Wahoo's Fish Taco - NEW Citrus Slaw Taco

Wahoo's Fish Taco

wahoos.com

Wahoo's will be introducing a new menu item on Saturday 5/25 as part of the ongoing celebration of their 25th anniversary. I was lucky enough to be able to try this taco before it is officially released. The taco is basically the same as their current taco, but instead of being topped with plain cabbage, it is topped with a cabbage slaw that is marinated in a light citrus dressing. I have always been a fan of Wahoo's tacos, but this new slaw adds a whole new element of flavor. The light, tangy flavor of the slaw was a perfect complement to the taco. Add a little Mr. Lee's sauce to the taco and you have a perfect fish taco. I can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Smashburger

Smashburger - Orange County
26541 Aliso Creek Rd, Ste C
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
949-716-3855

1003 The Shops at Mission Viejo
(Inside the mall food court)
Mission Viejo, CA 92691
949-364-1246

www.smashburger.com

SEE BOTTOM OF ARTICLE FOR A SMASHBURGER GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY!

SmashBurger, a chain that started in Denver CO, has recently begun to expand into Orange County. I was invited down to sample some of their offerings. SmashBurger sets themselves apart from their competition by literally smashing their burgers down on a flat top grill. They say that this puts a good sear on the meat and thereby gives the beef patty a good exterior crust while retaining the juices. Below is a video of the process they go through to create a SmashBurger.

It seems that Smashbugers across the country all have regional specialty burgers in addition to the standard SmashBurgers. The two regional burgers for the Orange County area are "The LA Burger" and "The OC Burger." I decided to try the LA burger and V tried the OC burger.

The LA burger consists of a beef patty topped with a crispy wonton, fried egg, cilantro, cucumber, lettuce, tomato and a Japanese Steakhouse ginger dressing. The burger was very good. The cucumbers and the cilantro gave the burger a very fresh, crisp taste. However, I felt that the dressing was a little on the bland side.

The OC burger was topped with baby portabella mushrooms, baby arugula, grilled onions, aged swiss cheese and truffle mayo. V enjoyed her OC burger a lot. She loved that the grilled onions were nice and caramelized instead of barely grilled like at some other burger places. She thought that the truffle mayo was very good but felt that there was a little too much of it on the burger. She said she would definitely get this burger again, but would just ask them to go easy on the mayo.

I also got to try one of their Fresh Mex chicken sandwiches. A chicken breast is pounded out until it is really thin and then grilled on the flat top. The chicken was topped with guacamole, cilantro, pepper jack cheese, tomato, onion, sour cream and chipotle mayo. I would usually never choose a chicken sandwich over a burger, but I think I really enjoyed this sandwich more than my burger. The chicken was cooked well and was not dry at all. The sandwich had a nice spicy kick to it and was full of flavor.

Smashburger offers a variety of side dishes. Their signature Smashfries are tossed with rosemary, olive oil and garlic. They were very tasty with a pungent kick of rosemary. Fries are also available in sweet potato form and can be smothered with chili and cheese. Fried pickles and onion haystacks are available at the Aliso Viejo location. They also offer fried green beans and carrot sticks.

In addition to burgers, SmashBurger offers a variety of chicken sandwiches, hot dogs and salads. Burgers are also available with a veggie patty. Ice cream shakes and malts are made with Haagen Dazs ice cream and are very rich and decadent. I love the fact that they offer a malt option, instead of just a plain milkshake.

Overall, I was very happy with the food at SmashBurger. I feel that the prices are reasonable and the burgers are much better than your standard fast food joint. I also appreciate the fact that they take the time to present the burgers nicely, instead of just wrapping them in paper and throwing them in a bag. SmashBurger currently has the two location in Aliso Viejo and Mission Viejo and plans to open a third location in San Clemente in the next six months. They are also currently looking for a location in the Irvine area.

