Well Done, Asada

Asada

610 North Coast Highway #108

Laguna Beach, CA 92651

Laguna is one of my favorite towns in OC to visit. I guess I should amend this statement. I love Laguna, but only after the summer tourist season has ended. It gets even quieter after the Sawdust Festival and Pagent of the Masters have shuttered for the season. Parking is a lot easier, the slow moving free shuttles leave the roadways, freeing up some space on PCH, and it's a lot easier to get to all of our favorite Laguna Beach restaurants. After this first trip to Asada, we can definitely add this new restaurant to our favorites in this seaside community.

Asada is not really new though. They opened in the space which is now is inhabited by Tortilla Republic in late 2011, but closed two years later. The man behind Asada is Scott McIntosh, who was so sure of a return to Laguna, that he retained all of the rights to the Asada name, and sure enough, he's returned triumphantly with the opening of the new, more casual Asada just over a year ago.

The success of Asada is not really a big surprise when you consider Mr. McIntosh's restaurant track record. He was instrumental in running Claim Jumper restaurants, which he worked at for 26 years, back when they used to be good. He's also helped run the now shuttered French 75 and assisted his old boss at Claim Jumper, Craig Nickoloff in opening the very successful Nick's chain of restaurants. Asada is a bit of departure for him, as he usually oversees restaurants that focus on American comfort food with big portions. Katie and I were excited to see his take on Mexican cuisine.

Located in the Boat Canyon Shopping Center, which is just mere blocks away from the hustle and bustle of Downtown Laguna, Asada has found a home in the old Senor Fish location, in this shopping plaza anchored by a Pavillions grocery store. We were pleased to find plenty of parking here, even after fighting our way down jam packed PCH on this warm early evening commute. Not having to plug a meter, or maneuver the crowded downtown streets of Laguna is reason enough to give Asada a try.

As I mentioned earlier, this a more casual, laid back version of Asada. Ordering is done at the counter, and then the food is brought out to you. Gone off of the menu is the delicious looking burger that they had before, but what's left is a wide array of Mexican favorites, along with plenty of starters, salads, and combo plates. They also serve breakfast all day, and the chilaquiles are calling my name on my next visit. Prices seem very fair, with nothing coming close to approaching the $15 mark. There's also a beer and wine offered, along with margaritas, which you can get in pitchers. No drinks for us on this evening, but we were definitely ready to eat.

I'm crazy about tater tots all of a sudden and was pretty excited to see them offered at Asada. These are not like the tots you had in your school cafeteria. These Carne Asada Tots ($9.95) came with plenty of sliced citrus marinated steak, chipotle ranch, cheese sauce, pico de gallo, and a dollop of both guacamole and sour cream. Tater tots turned up a notch, I was excited to scarf these down. The tater tots stayed remarkably crisp even with everything piled up on top of them. I'm usually not much into cheese sauces, but this was a very mellow one, and it worked here.

After a hard day at work, Katie wasted no time in digging into this #6 Combo ($12.95). The number six combo consists of a short rib enchilada and a crispy taco of your choice, which Katie opted for her customary pick, chicken. The short rib came highly recommended from Hannah, who took our order. Hannah did not lead us astray. The tender and flavorful short rib came wrapped in a tortilla which was topped with a delicious and dark salsa ranchero sauce, which almost had the feel of a comforting mole, without the hint of chocolate.  The chicken taco was encased in a lightly fried tortilla and came filled with jack cheese, pico de gallo, queso fresco, and a very well done poblano cream. The combo was rounded out by black beans and cilantro buttered rice, which was a nice diversion from the usual Spanish rice that is served in most restaurants.

My benchmark for Mexican restaurants is carnitas, so it was not a surprise that I found myself ordering the Crispy Carnitas ($13.95) at Asada. The serving size of this was what I noticed first, four large chunks of pork covered in a tomatillo salsa. I usually prefer red sauce, but the green went well with the well marinated and lightly fried carnitas. These were lighter than most but did not sacrifice in the flavor department. I had plenty of meat leftover after using the three tortillas that came out with this. I enjoyed the rice and the refried beans here as well. A very solid meal and one that I will probably repeat on future visits to Asada.

I enjoy flan well enough, but it's always kind of tasted the same to me. Now that I've had this Flan Butter Cake ($7.25), I don't think I'll be able to go back to having regular old flan again. It should be no surprise that this was good when you consider that Asada's sister restaurant, Reunion,  has one of the better butter cakes around and this mashup between traditional flan and butter cake is the perfect marriage between the two. The cake portion was nice and moist and the caramel covering this pushed it up a few notches.

I did not really know what to expect from Asada when walking in here, but leaving this establishment I was pretty pleased with the food here. Asada makes more sense as a fast casual concept, but the Mexican food here doesn't taste like most fast casual concepts. It tastes better. We found the dishes here to be flavorful and fresh. I really look forward to tackling more of their pretty expansive menu in the very near future. Service was very friendly and prompt. Glad it's getting closer to autumn, which makes it a lot easier to make our way down to Laguna and Asada.

For more information about Asada, head to their website here: http://asadatacos.net/