Panini Cafe Corona Del Mar

Always great food, good service, fair prices. A must try!

Hands down the best persian food I have had in a long time. This food is not only incredible, but it is always reliable. My favorite is the chicken kabobs or beef kabobs. Mediterranean salad is always fresh and tasted good along with everything else on the menu.
My ONLY complaint is that the mark their prices up a lot on food delivery apps, which is annoying. I would door dash this place more but am not willing to pay their upcharges. Management should change this, they would get more business!

Holy Batsh*t Batman! This place rocks! Stumbled upon this place because another eatery we wanted to try was closed. Thanks to good olé Unilocal,we got to try Panini Café.
Parking: You may get lucky with street parking OR there’s a $ 4 valet across the street behind Rothschild. We got lucky and found a spot about 2 blocks down.
Food: The style is «Italian Mediterranean».
Service: Very efficient and friendly
Price: Definitely reasonable, surprising for CDM!
The entrees come with your choice of:
1) Grain: Basmati Rice or pilaf
2) Soup/​Salad: romaine avocado (recommend), Greek, or Caesar salad OR lentil soup or Chicken Veggie soup.
We tried:
1) Chicken kabob $ 12.95: The chicken was sooo tender! Recommend!
2) Flank Steak kabob: $ 14.95. OMG! The meat was cooked perfectly and was soo tender I seriously thought they gave us the filet kabobs instead! ($ 22.95). HIGHLY recommend this dish!
The rice and salads that came with the entrees were also very fresh and tasty. Both of us ended up with empty plates at the end of the night. We were tempted to order hummus or tsaziki but good thing we didn’t because we wouldn’t have been able to finish our dinners.
Will def come back to try their other offerings such as their Salmon kabobs which their menu indicates as a «highly recommended» dish and their koobideh kabobs.

Great food, good service. Chicken kabobs are always juicy and flavorful.
Salmon and brie sandwich is delicious.
Good place for brunch as well.
Always have to love a place with breakfast till 3pm.
Parking isn’t the best.

Let me start by saying I LOVE Panini Café. Ordering the $ 10.99 chicken kabob lunch is one of my favorite things to have for lunch during the week. But here is my problem…
I went here today for lunch and the chicken kabob lunch for $ 10.99 is no longer a special and its $ 12.99. OK, that is forgivable as I understand rising food costs with the Government ever expanding as we move more towards bread lines and socialism. I digress. The big problem and why I gave them 3 stars is the portion size. Those mother’s dropped the chicken portion size in half! I’ve had this lunch 20 times and I couldn’t believe what they served me today. It was tasty and I loved the flavor but come on?!
Hopefully Panini isn’t falling into the «We are profitable and growing now lets drop our portion sizes and raise our prices!’ I’ve seen it happen many times before and its always the beginning of the end.

Yes, it is good but…
1. Dining room is nice BUT bathroom is not convenient. You have to go through the kitchen, up one story and go through an narrow entry. Not handicapped or elderly friendly.
2. The salad is great BUT dressing is ONLY limited to vinegar favor.
3. The Mediterranean bread is great BUT no hummus or any sauce.
4. The waitress is great BUT no smile on her face, may be only to us.
Price is good, chicken is tender, rice is authentic…
BTW, they also serve American breakfast IE omelette, never seen that in an Mediterranean restaurant.

Popular lunch friendly spot in the area.
I would recommend:
hummus trio — the original garbanzo hummus is the tastiest one out of the bunch. If you have a preference for one particular hummus, you can request that it be substituted in place for ones you don’t like. Not digging the carby pita bread? You can also request cucumber slices instead of pita bread.
prosciutto and artichoke heart panini: prosciutto di parma, artichoke hearts, roma tomatoes, pesto + Italian fontina cheese on grilled filone — this sandwich is pretty good. It has a nice tang to it with the zest from the artichoke hearts. Sometimes the prosciutto is a little chewy. but overall, pretty good sandwich.
roasted salmon + brie panini: roasted salmon, melted brie, tomatoes, fresh dill, capers + red onion on grilled foccacia — probably my favorite sandwich if I had to choose one. Nothing spectacular about the flavors, but I do like salmon, and I do like cheese hence I like them together on my favorite bread.
All sandwiches come with a choice of soup (chicken soup is good) or your choice of any of their salads. The salads are proportionally generous and really fills you up. It’s a little pricey for what it is — lunch would probably run you around $ 15 bucks, which is expensive for very unimpressive food.
If you’re in the area looking for a quick bite to eat, stop by, but don’t make this your dining destination. They have a parking lot adjacent to the restaurant, or you can street park.

We had breakfast here as a last resort after finding out that nothing in this area was open at 9 am on a Sunday. We had scramblers and Bloody Mary’s. The bacon was perfect crust and avocado was fresh. The food was really good, the service was great and hope to return again soon.