Accidentally Arriving at Cedar Creek - CLOSED

Cedar Creek

27321 La Paz Rd.

Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

Settling down for a casual night watching TV, we got a call that Katie's mom, Lynn had been in a fender bender. We were assured she was okay and was being taken to Cedar Creek to have dinner, (and some wine), to calm her nerves. So that is where we headed to have dinner and make sure everything was okay with her.

Cedar Creek has three locations in Orange County, (the other two are in San Juan and Brea). This Cedar Creek always seems to be misplaced to me. It is perched right next to a McDonalds and is shadowed by a Home Depot. The place has been busy the two to three times I have been here though. The vibe inside is of a nice, relaxed, semi-formal restaurant. Let's see how the food measures up.

First up was the bread that they give you. I really enjoyed this garlic and butter bread. It had a great texture and flavor. They kept the bread basket full all through the dinner also, a lot of places forget about it as soon as the salads arrive.

The two appetizers we decided to start off with were the Deep Fried Artichoke Hearts, and the Deep Fried Sesame Calamari. Yes, since we did not get to go to the fair, we decided to indulge in two deep-fried apps, (we have to justify it somehow). The artichokes were not very good at all and were ignored even by the artichoke lovers at our table. They had a strange taste to them that kind of tasted like you would expect Lemon Pledge to taste like. They were made a little better when dipped into the dill sauce, but not much better. The calamari was good and did get finished. The jalapeno tartar sauce that was served with this was very good. The calamari itself was not too greasy and had a nice mellow flavor.

The Caesar salad above came with my meal. I liked this salad well enough, it seemed pretty fresh. There was just enough dressing on it, and the croutons were good as well. The other salad was Lynn's, she got the Niguel's Salad. This salad consisted of the following, mixed greens, apples, dried cranberries, candied walnuts, bleu cheese, and topped with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. It has been my experience that all woman love this salad, and this was definitely the case here also. I like it, but I have a thing with fruits in salads, it just kind of puts me off.

Jimmy feasted on the Traditional Burger. This burger came with all of the normal accompaniments. Jimmy thought that this burger was well done and tasty. He liked the juiciness of the meat also. The fries did look good.

Rachel, the birthday girl, nibbled her way through the French Dip Sandwich. This sandwich looked pretty good, but again, like Jimmy, she did not rave about the sandwich. It looks good enough in the picture, that this would probably be my choice on a return visit.

Above is the Crab and Salmon Cakes. These were served with vegetable chips, and Asian slaw. This dish was mediocre at best. The crab/salmon cake was very heavy on the breading, and you could not taste either the crab or salmon. The Asian slaw was okay, along with the vegetable chips. Again, the jalapeno tartar sauce helped this dish out, but not enough to make it good.

Sara opted to get the before mentioned Niguel Salad, with Chicken. She loved this salad and said she would be happy getting this again and again. I had an issue with the price on this salad, $14. I thought it would have been bigger.

For my entree, I went with the Pot Roast. This was served with pickled cabbage, potato pancakes, and applesauce. I could not have been more disappointed with this dish. The meat was not tender at all. The flavor was only helped with the addition of the horseradish/gorgonzola sauce. The potato pancakes were plain tasting, and the applesauce had a weird lavender taste to it. The pickled cabbage seemed out of place on this dish also. Summing up this plate, I would call it awkward.

Cedar Creek has been hit and misses with me. I remember having something here a while back that I liked, but could not remember what it was. I don't feel that you get good value for your money here. The food is un-memorable, but the service was good. Maybe the reason that they are always busy is that there is not a nice restaurant around the area. I know I will be back because Katie's family really likes the place, so hopefully, I will find something on the menu that blows me away. On this trip, we were just all glad that Lynn was okay from her accident, even if it wasn't the food that soothed her, the wine might have been what the doctor ordered.

Out of five pencils, (because the favored timber in making pencils is cedar), five being best to zero being worst, Cedar Creek gets 2 pencils.

For more information on Cedar Creek, check them out here: http://www.cedarcreekinn.com/

Manufacturing A Good Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory? - CLOSED

Cheesecake Factory

1141 Newport Center Drive

Newport Beach, CA 92660

I admit it: I like the Cheesecake Factory. Many of you think it could be better, that you can make better things at home, that the menu is too extensive, and so on. I have always liked the Cheesecake Factory. I like big menus, and the food has always been good. Hopefully, this trip will be the same.

Chris and Adrienne wanted to meet up with us, and since they had a gift card for Cheesecake Factory, that is where we headed. It might be a sign that the economy is turning around, or this might be a busy location for the Cheesecake Factory, but we had to wait about thirty minutes. Of course, it was a Saturday night, at seven, so we could hit their rush hour. On to the food!

Here is a shot of their famous bread basket. I am in the minority here because I like their sourdough bread better than their brown bread. I know I am outnumbered on this hot topic of the day because they bring you two loaves of brown bread and only one sourdough. That is fine with me because I get the sourdough all to myself.

Our first appetizer choice was the Avocado Egg Rolls. Avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, onion, and cilantro are fried in a wrapper and served with a tamarind-cashew dipping sauce. If you like avocado, this appetizer is for you. The creaminess of the avocado was incredible, and the sauce paired well with this starter.

