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/

Wood Ranch Celebrates 20 Years with New and Old Favorites

Wood Ranch BBQ and Grill

57 Fortune Dr., Suite 230

Irvine, CA 92618

It is on nights like these that I really love being a food blogger. Most of the time being a food blogger is a lonely existence. Katie and I will go out to dinner, then I am left all alone to write about it. Sure there are emails that need to be answered, and people do comment on our posts, Facebook page, and Twitter, but these are all done with me alone sitting at the computer. When I started this blog I never thought we would be invited to restaurant events to try the food. It never even occurred to me. One lesson I have learned is, that the better the restaurant event, the more food bloggers that come out. This event at Wood Ranch had almost all of my favorite food bloggers in attendance, so I knew we were going to be in for a treat.

Wood Ranch is celebrating its 20th year. Starting in Moorpark, this BBQ chain has expanded to 14 restaurants, with three in OC, (Anaheim Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, and this Irvine location). Unlike other BBQ restaurants, I do not think that you can classify Wood Ranch as a specific regional type of BBQ. They are kind of all over the map, which is not a bad thing, it actually is good. They can please a lot more palates that way. They have Carolina pulled pork, Texas-style brisket, and even a Cuban sandwich, which we will get to later. Eating at Wood Ranch you can definitely choose your own BBQ destination.

In my last review of Wood Ranch, (Which you can read here), I said that I thought Wood Ranch was the best BBQ chain restaurant around. Consistency is one reason for this, but the other factor for their success is their ever-evolving menu. The test kitchen at Wood Ranch rolls out new menu items every few months to a select four restaurants, and if enough people like them they make it to the menu in all locations. One of our dining companions on this night was Alex Benes, director of culinary development. We really enjoyed hearing how all of these new items came to be, and how Wood Ranch has tweaked them just enough to make them their own. At this point of the evening, we were all seated and had no idea how much food was headed our way.

Starting off my night right was this Raspberry Ranch Lemonade. I usually like my drinks very simple, but this alcoholic drink was very refreshing and not overly sweet. The drink combined Cruzan Raspberry rum, lemonade, and tiny bits of raspberry. I am not sure how they did it, but the small bits of a raspberry would get sucked into the straw to provide an extra burst of fruit flavor. It took some self-control just having one of these.

The first of our four appetizers to try were the Guacamole, Salsa, & Chips, and a signature appetizer at Wood Ranch, their Famous Shredded Onions. The salsa here was okay, but the guacamole was very fresh and went well with the tortilla chips. The onion strings always amaze me here. First the sheer size of one order. This is a serious mound of onions, which resembled a small haystack. You would expect them to be all greasy, but they are surprisingly crisp. The lack of grease does not mean there is a lack of taste either. I really liked dipping these in ranch dressing.

The next two appetizers really had more substance behind them. Just looking at these pictures really gets my mouth watering all over again. The Carolina Pulled Pork Sliders are always a favorite. These miniature versions of the Pulled Pork Sandwich come with Carolina slaw, pickles, and Carolina BBQ Sauce on the side. The pork is always tender, the slaw gives you a little crunch, and the BBQ sauce brings it all together. An item I have never had at Wood Ranch is the Killer Fiery Wings, but I might not be able to go back without having these again. The name implies that these are going to be on the hot side, but they tasted more like candy. The sauce was sticky sweet, then had a little kick of spice at the end. The chicken itself was fried to a wonderful crispness. I am usually partial to really spicy, but these sweet wings really caught my attention.

Not a big meat eater? Wood Ranch has you covered. We tried two of the salad offerings here. The first salad was the Quinoa Salad. Quinoa is one of the hottest trends on menus these days, and Wood Ranch has it featured as a salad. This salad also contains hunks of avocado, tomato, black beans, and almonds, and I might have spotted golden raisins in this. The produce was very fresh and was dressed with a champagne vinaigrette. There was some talk around the table that this might have been served too wet, but I liked the way it was served, but I always like things a little more moist than the usual person. The Natalie's Salad is one of the most popular on the Wood Ranch menu. This one combined baby greens, candied walnuts, Gorgonzola crumbles, cucumbers, avocado, and a balsamic dressing. I liked this salad, but it could have used more Gorgonzola and avocado to help make it pop with more flavor. Of course, no trip to Wood Ranch would be complete without having their Garlic Dinner Rolls. These came out hot, and full of garlic flavor. They never disappoint.

