A Perfectly Pacifying Breakfast at Chuponcito

 Chuponcito Mexican Cocina

23411 Aliso Viejo Parkway

Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

As much as I try to eat something other than fast food during my lunch hour, there are few options for me to get to and from work and eat at a sit-down restaurant, all in a 60-minute time frame. I have been at my place of business for 24 years, and predictably, I have gotten tired of all the sit-down restaurants near my work. So, when I checked Yelp and saw a new place had opened nearby, I made a beeline for it. That brought me and my coworker, Oz, to Chuponcito in Aliso Viejo. 

Chuponcito opened for business in April of last year and has received glowing reviews from Yelp users. With over 400 reviews posted, it has a perfect five-star rating. They are open daily, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but they close early on Mondays and Tuesdays at 2 p.m. Otherwise, they are open until 8 p.m. I visited twice for breakfast, which they serve until 11 a.m. on weekdays and an hour later on weekends. 

Located at the corner of Aliso Creek and Viejo Parkway, Chuponcito is in the same small shopping plaza as Starbucks, Subway, and the Mobil gas station. This area is off by itself, but the isolation of this strip mall has not deterred people from seeking it out. That might be due to owner Alix Wiesen-Todd's gracious and welcoming attitude, which greets everyone who walks through the door. She's worked in the hospitality business for years, most notably at the high-volume Nick's and North Italia. When COVID-19 ravaged the restaurant industry, she and her family prepared home-cooked meals for people in need in her community. Once again, proving that restaurant people are some of the best people you will ever meet. 

At Chuponcito, you order at the counter, and the food is brought to you. The dining space has a nice and relaxing feel. If the entire ten-seat communal table smack dab in the middle of the restaurant is filled, there will be room for close to 30 guests. There are also a couple of tables out in front. 

The Chuponcito menu is short and compact. The breakfast includes nine entree options, coffee, beverages, and pastry offerings. The pastries are made in-house. I have yet to have lunch or dinner here, but I plan to soon. The lunch/dinner menu features four starters, nine entrees, and three salads. Prices for breakfast hover around the $15 mark, while dinner entrees are a few dollars more. Oz and I made our selections rather quickly since we had to reluctantly go back to work to finish out our shifts. Here's what we had. 

When eating the day's first meal, I try to always pair savory with sweet. That meant I had to try one of their pastries, and the one available this morning was the Coffee Cake ($4). The top of this reminded me of the old Hostess Coffee Cakes I had as a kid, with those cinnamon pellets perched on top. This did the trick, but I would have liked more of the icing on top of this and the fruit (maybe blueberry?) to be more involved here. Pretty impressive that they make their own pastries at Chuponcito. 

I'm a big fan of Chilaquiles ($15), but Oz selected this before I could call dibs. At Chuponcito, you do not have a choice of red or green sauce, but Oz seemed okay with that. The fried tortilla chips came with two fried eggs, sour cream, diced onions, avocado slices, and a sprinkling of cotija cheese. Oz's mom is a former restaurant owner, and he's always partial to her cooking, but he found these to be pretty solid. He liked the slight tinge of spice from the red sauce, and the chips stayed crisp throughout his meal. No complaints from Oz about his breakfast. 

With Oz picking my beloved chilaquiles, I was relegated to my second choice, the Carnitas Benedict ($17). This visually stunning plate included a mound of carnitas perched on top of the split English muffin with verdolagas and an eye-catching cilantro hollandaise sauce. I had no idea what verdolagas was, so I looked it up. It's a green vegetable used in other areas, notably Latin America, which I thought resembled spinach. The poached egg was cooked perfectly, and when pricked with my fork, it released the glorious yolk, which helped bind everything together. The English muffin was a little hard to cut through, which made it difficult to eat. It was hard to get a bite with all the elements, but this is true of most benedicts. The hashbrowns were good, with a nice crunchy top layer, but maybe some added seasoning would have helped the potato underneath. 

My second visit to Chuponcito was with my friend George. He's a very plain eater, as he got the same Chilaquiles ($15) that Oz got, but without onions, and after I was done taking my pictures, he plucked his avocado and sour cream off his plate and gave it to me. I guess there are some fringe benefits to eating with picky eaters. These chilaquiles appeared less saucy than the one Oz had, but George did not seem to mind. He liked this plate and polished it off rather quickly. 

I have steered clear of chorizo omelets since I had a bad one at Broken Yolk many years ago. I should have known it would be bad at that mediocre breakfast restaurant, but I decided it was time to get back on the horse, and I had a feeling Chuponcito would make a better one than Broken Yolk. I was right about that.  This Omlete ($15) has three eggs and chorizo, Oaxaca and jack cheeses, and chayote inside. I should have taken a picture of the inside, but I immensely enjoyed it. The egg was light and fluffy, and the inside was not overly filled, so you could taste it. The chorizo used here was better quality than at the Broken Yolk. This was made even better with the avocado and sour cream George gifted me. Thanks, big guy. 

Again, pairing sweet with savory for breakfast is a good idea. Chuponcito was out of all the pastries I wanted on this visit, so we improvised by getting these Churros ($9) off their dessert menu. The churros were nicely fried and not greasy at all. They were evenly dusted with cinnamon and sugar and tasted fine on their own. The sugar-water sauce that came out with these was fine, but we used it sparingly. Chocolate sauce would have been a better alternative.  

Chuponcito was like a breath of fresh air during our lunchtime. It broke the monotony of going to the same four or five restaurants week after week. It will definitely be in my rotation of restaurants to visit. I'm incredibly excited to try their lunch menu on my return trips. All the food was fresh and light, which I look for when I have to return to work to finish my day. Both times I have been here, Alix has taken my order and been very welcoming. The food arrived promptly, and we returned to work on time. Not that I ever care about that. The longer the lunch, the better. Sorry, boss. 

Out of five pacifiers (because the name of this restaurant translates to a pacifier), five being best to zero being worst, Chuponcito gets 3.5 pacifiers. 

For more information about Chuponcito, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.eatchuponcito.com/