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.

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!

Lazy Dog Cafe from 11/11/03

The Lazy Dog Cafe
16310 Beach Blvd.
Westminster, CA 92683
714-500-1140

The lazy dog café is a new venture from the owners of Mimi’s café. Their first location opened in Westminster a few months ago. They are hoping to be successful at this location and open up numerous locations soon. The restaurant is extremely large and decorated like a cozy country cabin. The menu at the lazy dog boasts over 100 items that include such comfort foods as meatloaf and pot roast to Asian wok’d dishes to pizzas, pastas, sandwiches and more. I visited The Lazy Dog in a group of four. We ordered the fried zucchini and Hawaiian sticky ribs for our appetizers. The fried zucchini was pretty good, however I still prefer the zucchini from Carl’s Jr. The Hawaiian sticky ribs had an original flavor that took your tongue a little while to get used to. The ribs were actually quite good though. They were sweet and had a sort of Asian flavor to them. For my dinner, I ordered the garlic roasted lamb shank ($13.95). I usually love lamb, but was disappointed with my dinner. The lamb and the mashed potatoes had a flavor that my tongue just wasn’t a big fan of. It wasn’t horrible, I just didn’t enjoy it. My wife ordered the orange peel wok’d tofu. She thought it was quite good. My mother ordered the meatloaf. You can usually count on meatloaf to be a safe comfort food. However, this meatloaf had some weird seasonings in it that didn’t taste very good. All the food at The Lazy Dog was presented beautifully. The service was excellent as well. The waitress was knowledgeable about the large menu and was very friendly. All of the prices seemed to be very reasonable. The Lazy Dog Café is a great restaurant to visit with friends and family, when you want to relax and have a good time without spending a lot of money.

Veronica’s Coffee Comment: N/A

Last Visit 11/11/03

Would I visit again? Yes