Local, tasty and with a variety of meals, Valentino’s Take-n-Bake Pizza is a perfect place for an off campus meal, even though the name might suggest otherwise.

Although Valentino’s does offer a great selection of delicious, fresh pizzas, their salads, subs, and sandwiches also make up a big part of the menu.

They have quite a few salads that are simple yet tasty. The Fresh Garden Salad contains a variety of veggies with mozzarella on top. Their Deluxe Antipasto has salami, mozzarella, pepperoncinis and croutons all on top of the regular salad greens and veggies. Among others, Valentino’s also offers simpler salads like the Caesar and Dinner salads.

The sandwiches that they offer are big and appetizing. They offer pastrami, veggie, tuna and sausage sandwiches that each have their own different stylings. All the sandwiches come with a small salad and dressing, and are available as half sandwiches.

Valentino’s also has a simple sandwich that gives customers some options, the Afternoon Delight. You can choose between chicken, roast beef, ham or turkey for the meat of your sandwich, and it comes with provolone, mustard and mayonnaise, pickles, onions, tomatoes, lettuce and sprouts. This is a personalizable way to enjoy a hearty standard sandwich.

The highlight of Valentino’s and what makes it an especially convenient off-campus lunch place is its subs. Meat, vegetables and cheese packed into two slices of bread and neatly wrapped up and easy to transport. Not only are they convenient and easy to transport back to school, but they are also absolutely delicious and filling.

They have subs for just about any type of craving, and any type of hunger. There are three sizes, 6,” 8,” and 12,” and can be ordered cold or hot.

The must-try cold sub is definitely the Italian. This sub has three meats, all on top of a layer of provolone cheese and under a pile of lettuce, red onions, tomatoes, and pepperoncinis. This is all topped off with mozzarella cheese and a balsamic and olive oil dressing. This sub will have your mouth watering just at the sight of it, and the portions are very satisfying and more than enough. 

Their trademark sub is the Hot Chicks, a toasted sub that contains cajun chicken, tomatoes, red onions and mozzarella cheese. It is like eating hot chicken right off the barbeque in a tasty concoction of ingredients. You can also get this in a toasted sandwich version, which is just as good. And if you like this sandwich, the Cajun Chicken Pizza (Hot Chicks Pizza) is excellent for dinner.

Valentino’s is conveniently located about six minutes away from Foothill, in the midtown area and right across the street from Ventura High School.

See Valentino’s on Google Maps here.

A good bonus of the Valentino’s location is that if you are running low on money and can’t buy a drink, you can run in to the liquor store next door and buy yourself a cheap Arizona tea or soda pop. If you happen to be craving donuts, there is a donut shop a in the same shopping center.

They have a few outdoor tables but most of their seating is inside on stools and on one table. The staff at Val’s are always friendly and have

enjoyable service, which makes it nicer to eat here. Valentino’s is definitely a worthwhile off-campus eat.

You can check out the Valentino’s Take-n-Bake Facebook page here.