Kappa Ramen - Anaheim

Kappa Ramen
3024 W Ball Road,
Anaheim, CA 92804
(714) 828-2210
www.kapparamen.com

The winter coats are coming out and the heaters are being cranked up. People are busting out their scarves and opting for the hot lattes instead of the frappucinos. Yup, that's right, it's that time of year where it drops down into the freezing 60's here in the OC. This also means that it is the perfect time for a steaming hot bowl of perfectly made ramen. Luckily for me, I got just that opportunity recently when I was invited down to the newly opened Kappa Ramen by the PR rep. I battled traffic for over an hour to get to the restaurant, but in the end, it was totally worth it.

Kappa Ramen is in the back corner of a tiny strip mall off Beach and Ball in Anaheim. It's the kind of parking lot where you double check your car doors to make sure they are securely locked. When you enter the restaurant though, you are greeted by a friendly, very brightly lit interior. I was happy that the restaurant was so brightly lit because I knew my pictures would come out so much better. Therefore, I will be posting a few extra pictures to this review.

I decided to start my meal with an order of Gyoza Potstickers ($6 for 8 or $3.45 for 4) and the Chashu appetizer ($4.50). For the main course I ordered the Kyoto Ramen ($7.45) and the fried rice ($6.95 full/$3.95 half). V decided to get the Kappa Signature Ramen ($9.95).


The gyoza is available "potsticker" style as pictured or deep fried if you prefer. The gyoza was very good and cooked just right. The exterior was crispy, but not too greasy and the interior was a nice mix of pork and vegetables.


The chashu was very tender and full of flavor. We both enjoyed this a lot. It seemed to have more flavor than chashu at most ramen places.


The fried rice was the only disappointing part of the meal. The rice was very bland. It could have benefited from a lot more soy sauce and maybe some sesame oil or something. It really almost tasted like plain rice with a few vegetables thrown in. V also didn't care for the fried rice.


The Kyoto Ramen was a basic tonkotsu ramen. This is not to be confused with "tonkatsu" ramen. Tonkatsu is a breaded pork cutlet and tonkotsu means pork bones. This broth is made fresh daily by simmering chicken and pork bones for a very long time to create a milky tan broth that is bursting with pork flavor. The tonkotsu broth at Kappa Ramen is one of the best I have ever had. I think it had more flavor than some of the most popular ramen shops in Orange County including Santouka Ramen and Daikokuya Ramen. I loved this broth. The ramen was served with half of a marinated hard-boiled egg, green onions and pickled ginger.


The Kappa Signature Ramen started with the same tonkotsu broth and added organic kimchee, avocado, bean sprouts and corn. It also had the hard-boiled egg, green onions and pickled ginger. V really liked how they cut the wavy pattern into the egg. V really enjoyed her ramen as well. She thought that it was nice and spicy and had a great flavor.

Throughout the entire meal there was a small sign on the table advertising potato croquettes for only $1. After my ramen I decided I had to try one.

The potato croquette was lightly flavored with curry and contained some corn and I think carrot. I can't really remember right now. I do however remember that the croquette was very good and a fantastic deal at only $1. I highly recommend that you get one of these to complement your meal.

Overall I was extremely happy with my meal. Even though the restaurant is a bit of a drive for me from Irvine, I can definitely see myself returning. In fact, this might be my new favorite ramen shop. Now if only they could do something to improve their fried rice, they'd be perfect.

Roy's Fall Menu

Roy's - Newport Beach
453 Newport Center Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92660
(949) 640-7697

Roy's - Anaheim
321 West Katella Avenue
Anaheim, CA 92802
(714) 776-7697

I was recently invited down to Roy's to sample their new fall prix fixe menu. Roy's has always been one of my favorite restaurants so I was eager to try out the new menu items. For a limited time you are able to order an appetizer, entree and dessert from the following selections for $35.95.

