24961 Dana Point Harbor Drive
Dana Point, CA 92629
It's a whole new world this year. Last year during our anniversary we were relegated to takeout from a Mexican restaurant. It was fine, but we longed for the ritual of making reservations, getting dressed up a bit, having a leisurely night out while being waited on, and hopefully having some pretty fine food. Flash forward to a year later, and that's what we were hoping for when we visited Glasspar in Dana Point.
Since dining restrictions have been lifted a bit, I've been trying to hit up as many of the restaurants on my restaurant wishlist as possible. Trying to make up for the lost time I guess, and also not taking time for granted. Glasspar made my list because they were featured as one of the best restaurants of 2021 by Orange Coast Magazine.
Glasspar, which is situated in the same retail center as Jimmy's Famous American Tavern and underrated breakfast favorite, What A Dish Cafe, is a stone's throw from Dana Point Harbor and took over the space that was once occupied by the always packed, but unremarkable sushi restaurant Mahe. Glasspar is headed by chef-owner Rob Wilson. He started his culinary career up the hill from here, at the Chart House. After graduating culinary school he cooked at many prestigious OC resorts up and down the coast before opening this spot in late 2019.
The vibe they are going for here is an east coast seafood dining hall, with a west coast slant of being casual and making visitors feel welcome. We were seated on the spacious patio overlooking the center of this retail center. The brunch, lunch, and dinner menus at Glasspar have plenty of overlap when it comes to food offerings. Entree prices for dinner range between $18 to the market price for their swordfish and halibut selections. There's also a few non-seafood choices for people that shy away from fishy dishes. Let's see if Glasspar was a worthy place to usher in our sixth year of wedded bliss.
We started off our meal with a Glasspar Caesar ($13) for Katie and I went with the Glasspar Clam Chowder ($12). The caesar salad was pretty traditional, with long strips of romaine piled on the plate topped with plenty of parmesan cheese, dressing, one large crouton, and occupying the top layer of the salad were two white anchovies. This was a good salad with a very nice balance between the ingredients. I'm always partial to a chopped version, but Katie seemed fine with having to cut this herself. I just don't like the extra work. The clam chowder was one of the darker versions I have seen, with plenty of clams, potato, and smoked bacon in each spoonful. This was a very comforting chowder and one that should not be missed.
Katie must not have been feeling like seafood this evening, as she zeroed in on this 10 Ounce Prime Grilled Short Rib ($36) rather quickly. This plate burst with color, from the bright greens of the broccolini to the contrast between the eye-popping reds of the blistered tomatoes and the chasseur sauce topping the sliced steak below. The piece of short rib that I was granted really went down nicely, but I wish I would have tried it with the delicious-looking celery root puree that was hiding beneath the broccolini. Maybe next time.
It's hard for me to be this close to the ocean and not try something from the sea. I went with the IPA Fish and Chips ($18) to celebrate another year of marriage in the books. These fish and chips were as great as the last six years with Katie, which have been pretty great by the way. The light, but flavorful breading had a great crunch to it without a greasy feel to them. The fish underneath, which I believe was halibut, but don't quote me on that, was nicely mellow and allowed the breading and the well-made tartar sauce and atomic cocktail sauce to share the stage with the excellently executed fish. You can never go wrong with duck fat fries, and these were no exception. They were lightly dusted with parmesan and chives and were made even better when I asked for a side of garlic aioli to go along with them since they arrived at the table with no dipping sauce. A very solid meal.
We rounded out our meal with Roasted Brussels Sprouts ($12). Every restaurant seems to have their twist on this popular side dish, and at Glasspar they made this their own by adding goat cheese, pomegranate molasses, along with the obligatory but not unwelcome bacon. I enjoyed the competing flavors and textures in this. The creamy goat cheese and the crunch from the roasted sprouts went well with the tinge of sweetness from the molasses.
Our server and the menu described the Desserted Island ($12) as a butter cake, but to Katie and I, it reminded us more of a cross between the lava cake that you can get at Chili's and an Almond Joy chocolate bar. The inside was filled with chocolate that came spilling out when pierced with our spoons, while the toasted coconut surrounding this, along with the coconut ice cream, added to the Almond Joy experience. It was good but needed a bit more ice cream as it melted way too fast because of the heated cake it was sitting atop.
The food we consumed at Glasspar lived up to the lofty expectations I came here with this evening. Everything was very good, and it made me want to make return trips to try their oysters Rockefeller, swordfish, their burger with a crab cake added, and even their brunch. The lone downside of the evening was the pace of the meal. Calling it leisurely would be way too kind. Fifty minutes into our evening, we had just finished our first course, and it would be another 100 minutes before we were back in our car on the way home. I know that restaurants are having staffing issues, but Glasspar was not terribly busy this evening, and even though we had no other plans for this evening, we did have some TV to watch at home. See, we are an old married couple now.
Out of five fiberglass boats, (because I recently learned that Glasspar was one of the largest fiberglass boat makers in the US, and they started out in Costa Mesa in the late '40s), five being best to zero being worst, Glasspar gets 3.5 fiberglass boats.
For more information about Glasspar, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.glasspar.com/
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