SmashBurger has offered to give away a $20 gift card to one lucky reader! Use the form below to enter! GIVEAWAY VALID ONLY FOR RESIDENTS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Capriotti's Tustin - Grand Opening and Giveaway

I went down to the Grand Opening of Capriotti's today in The District at Tustin Legacy. The new sandwich shop is located next to Peet's Coffee. I have been excited to try this sandwich shop ever since I heard about the sandwich they are famous for, The Bobbie. The Bobbie is basically Thanksgiving on a freshly baked roll. Capriotti's freshly roasts turkeys every day in their shop and also bakes their rolls from scratch. They take a generous portion of the freshly roasted turkey and top it with cranberry sauce, stuffing and mayo. The sandwich is absolutely delicious. The only thing I can think of that would improve this sandwich is if they added a nice slather of chilled turkey gravy to it. Capriotti's makes it possible for me to have this sandwich any time of year instead of just when I make it for myself the day after Thanksgiving!

The sandwiches at Capriotti's come in three sizes, small, medium and large. The small is 9 inches, the medium is 12 inches and the large is a whopping 20 inches! I couldn't believe all the people I saw walking out of the shop with sandwiches that were almost as long as their arm! The Bobbie is $7.49 for a small, $8.99 for a medium and $12.99 for a large.

Capriotti's has graciously offered up two "Meal for Two" vouchers for me to give away to two lucky readers. Each voucher is redeemable at any Capriotti's location for two 9-inch subs, two bags of chips and two drinks. Enter to win below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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.

Blackie's Originals - Pork Chips

www.blackiesoriginals.com

I happened to be walking through the Farmers Market at the Kaiser in Irvine (Wednesdays) when I spotted a booth offering what they call Crispy Pork Jerky. I tried a sample and discovered that is was not much like jerky, but much more like a crispy meat chip. Fantastic! The company is only 5 months old and currently sells their product at this Farmers Market plus the Huntington Beach Farmers Market and the OC Swap Meet at the Fairgrounds over the weekend. The crispy pork chips are now available in Original and Spiked Pepper. The flavor is a little like a sweet teriyaki glaze on lightly smoked, crispy bacon. New flavors will be coming soon. I hope he comes out with a flavor soon that focuses more on the salty instead of the sweet. These are still a great little snack though. The chips are baked, all-natural and 97% fat-free. Bags are currently $6 each or 2 for $10.

McDonalds debuts new Chicken McBites

Mc Donalds added a new menu item in the past couple of weeks that is supposedly only here for a limited time. The item is called Chicken McBites and is their version of popcorn chicken. It comes in snack size ($1.99), regular size ($2.99) and shareable size ($4.99). The chicken isn't bad, but I actually expected it to have a little more flavor. The snack size would be a nice little supplement to your meal though. The chicken has a very good crunch to it and is moist on the inside. I think I remember KFC popcorn chicken tasting better.

McDonalds Chicken McBites Nutritional Info:

Snack Size-Calories 310, Fat 19g, Carbs 22g, Sodium 490mg

Regular Size-Calories 470, Fat 28g, Carbs 33g, Sodium 730mg

Shareable Size-Calories 1050, Fat 63g, Carbs 73g, Sodium 1620mg

Carl's Jr Made From Scratch Biscuits

As many of you have probably heard, most Carl's Jr restaurants are now serving fresh Made From Scratch Biscuits during business hours. There is a specially trained person in each restaurant that actually makes the biscuits from scratch all morning long. I recently went down to my local Irvine Carl's Jr. to try them out.

Upon entering the restaurant and reading their menu board, I decided to order two sausage biscuits (2 for $1.00 with coupon/99 cents each without coupon), two sausage, egg and cheese biscuits (on sale 2 for $2) two orders of biscuit and gravy ($1.19) and an order of strawberry biscuits (2 for $1.59).

I could see a person in the back furiously mixing up biscuit dough, rolling it out, cutting out biscuits and throwing them in the oven. Even though she was working quickly, she was unable to keep up with demand. By the time I received my order it was about 22 minutes later. There were many annoyed people both inside the restaurant and in the drive-thru. So I guess that a fast food restaurant that is making the food fresh, turns out to be not so "fast" anymore.



The biscuits were actually very good. They were warm, flaky and buttery. You can tell that they were freshly made. The breakfast sandwiches were filled with average fast-food quality eggs and sausage. The biscuit and gravy was very good. The biscuit was served with plenty of salty, creamy gravy that was flavored with pepper and sausage. The strawberry biscuits were tasty, but not amazing.

Overall, it's nice to see a fast-food restaurant making an effort to make higher quality food, but I'm not too sure that it is worth the much longer wait. I was surprised however to see that the biscuits had a lot less fat and calories than I thought. They're still by no means health food though...

