Brunos Italian Kitchen
210 West Birch St.
Brea, CA 92821
If you are anything like me, you probably get a lot of offers through email. I have two email accounts, one for personal stuff, and one that I use for all of my promotional stuff. You know, like when you are asked to sign up for the club card at the supermarket, enter an online contest filling out an NCAA basketball bracket for a million dollars that you know you have no chance of winning or even signing up with a restaurant so you can get a free hamburger or dessert on your birthday. We all do it, and I usually like keeping these less meaningful emails separate from more pressing matters.
I bring this up because of the one promo that I must have let slip through the cracks of my personal email, the one from Brunos Italian Kitchen and their sister restaurant, Cha Cha's Latin Kitchen, which is a few doors down from Brunos in Downtown Brea. I get at least four emails a week from these two restaurants, which are linked together by not only geography but by owners Don Myers and Peter Serantoni, a team with decades worth of restaurant experience, with stints at El Torito, Chevy's, Paul Martin's, Scott's Seafood, The Catch, and Roy's Hawaiian, among others. They seem to be the perfect team, with Peter on the culinary side of things, while Don works the business and front of the house operations.
Brunos came to be after Cha Cha's opened in 2009, and Brunos followed suit a short three years later. The inspiration behind Brunos is Peter's time he spent in Venice, Italy as a youth. Bruno was his father and inspiration to pursue food as a career, while his grandmother shared her cooking philosophy and her rustic recipes. This winning combination has gotten tons of positive press from the local food community, and the restaurant is full on most nights. All those email blasts seem to have worked, as we found ourselves here on a busy Saturday evening in downtown Brea.
The rest of Downtown Brea seemed almost deserted on this early Saturday, save for Bruxie, Cha Cha's and Taps. Lending to the apocalyptic vibe was the numerous empty storefronts that once welcomed lots of customers, like the departed Lillie's Q, Tower Records, and the Melting Pot. The badly needed second parking structure behind Buffalo Wild Wings provided parking relief to this area and it was only a short stroll to the jam-packed and rambunctious crowd at Brunos.
I was kind of taken aback by the noise at Brunos, which I eventually got used to. We were seated well inside the darkened restaurant, which had a good number of tables. The premiere seating appears to be the patio in front of the restaurant, nearest the street and seems like it would be excellent for people watching. The inside portion of the restaurant utilizes numerous wine bottles lining the walls, a partially separated bar along the right-hand side of the restaurant, and hanging light fixtures that function more as decoration than providing light. Even with the large crowd on this evening, the restaurant conveyed a coziness that came around shortly after we acclimated to the environment.
The menu at Brunos is comforting as well. It's broken up into Italian favorites of appetizers, plates of pasta, entrees, and a couple of sides. Pasta is priced from $16 to $23, while the entrees will set you back right around the $25 mark. As my four times a week emails alert me, there's always some kind of specials going on here most nights of the week, (Meatball Monday, Two for Tuesdays, Wine Wednesday, Trio Thursday, Seafood Sundays). We were here on a Saturday, so no specials promos for us, but we were excited to give the food here a try, so let's see how everything turned out for us on this evening.
Bread was of a very sturdy variety here at Brunos. It was served lukewarm with a thick crust and soft and pillowy inside. Good flavor and good chew to it, just what you want in a solid piece of bread. It was made even better with the provided oil and vinegar that has become the standard dipping sauce in any good Italian restaurant these days.
These Arancini ($9) easily have the award for the most colorful appetizer of the year wrapped up, and we're only halfway through the year so far. These lightly fried risotto balls included a little mushroom, mozzarella and fresh herbs inside, and a trio of sauces splattered on the plate. These were definitely lighter than I imagined they would be, but they also lacked the flavor punch I was expecting. Even though it wouldn't have looked as beautiful on the plate, it probably would have helped to have the sauces in a ramekin for easier dipping. This was fine, just a little too subtle from what I was expecting.
Caesar Salad ($9) is my jam, and this one at Bruno's was pretty impressive. Whole leaf romaine was placed on the plate and drizzled with an oil and vinegar Caesar dressing, a few croutons, and a white anchovy placed on top for a dramatic effect. I'm usually more partial to a creamy Caesar dressing, but this one was excellent and really clung to each inch of the very fresh romaine. A few extra croutons would have been appreciated, along with chopped up romaine, but still, this Caesar was a winner.
