2000 Newport Blvd. Costa Mesa, CA 92627. (949) 548-0099
Since we were in an Irish bar, we decided that we’d go along with the Irish Theme.
Dennis ordered the Steak of Lamb ($19.00). At first we thought that there were regular mashed potatoes underneath the steak but we were wrong! Instead, there were flaky potatoes underneath, something I haven’t really eaten before at any restaurant! The flaky potatoes had a tiny bit of firmness but were tender to eat. Dennis mentioned that there was a slight butter taste in each layer. The green beans were standard, though a little bit undercooked and somewhat oily. I find that green beans at most places are usually a bit oily. As for the main course, our order was actually burnt on the outside. The lamb wasn’t that tender inside either, probably due to the outside being burnt. The sauce on the lamb was overly sweet, kind of like the sweet onion teriyaki sauce. The potatoes were our favorite, or perhaps the only, part of the dish. It wasn’t too good of a choice, at least the way it was made that night.
I ordered the Irish Lamb Stew ($11.00). I thought the sauce of the stew had a rich saucy tomato flavor and went well with the lamb. The meat itself was probably average to good, although I don’t eat it often enough to know more. The mashed potatoes were absolutely delicious and the gravy was also excellent and unlike any I’ve eaten! It complimented the potatoes well. I’ve never liked cole slaw so Dennis got to review that; he said it was average.
Since it was a sports bar, we could hear the football game in the background but that didn’t bother us. The lighting was a little dim which made it harder to read the menu. Our waitress was friendly enough but we didn’t see much of her. The food also took an excessive amount of time to reach us.
Before we got our bill, we mentioned that the lamb was burnt but that we didn’t reorder because we didn’t want to wait. We passed a $20 off coupon from here to the waitress. When our bill came, we were surprised that gratuity was already added! For a $30 meal with a $20 off coupon, we paid over $15, which meant an included gratuity of 18%. I have never seen that done for a mere party of 2! Is it because we were in a bar? Is it due to the use of the coupon? (though we know to properly tip with a coupon). Was the waitress worried about her tip because the lamb was burnt? I believe we should have been able to decide on our own tip, between 10-20%. Has anyone had this happen to them before?
118 degrees
2981 Bristol Suite B5, Costa Mesa, 92626.
I’ve always been interested in trying out more foods that are meatless and this was a good place to explore! 118 is purely vegetarian, and online I read that they don’t even need to cook the food(?). It was relatively easy to find, in the plaza right off the corner of Baker and Bristol.
I ordered the Panini ($9.00), which has spinach, mushroom, and tomato placed between two large yet strong crackers. The sandwich contents had a nice blend of flavors, and the mushrooms tasted as if they were lightly brushed with olive oil. The only turnoff of the sandwich was that the crackers were very hard. I figured out that biting into only one cracker at a time kept the contents of the sandwich from sliding out the other end. If not eaten in this fashion, this type of ‘bread’ has no barriers to keep the contents from shifting around.
Dennis ordered the Mole Enchilada ($11.00), which I liked even more than my dish. It helped that it was a lot more effortless to eat than my meal. I loved how it had an exotic taste. The few kernels of corn sprinkled around the dish added a subtle sweetness to every bite.
I also ordered the signature drink, the Pomegranate Passion (8), which is pomegranate juice and sake. It wasn’t anything too special.
The environment was very chill, and the other customers seemed to enjoy eating at this place. I definitely liked the contemporary decor of the restaurant. The service was nice enough, but not extraordinary. The prices are a little bit higher considering the size of the dish but I would definitely come back to this place. There are very few places, if any, that have something like that Mole Enchilada!