Made From Scratch Biscuit - 250 calories, 13 grams of fat
Biscuit and Gravy - 410 calories, 23 grams of fat
Sausage Biscuit - 410 calories, 37 grams of fat

How many calories are in a Carl's Jr. Turkey Burger?

Carl's Jr./Hardee's released a new line of Turkey Burgers today. The question I keep hearing everyone ask is, "So how many calories do they have?" Well, the turkey burgers that were developed with the help of Men's Health Magazine and "Eat This, Not That" clock in at less than 500 calories each. The turkey burger currently comes in three different varieties, Classic, Guacamole and Teriyaki and range from 470-490 calories.

I was so excited to hear that one of my favorite fast food chains was offering a new healthier food option that I went down on it's release date to try it. I noticed that I was not the only one there ordering a turkey burger. In fact, the person before me and a few people after me also ordered turkey burgers. The idea of a new healthy fast food item seems to be exciting a lot of people.

I decided to order the Guacamole Turkey Burger ($3.69). I ordered it with red onion as well, but they forgot to put it on. The guacamole on the burger was the same familiar onion guacamole that comes on their other guacamole burgers. The burger was served on a wheat bun with iceberg lettuce and one slice of tomato.



The turkey patty itself wasn't bad. It was a little dry though and could have used a little more flavor. It reminded me of the frozen turkey patties that you can get at Costco. The burger was decent for a "healthy" burger. It still had 21 grams of fat though. This is definitely a good option for someone looking for a healthier dining alternative at a fast-food restaurant, but it is nowhere near as good as their beef burgers. Since I am trying to be a little more conscious of what I eat, I will most likely be getting one of these again. Perhaps I'll try the teriyaki version next time to cut out some of the fat.

Carl's Jr./Hardee's Turkey Burger Nutritional Info:

Classic Turkey Burger
Serving Size (g) 268
Total Calories 490
Calories From Fat 200
Fat (g) 23
Saturated Fat (g) 4.5
Cholesterol (mg) 80
Sodium (mg) 1010
Carbohydrates (g) 45
Dietary Fiber (g) 3
Sugars (g) 10
Protein (g) 29

Guacamole Turkey Burger
Serving Size (g) 281
Total Calories 490
Calories From Fat 190
Fat (g) 21
Saturated Fat (g) 6
Cholesterol (mg) 85
Sodium (mg) 1120
Carbohydrates (g) 43
Dietary Fiber (g) 3
Sugars (g) 9
Protein (g) 33

Teriyaki Turkey Burger
Serving Size (g) 320
Total Calories 470
Calories From Fat 120
Fat (g) 14
Saturated Fat (g) 5
Cholesterol (mg) 80
Sodium (mg) 1120
Carbohydrates (g) 55
Dietary Fiber (g) 3
Sugars (g) 19
Protein (g) 32

Drake Family Farms Goat Cheese and Scotty B's Hot Sauce - Two Fantastic Farmers' Market Finds

Drake Family Farms Goat Cheese and Scotty B's Hot Sauce are two products that I have recently stumbled across while wandering the local Orange County Farmers' Markets. Both of these products are locally made and available mostly through the Farmers' Markets.


Drake Family Farms is a goat farm in Ontario, CA. They originally started in Utah. They opened up their operation in Southern California in September of 2010. They sell a variety of plain and flavored goat cheeses. My two favorite flavors are Apricot Honey and Jalapeno (pictured above). This goat cheese is creamy and rich. Spreading a tiny bit on a cracker or mini toast is a decadent treat. I'm pretty sure that this is the best goat cheese I have ever had. A 4 oz. tub will set you back $6 or you can buy four for $20.