An item you may not expect to find on a menu at a BBQ restaurant is a Cuban sandwich, but Wood Ranch's Bar-B-Cubano Sandwich was a big highlight for me. Anyone that knows me, knows that I love Cuban sandwiches. This is not a true Cuban because the bread is a little off and they use Dijon mustard instead of yellow mustard, but there is no denying that this was very good. The baguette was pressed enough to give the appearance of Cuban bread, and the pulled pork was of course a highlight here. Very tender, with a nice smokiness to it. The pickles and honey-cured ham helped bring some sourness and sweetness to this balanced sandwich. I will ask for yellow mustard on future visits when ordering this sandwich. Solid sandwich, and a great addition to the Wood Ranch menu.

When I saw this Short Rib, I immediately thought of the closing credits of the Flintstones when they bring out that giant slab of meat and their car tips over. The photos of this slab of meat do not do it justice. There was so much meat on here, and the chipotle-cherry BBQ sauce added great flavor to this tender meat. A lot of people find the baby back ribs to be the best, but beef ribs get my vote for best rib. I would definitely make this part of my next Wood Ranch Combo.

By this time I was getting pretty full, so I did not focus so much on these two entrees. I did sample some of Katie's BBQ Half Chicken. I usually stay away from chicken in restaurants because they tend to overcook it, but this was very moist, and you could tell they cooked this just right. The chicken went well with the original BBQ sauce. Not too much, just enough that you knew it was there, while still letting the chicken have top billing. The Texas-Style Smoked Brisket came out with three sauces; an au jus, a chipotle-cherry, and a habanero-peach BBQ sauce. The meat went the best with the habanero-peach sauce in my opinion. This sauce was great, and I look forward to the day that you can buy it online, just like their regular BBQ sauce.

Side items are not to be overlooked at Wood Ranch. The Steamed Broccoli fulfilled the vegetable quota and added a nice dash of green to my plate, so my Mom would be proud. One of the most popular side items at Wood Ranch is their Original Peanut Coleslaw. I am more partial to a mayo-based coleslaw, but I can see why people really like this nutty version of coleslaw. The Mashed Potatoes were good, but the hit of the side items on this night was Lauren's Favorite Mac and Cheese. This mac and cheese really got my table mates raving.

By this time of the night, my pants felt like they were going to burst, but there is always room for dessert. Before you ask, no I did not eat all of these desserts. I only snapped pictures of most of them. Somehow the Warm Chocolate Cake got passed right by me before I could snag a bite. That dessert went rather quickly. I would not let the Oreo Cookie Crunch go by me the same way. This is a scoop of vanilla ice cream rolled in Oreo cookie crumbs, then served with a thick hot fudge. Wow, so simple, yet so good. I pretty much hoarded this one to myself. For the fruit lovers, there is the Mom's Deep Dish Cobbler in either peach or apple, and they also have two Cheesecakes. The original is adorned with fresh berries and a raspberry sauce and the special cheesecake this month is a Pumpkin spiced cheesecake with a caramel sauce. A great way to end our glutenous journey.

Twenty years and fourteen locations later, Wood Ranch is still going strong. I am sure they have many more years in their future. The food we had on this night was all pretty stellar. The highlights for me were the Beef Ribs, the Killer Fiery Wings, and the Bar-B-Cubano Sandwich. With choices like these, plus their other menu items, it will be hard for me to decide what to go with on our future visits here.

We would really like to thank everyone at Wood Ranch for the opportunity to try all of this great food. Michelle, the General Manager of this location, Chris who works in the corporate office at Wood Ranch, and Alex Benes for being such wonderful hosts. Thanks very much for your generosity and wonderful dinner conversation. Also worth highlighting was our server for the evening, Megan, who kept everything moving and never skipped a beat when making sure we were all doing okay. Thanks for everything Megan! Also thanks to PR wunderkind, Jane Gillespie for thinking of inviting us to this great event. You were definitely missed at dinner.

One last group of thank yous goes out to all of the wonderful food bloggers that were in attendance. These guys are some of the best food writers our county has to offer, and the reason I love going to these events. Not only great writers but fantastic people as well. We look forward to seeing you all again in the future.