901-C South Coast Drive. Costa Mesa, CA 92626. (714) 641-3000. www.finbars.com
Linguine alla Romana (14.99) - chicken breast, pancetta, and artichoke sauteed then tossed in a light parmesan cream sauce with spinach linguine
The flavor of the linguine was very nice for the first bite but after a while, the pasta felt like it was drowning in the sauce. I’m not used to eating italian dishes so it tasted too saucy but Dennis also agreed about the heaviness of the sauce. I would have liked for it to have more artichoke but there was a reasonable amount in the dish. The chicken was tender and delicious though. Overall it was a decent menu selection and more-so if the sauce were a little bit less overpowering.
Ginger-Garlic Black Bean Capellini (12.99) - sauteed chicken breast with broccoli and scallions in a sweet ginger, garlic, black bean sauce with soy and sherry.
As for Dennis’s dish, the broccoli was cooked to a nice softness but the sauce was very oily, reminding me of a chinese dish. The noodles were plentiful, in fact bordering on too much, because the oiliness filled you up faster than you would normally expect a dish would do. The chicken in this one was likewise decent enough but did not stick out enough to remember more, despite us having eaten there just yesterday.
The environment of the restaurant was indeed casual. This place has the white paper tablecloths that you can draw on with crayons. On the way to the bathroom, I noted the colorful drawings posted on the walls, sketched by previous guests of the restaurant! The restaurant seating was a little bit tight due to the way the tables shared a long booth but we had enough space from the customers surrounding our middle table. Ongoing talking was louder due to proximity of others but this restaurant is casual dining after all. It took a while for the waiter to come take our order but at least we had more time to decide what to eat. Otherwise, he was very attentive, despite having to cover a large number of tables that evening.
I got an email about a month ago from CP from http://epicurious-wanderer.blogspot.com/, saying how he was trying to plan a get together at Frenzy Sushi. I had read his post on Frenzy Sushi a couple months back and it literally made my mouth water. There was no way I could pass this opportunity up, even if I did have finals to take. After taking my first final on wednesday I drove all the way to Costa Mesa to meet up with CP and the rest.
Since this is my first time meeting everyone I really didn’t know what everyone looked like. CP had told me in the email that I should just look for people who look like they are food bloggers or people who eat a lot. I asked the hostess if the party for CP was already here and she directed me to the sushi bar.
The first item that we tried was the Hamachi Belly. Cp had told me that I wouldn’t be able to find this at any other place because the belly is usually discarded. This was my first time trying hamachi belly and it was excellent! The pice of fish was soft and melted in my mouth because it was so fatty. It is a shame that most chefs discard this part.
Shisamo was the next item to be devoured. At first I was thinking, “what is so special about this… it just looks like grilled fish”. Oh how wrong I was when I bit into it. To my surprise there was roe inside of the fish and that’s what makes this fish so tasty. The crunchy/grilled texture on the outside plus the nice bit of saltiness from the roe on the inside made me want seconds with a bowl of rice, but I stopped myself.
John San brought out our next dish, which was Fried Hamachi Bones. It was topped off with green onions and bit of ponzu. This item is good snack item to munch on. It’s kind of like chips once you eat one you can’t stop. I found myself picking at the dish with my chopsticks for bits of the hamachi.
The Cajun Tuna Tataki was then brought out It is seasoned with John San’s special cajun spice mixture, then slightly seared and topped with some ponzu. There are so many flavors going on at once that it is extremely difficult to describe how it tastes. I enjoyed it most with the grated daikon and ginger. The cajun spices left my mouth wanting more.
Some random guy next to our group ordered us a plate of calamari on him. Thanks for the calamari whoever you are. The piece I had pretty much gushed out oil when I had bit into, so I wasn’t a big fan of this one. When the guy had left, John told us he is a regular and is loaded. If he was so loaded, maybe we should have asked him to order us a round of kobe beef… I’m just kidding by the way.
I preferred the Shrimp Shumai over the Gyoza. The shrimp shumai was really flavorful and soft. I thought the gyoza was just similar to any other gyoza I have eaten in the past.
