Checking Out Calivino Wine Pub - CLOSED

Calivino Wine Pub

2410 E. Katella Ave.

Anaheim, CA 92806

I hear about restaurants in many different ways. I get press releases from PR people telling me about a restaurant opening or with new menu items. Other times, I hear about a place that another food blogger or food writer has written about. I also read the OC Register food section religiously, and sometimes, I write down some of their tips. My favorite way to hear about a place is, of course, to get a tip from one of our faithful readers. These tend to be the best restaurants.

I heard about Calivino Wine Pub using all of these methods. About nine months ago, I got a press release announcing they would be opening soon. I then started seeing many fellow bloggers coming here and reporting their outstanding experiences at Calvino. An excellent review of the hamburger by OC Register columnist Brad Johnson nudged me toward eating here. He knows his stuff, and his other burger recommendations have been spot-on, so I was excited to try them. I also had an email from a reader requesting that I give this place a shot, so we set up a double date with our friends and met up here on a recent Friday night.

Calivino is located in the same shopping center as Hooters on Katella, right next to the now-departed Zito's Pizza. It's not really a high-traffic center, and I thought it was going to be a slow night here, but as the evening went on, Calivino filled up. There was music starting up at 7, and the late-arriving crowd struggled to find seating as the night went on.

The dining room is small, and there needs to be more separation between the dining space and the bar area. The decor is subtle, and their tables are made from reclaimed wood found throughout Southern California. The menu is small, too. There's, of course, a much bigger focus on the wine and craft beers here. Most food items on the menu are meant for sharing, but there are a few burgers, sandwiches, and some salads that Executive Chef Patrick Dale has put on the menu. Happy hour is almost every day from 3 to 7, except Saturday, when they hold their happy hour later in the night. A dollar off of draft beers, $2 off house wines, and selected menu items are all a part of their happy hour pricing. We arrived at the tail end of happy hour but made two quick orders to take advantage of these offers. Let's see what we thought of the food at Calivino Wine Pub.

First up were these Spinach Wontons ($6 during happy hour). These wontons were filled with creamy baby leaf spinach, Parmesan, and garlic. These were average. None of us were really wowed by these. They lacked the flavor pop I expected from the Parmesan or the garlic. They also need more of a sauce than what was smeared across the plate. Their menu states that they proudly do not have ranch dressing, but using some here could have improved this. Not too impressive.

Alex and I avoid olives, but Katie and Jaszlyn are olive fiends, so they wanted to try these Marinated Olives ($7). They are marinated in garlic, chili, and herbs. There were more than enough for the girls, and Katie felt remorse later that she did not get the remainder to go. They both claim they were delicious; I'll take their word for it.

Our entrees were out next, and first up was Jaszlyn's selection, the Chicken and Brie ($13). This sandwich starts with free-range braised chicken and adds cranberry sauce, brie, and a little honey on marbled rye. Jaszlyn was not a big fan of this sandwich. The chicken was tender, but she expected a little more to be going on here. She called this, "kind of boring", and did not finish it. She enjoyed the fries, though, which you can tell are freshly made and fried crispy. Some delicious fries at Calivino.

I barely got two pictures taken before Alex had finished his House Burger ($13). He engulfed this burger rather impressively. The house burger is made of chuck brisket and topped with onion jam, Havarti cheese, and fried onion strings, all on a brioche bun. It had been some time since Alex was this impressed with a burger. He'd come back for sure for this burger, but he would opt for the hand-cut fries instead of the salad next time.

Katie chose the Seared Ahi Burger ($16) tonight. The ahi came nicely peppered with Asian slaw, spicy aioli, and a Hoisin sauce. Katie thought the tuna was prepared well, but the Hoisin sauce overwhelmed everything. She was also in the minority at our table by saying the fries were okay. Katie would have liked the fries to have been a little crisper. She'd probably get something else next time she was here.

Since Alex had gotten the house burger, I decided to make the sacrifice and get the Pork Belly Burger ($14). On this one, they use the same great patty made of ground chuck brisket but add a good amount of pork belly and some Gouda and garlic. The pork belly was done very well here. It was moist and went well on top of the beef patty. It needed more sauce to tie it all together, but I still really enjoyed this burger.

Alex and Jaszlyn did not want dessert, but Katie and I wanted to try the Beignets ($8). These balls of dough came with a lemon anglaise for dipping. The beignets were good but could have been better. They had plenty of cinnamon and sugar on them, but we wished they had a different kind of sauce for dipping. Lemon did not go here. These took so long to come out that they gave us a Chocolate Lava Cake ($8) to compensate for the almost fifteen-minute lag between ordering and getting the beignets. The cake had a coffee reduction, white chocolate, and whipped cream. I'm not really a big fan of this dessert, either. The cake was not moist; there needed to be more chocolate present to call this a chocolate lava cake, and it came out a little overcooked. It was nice that they tried to make up for their mistake.

After reading this review, we had conflicting views on Calivino. Some items were solid (the burgers, the olives, and the fries), but the other items we had this evening were missing from our book. Wish they had more sauces involved here. The wontons, the burger, and the lava cake could have used a sauce to make them more enjoyable. The prices here were not too out of line for the type of place this is and the amount of food you get. Even with the snafu about our dessert, we experienced pretty good service, even better when you consider how busy they were near the end of our meal. Would we come back? Yeah, the burgers are good enough to come back, but I might have to smuggle in my ranch dressing bottle.

Out of five corks (I know, not original, but I couldn't think of anything else), five being best to zero being worst, Calivino Wine Pub gets 2.5 corks.

For more information about Calivino Wine Pub, go to their website here: http://www.calivinowinepub.com/home