Bruxie Gourmet Waffle Sandwiches

Bruxie Gourmet Waffle Sandwiches
 Rancho Santa Margarita 22205 El Paseo, Suite A RSM, CA 92688 Open Daily Breakfast - Lunch - Dinner 949.207.6570

Brea Downtown 215 W. Birch Street Brea, CA 92821 9am - 9pm Sun - Wed 9am - 10pm Thur - Sat 714.255.1188

Old Towne Orange 292 North Glassell Street Orange, CA 92866 9am - 9pm Sun - Wed 9am - 10pm Thur - Sat 714.633.3900

www.bruxie.com  If you live in Orange County and you haven't yet heard of Bruxie Waffles, you're probably living under a rock.  Bruxie opened their first shop near the Orange Circle about 18 months ago.  Since then, they have expanded to three locations due to their extreme popularity.  In addition to their original location in Orange, they now have locations in Brea and Rancho Santa Margarita.

For those of you that are uninitiated to the waffle sandwich, the concept may sound a little weird, but I assure you that it is good.  Bruxie offers a variety of gourmet sandwiches, but uses freshly made waffles instead of the standard bread.  The sandwiches are inspired by the common street food in Brussels.  The light, airy, crispy waffles take a boring old sandwich and turn it into a culinary delight. 

I was recently able to attend that grand opening celebration of the Bruxie Waffles in Rancho Santa Margarita.  I was able to sample a wide variety of their sandwiches including:





Chicken and Waffles with Maple Syrup $7.95

Hot Pastrami $7.95

Turkey Avocado Club $8.95

Philly Cheesesteak

Roasted Mushroom and Goat Cheese $7.95

Green Eggs and Ham $6.95

Patty Melt

Lemon Cream and Berries (Very Tart! $6.50)

S'mores ($5.95)

Seasonal Creme Brulee ($6.50)


Overall, the fan favorite for the night seemed to be the Hot Pastrami. Shaved Boar's Head pastrami is served hot with Gruyere cheese, cider slaw, spicy brown mustard and half-sour pickles. The flavors all work together well to bring forth an amazing hot pastrami sandwich. Bruxie also offers a selection of frozen custards and old fashioned cane-sugar sodas. You won't find and Pepsi or Coke here. The next time you're out looking for a sandwich, I highly recommend that you stop by your closest Bruxie for a taste experience that you won't soon forget.

Anepalco's Cafe - Orange

415 S. Main Street
Orange, CA 92868
714-771-2333

www.anepalcoscafe.com

I read some good things about Anepalco's Cafe in Orange, so I decided to go down there for lunch one day to check it out. Anepalco's cafe is supposed to be a simple place that specializes in French and Mexican food. The restaurant is near CHOC and St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, so most of the people in the restaurant were wearing scrubs. The parking lot is tiny, so be prepared to park off-site somewhere if there are no spots up front.

I walked into Anepalco's with R. The restaurant is very small and only has about 6-8 tables. There is a large menu board on the back wall behind the cash register. We looked over the menu and saw a wide selection of crepes, sandwiches and Mexican food. I looked around the restaurant and saw that some of the sandwiches were gigantic. I wasn't that hungry so I decided to order the Enchilada Trio ($7.49). I ordered my trio with one chicken and two cochinita pibil enchiladas (marinated pork). R decided to get a Dejeuner crepe ($6.99).

We placed our order and found an empty table. It was about a 10-15 minute wait before out food arrived. The food arrived at our table and it looked wonderful. The presentation was better than expected for an inexpensive meal.

My enchilada trio wasn't very good. I was surprised that I actually liked the chicken enchilada better than the pork. Neither was very good though. The dish lacked any kind of flavor.

I also thought that the enchiladas came with plenty of red enchilada sauce. When I looked closer though, I realized that the enchiladas were just swimming in a pool of bright orange grease. I ended up leaving this place with a pretty bad stomach ache.

(The bright orange pool of grease)
R's crepe contained ham, bacon, egg and swiss cheese. It was then covered with Béarnaise sauce. R said his crepe was pretty bad. He described it as flavorless and really, really dry. He seemed to be struggling to eat it.