Entrees were out fairly quickly, and first up was Katie's choice on this early evening, the Pappardelle Bruno ($20). This dish brought to mind an Italian version of beef stroganoff, but without the overbearing sauce that comes on that dish. The pappardelle noodles were some of the freshest we have had, while the short rib was shredded nicely, very tender and juicy. Not overly heavy, this was a very satisfying plate which has Katie excited for more trips to Brunos to explore more of their menu very soon.
Not the most gorgeous of lasagnas, but my mom really enjoyed this Lasagna al Forno ($18). This was a little different than my mom was used to, it had a delicious bechamel sauce included with a very well done bolognese sauce. The pasta was fresh and lots of cheese was used in this A very comforting lasagna that my mom could not finish, so my dad ate it for lunch the next day.
My dad had zeroed in on this Shrimp and Blue Crab Fettuccine ($23) when he perused the menu at home before arriving at Brunos. This was a very interesting dish to me and was not exactly what I had envisioned when it came to the table. Yes, there was shrimp and shredded blue crab along with fresh fettuccine included. The sauce was a Meyer lemon cream, which predictably went well with the seafood in here, and was pretty subtle but still present. They also added some texture with the addition of cut-up asparagus and the flavor was enhanced even more with the addition of garlic, fennel, and some basil oil. The dish was finished off with an Asian flair when it was topped with citrus tobiko, a flying fish roe that was a risky move with someone like my dad, but it worked out fine here as he cleared his plate in record time.
I have gotten into a routine when eating in Italian restaurants recently. I usually order a pasta dish with a white or cream sauce and then order an extra meatball in marinara, then mix the meatball and the sauce together to create a kind of pink sauce. I did the same here at Brunos with their Rigatoni Alfredo 2.0 ($17.50) as my pasta dish. I'm not sure what the 1.0 version of this was like, but this 2.0 version was hard to beat. Like everyone else at the table, I have to agree that the pasta was indeed fresh here, with a nice tenderness to it. The alfredo sauce was not too heavy but did not sacrifice flavor, and I enjoyed the duo of the mushrooms and the pancetta, but of course, some extra pancetta would have been appreciated. Once I mixed in the meatball and the marinara this dish was just as good as before. The meatball was nice and tender, while the marinara added a nice homey feel to the alfredo sauce. It was just as good the next day for lunch and was the envy of lots of my coworkers.
Desserts were on the house because my mom had let it slip that we were celebrating my birthday a week late, and their impending anniversary the next day. Our server brought us a Raspberry Brown Butter Torte ($7.50) and a Budino al Caramello ($7.50). The favorite of our table was the budino, which featured a layer of caramel pudding, chocolate ganache, and a dollop of whipped cream on top. A little hard to get all three layers in one bite, but when it was accomplished it was magical. The torte was fine, but I'm not much of a raspberry/fruit kind of guy. I did enjoy the base of this though, with its limoncello cream, brown butter shortbread, and salted caramel drizzle that was streaked across the plate. The budino was just better, and I did eat the neglected torte when the budino was all gone.
Brunos was a nice change of pace from Americanized Italian restaurants, with their very heavy red sauces and lots of cheese. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy that kind of Italian food as well, but leaving Brunos I did not feel overly bloated and could stay up and watch a few things on Netflix when we got home, instead of crashing by 8pm. The food here was fresh and light, but still flavorful, which is a difficult balance to achieve. Chef Peter has done his grandmother's recipes proud of the food that we experienced on this evening. Service was professional and cordial. Glad we finally made it to Brunos after all these years, next we might even take them up on one of their great deals during the week. I know I'll definitely get an email or two about them.
Out of five grenades, (because one of the most famous Bruno's in the world is Bruno Mars and one of his first of many number one hits was the song Grenade, which reached number one in 2010) five being best to zero being worst, Brunos Italian Kitchen gets 3.5 grenades.
For more information about Brunos Italian Kitchen, head to their website here: http://www.brunosbrea.com/
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