APPETIZERS:


Blackened Rock Shrimp & Red Bean Soup
Portuguese Sausage, Shishito


“Elaine’s” Kabocha Squash Salad
Cinnamon Spiced Pepitas, Cranberry Vinaigrette


Wagyu “Meat Loaf Shumai”
Smoked Shiitake Pan Sauce

The blackened rock shrimp & red bean soup was interesting. It tasted sort of like a spicy chili with shrimp in it. It was pretty good, but not something I would have thought Roy's would serve. Elaine's Kabocha Squash Salad sort of tasted like roasted pumpkin topped with greens and bleu cheese. The clear winner with everyone though was the Wagyu "Meatloaf Shumai." The unique flavor of a Chinese shumai dumpling was brought to life in this delicious twist on an American classic. Everyone at the table seemed to agree that this was the best of the three appetizers.


ENTREES:


Artichoke & Goat Cheese Crusted Salmon
Sundried Tomato Sauce


Cilantro Grilled Tiger Shrimp
Stewed Curried Lentils & Fall Vegetables


Parmesan & Dijon Crusted Chicken
Bacon, Pepper Gravy


Tender Braised Beef Short Ribs (available year-round)
Creamy Mashed Potatoes Natural Braising Sauce


I am not usually a big fan of salmon, but this salmon dish was one of the best I have tasted. The mildly flavored salmon went well with the artichoke and goat cheese crust. I was really looking forward to the Cilantro Grilled Tiger Shrimp. It was good, but failed to "wow" me like I thought it would. It could have used more cilantro flavor. I felt that the Parmesan & Dijon Crusted Chicken had way too much dijon mustard. It was overpowering to me. Other people at the table loved the bold flavor of the mustard and thought it was perfect. The Braised Short Ribs are a classic item on the Roy's menu. Tender and flavorful, they are always an excellent choice.

DESSERTS:


Pumpkin & Ginger Cheese Cake
Pumpkin Anglaise


Roy’s Melting Hot Chocolate Soufflé (available year-round)
Flourless Chocolate Cake with a Molten Hot Center served à la Mode

The Pumpkin and Ginger Cheesecake was very good. The cheesecake was lightly flavored with pumpkin and ginger so that it complemented the cheesecake but didn't overpower it. The Hot Chocolate Souffle, another Roy's classic, was warm and gooey chocolate heaven.

I apologize for the lack of quality pictures. The lighting in the restaurant was a little dim. If you'd like to see higher quality pictures, head over to Dan's site, Eat In OC, to see his article on the event. He was sitting right next to me...

Roy's Summer Ohana Tour - By V

Griffin was recently invited down to a media event at Roy's but was unable to attend. I was happy to take his place as "assistant writer" at this event! Roy's is one of my favorite restaurants. I absolutely love their food. My favorite dish at Roy's has to be the butterfish. Unfortunately, they didn't serve that at this event, but I did get to try some other great dishes.

Below are some pictures of the food they sampled at the event.


Ekolu Tuna Roll


"Rim Fire" Calamari


Sweet Corn & Blue Crab Crusted Barramundi



If you visit three different Orange County or Los Angeles Roy's restaurants over the summer, you will earn yourself free dessert, a gift card and you will be entered into a drawing to win a trip to Hawaii. See the press release below for more info!


ROY’S RESTAURANT DEBUTS L.A. OHANA TOUR

Guests Invited to Say Aloha to Chef Partners’ Innovative Takes on Roy’s Classics Menu

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (June 2, 2010) – Roy’s, the internationally renowned Hawaiian Fusion® Cuisine dining restaurant, today announces the launch of its L.A. Ohana Tour, a new rewards program designed for diners to experience the creative chef variations on popular menu items offered at each location.

From June 9 until August 31, 2010, guests are invited to visit three Southern California Roy’s restaurants to receive dining rewards and be entered to win an all-inclusive trip to Hawaii, where guests will enjoy a personal dinner with founding chef Roy Yamaguchi.