For the second appetizer, we got the fried macaroni and Cheese. Four breaded macaroni and cheese balls were served with a creamy marinara sauce. These were good, but when you opened them, there was not a lot of macaroni inside; there was just a lot of cheese in them. Not bad, but not great either.

Adrienne chose the Santa Fe Salad. This salad comprises mixed greens, chicken, tortilla strips, black beans, corn, green onions, and cilantro. The dressing is a spicy peanut cilantro vinaigrette. Adrienne liked this salad but did not rave about it. I did not get a chance to try it.

Chris ordered the Chicken Marsala and Mushrooms. Oh, wait. Do you not see any mushrooms in this dish? He ordered it without them to keep the peace with his wife, Adrienne, who does not like them (what a good husband!). This dish is served on a bed of bow-tie pasta with chicken breast and a marsala sauce. I tried a bite of this and thought it was plain tasting. The mushrooms would have helped out here a lot.

I'm sorry these pictures are so blurry. It was really dark where we were sitting. Katie opted to get the Crusted Chicken Romano. She felt that the breading on the chicken was too salty, but the pasta was cooked perfectly. I liked the light tomato sauce, but I wish there was more of it.

For my entree, I got the Cheesecake Factory's most popular chicken dish, the Chicken Madeira. This tasty chicken dish is topped with asparagus, melted cheese, and mushrooms. The Madeira sauce on this is delicious, and the four pounds of mashed potatoes that come with it are equally good. It's a wonderful dish. 

The Cheesecake Factory has a vast menu, so everyone can eventually find something to their tastes. I have had their burgers and other chicken dishes before and really liked them all. We got cheesecake on this trip and found that to be good as well. I am not much of a cheesecake guy, but this had a smoothness that is unlike other cheesecakes. The service was good, for as busy as they were.

Out of five Golden Girls (because cheesecake was the Golden Girls' favorite late-night snack), five being best to zero being worst, Cheesecake Factory gets 3 Golden Girls.

For more information on the Cheesecake Factory, click here: http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/

All Roads Lead to Roman Cucina

Roman Cucina

25214 Cabot Rd.

Laguna Hills, CA 92653

Sometimes it is really hard to write this blog. Especially if the place that we go is just average, or the food is un-inspired. This is not going to be a hard entry to write, simply put, this place rocks! I can not even string you along to make you wait to see how I am going to rate this place. But please read on though, and see what we ate, or at least look at the pictures, you will not be disappointed.

Roman Cucina has four locations in the OC, (Sunset Beach, Costa Mesa, and Fullerton are the others).  Katie was coming over for date night, so I headed to Yelp to find a place to try. This place had great reviews, so that is where we headed.

Roman Cucina is tucked in a shopping center that's big draw is a Wienerschnitzel and a Howard's Electronics. The outside is unassuming, but once inside the place is buzzing with activity. We arrived on a Friday night about 7:30, and are sat right away. This restaurant has a downtown Fullerton vibe to me. The staff is all young, and the owner is walking around talking to his guests. Let's see the food we got...

I ordered the Peroni, a nice light beer from Italy. Also above is the bread that is served with the meal. It is your basic french bread. Not too keen on the butter packets though. I would have rather liked a dish of butter, but that would probably be my only complaint all night.

 For an appetizer, we chose to get the Milanese. Breaded cutlet of beef, pounded thin and served with red sauce. I had never had this before, and it was delicious. The flavor of the meat was enhanced with a few squirts of lemon over it. The red sauce on this was good as well.

Each of their meals comes with this House Salad. Romaine lettuce, with red onion, cucumber, and a vinaigrette dressing. Your basic salad, but with fresh items in it.

Katie went with her old standby in an Italian restaurant, the Shrimp Scampi. She chose the fettuccine pasta to go along with the white wine sauce and lemon garlic sauce that make up this dish. She has had a run of scampi's that have been un-flavorful, and this dish put an end to that streak. The flavors were abundant, but not overpowering. We have also been going to a lot of places that have left the tails on the shrimp, and this place did not leave them on, a nice change.

 My dish is up next. After much debate, I went with the Pasta Tombrello. This plate is comprised of ground Italian sausage and mushrooms with a spicy Bianco Diavolo sauce. Usually, when a place says that an item is spicy, it is not and I have to ask for red pepper flakes to kick it up, this was not the case here. This had a lot of spice, the pasta was cooked perfectly, and the sausage was plentiful. One of the best pasta dishes I have had in a while.

I am not much of a tiramisu guy, but this one was really good. I liked the size of the portion, and the moistness was right on. A very good end to a good meal.

The menu here is pretty standard Italian fare. They do not have veal or some of the fancier dishes that other Italian restaurants have. But what they do have is a solid menu, that anyone can find something to like. The food here is not complicated, it is pretty straight forward. The owner told us that he got the recipes from his grandmother, and I could picture her teaching him the tricks of the trade.

The owner had a great attitude and it seemed to spread to the rest of the employees. All of the customers seemed to be very pleased, and I hope that this odd location catches on. Entrees are in the $13 to $18 dollar range, and they have fair-sized portions for the money.

