Mojito Madness 2016

This post is going to be a little different from our usual restaurant reviews. My good friend Richard never gets to come hang out with his friends, but on his birthday this year, I had an excellent idea of taking him on a bar crawl to find him a great mojito. It just so happens that mojitos are his favorite alcoholic beverage, and he got permission to come out and find the best one with me.

The first task was scouting a location with an abundance of mojitos available for us to try. There are not too many places left in OC where you can do pub crawls. Yes, there are the beach cities, but after this evening, he was going to need a ride home, and since his wife had already relented into letting him go, we could not put her out more by making her drive any further to pick his presumedly drunk ass up.

For those of you that are new to the mojito scene, they are a rum based drink, which also includes sugar, lime juice, soda water, and of course muddled mint. The birthplace of this cocktail is Cuba, but there are conflicting stories as to who invented it, and how it got named. It's also been rumored to be Ernest Hemingway's favorite cocktail, but this is also doubted by some historians.

I did a quick search online and found that the Irvine Spectrum would fill the bill nicely for us. Not only is it centrally located between mine and Richard's abodes, but a quick Yelp search confirmed that nearly 10 of their restaurant tenants serve, or are capable of serving a mojito. Score.

We were not going to be drinking ten mojitos, and I wasn't even going to be ordering one, as they are not really my favorite. I picked five places to try, and we can maybe try the other five next year. We also would be ordering something to eat at each of these places, because we're responsible like that. So sit back, relax, and watch the mojitos fly, as we try to find the best mojito at the Irvine Spectrum.

We started things off at Del Frisco's Grille due to their proximity to the parking structure that I parked in. We were here at just after 3 pm, and the bar was pretty empty but filled up as we approached their happy hour, which starts at 4. They do not have a mojito on their cocktail menu, but their amicable bartender, Diane made Richard his initial birthday Mojito ($11.50) happily. This beverage drew rave reviews from Richard, who thought it had the right amount of sweet, with just a tinge of bitterness on the back end of the drink. He was less excited by the Cheesesteak Egg Rolls ($13), which he called bland. I've always said that these would be made better with the sauce served on the side, instead of streaked across the plate. On to spot number two.

Yard House was next on our journey. The best part about our time at Yard House was that we hit this place right at Happy Hour, which goes from 3 to 6 pm weekdays. The Mojito ($7.75 with the $2 off during happy hour) was obviously made from a mix, and not really good. Way too sweet, Richard couldn't even tell if there was alcohol in here or not, as it tasted just like sugar water. The Blue Crab Cakes ($7 on HH, but $12.45 most of the time) were also not worth the bother. These good sized crab cakes were mostly filler, overly breaded, and placed in this weird, runny white sauce, along with diced mango, papaya, and passion fruit. Nothing about this screamed order this next time to us, so we'll skip it on future visits.

Another happy hour spot we were lucky to hit was Paul Martin's American Grill. I've always kind of been let down by this restaurant, as I've always though it should be better than it is. This was not the case on this late afternoon. The Mojito ($5 on HH or $13 all other times), was pretty solid and helped wash away the taste of the one we had back at Yard House. It was definitely made to order and was just a tad too heavy with the rum for Richard's palette. Happy hour goes on from 3 to 7 pm, seven days a week here at Paul Martin's, which gives you ample time to take advantage of their Bistro Burger Special ($14), which also comes with fries and your choice of a craft beer. The burger was pretty solid and was made even better with great melted cheese, which spread evenly across the warm beef. This simply dressed burger is rounded out nicely by a very well done bun, which is soft, but keeps its integrity. The fries were good as well and seasoned with salt and herbs. The perfect spot for two guys visiting as many bars as possible in a short time.

I've always been a big fan of Wood Ranch. Yes, their barbecue is good, and in fact, I think they are one of the better of all the chain barbecue restaurants, but there's something else that I crave when I walk by here at the Irvine Spectrum, their Oreo Cookie Crunch ($6.95). Of course first, we had to try the Havana's Best Mojito ($7 for happy hour, or $9 the rest of the day). This was not an awful version of this drink. It was pretty sweet, and the mint was kind of lost here, but you still knew you were drinking a mojito. Pretty good balance. Glad they took the time to prepare this cocktail the right way. The Oreo cookie crunch was delicious and so simple. It's a scoop of good vanilla bean ice cream, rolled in Oreo cookie crumbs, and then served with chocolate and caramel sauces. This works wonderfully, and the only way to make it better would be to swap out the chocolate sauce and use hot fudge instead. Still one of my favorite desserts I've had during the seven-year run of this blog.

