Digging Up Some Good Grub at the Golden Truffle? - CLOSED

The Golden Truffle

1767 Newport Blvd. 

Costa Mesa, CA 92627

I have been doing an excellent job of getting to some of the restaurants on our "must-try" list. We have almost got our list down to two total instead of three full pages; it was nearly two months ago. Katie and I were going to be celebrating our fourth anniversary, so I went to our trusty list to see if there was another restaurant to cross off. I finally decided on the restaurant that was second from the top, The Golden Truffle.

I can remember when I put this restaurant on our list. I had just started my blog, and Katie's sister and brother-in-law had given me a copy of the Zagat Guide for Southern California. A really thoughtful gift that I still have to this day. I will give Kevin credit for this great gift because Sara has given some clunker gifts in the past. However, this was not a clunker gift at all.

The Golden Truffle has been around forever. Okay, not forever, but for over thirty years, a lifetime in the restaurant business. Started as a catering business, this chef-driven restaurant is owned and operated by Alan Greely. We had made reservations on a recent Saturday night. Roman Cucina next door was packed, but when we entered the Golden Truffle, only a smattering of tables was occupied. We had our tables, so we chose to sit in the "Wine Cellar" room, which was just a room with large wine racks and maps hanging from the walls. There were about six tables in this room, which was more relaxed than the rest of the restaurant, which was very nice.

Almost all of the reviews I have read about this restaurant make mention of the dated decor here. It is a little dated, but nothing deterred us from eating here. The menu at the Golden Truffle changes daily. So the menu items we are about to share with you might not be available when you visit. How to explain the menu here? It is safe to say that it's whatever the chef's whim is on any particular day. I have heard that this restaurant has some Caribbean influence, but that was not evident during our night's visit. A hodgepodge of Asian, Mexican, European, American, and Creole dotted the menu on our visit. Let's see what corner of the world we decided to tackle during this meal.

After being seated, we were given slices of bread. I was, of course, starving, so I was grateful for anything to start. This was a pretty solid French bread. It had a hard crust, while the inside had a nice chew. Unfortunately, the butter here tasted like margarine, but Katie thought I was wrong. This has been our most considerable disagreement four years into our relationship.

We received the bread basket, and the chef also sent out an amuse-bouche of Antipasti. This tiny salad consisted of thick salami, celery, tomato, and cheese cuts. This was very tangy due to the very citrusy dressing used here. I always like getting an amuse-bouche from a chef. It makes me feel like it is more of a private tasting than being in a restaurant. Plus, everyone wants free stuff, especially food.

Lately, we have been eating a lot of onion rings, and when I saw that they had Vidalia Onion Rings with Caribbean Ketchup ($7), I knew we had to try them. These rings were giant. The breading really broke away too easily, which is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to onion rings. The onion itself was very mild, with a pleasant subtle onion taste. The breading was not too over the top, allowing the onion to be front and center. The Caribbean ketchup was nice, sweet, and a compliment to the onion rings. We got these at the same time as our salads, so they sat awhile and cooled rather quickly.

Katie mildly surprised me when she ordered the Petite Iceberg with Tomato, Sweet Onion, and House Buttermilk ($9). This version of a wedge salad sans bacon really had Katie raving. She liked the freshness of the produce, while the dressing drew praise from her by having a great texture and a wonderful flavor. She detected the use of pepper in the dressing. Her only semi-complaint was the overuse of tomatoes here. That's the only part of this salad that she did not finish.

No surprise with my choice of salad for avid readers of the blog. True to form, I ordered the Golden Truffle Caesar Salad ($9). When this was placed in front of me, I was immediately drawn to the purple hard-boiled eggs that accompanied this salad. They were dyed in beet juice, just like the ones we had at Provisions Market in Orange two weeks later. Crazy coincidence. This Caesar did not use a creamy dressing but more of an oil-based dressing. It included chopped romaine, capers, Parmesan cheese, and the eggs mentioned above. This salad was a perfect serving size, and I liked it well enough. The large toasted crouton was very good on this salad.

The menu on this particular Saturday was a little playful. Under the heading "Utility Foods with Economic Certainty" was Katie's dinner for this evening, the Lemon Fusilli with Parmesan Cream ($10, but with chicken added, it came out to $20).  We both really enjoyed this plate. This was my first time having lemon fusilli, which really worked for me. The lemon did not overpower, and the Parmesan cream had a nice tang. The ten-dollar chicken was tender and seasoned well but had too much skin for Katie. A very nice plate.

After much contemplation over the menu at the Golden Truffle, I finally decided to get the Braised Prime Nebraskan Short Rib with Natural Horseradish Jus ($26). I had some mixed thoughts about this short rib. The meat was not as tender as my short rib dishes. The meat could not have stood independently because it was a little dry. The sauce was a tad salty but helped by moistening the meat. I did not detect much in the way of horseradish with this jus. Some bites were okay, while others really needed the sauce. The carrot was very crisp, and the potato was very smooth. I felt the serving size for this was pretty generous.

Dessert time and we settled on the Cuban Dark Chocolate Pot de Creme ($8). For chocolate lovers, this will definitely do the trick. This was very rich chocolate cut by the fresh berries placed on top of this dessert. I had more than my fair share of this dessert.

We casually told our waiter that we were celebrating an anniversary, and he brought us this slice of Cheesecake. This is a heavier cheesecake than I usually like. It was very dense. I did like the flavor of it, though, and the torching of the top gave it a creme brulee-type feel to this dessert. Again, plenty of fresh berries were added to this to help round it out.

It is safe to say that we enjoyed our meal at the Golden Truffle, but I was not over the moon about it. From what I have read online about this place, it really matters who's in the kitchen on the night you are here. When Chef Alan works, the food is much more creative and done better. Nonetheless, our food on Saturday night was all pretty good but pedestrian. I really liked the atmosphere here at the Golden Truffle. It was not too stuffy, even with the older clientele. Our server Blaine was fantastic on this night. He had a great personality and took great care of us during our visit. Also, I thought the prices were not too crazy out of control for your serving sizes. I'm glad we could finally cross the Golden Truffle off our list, but we look forward to returning when Chef Alan is in the kitchen.

Out of five poker chips (the most expensive truffle ever purchased by a Hong Kong casino tycoon, who paid a whopping $330,000 for a 3.3-pound truffle), five is best to zero being worst; the Golden Truffle gets 3 poker chips.

For more information regarding The Golden Truffle, click here t go to their website: http://www.goldentruffle.com/index.html