Drake Family Farms Goat Cheese is currently available at the following OC Farmers' Markets:

Sunday-Irvine Great Park Farmers' Market and Laguna Niguel Farmers' Market
Wednesday-Tustin Farmers' Market
Thursday-Costa Mesa Farmers' Market and Orange/Chapman Farmers' Market
Friday-Laguna Hills Farmers' Market

For more info:
Drake Family Farms
7255 Schaefer Ave.
Ontario, CA 91762
www.drakefamilyfarms.com



Scotty B's makes a line of hot sauce that is full of heat without sacrificing the flavor. They produce six different hot sauces that come in large 12.75 oz. bottles, instead of the small 5 oz. bottles that we are so used to seeing hot sauce come in. The price for a 12.75 oz. bottle is $8. My favorite hot sauce of the ones I have tried so far is the "Berries in Heat." This is a hot sauce that is made with fresh blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. It has a nice kick to it and isn't overly sweet. I was afraid that all those berries would make a really sweet hot sauce, but it is really perfectly balanced. In looking at their website, I have found that one of the foods they recommend putting their hot sauce on is Arby's Roast Beef Sandwiches......ok....

The Scotty B's booth also sells something called Jalapeno Chips. These chips seems to be made by a company in Vermont though. The chips are freeze-dried jalapeno slices that have been tossed in either cheddar cheese powder or ranch dressing flavored powder. They are light and crispy and have some great heat. Each 2.25 oz. bag is $4.

Scotty B's Hot Sauce is currently available at the following OC Farmers' Markets:

Wednesday-Tustin Farmers' Market
Thursday-Costa Mesa Farmers' Market
Friday-Laguna Hills Farmers' Market
Saturday-Irvine Famrers' Market
Sunday-Garden Grove Farmers' Market

For more info:
Scotty B's Hot Sauce
Good Eatz Gourmet, LLC
P.O. Box 2235
Capistrano Beach, CA 92624
(888)-9-SCOTTY
http://www.scottybhotsauces.com

Orange County Food Trucks-The Lime Truck, Dos Chinos, Short Stop BBQ, Chomp Chomp Nation, The Burnt Truck

Like most of you, I have been hitting up the OC food trucks whenever I can. However, I don't seem to love them as much as a lot of people do. Now don't get me wrong, some of the trucks have pretty good food, but more often than not you end up paying a lot of money to awkwardly eat a meal standing up. It just doesn't seem that fun to me. Nevertheless, I have visited a few trucks and I have decided to post some pictures and a brief write up on some of them. Also, for those of you that don't know, since these food trucks are mobile, they are usually in different places. You need to follow their feed on twitter or visit their website to get their current location. At the bottom of this article I will post all the food truck meetups I know about, where numerous trucks get together on a regular basis.

_____________________

The Lime Truck
www.thelimetruck.com
www.twitter.com/thelimetruck

The Lime Truck seems to be a favorite in Orange County. They even won Best in Show at the first annual OC Foodie Fest earlier this year. I went down to the truck with one of my buddies when it was at the Harbor Justice Center and stood in a really long line. The line at Lime Truck can be pretty long due to their popularity. I don't think it's uncommon to wait for 30-45 minutes to order and get your food.

One thing about The Lime Truck is that they are constantly changing their menu. If you go to the truck and love something, there is a good chance that it will not be there during your next visit. One of the things that they almost always seem to have though is Carnitas Fries ($7). This is also one of their most popular items. My buddy and I each ordered one. We also decided to get one steak taco ($3) one order of hatch chile fritters ($4) and two of their freshly muddled juice drinks ($3). This brought our grand total to $27.


(Carnitas Fries: Fries, carnitas, guacamole, sour cream, chipotle-honey slaw and cotija cheese)


(Hatch Chile Fritters and Steak Taco)


(Tangerine Limeade)

All of the food was really good. The fries had a nice spicy kick to them and my friend said his steak taco was fantastic. Neither one of us really liked the drink though. The only problem I have with The Lime Truck is their prices. If I'm going to spend $27 on lunch for two people, I want to sit at a table and relax, not try and balance all of my food and drink while standing up in a hot parking lot.

_______________________

Dos Chinos Truck
www.doschinosfood.com
www.twitter.com/doschinos
www.facebook.com/doschinos

Dos Chinos serves a fusion of Mexican and Asian food. Popular items include Korean shortrib tacos and Vietnamese pork belly burritos. Most of their items are available as a burrito for $5 or a taco for $2.

One interesting item I had heard about is the Dos Chinos Breakfast Burrito. The burrito contains a cooked to order egg, chorizo fried rice, filet mignon and sweet & sour guacamole. V and I each ordered one of these and an order of Dos Chinos fries ($4). Their fries are tossed in clarified garlic butter and topped with cotija cheese.