The Roy’s L.A. Ohana Tour details include:

* An inaugural trip to a participating Roy’s restaurant, where guests are awarded an Ohana Tour card to present at the next Roy’s location
* On the second visit, guests will receive a complimentary Chocolate Soufflé (with purchase of entrée)
* At the third location, guests will receive a $20 gift card (with purchase of entrée) and entry into the Hawaii sweepstakes
* Restaurants participating in the tour include Roy’s Anaheim, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Pasadena, and Woodland Hills locations


“In the Hawaiian culture, ‘ohana’ means family,” said Leiala Whattoff, V.P. of Training & Development, Roy’s restaurant. “We designed this tour to thank our frequent guests and encourage new guests to experience our exquisite food and the aloha spirit with their friends and family. By visiting three of our Southern California locations, guests will receive delicious rewards and the chance to win the ultimate dining experience in Hawaii.”

Each location’s Chef Partner is trained by Roy Yamaguchi but are encouraged to infuse their own style and inspiration into Roy’s Classics menu items. The L.A. Ohana Tour will give guests the opportunity to experience these different tastes and variations each time they visit a new location.

Please visit the Roy’s website for additional details at www.roysrestaurant.com

Beach Pit BBQ-Anaheim Stadium (Angels Stadium)

I attended a mid-day Angels game with JN at Anaheim stadium today. When we entered the park, JN told me that there was a Beach Pit BBQ stand in the park. I have always wanted to try the Beach Pit BBQ in Tustin, but have still not made it down there. Therefore, I thought that having lunch from this booth would be a great idea.

The Beach Pit BBQ booth lays out a sampling of all their dishes instead of having a menu. They offer a variety of hot dogs, barbecue chicken, ribs, brisket sandwiches and pulled pork sandwiches.

JN decided to get the Pulled Pork Sandwich ($9.95) and I decided to get the BBQ brisket sandwich ($9.95). The cashier took two soft bread rolls and filled them with meat from two large pans on the grill behind her. There was a jug of BBQ sauce on the condiment table next to the stand. I squirted some of it on to my sandwich and grabbed a little packet of diced onions.

(Front-BBQ Brisket Sandwich; Back-Pulled Pork Sandwich)
I took a bite of my sandwich and was not really impressed. The sandwich was really dry and didn't taste that great. I think I should have gotten more BBQ sauce. The more of the sandwich I ate, the drier it seemed. By the end of the sandwich, I was choking on the meat and was having to take big gulps of water with every bite. I'm not saying that I would never get this again, but if I did, I think I would drench it in BBQ sauce. As far as places to eat at the park go, I think you might be better off going to one of the other stands. I have a feeling I would have enjoyed a $5.50 Western Bacon Cheeseburger from the Carl's Jr. stand more than I enjoyed this sandwich.

K'Ya - Anaheim

1221 S. Harbor Blvd.
Anaheim, CA
714-758-0900

Alternate Location:
1287 S. Coast Highway
Laguna Beach, CA
949-376-9718

www.kyarestaurant.com

I recently went down to K'ya restaurant in Anaheim to celebrate C's birthday. K'ya (pronounced Ky-yuh...just imagine a super sneaky ninja doing a karate chop and yelling "Hi-ya!", then replace the "H" with a "K"...) has two locations in Orange County. There is one location in Laguna Beach and the Anaheim location is in the Hotel Menage (Formerly Holiday Inn) right across the freeway from Disneyland. I had never heard of this restaurant before J made the reservation for C's birthday. I thought the restaurant must be fairly new, but the hostess said they have been open for about 2 years.

