Kettlebar
2493 Park Avenue #41
Tustin, CA 92782
It finally seems like the Union Market in Tustin is getting on track. It's been a prolonged process, but this much-anticipated retail and restaurant space in the old Borders Book area of the District at Tustin Legacy is finally getting some life. We walked around the space earlier this year, and it was almost sad. There was lots of construction and empty booths, but little action was happening. The few booths that were open were not really drawing customers, from what we could tell.
Flash forward to earlier this month, and the area seems much more alive. There are many more retail booths open, and what I was eagerly waiting for is that more food places are now open. Taking up residency at the Union Market are Front Porch Pops, cookie shot vendors, The Dirty Cookie, Crepe Coop, Portola Coffee Lab, Hatch, a sliders and craft beer space, and a place that's moving up my list of restaurants to try, The Kroft. That place will have to wait another time, as we were meeting our good friends Alex and Jaszlyn and having dinner at Kettlebar.
Kettlebar is a Cajun/Creole restaurant that uses steam kettle cookery to make their dishes. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you that I understand how they use steam to make these dishes, as I'm not an advanced cook or anything, but this kind of restaurant is one of the hottest things right now. Okay, sorry for the bad pun. Anyway, this is our second time eating at a restaurant like this. Our first was a place called Ritter's Steam Kettle Cooking, and we really enjoyed the food there and hoped Kettlebar would be just as good.
The menu is the same here as at Ritter's. They have some appetizers, a couple of salads, a shrimp or oyster po boy sandwich, and the main event, the bowls. There are a couple of ways that you can go here. They have Cajun standards like etouffee, gumbo, cioppino, and probably their most famous dish, the pan roast. There also seems to be more emphasis on alcohol than at Ritter's. Many craft cocktails, wines, and beer are available at Kettlebar. Our waitress was aloof regarding what was on tap, as she had to keep making runs to the bar to find out what they had available.
We got to Kettlebar at about 6pm on a Friday night. The restaurant was pretty busy, but they did a great job keeping the tables turning over, so we got in immediately. I don't know if it was from the steam cooking or just the heat outside, but this restaurant was relatively warm, and we were sitting near the back of the place. No big deal, as I was ready to see if this place would be as good as our first experience at a steam kettle joint. Let's see how it went.
I usually do not highlight my beers when we are out, but I enjoyed this Mr. Pineapple from SanTan Brewing Company. I'm partial to lighter beers, and Hefeweizens are right in my wheelhouse. I liked this beer because it was a little different, with the added fresh pineapple juice and the wheaty aftertaste. It was very refreshing and went well with what I hoped would be my spicy meal.
Not one to be swayed by what's popular, Alex did not go with a pan roast like the rest of us but instead had this Cajun Garlic Noodle ($18 with clams added). He could not have been happier with his decision. This came out way before our meals, and he had almost already finished half of this before we had gotten our meals. Alex felt this dish had the perfect amount of garlic included, loved the clams, and would not say a bad thing about his dinner. For once, the big guy was speechless, and we all enjoyed the silence, at least for the few minutes he was quietly eating.
Jaszlyn, Katie, and I all got the pan roasts, which all look the same in the pictures, but each of these was different. Katie opted for the Chicken and Sausage Pan Roast ($16), Jaszlyn had the Shrimp Pan Roast ($19), and I had the Kettlebar Pan Roast ($23), which came with the same creamy tomato base as the others, but with snow crab, lobster, shrimp, chicken, and rice swimming in the bowl. Jaszlyn and I had asked for ours to be spicy, but the heat in these was very manageable. I liked the creaminess of the tomato base; the shrimp was prevalent, but the rest of the other proteins got lost here. The rice-to-pan roast ratio was a little off. I had way more pan roast when I finished my rice. It's not a big problem, and I could have just ordered a side of rice for another two dollars.
Pan roasts are filling, but we decided to try two desserts, the first of which was this Hummingbird Parfait ($8). This dessert is a variation of the southern dessert staple, the hummingbird cake. I had just heard of it this night, but it is a banana pineapple spice cake. I did not detect a banana or pineapple flavor in the one bite Alex allowed me to have, but they loved this dessert. It even inspired Jaszlyn to claim that she would make this shortly. I hope to get invited over to try it when she does.
Mine and Katie's dessert was not as good as the hummingbird parfait. This Cinnamon Bread Pudding ($8) sounded much better when the waitress described it, but it fell flat, like with many bread puddings I have had. I liked that this had ice cream served on top of it, but the bread pudding was a little on the dry side and could have been made better by adding more ice cream. There was a definite cinnamon tinge here, but even that could not save this dessert.
We all left Kettlebar liking it, and we'll be back, but I liked Ritter's a tad better. I liked Ritter's appetizer variety more, and they made their pan roasts with a little more kick to them. Kettlebar is worth visiting and is much more convenient than Ritter's. The evening service was pretty good, as we did not have too many problems, except Alex's food came out five minutes before the rest of us hit the table. Glad to see that Kettlebar has brought some much-needed life to the Union Market.
Out of five walleye fish (because the city of Kettle Falls, Washington, hosts several walleye fishing tournaments throughout the year), five being best to zero being worst, Kettlebar gets 3 walleye.
Kettlebar has a minimal website, and that's putting it mildly, but hopefully, it will be updated soon. Click here to see it: http://www.kettlebar.com/
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