We were both really disappointed with our food. We were surprised since others had written good things about this place. I'm not sure if I would ever return to Anepalco's again. If I do, I will probably try one of their big sandwiches. They looked pretty good. I just hope they taste as good as they look, because the food we tried didn't.

Da Bianca Trattoria - Orange

7448 E. Chapman Ave
Orange, CA

714-289-1508

www.dabianca.com

Following up on a tip I received from a couple of readers, Mr. and Mrs. W, I headed down to a little trattoria the other night named Da Bianca. I knew that the restaurant was in the same parking lot as Pacific Ranch Market off of Chapman near Jamboree. What I didn't know was how hard it was to find. I drove around the parking lot and looked at all the storefronts. I drove back and forth in front of the market. I looked at the signboard out on the street. I found no trace of an Italian restaurant in this parking lot. Frustrated, I pulled out my iPhone, told it to locate me and then tell me where the nearest Italian restaurant was. Da Bianca popped right up on the screen. I called the number and someone answered the phone, "Da Bianca!" I asked where they were located and they gave me the intersection that I was currently at. I asked if they were in the same parking lot as Pacific Ranch Market. They told me they were right next to the market. I thanked them and hung up confused. I drove through the parking lot again and didn't see the restaurant. I then noticed that you could drive to the side and kind of behind the market. There it was. If I hadn't known this restaurant was there, I never would have found it. I have been in this parking lot many times and have never seen this restaurant. I'm glad I took the time to track it down though.

We entered the restaurant as a party of 5 around 6:30 PM on a Sunday night. The restaurant is pretty small with about a dozen tables. Half the tables were empty though, so we were seated immediately. The waiter brought over some menus and then propped up a white board with hand written nightly specials at the end of our table. A few minutes later he brought us a basket of fresh, warm garlic bread. It was very tasty and much nicer than just getting plain bread.

I decided to order one of the specials, the Lasagna Verde Al Forno ($15.95). V ordered the Spaghetti Pomodoro ($13.95), R ordered the Tortellini Alla Boscaiola ($13.95), S ordered the Farfalle Genovese ($14.95) and J decided to get the Cioppino ($21.95).

The food took a little longer to come out than at some other restaurants. This is probably a good thing though. This probably means that they are making everything fresh to order instead of just ladling pre-made sauce on to already cooked pasta, like I'm sure some high volume restaurants do. When the food finally came out, it was worth the wait.

My Lasagna Verde Al Forno was sheets of green (probably spinach) pasta layered with bolognese and bechamel sauce. The bolognese was a nice meaty sauce with mushroooms in it. The bechamel sauce was rich, yummy and much better than the ricotta cheese you find in a lot of lasagnas. I enjoyed this dish very much.

V's Spaghetti Pomodoro was made with spaghetti, fresh tomatoes and basil. V liked it a lot. I stole a bite of it and was amazed at how fresh the tomatoes tasted. It was fantastic.

J's Cioppino was made with mussels, clams, shrimp, fish and calamari in a slight spicy tomato broth. J thought that the Cioppino was very good. I tried some of it and thought that the broth could be a little spicier. Since J doesn't like a lot of spice though, she was happy with it the way it was. I also found the seafood to be a little chewy, but overall I thought it was a pretty good bowl of Cioppino.

S ordered her Farfalle Genovese with alfredo sauce instead of the pesto sauce it was supposed to some with. The farfalle was tossed with chicken breast and sun dried tomatoes. S really liked her dish as well.

R's Tortellini Alla Boscaiola was cheese filled pasta with ham, mushrooms and peas that was topped with a cream sauce. R enjoyed his meal. I stole a bite from R's plate as well and found it to be pretty tasty.

Overall, everyone was happy with their food. It's pretty rare these days for a party of 5 to go to a restaurant they haven't been to before, and all completely enjoy their meal. I was surprised that I also liked all the food I tried off of other people's plates. Good Italian food is very hard to find in Orange County. Da Bianca is definitely one of the good ones. My only problem with Da Bianca is the price. I felt that $15.95 was a little high to pay for a slice of lasagna. I might have felt better paying that if the meal had at least come with a side salad or something. In the end though, I decided it was worth it. I would much rather eat this yummy slice of $16 lasagna instead of two crappy slices of $8 lasagna. If Da Bianca had lower prices though, I'd probably start going there a lot more often. Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. W for the wonderful recommendation.