(Breakfast Burrito)

(Dos Chinos Fries)

The Breakfast Burrito was fantastic. Both V and I thought it was delicious and scarfed down the whole thing. I highly recommend that you get this burrito and have your egg done sunny side up or over easy. This way the yolk breaks and creates a yummy sauce inside the burrito. The Dos Chinos fries were also amazing. The pungent flavor of fresh garlic combined with the saltiness of the cotija cheese was the perfect addition to french fries. These fries were definitely worth the money.

______________________

Short Stop BBQ
www.shortstopbbq.com
www.twitter.com/shortstopbbq
www.facebook.com/shortstopbbq

Short Stop BBQ claims to serve real food for real people. Their goal is to bring you delicious "dirty" BBQ with a clean, California appeal. I visited the truck on their third day in operation. I ordered two sliders, one portabello mushroom and the other was tri-tip ($2 each). I also ordered french fries ($2).

(Portobello mushroom sider, BBQ Tri-tip slider)

(French Fries)

Of the two sliders, the mushroom was my favorite. The tri-tip slider had very little flavor. I liked the bleu cheese cole slaw on top, but the meat was pretty bland. The french fries were boring, generic fries that didn't even taste like they had salt on them. I ate a few of them, wished I had gotten Dos Chinos Fries instead and then threw them away. I have heard that the truck has been getting better with experience, so I may try it again in the future.

_______________________

Chomp Chomp Nation Truck
www.chompchompnation.com
www.twitter.com/chompchomptruck
www.facebook.com/chompchompnation

Chomp chomp nation says that they serve Singapore Street Hawker Favorites with an American Twist. They serve items like coconut french toast and tofu satay. I recently had the chance to try their Kaya Coconut French Toast ($5.50).

V and I both tried their French Toast and really liked it. The brioche French Toast was stuffed with coconut jam and topped with fresh mango, pineapple and fresh mint. I thought the mint would be kind of weird but it actually went really well with the dish. V really liked what the mint did to this dish as well. She thought it was what made the dish stand out. I believe the description for the french toast said there was supposed to be some kind of passion fruit element to this dish, but neither one of us could taste it. I'm looking forward to trying more of their food.

_______________________

The Burnt Truck
www.theburnttruck.com
www.twitter.com/theburnttruck
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Burnt-Truck/116838601694370

At first when you hear the name "Burnt Truck" you might be a little confused. Does this truck burn all their food? Is it cajun? Well, The Burnt Truck is actually just a weird name. They actually specialize in gourmet sliders that they sell for $2 each. They have a few that they serve on a regular basis and then some rotating chef specials that change periodically. They also recently had a contest where they asked for customers to submit their favorite slider idea for a chance to be immortalized on their menu with a slider named after them. Unfortunately, I didn't get my entry in on time. Oh well.....I guess I'll just have to wait for another opportunity to get a sandwich named after me....

I decided to try one of their Fried Chicken sliders, which seems to be very popular, and one of their Peanut Butter and Jelly sliders.

(PBJ Slider-Homemade pretzel peanut butter, blueberry jelly, sliced bananas)

(Fried Chicken Slider-Buttermilk fried chicken, garlic potato spread, country gravy)

The fried chicken slider was pretty good. It was really cold on the evening I got the sandwich though, so the gravy quickly cooled and became thick. Make sure to eat this sandwich quickly if you get it. I was also wishing it were just a little more salty. Maybe they should add some ground sausage into the gravy......mmmmmmmm......

The PBJ slider was absolutely delicious. The thing that made it stand out was the pretzel peanut butter. The pretzels added a fantastic crunch and a little bit of saltiness. I absolutely loved this little sandwich.

The Burnt Truck is a truck that I really look forward to trying again. Since they serve sliders, it's pretty easy to eat while you're standing up. They also have so many other varieties that I want to try, like the Chicken Katsu and the Fried Bologna.

