Balboa Pizza Company Awards

Balboa Pizza Company Restaurant Review:

A longtime dream of friends who grew up on Newport Beach's Balboa Peninsula, this cheerful eatery re-creates the beach lifestyle, captured in framed photos adorning its walls. The friendly bar's four TV screens accommodate sports fans. Tasty Maui Waui fries and Maui onion rings come with horseradish tartar sauce. Among unique Surf City salads, we like the Greek lemon chicken with chopped romaine hearts, spinach, feta cheese, roma tomatoes, cucumbers, sliced pepperoncini, kalamata olives and balsamic vinaigrette. Our favorite thin-crusted pizza is topped with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, artichoke hearts and roasted garlic cream. Among wings flavors are teriyaki and Thai peanut. The array of margarita choices includes Banana Hammock, Strawberry Mango and Tequila Mockingbird with Midori melon, triple sec and sweet-and-sour mix. Balboa Pizza's signature dessert is a coconut-crusted banana split with graham cracker-crusted cheesecake, pineapple, strawberry and chocolate sauces, whipped cream and toasted macadamia nuts. Breakfast is served until 11 a.m. and includes the Sunset Beach special: two eggs any style, three pieces of bacon and toast.