than trying to pick out a restaurant?

Say you’ve settled on Italian cuisine. Now you’re faced with deciding what kind of Italian: swanky Italian trattoria or the neighborhood take-out joint? A Wolfgang Puck-inspired pizzeria or the neighborhood parlor with the usual pepperoni and mushroom pie?

One solution to the trendy versus tried-and-true dilemma is a meal at the 20/20 Italian Cafe in Laguna Hills. Here, you can get take-out or try the turquoise tablecloth, outside patio experience. But best of all, you can get very tasty, hearty Italian food at scandalously low prices.

A personal favorite is the 20/20 fettuccine at $6.50. It’s a combination of Italian bacon, peas and mushrooms folded into a creamy Parmesan cheese sauce that’s so tangy the flavor didn’t leave my tongue for hours.

An admirable quality that runs through most of the menu is restraint. With much Italian cooking, simple is better. And that’s the case here.

The chunky marinara sauce poured over rigatoni ($6.75) is simmered with a medium amount of garlic, some basil, a little olive oil, fresh mushrooms and tomatoes. That’s it. Your mind recognizes what your mouth is tasting and the meal doesn’t weigh heavily on your stomach.

Customers walk through the door, order off a wall menu and pay up front. Then, they find a table and a waiter serves the meal.

But this is not a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint. Outside dining on a patio ringed with large potted plants to screen customers from the shopping plaza next-door can be very pleasant. Inside, woven chairs and soft pastels decorate the small dining room.

Sandwiches here are reasonably priced ($2.95 to $4.95) and stuffed with quality ingredients. The capocollo sub ($3.75 small or $4.85 large) comes with lettuce, tomato and pepperocinis, doused with freshly made Italian dressing and sprinkled with aged Romano cheese.

There’s also a daily lunch special, always around $5, that’s worth noting. Recently, I had the rigatoni special ($4.95) with sausage, peas and onions. The sausage tasted more like hamburger, which at first bothered me somewhat. But as I ate, it really started to bring back memories of the family dinner table. The juices from the sauteed meat, onions and peas formed a savory sauce that coated the hot rigatoni shells. With a little Parmesan, it was delicious.

Other recommended dishes include the pizza, on which copious amounts of sauce and cheese are ladled, but somehow, the bottom crust stays firm and crunchy. The linguine with clams is very good, with just a hint of butter and red pepper accenting the taste of the clam broth.

By the way, the 20/20 in the cafe’s name stands for “Perfect vision, perfect EYEtalian food,” chuckles owner/chef Joe Parrino.

We’re just glad his food is a lot better than his puns.

20/20 Italian Cafe, 24781 Alicia Parkway, Laguna Hills. Open Monday through Friday for lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.; dinner Monday through Thursday, 4 to 8:45 p.m., Friday and Saturday till 9 p.m. Closed on Sunday. (714) 951-6498.