Yes, we had already had dessert, but we still had about twenty minutes before Richard's wife would pick him up, so we decided to try the Mojito ($10) at Cucina Enoteca. When we were at other bars, bartenders told us that they thought this would be the best mojito that we would encounter on our trip around the Spectrum. It wasn't. It wasn't horrible, but was definitely on the bitter side, and was rather boring due to the lack of mint used in it. What wasn't boring was this Giant Meatball ($9). The food has always impressed me here, and this meatball was no exception. Very tender, with a great flavor to it. I liked the melted cheese on top of it, but what rounded this all together for me was their very tasty red sauce, which really made this dish pop. A must get when eating at Cucina Enoteca.

So we made it through five different mojitos in the span of three hours. Who had the best? We liked the one at Del Frisco's Grille as our number one pick. It was the most balanced and refreshing versions that we tried on this afternoon. Second place would go to the one at Paul Martin's, and then the one at Wood Ranch would probably be third. The worst was by far the one at Yard House, which almost every bartender that we asked had predicted it would be.

Their food was not much better. The Yard House crab cakes definitely were the worst thing we ate on this afternoon. Not a very good showing for the folks at Yard House. The best food item for me probably was the meatball from Cucina Enoteca, then the Oreo Cookie Crunch and the bronze medal would go to the Burger at Paul Martin's.

All in all, this was a great afternoon with my friend Richard. We got to celebrate his birthday, go bar hopping, and try some pretty good food. I can hardly wait until next year when we get to hang out again and try the rest of the mojitos offered at the Irvine Spectrum.

To help plan your pub or food crawl around the Irvine Spectrum, check out their website here: http://www.shopirvinespectrumcenter.com/

Restaurant Week Comes to Irvine

Cucina Enoteca

31 Fortune Dr.

Irvine, CA 92618

I love the month of January for a few reasons. One reason of course is because the month of January signifies the end of the holiday season. Everyone gets back to their normal routine, and there are no presents to buy. Another reason to love the first month of the year is because it features the football playoffs, culminating in one of my favorite sporting events, the Super Bowl. Another January event that resembles the Super Bowl, for food bloggers at least, is that this is the month that many cities hold their Restaurant Weeks.

On this particular January night it was the city of Irvine's turn to showcase some of their best restaurants with Restaurant Week menus. When I heard that Irvine would be hosting a restaurant week, I immediately went to the web site to look for a restaurant to try. As soon as I saw the list of restaurants, I knew where we would be eating, a restaurant I have wanted to try for a long time, Cucina Enoteca.

Cucina Enoteca comes to the Irvine Spectrum by way of San Diego. Their sister restaurant down south goes by the name Cucina Urbana, while there is another Cucina Enoteca being planned for the Del Mar area. This location of Cucina Enoteca has been around the Spectrum for a little over a year now, and I have heard some really good things, so I was pretty excited to try them out for Irvine Restaurant Week.

We got here at about six on a Wednesday night. They had about a forty-five minute wait, which was a good sign, because as we walked around the Spectrum waiting for our table almost all of the restaurants were half full, with no wait for dinner. Cucina Enoteca has a large retail wine shop in the front of their restaurant, which offers a very affordable $8 corkage fee, or you can purchase wine to go at close to a retail price. The rest of the restaurant is decorated rustically. On the verge of having a hipster type feel to it, Cucina Enoteca does not cross that line, but creates a very comfortable atmosphere in which to dine. We were really looking forward to trying their Californian inspired Italian cuisine, so without further ado, this is what came out of the kitchen for us during our Irvine Restaurant Week visit.

Both Laura and I started with an appetizer to start our meals. She ordered one of the most talked about dishes on-line, the Stuffed Fried Squash Blossoms ($9.75 for the non-restaurant week menu price). These squash blossoms are stuffed with a herb ricotta, then topped with a purple basil pesto and a light cured lemon aioli. I really enjoyed this appetizer. The squash blossom itself was fried well, with little grease, and a very light breading. I thought that the aioli and pesto would overpower the squash, but that was not the case.  Instead they complimented it wonderfully, enhancing the earthiness of the squash blossom. Very well made appetizer. I selected the Ricotta Gnudi ($10.50) to start my Cucina Enoteca experience. This dumpling like item is made with ricotta cheese, then rolled in sage brown butter, and topped with parmigiano. I liked the first few bites of this, but then the cheese inside became too much. It was very dry, and while the flavor of this was pretty good, the dryness that resulted from eating this could not be overcome. Not awful, but not my kind of appetizer.