We were seated at a nice table in a dimly lit dining room. The atmosphere was a lot nicer than I expected from a place that used to be a Holiday Inn. There were hundreds of candles around the restaurant. We sat down and looked over our menus. The menu was divided into two sections. The main section consisted of a lot of fancy sounding meals with fairly high prices. There was also a "bistro" section on the menu that had more casual fare and much cheaper prices. I was told that this "bistro" menu is only available in the Anaheim location. K'ya also had a fairly nice wine selection with very reasonable prices. We decided to order a bottle of red wine for the table to share ($21.00).

We had heard a few good things on Yelp! about the calamari here, so we decided to order it. The Flash Fried Calamari ($10.00) was served with a sweet and spicy Thai glaze, bean sprouts, carrots, peanuts, cilantro and green onions. The people on the internet were right. This calamari was pretty freaking good. The calamrai was crunchy and covered in a glaze that wasn't too sweet and wasn't too spicy. I really enjoyed this dish, as did everyone else that tried it.

While many of the items on the bistro menu sounded delicious, like the Loco Moco ($8.00) or the Gyro Pita ($9.00), we all decided to order from the main section of the menu. A few of us chose to start off with a soup or salad.

V and J both started off their meal with the Honey Poached Pear and Bermuda Triangle Goat Cheese Salad ($10.00). The salad was served with marcona almonds and a chive vinaigrette. V and J both thought that the salad was pretty good.

I ordered the Golden Beet, Baby Tomato and Feta Cheese Salad ($9.00). My salad wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting a salad with large slices of sweet golden beets. Instead, the salad was mostly lettuce with some diced, white, under-ripe, flavorless beets. The salad might as well have not had them at all.

For dinner I ordered the 1/2 lb. Kobe Beef Burger $(15.00) with bacon ($1.50 extra). The burger was supposed to come with swiss and cheddar cheese, but I asked for crumbled bleu instead of the swiss. I ordered my burger medium rare, but it arrived extremely well done. The burger itself wasn't bad, but the perfectly round, pressed patty reminded me of a frozen sirloin burger patty from Costco. I think this may have been the first time I have ever ordered a Kobe burger. It didn't seem any different than any other regular restaurant burger. The other thing about this burger was that I think it smelled like fish. At first I thought it was because I was sitting next to S and she had lobster in her dish. The more I ate the burger though, the more I came to realize that it was my burger that smelled like fish. It wasn't a really strong smell and the burger tasted ok. Maybe they just grilled the burger next to a piece of fish or something.

V just wanted a bowl of their soup of the day ($9.00) for dinner. The soup this day happened to be Tomato Bisque. V said that the soup tasted pretty good but was a little too chunky for her liking. V had also ordered a Diet Coke with her meal. Halfway through her drink she noticed that there was lettuce, onion and various other bits of food stuck to the inside of her glass. She pointed this out to the waiter and he replaced her drink, but never apologized.

C and R both ordered the Seared Flat Iron Steak ($22.00). The steak was served with a gorgonzola cheese gratin and caramelized onions. Both of them enjoyed their meal but they agreed that there was nothing special about it.

J and D both ordered the Hunan Braised Beef Shortribs ($20.00). The shortribs were served with white rice, wok'd vegetables and caramelized pineapple. D liked the shortribs and thought that the sauce was pretty good, but she thought it could have been a little sweeter. J didn't like the shortribs at all because she felt that the sauce was way too sweet. I guess some people will think the sweetness is juuuuust right..... J and D both agreed though that the shortribs were burned which made both of them like this dish less.

S ordered Striped Cheese Ravioli ($23.00). The ravioli was served with little chunks of lobster and wild mushrooms on top. It was then covered with a lobster cream sauce. S enjoyed this dish a lot and thought that the bits of lobster were very tender and tasty.

Overall, everyone thought that the food here was decent, but not great. We mostly enjoyed our meal, but I don't think any of us will be racing back to dine here again. K'ya might be a place to consider if you are at Disneyland and you want a nice meal, but don't want to pay the overinflated prices at Morton's, Ruth's Chris or some of the other places down the street. If I were looking for a reasonably priced meal right outside of Disneyland though, I think I'd go to Gardenwalk and eat at Cheesecake Factory or Louie's Bar and Grill (Hmmm...I think I forgot to write up my review of Louie's...)