_______________________
Known Orange County Food Truck Meetups aka roundups (If you know of others, let me know and I will add to the list)

Sunday-
Irvine Great Park Farmers Market 10AM-2PM

Monday-

Tuesday-
Lake Forest Lanes 5PM-9PM

Wednesday-
Irvine Teller Lot (near Teller and Michelson in Irvine) 11AM-2PM
OC Din Din a Go Go, Irvine Lanes 5:30PM-9PM

Thursday-
OC Fairgrounds 11AM-2PM
AMF Carter Lanes, Fullerton 5PM-9PM

Friday-

Saturday-

New KFC Fiery Grilled Wings

www.kfc.com
After seeing the commercials all the time for KFC's Fiery Grilled Wings, I finally decided I had to try them. I went down to KFC the other day for lunch. An order of 5 grilled wings was $3.99. I wasn't sure that 5 little wings would be enough for lunch so I also ordered their special 6 piece chicken (drums and thighs)for $5.00.

I got home and popped open the box. Inside were 5 small darkly colored wings. I picked one up and took a bite. The flavor was pretty good and the wings were actually a little spicier than their regular hot wings. I still didn't find them to be that spicy though. For someone that doesn't like a huge amount of spice, these would probably be perfect. Since these wings are grilled instead of fried, I thought they wouldn't be that good, but I actually liked these wings more than I thought I was going to.

The only problem I have with these wings are the price. I find it hard to pay $3.99 for 5 tiny wings when I can get 6 full pieces of fried chicken for $5.00. I would get these again, but only if they cut the price in half.

Nutritional Info for one (1) grilled wing:

Calories 70
Calories from fat 35
Fat Grams 4
Saturated Fat Grams 1
Sodium 200mg

Lazy Dog Cafe in Irvine Opens Tonight 3/4/2010

13290 Jamboree Rd
Irvine CA 92602
Ph. (714) 731-9700

Alternate OC locations:
1623 West Katella Ave.
Orange CA 92867
Ph. (714) 769-7020

16310 Beach Blvd
Westminster CA 92683
Ph. (714) 500-1140

www.lazydogcafe.com

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY OTHER REVIEWS OF LAZY DOG CAFE

The new Lazy Dog Cafe in the Irvine Marketplace will open at 5:00 PM tonight. They are taking over the spot that has been vacated by the failed restaurants French 75, Wilhelm's Chophouse and Martin Yan's restaurant that I can not recall the name of. Lazy Dog Cafe already operates restaurants in both Westminster and Orange. You can also find locations outside Orange County in Torrance, Valencia, Thousand Oaks and coming soon, in Temecula.

The Lazy Dog Cafe is a full service casual dining restaurant that was started by the founder of the Mimi's Cafe chain. It is often described as a cheaper version of Claim Jumper. The restaurant serves a large variety of comfort food, pizza, sandwiches, burgers, seafood, pasta and even Chinese food.

I was lucky enough to be invited down to a Pre-Grand Opening party this past Tuesday. The restaurant was generous enough to let me bring three guests. V, T and IG accompanied me to the party.

Here is an overview of what we ordered.


Boston Tea Party Fishbowl ($16.95*)


Hand Muddled Citrus Margarita


Trio of Hummus Dips ($7.95)


Wok-Fired Calamari ($9.95)


Angry Achiote Rocky Mountain Wings ($9.25)


Small Chicken Tortilla Soup ($3.75)


Small Caesar Salad ($5.95)


Bleu Cheese New York ($23.95)


BBQ Baby Back Pork Ribs ($17.95)


Garlic-Butter Glazed Flatiron Steak ($17.45)


Fig and Prosciutto Pizza ($11.95)


Cinnamon and Sugar Pizza ($4.95)


Sweet Tooth Sundae ($2.95)

With the exception of a few tough ribs (some were tough, some were not) everything was really good. V really likes Keri's Mediterranean veggie pizza from this restaurant and used to think it was the best pizza she had ever had. She now thinks that the Fig and Prosciutto pizza is better. The Tortilla Soup is an item that Lazy Dog is known for. They do an incredible job with it. The Cinnamon Sugar pizza is a perfect dessert to share when you are dining with a group.

The portions here are generous and the prices are very reasonable. I have always enjoyed going to Lazy Dog Cafe in the past, but hated driving to Orange or Westminster. Now that they are open in Irvine, I can see myself going there any time I want a quick, casual, delicious meal. The service here is also top notch. Whenever I have dined at a Lazy Dog, the service has rivaled some of the finest restaurants I have been to. I highly recommend The Lazy Dog Cafe to anyone looking for a delicious upscale dining experience, without the upscale price.

*Prices are for reference only. My meal was comped.