The Wall
80 Plaza Square
Orange, CA 92868
As amazing as it sounds, I do not think we will ever run out of restaurants to eat at with my parents. As is our custom, we usually meet somewhere between us, which usually lands us in Tustin, Santa Ana, or, as the case was this evening, Orange. Every time we need a meeting place, I look for restaurants on Yelp that my food-conservative parents would like. There's always something new to try, and we chose to meet at The Wall on this visit.
The Wall is located at the northeast corner of the plaza in Orange, right near the Starbucks by the Wells Fargo Bank. I remember this being a real girly retail store at one time. The Wall has been open for about a year and a half now. They get their name in thanks to a wall inside the restaurant that includes over 50 self-serving taps dispelling craft beers, wine, kombucha, and nitro coffees to thirsty patrons.
The men behind The Wall have a unique backstory for why they opened this place. Dan Martinez and Ryan Sauter wanted a place to share their travels and escapades through food and drink. They wanted a restaurant that felt like home but had food that made guests feel like citizens of the world while they experienced food and drink like they never had before. Those are lofty goals.
Dan has business roots in the family entertainment industry, at such places as Universal Resorts, Disney, and most recently at Palace Entertainment Group, where he was Chief Operating Officer for the company which runs Raging Waters and Castle Park locally, along with many more family fun amusements nationally. Ryan has an even more diverse backstory. He's owned several businesses, including a movie studio in China, helped to co-create a non-profit foundation, Wonderlight, and, along with his business partner, Dan has recently acquired the Splash Kingdom in Redlands and hopes to turn that waterpark around. As if they are not busy enough, we hear they are opening a new venue, The Wall, in LA, but our server was a little sketchy about those details.
My parents beat us here, and we were seated on the patio in front of the restaurant when we finally arrived. I never did walk into the restaurant, but it appeared long and narrow, with just a couple of tables. With the fantastic weather, it was a pleasure sitting outside. Since I follow this restaurant on Instagram, I know that the menu at The Wall changes rather frequently, along with a rotating burger of the month and other specials from time to time. During our visit, Chef Ryan Rainstar had just recently switched the menu, and I was excited to see what was new. Let's check it out.
Definitely not new, but you do have to try the Belgian Fries ($4) at The Wall. These hand-cut, twice-fried, sliced potatoes were addictive and made even better with the Garlic Aioli ($.50). I would have liked bigger fries because at the bottom of the basket were a lot of shorter, more secondary fries, but they ended up still tasting great.
Fish and Chips ($10) are usually more of my mom's thing, but my dad beat her to the punch by ordering this first. This two-piece fried fish plate was just the right size for my dad. I recall the server saying that they used haddock for this and then finished it with a beer batter. The result was a nicely done fish with a nice crunch, and the flaky fish underneath was exposed. A very light fried fish, according to my dad. The menu says that this was to come with tartar sauce, but it appeared to be accompanied by a chipotle aioli and ketchup, which got no complaints from my dad. The fries were just as good as the ones we had earlier.
Out of the four of us, Katie probably got what owners Dan and Ryan had envisioned when they helped create the menu at The Wall. They wanted customers to share small plates inspired by their travels worldwide. It's easy to assume that Ryan's stint in China inspired this Sticky Belly Bao ($8). They fill a bao with gochujang-cola marinated pork belly, cucumbers, and shredded carrots. When I asked her about them a few weeks later, Katie thought these baos were fine, but nothing made them stand out. She claims that she'd get something else on her next visit. She brightened up a bit when I asked her about the other item she had that evening, the Polenta Fritta ($5). I don't know what inspired this starter, but Katie liked this unique way of having polenta. The suggestion was to dip the polenta in the provided chimichurri sauce, but I liked it better with the garlic aioli. The polenta was grease-free and had a nice crunch on the outside of it.
My mom is not a big eater, so this order of Chicken Wings ($8) was just the right size for her. You have your choice of sauce for your six wings: a Creole dry rub, Coca-Cola caramel, or the gochujang my mom selected. The sauce was sweet yet savory, with a small tinge of spice that did not overwhelm my mom's non-spicy palette. The wings had plenty of meat, and she left here very happy with her meal.
Small appetizers are not my thing, so I searched the menu for something a little heftier. I went with their burger of the month, the Happy New Beer Burger ($12). This burger featured an Angus patty with onion strings, lettuce, tomato, and a house-made beer cheese sauce. I do not usually like cheese sauces, but this one worked here. The consistency was like a melted cheese sauce, which went well with the well-seasoned burger. The bun was nice and soft, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this burger. This burger proves that paying attention to their burger of the month is worthwhile.
Dessert was not in the cards for us this evening, but they do get a lot of press for their Choco-taco, but that'll have to wait for our next visit. The Wall is, of course, a haven for beer lovers, but there are some good options here regarding the food. I'd like to see a little more variety regarding bigger plates, but they seem committed to the share plate concept. Prices seem fair, but with such small portions, you might have to order more than one thing to get totally full. Service was stellar this early evening, as our server ensured we had everything we needed throughout our stay. The Wall is a good option for visitors to Downtown Orange and us, who wanted a good meeting place between my parents' house in North OC and ours in South OC.
Out of five vinyl records (of course, because of Pink Floyd's iconic 1979 album, The Wall), five being best to zero being worst, The Wall gets 3 vinyl records.
For more information about The Wall, head to their website here:https://thewall.beer/
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