The Cheesecake Factory - Anaheim Gardenwalk

Anaheim GardenWalk
321 W. Katella Ave. #100,
Anaheim, CA 92802
(714) 533-7500

Various Locations Nationwide

After standing in line for a long time to experience the new Toy Story ride in Disneyland California Adventure, we were hungry. We decided to leave the park and find someplace nearby to eat. I remembered that we had not yet been down to the new Anaheim Gardenwalk, so I suggested that we go down there to see what they had.

We parked in the large garage and walked around trying to find the entrance. This place really needs more signs telling you where to go. We wadered around lost for a few minutes but then finally found the exit from the garage into the mall and located a directory. Gardenwalk seems to be mostly filled with large chain restaurants that aren't that exciting. After a few minutes we all decided that we would just go eat at The Cheesecake Factory. We walked through the front door and were greeted by the hostess. It was almost 7:00 PM on a Friday night, but they were able to seat our party of five immediately. We were taken to a nice table out on the patio.

We looked over the vast menu and as always, had a hard time deciding. For those of you that have never been to The Cheesecake Factory, their menu is quite large. The menu is so large that they actually have advertising pages throughout the menu just like a magazine would. While we looked over the menu, they brought us some sourdough baguette and dark molasses bread to munch on.

I finally decided to order an appetizer and a side dish as my meal. I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Strips appetizer ($7.95) and a side of Mac and Cheese ($5.95). V ordered the nightly fish special of Grilled Mahi Mahi ($19.95). S ordered the other nightly Salmon special ($18.50). J decided to go with the Miso Salmon ($19.95) and R went with the Hot Turkey Supreme Sandwich ($11.95).

After a not too long wait, our food arrived. Everything looked delicious. I was impressed by the amount of chicken strips that I got. There were at least 10 of them in my bowl. The buffalo sauce was very tangy and spicy, just the way I like it. I was actually surprised that I found it spicy. So many buffalo sauces these days are weak watery jokes. This sauce had a good flavor and a good spiciness level. The mac and cheese wasn't bad. I wish that the cheese flavor was a little sharper though. I prefer a nice sharp cheddar, bleu or swiss flavor in my mac and cheese. This would be good for someone that likes mac and cheese, but isn't a fan of really sharp cheeses.

V seemed to like her Mahi Mahi. Her meal was served with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes. She liked the fish and also thought that the mashed potatoes were really good and full of flavor.

R was happily eating his Hot Turkey Supreme, open faced sandwich. His sandwich started out with a piece of grilled brioche bread and it was topped with spinach and turkey, then smothered in a white cheddar cheese sauce. Slices of tomato and crumbled bacon are then placed on top. The sandwich was served with french fries. I asked R how he liked his sandwich. He looked up and said, "It's really good. This is probably the best thing I have eaten all year!" We were all shocked to hear how much he liked his sandwich. It must have been insanely good for him to make such a bold comment. I almost asked to try some, but I figured that if it was that good, he wasn't going to want to give any up. I'm going to have to go back soon to try this sandwich really soon.

J's Miso Salmon was a nice piece of miso marinated salmon on top of white rice. It was supposed to be served with snow peas, but J asked to have some steamed spinach instead. She seemed to enjoy her meal.

S had a little problem with her salmon dish. It wasn't really cooked all the way and was actually completely raw in the middle. In the end she decided to just go ahead and eat it though since she often eats salmon sashimi and sushi anyway. She seemed to think it was about average for a basic grilled salmon meal.

Overall, everyone was pretty happy with their meal. I feel that The Cheesecake Factory is a step above most large chain restaurants because they offer large portions for reasonable prices. Their food also tends to be pretty good. This new Gardenwalk location seems to be a good option if you're ever in the area.