Giving Sambuca a Shot - CLOSED

Sambuca Italian Bistro

31161 Niguel Road

Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

I crave Italian food when the weather turns colder or as cold as it ever gets in OC. I think it's because the red sauces or the plates always come out steaming hot. It also might be how Italian food coats your insides, like a warm blanket. Whatever the reason is that I crave Italian when the temps go lower than 70 degrees, I'm always willing to try a new Italian place. This time, we met my in-laws at a new place for all of us, Sambuca Italian Bistro in Laguna Niguel.

Sambuca has been around for three years now. They might have yet to come across your radar, and ours, because they are located in a sleepy little shopping center on Niguel Road, a shopping center whose biggest draw has to be a Carl's Jr., and even that closes at 8pm. That tells you all you have to know about this area of town.

People have found this restaurant, though. They get a four-and-a-half-star rating on Yelp, and that's with 100 plus reviews. Even when we showed up here at 7, the dining room was packed with people, which might explain why the tables are so close to each other. The decor is understated and comfortable, which is good because it keeps your view of all the action in the open kitchen.

The menu at Sambuca is heavily dominated by many seafood dishes. Almost all of their plates of pasta contain something from the sea. Out of their 17 pasta offerings, 11 of those involve either shrimp, lobster, or calamari. The entree portion of the menu makes an about-face, with only one seafood dish offered out of the eight on their current menu. We arrived shortly after Katie's parents, who had already made their dinner selections, so we hurriedly made our choices as well, and this is how it all worked out for us at Sambuca,

Our meal started off with this La Caprese ($9). To be truthful, I'm not a very big fan of caprese, but the rest of our party loved this starter. All the key ingredients were here to make a good one; sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, and olive oil balsamic. The three of them quickly worked on this, and all said they would get this again.

Since I was not partaking in the caprese, I ordered the Sambuca Classico Caesar ($6). Their version of a Caesar comes with garlic croutons, plenty of Caesar dressing, olives, and cubed tomatoes. I really enjoyed the relatively large size of this salad, and there was plenty of dressing included here, which I liked. The croutons added a lovely crunch, but I'm not a big fan of tomatoes on a Caesar, so they were quickly discarded. Overall, it was a pretty good salad.

It's a running joke about Katie's dad, Dennis, who always asks what the soup of the day is, and about 90 percent of the time, he does not get it. This Mushroom Soup ($5) must have hit him on the right day because he actually went ahead and tried it. Not exactly what he was thinking when he ordered this, he liked this twist on mushroom soup. He described this as very thin but big on flavor. A soup he would order again, providing it was available when he was here next time.

We could start the entree part of this review with the one I liked best, The Brandy Gorgonzola Roasted Chicken ($17). This plate had a lot going on with it. The good-sized portion of chicken was served over a bed of lemon risotto and then topped with a Gorgonzola brandy cream sauce. I was unsure how the lemon from the risotto and the Gorgonzola would interact, but it made an excellent flavor combination. The chicken was tender, and the veggies were crisp. A very well-done plate and a superb start to our entree portion of the evening.

The Spaghettini Bolognese is a straightforward dish for Dennis this evening ($14). When we asked our waitress what some of her favorites were on this menu, this was one of them, and she stated that they were very proud of this dish. They have every right to be proud. This was a very meaty sauce; the noodles were cooked well, and the sauce's flavor was on point. I would have added some cheese and red pepper flakes to make it pop, but Dennis enjoyed it just the way it came out.

If there was one thing the people on Yelp loved more than any other item at Sambuca, it was this Black Linguine with Lobster and Shrimp ($18). I was taken aback when Katie's mom, Lynn, ordered this dish. Black linguine is topped with seared lobster, white Gulf jumbo shrimp, basil, garlic, and tomato sauce. I can see why they have so many seafood dishes on their menu; they cook seafood well. The lobster and shrimp were tender, and the black linguine was excellent for a change. The sauce was okay, as it was plain tasting, but that suited Lynn just fine.

Unfortunately, the only clunker among the entrees was my selection, the Penne Filletto ($15). This bowl had such promise with its diced filet mignon, mushrooms, and creamy tomato brandy sauce, but it fell flat. The beef was way overcooked, and the sauce was not very good. I was only able to make this more enjoyable by adding parmesan and red pepper flakes to it. It was definitely not the right choice for me this evening.

I hoped we could finish with a bang by ordering this Tartuffle ($7), but it was not meant to be. This dessert was fair but not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be more like other tartufos we have had. This was coated with nuts and more closely resembled a fried ice cream that you would find in Mexican restaurants. It was not bad, but it was probably not something I'd get again.

Sambuca was a solid Italian restaurant, even though I was not in love with my plate. From our experience, seafood is the way to go here, and it will be what I have the next time we visit. Be advised that this differs from the food most people consider when going out for Italian. This is more traditional, with no lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, or chicken parmesan on the menu. The service was warm and friendly during our stay on this night. This might not be everyone's ideal Italian spot, but it did help to warm us up this evening when it reached the bone-chilling 50-degree mark.

Out of five coffee beans (because when doing a shot of Sambuca, usually coffee beans are included in the shot glass), five being best to zero being worst, Sambuca gets 3 coffee beans.

For more information about Sambuca Italian Bistro, go to their website here: http://www.sambucabistro.net/