Topz Burgers - Orange

1632 E. Katella Avenue #A
Orange, CA 92867

714-628-0266

www.topz.com
www.topzorange.com - Online Ordering

I've been telling myself for years to get down to a Topz Burgers to check them out. I saw them years ago on the Food Network and immediately wanted to try them. At the time, the closest location was in Los Angeles. A few years ago, a Topz opened in Orange. I knew about it when it opened, but for some reason it has taken me this long to finally try it.

Topz calls themselves the "Healthier Burger Grill." Their gimmick is that they use really lean ground beef and oven bake their fries. This is supposed to make your meal much healthier than the standard burger meal.

I decided to order a 1/2 lb. Angus Burger ($5.90). I added cheese ($0.50) and bacon ($1.30) to my burger. I justified the extra fat because the burger is supposed to be super healthy, right? I added an order of the baked Aero Fries ($1.80). J ordered a 1/4 lb. Angus Burger ($4.60) with cheese ($0.50). She added Aero Fries and a Soda to her burger for $2.75.

We went and found a table in the mostly empty restaurant. We were there during the lunch hour so I was surprised at how dead it was. I went to get some ketchup from their ketchup bar and noticed that they had garlic ketchup. Yum.

Our burgers came out a short while later. My 1/2 lb burger was actually a double cheeseburger with two 1/4 lb. patties. The burger was served on a wheat bun. The burger itself was pretty good, but for some reason didn't taste like beef to me. It kind of tasted like ground chicken or ground turkey. The fries were pretty good. They were much better than I expected for baked fries.

J thought that her burger was decent, but nothing special. She also thought that the fries were pretty good.

Since this restaurant prides themselves on being a healthy alternative, they proudly hand out their nutritional info at the door. I decided to take this info home and see how healthy these burgers really were. Here is what I found.

Fat Grams-
Topz 1/4 lb. Burger - 25 grams of fat*
Tops 1/2 lb. Burger - 40 grams of fat*
McDonalds Quarter Pounder With Cheese - 26 grams of fat**
McDonalds Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese - 42 grams of fat**

Calories-
Topz 1/4 lb. Burger - 507 calories*
Tops 1/2 lb. Burger - 735 calories*
McDonalds Quarter Pounder With Cheese - 510 calories**
McDonalds Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese - 740 calories**

So it looks like choosing a "healthy" Topz burger, instead of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonalds, saves you a whopping 3 calories and 1 gram of fat. Then I realized that the nutritional info on Topz was not including cheese. This most definitely means that a Topz burger has MORE fat and calories that it's equivalent at McDonalds. Take it from me, you're much better off with the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. A McDonalds Quarter Pounder without cheese has 410 calories and 19 grams of fat**. That's almost 100 calories and 6 grams of fat LESS than Topz.

While I was eating my meal, I was also looking over a copy of their takeout menu. Topz advertises that they make "healthy" milkshakes by using frozen yogurt and fresh fruit. I saw that they offered a Chocolate Banana shake ($3.25). I decided that since it was healthy, I would grab one on the way out for dessert. I watched as the girl behind the counter put some soft serve frozen yogurt into a drink tin. Next she got some chocolate syrup out of the fridge and squirted some in. She then pulled out a tub from the fridge that looked like dark brown swamp sludge. She started scooping it into my drink. That's when I realized that these were the "bananas." She blended this concoction together, poured it into a cup and handed it to me. I grabbed a straw and hoped for the best. I hopped in my car and took the first sip as I pulled away. It was disgusting. I can't believe I wasted $3.25 on this. I tried to drink more to get my money's worth, but I couldn't. I made J try it and she agreed that it was horrible. It tasted like the bananas had been sitting in that fridge for weeks.

Since it doesn't look like you're making much of a healthier choice by going to Topz, and because their shakes are disgusting, I doubt I will ever return to Topz. In fact, I am writing this article now after having just eaten a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. It was much cheaper and much better than my burger from Topz.