Next was the Bluefin Tuna. Now that I’ve tasted bluefin I don’t think I can ever go back to regular tuna. I was kind of sad that it disapeared so fast. I prefer sashimi over sushi and was kind of hoping that I would get to get to try it sashimi style. Luckily John San prepared it 2 dishes later, which put a big smile on my face.
The next dish was Chicken Karaage was a nice change since we were eating so many different types of fish. It’s basically fried chicken or as CP would call them “chicken nuggets”. I didn’t find anything special with the chicken karaage and was pretty much just chicken to me.
As soon as the Bluefin Tuna Sashimi came out everyone attacked it. Luckily there was 2 slices left for me to take a picture. CP said he just couldn’t restrain himself, which is understandable since it is bluefin tuna. It would have been a more impressive picture had the other pieces been there.
This dish is called Biwa and it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of it. It’s similar to the scotch egg, but John uses quail eggs instead. The quail eggs are wrapped with shrimp and deep fried in tempura batter. Who doesn’t love quail eggs? Especially since it was deep fried and battered made it that much better.
This is my new favorite dish! Baked Butterfish-Saikyo Miso! The first bite made me realize why it was called butterfish. I was tempted to ask John San for some bread, so that I could spread the butterfish over the bread. The sauce was just perfect and didn’t overpower the fish at all. I wanted to know what was in the sauce, but John wouldn’t reveal it to us. Oh why do you tease us with your secrets?
John San preparing the clam for us fresh and cutting each piece individually, so that we may enjoy the different parts of the clam.
The first piece he made for us contained the scallop portion and he also added the muscle along with it. I really enjoyed the scallop, but when I got to the muscle part, I found the muscle to be too tough for my liking. I’m not sure if it was only me, but my muscle was a bit bitter. Everyone else had told me their piece was sweet. I wouldn’t mind ordering this next time, but minus the muscle. The next piece of sushi was the body of the clam. This was a lot sweeter than the previous piece and the texture was not as tough.
CP had told me this was one of his favorite rolls, the Firecracker Roll. It contains large tempura shrimp and is topped off with hamachi. It reminds me of the crunchy roll, but 10 times better because the shrimp are gigantic and the the hamachi on top makes it that much better.
I finally got to taste the Aji after recording John prepare it for us. The aji was topped off with grated daikon and ponzu. This is now one of my new favorites. I will add it to my rotation next time I go out for sushi. The way it was prepared was just perfect! No need for soy sauce what so ever. It was like eating a fluffy piece of fish.
Next was the Fried Aji Bones with a little bit of ponzu. I couldn’t tell the difference between this one and the hamachi bones we had earlier.
The first piece of Saba I tried with soy sauce and It occured to me that it might not need soy sauce. I then tried the second piece without soy sauce it was one of the best tasting things I’ve ever had. It was naturally salty that there was no need for soy sauce. I had asked John if he didn’t anything to it to make it salty and his reply was, “it was naturally salty and it his special way of making it”. Special way of making it… why must you continue to tease me with your secrets…?
John San came back out with a box full of Uni and presented it to me as an offering. I had thought he was really going to give it to me, but then he took it back. It saddened me for a bit, but I got over it.
I’ve always wanted to try uni, but the words “market price” on the menu always deferred me from ordering it. I don’t know if my excitement showed, I was extremely excited to finally be able to try it. When John San placed gave me my piece it had fallen over. I told him that it’s unbalanced and he should put another piece of uni on mine to balance it out. I didn’t get an extra piece of uni. I’ve never tasted anything like this before. It had a rich velvetty taste to it that coated my tongue and left it with a nice after taste. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end our meal.
We started our meal at 7pm and we finished around 10:45pm. I didn’t realize we were there for so long. The dishes came out at a nice pace. It was nice to have John meticulously make each piece of sushi for us. It was as if all his attention and focus was on making sure we enjoyed our meal. The bill came out to $50.34 per person not including tip. That really busted my budget as a student, but hey it was definitely worth it! My favorites of the night were the aji, saba, bluefin and uni.
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