1555 Adams Ave. #100
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
It's one of my favorite days of the year, the day that we pick the Ducks games we will go to for the upcoming season. For the past decade or so my parents, my good friend Steve, and I have split up season seats to the Anaheim Ducks. Whereas 45 games a season would be a bit much, 15 games are just the right amount for all of us.
It has become our tradition that I pick a restaurant where we can easily distribute the tickets, catch up on each other's lives, and hopefully get something good to eat. No surprise that it's my job to pick where we are going to meet. I selected somewhere in the middle of each of us, and a place that got my attention on Instagram, Kenwood's Kitchen and Tap.
Kenwood's is located near the corner of Harbor and Adams in Costa Mesa and is located in the same shopping center as Descanso, Kebab Shop, and the Broken Yolk. Kenwood's opened in July of 2020 and comes to us from Ken and Maria Kenwood, the former was an In N Out executive for over 30 years. They wanted to create a restaurant serving American comfort food in a casually upscale setting. The full bar is also a source of pride for Kenwoods, as they offer 18 beers on tap, a wine list that showcases small wineries, and artisan cocktails.
We arrived at half-past 11 on a Thursday and were met with an almost empty restaurant, which was to be expected at this early hour. During our almost two-hour stay, the restaurant did fill in a bit, but I would never describe it as busy. The dining area is anchored by the bar on the far wall, with three TVs perched above it. The high ceilinged dining room has a mix of communal, booth, and table seating, and gets plenty of natural lighting from the big windows making up the other three walls of the space.
The menu is divided into starters, soups and salads, sliders, flatbreads, burgers, sandwiches, mains, and desserts. Most items hover under the twenty-dollar price point, with only a few of the more substantial main dishes reaching into the $25 territory. We were here for lunch, so we went with lighter fare, but I was intrigued by the sticky ribs, pork chop, and the fried chicken, but those seemed a bit too heavy for lunch, so they will have to wait for a return visit. Let's see what we did end up eating on this early afternoon.
My parents were going to be going out for my niece's birthday later on in the day, so they only opted to get an order of Onion Rings ($9.50). As far as onion rings go, these were pretty solid. Nice crunchy breading and a sweet onion underneath that did not pull away from the breading. The ranch dressing at Kenwood's was top-notch, with plenty of dill included in it and really good consistency.
There are seven burgers on Kenwood's menu, and the one that really got my attention was the Morning Glory Burger ($16.50). This one came stacked high with Havarti cheese, thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, an over-easy egg, and bbq sauce. Sounds delicious right? It was kind of lackluster. I really enjoyed the beef patty, which I'd guess was close to half a pound, but this burger fell flat when it came to the bacon and the egg. The egg was more over-well, rather than the promised over easy, while the bacon did not really deliver flavorwise. This burger would have been helped a bit with maybe a condiment to bind it together, maybe some mayo or more of the bbq sauce. The tater tots were nicely fried and went well with the very addictive dill ranch.
This was my second time out with Steve in the last couple of weeks, and he definitely has a type, and it's a Buffalo Chicken Sandwich ($19). This sandwich started out with some Texas toast and also included a fried chicken breast in buffalo sauce, lettuce, tomato, bacon, garlic aioli, and ranch. Whoever was in the kitchen during this shift had a very light hand when adding condiments to the food. Steve could not detect much garlic aioli or ranch on here. He also would have liked the sandwich to be breaded a bit more and the buffalo sauce to hit a bit harder in the flavor department. He ended up describing this sandwich as fine, but nothing special.
We were a little let down with what we encountered food-wise at Kenwoods this afternoon, but maybe we just hit them on an off afternoon. They have a four and a half star rating on Yelp, with close to 250 reviews, so a lot of people do like the food here. I'd be willing to give them another shot. Service was nice and warm, and our needs were met as we picked the games that we are going to attend for the upcoming season. I did think that the prices were a bit on the high side, as Steve's sandwich was not anywhere worth the $20 he paid for it. I'm glad we could continue our tradition of getting together and picking our games. Hopefully, it will be a season to remember.
Out of five boxing gloves, (because the great Muhammad Ali lived in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago for quite some time), five being best to zero being worst, Kenwoods Kitchen and Tap gets 2.5 boxing gloves.
For more information about Kenwood's Kitchen and Tap, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.kenwoodskitchenandtap.com/
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