*Info pulled from http://topz.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=30

**Info pulled from http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/nutrition_facts.html

The Auld Dubliner - Tustin

2497 Park Avenue
Tustin, CA 92782

714-259-1562

Alternate OC Location:
(Known as The Auld Irisher)
1547 W. Katella #102
Orange, CA 92867

714-633-3192

4 other locations in California, 4 more in other states

www.aulddubliner.com

I went down to The Auld Dubliner (aka The Old Dubliner) in The District at Tustin Legacy last Saturday night. The Auld Dubliner is an Irish Pub and restaurant that I have heard some buzz about. I have heard that it can get pretty crowded. As I walked through the door at around 6:30 PM, I fully expected to find a packed restaurant and pub full of rowdy people. I even half hoped people would be standing around singing Irish drinking songs. Instead what I found was a mostly empty restaurant. (It might have also been extra empty due to all the fires this day.)

The sign inside the front door said "Seat Yourself." I looked around and tried to decide where to sit. An employee walked up and greeted me. I said "Hi...I'm supposed to seat myself right?" She says "No, I'll seat you. How many in your party?" I told her we had four people and she took us all the way to the back of the restaurant to a room that looked even more deserted than the front room. She sat us at a large booth with benches so far from the table that you almost had to sit on the very edge of your seat to reach the table. It was also very dark in this part of the restaurant, so I apologize for the extra crappy pictures.

I started looking at the appetizer section of the menu and decided that I wanted to order almost every appetizer that they offered. After talking it over with the waitress, I finally decided to order the Potato and Goat Cheese Crostinis ($7.95) and the Spicy Potatoes ($7.95) for the table to share.

I looked over the rest of the menu and realized I had a hard decision ahead of me. The menu has a wide selection of burgers, sandwiches, meats, soups, salads and "Traditional Irish Fayre" including an entire section of Irish Boxtys. After much consideration, I decided to go with the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage ($12.95). R thought that sounded good and he ordered the same. J decided to mix it up a little bit and ordered the Corned Beef Boxty ($12.95). V ordered the Vegetarian Boxty ($10.95).

The appetizers came out after only a few minutes. The Potato and Goat Cheese Crostinis consisted of sliced, boiled potatoes and goat cheese on top of garlic crostini. It was then topped off with basil pesto and olive tapenade. Everyone seemed to think these were pretty good. V thought that they had too much olive tapenade on them, but enjoyed eating the crostini with some arugala that also came on the plate. I didn't think they had too much olive tapenade, but I really like olive tapenade.

The spicy potatoes were small new potatoes that were deep fried and tossed in the Auld Dubliner spicy wing sauce. They were topped with crumbled bleu cheese and served with ranch dressing. These potatoes were interesting and oddly good. The hot sauce tasted kind of like a hot wing sauce with a slight but distinctive hint of curry. The potatoes also tasted boiled to me. I was wondering if they actually were boiled or if they did indeed deep fry them. If the potatoes were fried, I think they should start boiling them because it would probably taste the same and be a lot healthier.

Our entrees arrived a few minutes after our appetizers. I guess the kitchen was operating really fast since there weren't that many people in the restaurant. I looked at my meal and it looked delicious. I was hoping for more corned beef, but I'm a pig when it comes to corned beef. Every St. Patrick's Day I usually cook up and eat an entire corned beef by myself. Maybe that's why I keep gaining weight.......anyway..... I also received a quarter head of cabbage, sliced boiled carrots and a few boiled potatoes on my plate. The cabbage and the corned beef were drizzled with a traditional Irish cream sauce. Everything on my plate was really good. The corned beef was cut into thin, lean strips. The veggies on the plate were all perfectly boiled. The cream sauce was so good that I asked for an extra side of it. R really liked it too so we each poured more of it on to our food. The sauce was like a creamy, buttery yummy sauce with a slight hint of horseradish. R and I both agreed that we would order this meal again.