Katie felt like having a salad to start her meal, so she went with the Farmer's Chopped Salad ($9.50). This salad had a little bit of everything in it. Radicchio, artichoke, pepperoncini, Gorgonzola, borlotti bean, and a black olive crouton was joined in the bowl with the fresh greens. This salad was dressed with a garlic oregano vinaigrette. Katie felt the white beans took this salad to another level. She liked the freshness of the produce, and felt this was a very good start to her meal.

Our friend Laura is not into eating beef or chicken, so it was no surprise that she ordered fish as her Irvine week entree. She seemed pretty pleased with her choice of Pan Seared Ocean Trout ($20). This fish was paired with Umbrian lentils, spinach, and a rarely used root vegetable, salsify. She was very happy with the large serving size of this plate, and felt that the fish was cooked perfectly. The prosecco butter sauce went very well with trout.

Rob was being difficult and did not want to take advantage of the great value that was Irvine Restaurant Week. Okay, maybe that was not true, he really just wanted to eat a steak, so he got the Brandt Farms Ribeye ($25) off of the regular menu. We were a little confused because this steak came in the form of a filet, but we were assured this was the ribeye. Adding to our confusion was the fact that this did not have the usual fat that a ribeye has. Even with all of this confusion, Rob still managed to enjoy this steak. The meat was topped with some spinach and a smoked tomato vinaigrette. The two side items, the Gorgonzola potato croquette and the baked shallot added some big time flavor to this plate. In the end, Rob said he would get this again.

Back to the Irvine Restaurant Week items that we had, and probably the tables favorite meal of the night, the  Short Rib Pappardelle ($19.50). This was Katie's pick, and she could not have been happier. Along with the short rib and pasta, this came with cremini mushroom and parmigiano. This dish had a real comforting feel to it. The short rib was of course very tender and the pasta was cooked very well. The sauce held to the noodle well, and helped round out this dish. Katie would have a hard time deviating from this plate on future visits here.

I usually shy away from getting chicken dishes in restaurants, because most places tend to over cook chicken, but I decided to tempt fate at Cucina Enoteca. I am sure glad that I did. This Roasted Jidori Chicken ($19.50) was superb. This well rounded chicken dish started with a very moist and flavorful chicken. It was made even better with a well made fontina polenta, a pistachio pesto, and a poached hen egg. These items added plenty to this dish, along with some asparagus and Swiss chard to round out the meal. Like Katie, it would be hard for me to not order this again. I almost ordered another one to take with me for lunch the next day.

To complete our three course restaurant week meals, the three of us each selected a different dessert to try. Katie was feeling like chocolate, so she had the Bittersweet Chocolate Budino ($8.50). This dessert was very rich and smooth, but the richness was cut a little bit by a salted chocolate cookie. Laura went with the Panettone Bread Pudding ($8). This bread pudding had a lot going on with it. It had a very nice spiced streudel on top of it, along with some candied orange bits, and then for good measure it was topped off with some rum raisin gelato. I am usually not a big fan of bread pudding, but this one was pretty moist, with some good bursts of flavor. I have never met a doughnut I didn't like, (okay maybe those awful maple bars), and the same holds true after having the Zeppole ($8) at Cucina Enoteca. These Italian style doughnut holes came filled with a chocolate and Nutella mixture. How can that ever be bad? They were then rolled in sugar and served with a cappuccino crema. I am not too big of a fan of cappuccino, but even my distaste for coffee flavoring could not dampen my love for these zeppole. They were served warm, and they did not last too long on my plate. A very good end to this meal.

Our trip to Cucina Enoteca really lived up to the hype. I really enjoyed this new take on Italian food. There were no heavy sauces, or lots of cheese here. Not that I mind traditional Italian food at all, but this was a nice change of pace. Leaving here I did not have the overly stuffed feeling that you normally get after eating a big, heavy Italian dinner. Everything that came out of the kitchen on this night really had a great freshness to it. The service we had on this night was very solid. Our waiter really kept things moving along at a nice pace. Participating in Irvine Restaurant Week really worked for Cucina Enoteca. It got us in the door, and really piqued our interest in the food that they serve here. We really look forward to exploring more of their menu on future visits.

Out of five corks, (because wine plays such an important aspect at this restaurant, and because I learned while writing this review that enoteca means wine in Italian), five being best to zero being worst, Cucina Enoteca gets 3.5 corks.

For more information about Cucina Enoteca, click here: http://www.cucinaenoteca.com/home