Monday night out at Oggi's

Oggi's in Orange

Craving a freshly made pizza that doesn’t come out of a dinky cardboard box? How about a micro brewed beer available in four sizes so you always get the right one? Need a place to watch sports where there is usually no wait for a table? Try Oggi’s. Oggi’s Pizza and Brewing Company is found only in California and Arizona and offers decent food and good beer. One of their restaurants is conveniently located in Orange at the Village at Orange Mall right next to the Wal-Mart.

When you first walk in you are greeted and quickly seated by friendly wait staff. The restaurant is fairly large offering a variety of seating at tables, booths, or at the bar. The booths are comfortable and if you sit near the bar you get to have a life-sized USC Trojan stand over you while you eat.

Flat screen TVs ring three of the walls and are tuned to whatever sports games are on at the time. One on each wall will show the Angels game, the Dodgers, football, and/or NASCAR. Whichever way you are facing as you sit you have a good view of the TVs so you don’t have to crane your neck to watch your team.

Except on holidays or nights where there is a big game on, the place never gets too crowded so talking over drunken sports fans isn’t a problem as it is in some sports bars. Annoying anyone? In fact if you go on a week night you might only share the place with a few other patrons.

On the downside the service can be a little off. Don’t expect your appetizer to always come before the meal (why does anyone want to eat buffalo wings and salad together?), you might have to flag the waitress down for a refill, and it takes almost ten minutes to get a to-go box. When there are only three other tables in the whole place with people in them this is a little ridiculous. What are the waitresses doing?

Oggi’s isn’t a place to take your girlfriend on a night out (unless she is a sports fanatic and can’t miss the Dodgers beating up on the other guys) but it is a good, low-key place to hang out with friends and have a fine beer while watching the game.