"This is like if Hillstone and Mastro's had a baby." That's how co-owner Schreiber described Noble Ace to What Now Orange County the week it opened in the old Heisler Building, and it's the kind of shorthand that sticks. It also tells you something the rest of this season's restaurant news hasn't been saying clearly enough: some of what's landed in Laguna this year is running full service tonight, and some of it is still hanging a "help wanted" sign in the window.
If you've been collecting names off Instagram or a neighbor's recommendation, that distinction matters more than the list itself. A handful of the most-talked-about spaces in town are fully open and taking reservations. At least one is still hiring servers as of late summer. Knowing which is which saves you a wasted drive down Coast Highway.
North Laguna Already Has Its Anchor
Start with the one that's settled. Truly Pizza opened its second location in May at 320 N. Coast Highway, in the space that used to be the restaurant "3" and, before that, Madison Square & Garden Café. The original opened in Dana Point in 2023, and this year the concept landed at No. 4 on the 2026 edition of 50 Top Pizza USA, with its Umami Mushroom pie named the organization's 2026 Pizza of the Year.
The address sits beside Urth Caffé and across from the Laguna Art Museum, which puts it in walking range of anyone doing a museum evening or a Heisler Park sunset. Published summer hours run 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Tuesdays, and weekend reservations are recommended. There's no ambiguity here. It's open, it's busy, and the menu runs beyond pizza into California-style salads, focaccia sandwiches, charcuterie and soft serve.
Downtown Has One Full House and One Almost
Two blocks apart in the downtown core, the story splits.
Noble Ace opened Monday, June 29, in the Heisler Building at 400 S. Coast Highway, a space that had sat dark since Bodega and Skyloft closed in January 2025. Chef Magellan Moore, who spent years at Mastro's Ocean Club, built the menu with owners Elizabeth and Tom Schreiber. General Manager Hillari Galindo brings two decades split between Mastro's and Red O in Newport Beach, and Assistant GM Danny Reyes started his Laguna career at Odessa before returning here. The design, by Ralitsa Kombakis of Studio Rallou, keeps the bones of the historic building while leaning into a supper-club feel. Current hours run Sunday through Thursday from 4:30 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m.
A few blocks inland, at the corner of Glenneyre and Thalia, Bar ízi is the one still catching up to its own buzz. The small-plates, natural-wine concept from owner Sam Rabon is taking over a space with real history: it was Evan's Gourmet most recently, and before that, Cafe Zoolu and ROUX Creole. The target was an end-of-August or early-September debut, and as of late August the restaurant was still posting for a lead server, offering $18 to $20 an hour for a self-described "small crew" running a seasonal menu and natural wine program. That's not a red flag. It's just a sign that the space is closer to soft launch than to a settled Friday-night table, so a phone call before you drive over is the smart move right now.
The same downtown stretch has already absorbed one quieter changeover. At 248 S. Coast Highway, across from Main Beach, the storefront that housed Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory since 1984 is now Nulu Poke Tea & Boba, a fast-casual tenant in a spot that had one identity for four decades.
| Corridor | Address | What it replaced | Status as of late September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Laguna | 320 N. Coast Hwy | "3" / Madison Square & Garden Café | Open, weekend reservations recommended |
| Downtown | 400 S. Coast Hwy | Bodega / Skyloft | Open since June 29 |
| Downtown | Glenneyre & Thalia | Cafe Zoolu / ROUX Creole / Evan's Gourmet | Targeted early September, was still hiring in late August |
| South Laguna | 2794 S. Pacific Coast Hwy | Dizz's As Is | Open, opened to a weekend-long line in June |
| South Laguna | 31727 Coast Hwy | Ti Amo | Daytime counter service, part of the same rollout as the North Laguna pizza shop |
| South Laguna | 858 Coast Hwy | San Shi Go / Okura / Hush | Open, running full service |
| Downtown | 248 S. Coast Hwy | Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory | Open |
South Laguna Bet on Speed
Head south and the pattern changes again. When Dizz's As Is closed on March 13 after more than 40 years under the Pitz family, who opened it in 1977, the space didn't sit empty long. Small's Smash Club, founded by professional snowboarder Jordan Small after its original San Clemente opening in 2025, moved in with a tighter menu built around a smash burger, tallow fries and onion rings. It kept the ocean view and the existing liquor license, and it opened on a Friday in June to a line that reportedly stretched through the whole weekend.
Down the coast, in the building that spent years as San Shi Go, then Okura, then Hush, Amorelia Cocina Artesanal is now running full service with a Mexico City-focused menu, a crudo raw bar and five separate seating areas. The road here wasn't smooth. Owner Gloria Seretti, whose family had run a Costa Mesa restaurant for decades before this expansion, planned a mid-2025 opening that stalled when the lead chef left within weeks of launch. The team pushed through to a 2026 debut, and by summer the restaurant was drawing a crowd big enough that a World Cup watch party pulled in NBA Hall of Famer Ray Allen and Mark Cuban. Seretti has said she'd wanted a Laguna location for years and knew the space was right the moment she found it.
Nearby, Truly Bagels, the daytime counter-service sibling to the North Laguna pizza shop, is filling the long-vacant Ti Amo building further south toward Three Arch, giving that stretch a walkable daytime option it hasn't had in years.
What This Means for Dinner This Week
If you're deciding where to go tonight, the practical read is simple. Truly Pizza, Noble Ace, Small's Smash Club, Amorelia Cocina Artesanal and Nulu Poke Tea & Boba are open and running on published hours, so a reservation through Resy or a normal walk-in approach works. Bar ízi is the one exception. It's close, it's real, and the space itself carries enough Laguna history that it's worth watching, but a call ahead beats a drive-by disappointment until it settles into regular hours.
None of this changes what makes these spaces interesting on their own. A 40-year family restaurant becoming a smash-burger spot with the same ocean view. A chocolate shop that outlasted four decades handing its corner to boba. A stilt house that cycled through three names before finding a fourth that stuck. Laguna's dining map keeps redrawing itself inside the same handful of buildings, and this fall it's just a matter of knowing which door is actually unlocked.
If you're the kind of person who tracks these shifts because you love this town's rhythm, not because you're shopping for a house, that's exactly who this was written for. Aymi Lau keeps a close eye on what's changing block by block in Laguna Beach, and if a question ever turns from where to eat tonight into something bigger, that local read carries over.