J took a bite of her Corned Beef Boxty and said that it tasted fruity. The corned beef boxty comes with an apple onion relish and is topped with swiss cheese and horseradish mayo. A boxty is a traditional Irish potato pancake that is stuffed with various things. It's kind of like an Irish version of a crepe. J said that despite the fruity flavor, she still liked her boxty.

V's boxty came filled with zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli and carrots. The veggies were cooked in a white wine lemon sauce. V enjoyed her boxty and said that the sauce was really good.

Overall everyone really enjoyed their food. Our waitress was friendly and knowledgeable. If she ever didn't know an answer to a question, she made sure to go ask someone so she didn't give us incorrect information. I asked her why the restaurant was so empty. She told us that since their live band doesn't start until 10:00 pm, people tend to come in later. She said that once the music starts, the place gets really crowded. This means that if you're looking for a restaurant without a wait, The Auld Dubliner is a great place to go around 6:00-8:00 pm no matter what the day is. I'm looking forward to going back to try more of their food.

Cha Thai - Orange

1520 W Chapman Ave
Orange, CA 92868

(714) 978-3905

Taking more advice from Dan over at EatInOC, I decided to go down to Cha Thai to try their food. Dan insists that their food is far superior to my favorite Thai place, Thai Lingo. I visited Cha Thai on a Saturday night with the couple that usually eats with us at Thai Lingo. We had no trouble getting in to the restaurant around 7:30 PM. The restaurant was almost empty.

We looked over the menu and saw most of the standard Thai dishes. There was an article posted in the front window from the OC Weekly, talking about the Tom Kha Chicken soup here. I decided to give it a try and ordered a bowl for myself ($4.50). The rest of the meal we decided to order family style. We really wanted to compare this pace to Thai Lingo, so we ordered dishes that were similar to our favorites there. We ordered the Spicy Thai noodles with beef($7.50), Spicy Thai Fried Rice with pork ($7.50), Garlic Beef ($8.50) and Veggie Green Curry ($6.50). We ordered all of our dishes "extra spicy." I asked the waitress if there was a scale of spiciness we could choose from, but she said no.

The first to arrive was my bowl of Tom Kha Chicken soup. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I've had Thai soups before, but I don't think I've ever had this particular soup before. I took a big spoonful and put it in my mouth. POW! It was like a sour citrus fruit kicking you in the crotch while a can of coconut milk is hurled at your neck! BANG! ZIP! BOOM! YUM!!!!!! The flavor of this soup was strong, but addicting. My wife tried some as well and exclaimed, "Whoa! That's weird!" She then proceeded to take about 10 more bites. I would definitely order this soup again.

Next up was the Garlic Beef. The garlic beef was similar to Thai Lingo's. Strips of beef were pan fried with some soy sauce, garlic, white pepper and spices. It wasn't bad, but the beef was pretty tough.

The Spicy Thai Noodles were also pretty good. However, they weren't that spicy. They were stir fried with vegetables, beef and basil.

The Spicy Thai Fried rice, again wasn't very spicy to me. This is really odd because Thai food is usually pretty spicy. When you order it "extra spicy," it's usually spicy enough to singe your nosehairs. Now don't get me wrong, the food was spicy. It was probably even "too spicy" for people that can't handle spicy food. Since I really enjoy super spicy Thai food though, the spice level was very disappointing.

I didn't try any of the green curry. My wife and the other female we were with said that it was pretty good, but both of them much preferred Thai Lingo's green curry.

It is not a secret that people have different tastes in food. Some people can love a dish, while others hate it. I did not like Cha Thai as much as I like Thai Lingo, but I can definitely see why Dan likes it. I would consider Cha Thai to be a good backup if Thai Lingo is closed, or if I'm closer to Cha Thai and I don't want to drive. For the most part though, I think I'll stick with Thai Lingo. The other three people with me agree.

Lazy Dog Cafe - Orange

1623 West Katella Ave.
Orange, CA 92867
(714) 769-7020

Alternate Locations:
16310 Beach Blvd
Westminster, CA

3525 Carson Street
Torrance, CA 90503

www.lazydogcafe.com

I went to the Lazy Dog once when they opened their first location back in 2003. For some reason, I never returned after that. I don't remember the restaurant being bad, it just didn't leave much of an impression on me. Recently, I've read a couple of articles by Dan over at EatInOC. He raves about how much he loves the Lazy Dog and how it is one of his favorite restaurants. Since Dan seems to be a man that knows good food, I decided to give Lazy Dog another try.