For more information on Wood Ranch BBQ and Grill, click here: http://www.woodranch.com/

Chow Time at Wood Ranch

Wood Ranch BBQ and Grill

22352 El Paseo

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688

We were going to be leaving for vacation, and Katie's family wanted to see her one last time before we were off to New York. So we stopped packing and made the trip out to Wood Ranch BBQ in Rancho Santa Margarita. I have kind of become jaded when going to chain barbecue places, but I have always kind of liked WR and have yet to review it, so that is where we are headed.

Wood Ranch operates 13 restaurants, including the other OC location in Anaheim Hills. They also will be opening an Irvine location at the Spectrum this summer. Their menu features steaks, seafood, burgers, and barbecue. Their barbecue is cooked in a two-step process, first, it is roasted overnight, and then it is cooked to order.  Let's see how all the food turned out.

At Wood Ranch, they serve you these garlic rolls, instead of a bread basket. These came out nice and warm and were very full of garlic. As these cooled, they lost a little bit of their softness, but they were still pretty good.

To start off our meal we went with the BBQ Chicken Potato Skins. These potato skins came with cheese, barbecue sauce, and chicken. I felt the potato part of these was a little too crisp, and they could have been a little more generous with the cheese and chicken on these. The barbecue sauce on these was the standout flavor here.

Katie's Dad was not too hungry so he opted to get a bowl of Clam Chowder soup. This soup looked watery and average to me. Dennis did not rave about the soup but said it was fine. Not exactly a rave review for this soup.

Katie must have forgotten that she was at a barbecue restaurant because she ordered a salad. At least she got a salad with some meat on it, the Wood Roasted Tri-Tip Salad. This salad featured baby greens, romaine, tomatoes, Gorgonzola, tri-tip, and mint julep dressing. I had a few bites of this salad and found it to be quite good. The tri-tip was flavorful and the dressing was a good compliment to the meat. Katie would have liked the meat to have been warmer and juicier.

Sara and Lynn both got BBQ Pork Pulled Sandwiches. Both the sliders and the traditional sandwich are served with Carolina slaw and pickle chips. The barbecue sauce is served on the side. Sara, the kind-hearted woman that she is, even gave me half of her sandwich. Thanks, Sara! Anyways, I found the meat to have a decent flavor, not over-powering, and it was paired nicely with the slaw and barbecue sauce. I would get this sandwich again.

Kevin's, "go to",  item in restaurants is a hamburger, and at Wood Ranch, he stuck true to form with the Buckeye Burger. This burger came with BBQ sauce, bacon, and Tillamook cheddar cheese. I did not get a chance to sample this burger, but from across the table, it looked pretty good. Kevin had no complaints about this burger.

I was in a barbecue restaurant, so I went with actual barbecue food. I had the two-item WR BBQ Combo with tri-tip and baby back ribs. The tri-tip was the best thing on the plate. Tender and moist would be used to describe the tri-tip. The baby backs were good but made better by their barbecue sauce. I liked the barbecue sauce here. Usually, I am more of a spice guy, but when it comes to barbecue sauce I like it better on the sweeter side. The side items were just average. The Peanut Cole Slaw was bland, and the Lauren's Favorite Mac and Cheese was a little light on the cheese. Not so great.

We got to Wood Ranch on a Friday night at 7 and they were very busy. We were seated on the very crowded outside patio. It was way too cramped out there, and servers were having to dodge customers all night. Our overly enthusiastic server was fine but left us for long stretches of time. Luckily we were in no rush, as we were enjoying each other's company, even Sara's.

I think I am ready to deem Wood Ranch my favorite barbecue chain restaurant. Over the years they have been way more consistent than Lucille's, and way better than Tony Roma's. Geez, are there even any more Tony Romas around? Their prices are on par, if not better than other barbecue joints, with plates averaging just under twenty dollars. The barbecue here can not compete with small independent places like Blake's Place and Bad to the Bone, but I think that is because they are cooking in such large volumes.

So out of five wranglers, (because wranglers live on ranches), five being best to zero being worst, Wood Ranch gets 3 wranglers.

For more information on Wood Ranch, click here: https://www.woodranch.com/