I arrived at The Lazy Dog as a party of four on a Thursday evening. The wait was less than 5 minutes. As I was waiting for the table, I read their special board and saw that they had Barracuda for $19.99. I think this may have been the first time that I have seen barracuda on a menu. We were seated at a large table in a big, open dining room. The lighting was just dim enough to add a little bit of atmosphere.

I looked over the menu and tried to decide what to order. There were so many good looking things here. I thought about ordering the barracuda special, but finally decided against it. In the end I decided to order a bowl of Chicken Tortilla Soup ($4.95) with avocado ($1.00 extra) and the Meatloaf Stack Sandwich ($7.95). V was having a little trouble finding something she wanted, but finally decided on Keri's Roasted Vegetable pizza ($10.95). R chose "Mom's Pot Pie" ($11.95) and J decided to have an appetizer meal and ordered the Parmesan Zucchini Fries ($7.45) and some Rocky Mountain Wings with Island Tiki sauce ($9.25). J and I ordered Iced Tea as well ($2.55).

It wasn't long before our waiter brought me my large steaming bowl of Tortilla Soup. The bowl was bigger than I expected. Dan talked about this soup on his blog and said how good it was, so I had to try it for myself. The soup was indeed very good. My wife even tried some of it and liked it so much, she had a few more spoonfuls. The only thing that could have made this soup better, would be if it were a little spicier. I tend to like things spicier than most though, so I understand why it's not. Also, since they charged me extra for the avocado, I thought they could have put a little more on the soup. V really liked the parmesan flatbread that they brought with my soup. She ate it all.

A short while later, our food arrived. It was all nicely presented and looked fantastic. My meatloaf stack sandwich consisted of a thick slice of egg bread topped with mashed potatoes and a fat slice of meatloaf, smothered in brown gravy. The meatloaf was filled with carrots, onions and other vegetables. It was quite tasty and the gravy had the sweetness of caramelized onions. I felt that this dish was a fantastic deal for only $7.95.

V looked at her pizza and was at first disappointed at how thin the crust was. She usually prefers a pizza with a more substantial crust, and this pizza was pretty thin. She picked up a slice though and quickly changed her mind. Her pizza was topped with roasted veggies, portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, goat cheese and a balsamic vinegar drizzle. She loved it so much that she said she was going to try and recreate it at home.

R enjoyed his chicken pot pie and said that it was full of flavor....maybe a little too much flavor. He said that the filling for the pie was less creamy than he was expecting, but bursting with a salty flavor. He said that he could see how other people would really like this, but it was a little too salty for him. He ate almost the whole pie though, and enjoyed it, but said that he would probably order something else next time.

When J ordered her chicken wings, she asked the waiter which of the Island Tiki or Chipotle BBQ sauce was less sweet. The waiter told her that the Chipotle BBQ was really sweet, so if she wanted less sweet, she should go for the Island Tiki. When her wings arrived, they were covered with a gooey sauce that tasted like a teriyaki sauce. She said it was still really, really sweet though. She finally decided she would try and take the wings home, wash off the sauce and try to re-season them. She enjoyed her fried zucchini. V even stole a few for herself and really liked them too.


The thing that I was impressed with the most here was the presentation of the food and the impeccable service. The waiter was always attentive and made sure that our drinks never ran low. He was very knowledgeable about the menu and happily answered any questions we had. The manager also stopped by our table during our meal to make sure that everything was good. When I asked the waiter for extra lemons for my iced tea, he returned with a clean white plate that had three perfectly placed lemon slices on them.

This is the kind of service I would expect at an expensive restaurant, not a restaurant as affordable as Lazy Dog. Overall, I was very pleased with my experience at Lazy Dog. I'm not sure why it took me 5 years to return after my initial visit. I am happy that Dan's reviews motivated me to return. I look forward to making Lazy Dog one of my regular dinner spots. Thanks again Dan!