So out of five togas, five being best to zero being worst, Roman Cucina gets 3.5 togas.

For more information about Roman Cucina, click here: https://www.romanocucina.com/

Skimming the Menu at Skimmer's

Skimmer's Panini Grill

25290 Marguerite Pkwy #E

Mission Viejo, CA 92692

Katie and I have been on a real sandwich kick lately. I think it might be because we have been eating out so much, that on our off nights, we just want something that is on the lighter side. Enter Skimmer's. I found them on Yelp, about a year and a half ago. I remember liking it, but I am not sure why I did not go back.

I have had Skimmer's since then because they catered Katie's sister's bridal shower and her day after the wedding brunch. Now Katie and I headed to Skimmer's on two separate occasions, to give it a try, and see if all the positive reviews on Yelp were well deserved. Our first trip was a to-go order, and here is what we got.

Up first are their Crouton Fries with Chipotle Dipping sauce. These were very rich and garlicky. I am a big fan of garlic, but these were almost too much for me. I did like the sauce that went with these though, it had a good taste and the texture was right. Katie did not seem to care for these, as she only had two, and was done with them.

The Skimmer's menu is tough to navigate, I had a few choices that I would have liked to have tried, so it was difficult for me to narrow down my choice. I settled on the Miami Grilled Sandwich with Potato Salad as a side item. The Miami sandwich is trying to go for that Cuban sandwich vibe. Roasted pork, ham, swiss cheese, pickles, mayo, and mustard come on this. I liked this sandwich, you could tell that the Boar's Head Brand meats that they used were all sliced fresh. The sourdough bread was nice and toasted. Unfortunately, Katie had to make a stop to get an iced tea, so this sandwich had cooled considerably before I got a chance to try it hot. I thought that the potato salad was just okay, nothing made it stand out.

Katie ordered the Iron Chicken sandwich. This sandwich had garlic chicken breast, black forest ham, tomato, swiss, and citrus mayo. She felt that the citrus mayo made this sandwich, and added something that you would not expect. The chicken she felt was cooked well. She would get this sandwich again.

On our second trip to Skimmer's, Katie got the OC sandwich. Turkey, avocado, goat cheese, chipotle-lime mayo, all on 8-grain wheat. She liked the smoothness of the goat cheese and avocado but felt that this overpowered the turkey, and made the meat a non-factor. She liked that this was a lighter choice, and would get this again.

 I chose to go with the Rubenini. This sandwich featured corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss, and thousand island dressing. This was a good sandwich, and much better when we ate it there because it came out warm. There was lots of cheese on this, and the amount of meat on this was adequate, I would have liked a little more. The coleslaw that I got to go with this sandwich was just okay, nothing memorable.

We got dessert this trip and went with the Brownie Bash. I am not sure if it was because we have not had ice cream in so long, or if we were just really hungry, but this tasted fantastic. Four scoops of Dryer's ice cream, along with brownie bites, caramel, and hot fudge topping on it, made this dessert a winner. We practically licked the bowl clean.

Skimmers is a nice alternative to the sandwich chains. The sandwiches are a little more expensive than Subway, and Togo's, but they are fresher. I wish they would upgrade their side dishes. They were all bland, and you are better off getting a bag of chips. I look forward to future visits to trying their Buffalo Chicken sandwich. The staff at Skimmer's is young but were competent. It is also nice that this is owned by a local couple, and you can tell that they are invested in the community.

So out of five pool toys, (because they always get stuck in pool skimmers), five being best, to zero being worst Skimmer's gets 3 pool toys.

For more information on Skimmer's click here: https://skimmerspaninigrill.com/

Is the Catch a Hit or an Error? - CLOSED

The Catch

2100 E. Katella Ave., Ste 104

Anaheim, CA 92806

The Catch has been across from Angel Stadium for as long as I can remember. I remember my parents telling me that the Catch is where the Angel players go after the games, so it always had this cool aura around it. When I was finally old enough to go there, I remember it being dark and crowded after games. There were some player sightings and some good times at the bar.

The Catch recently moved into their new building, a few blocks from the old one. This whole area of Anaheim is trying to get that big city vibe with high-rise apartments, concert venues, and restaurants. The Catch is located on the ground floor of one of these high rises, the AvalorBay building. This version of the Catch restaurant is anything but dark. The bar area is wide open, and there are windows everywhere. We arrived on a Sunday at 5, and there was still a good-sized crowd left over from the baseball game in the bar area. There was even a baseball player sighting Angel's first baseman, Mike Napoli. But enough with baseball player stalking. How about the food.

Here are some random pictures of the dining room, the iced tea, and the bread they serve. The dining room was nice and cozy. Lots of windows in here as well. It was empty on this night. All of the action was in the bar. I was wondering how busy this place would be on a non-game day. The iced teas we ordered were accompanied by their carafes for each of us. I liked this touch because you never had to ask for more tea. The rolls that they had were sourdough rolls, and they were adequate.

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Now on to the salads. Above is Katie's salad, the Caprese. Tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar made this salad. I liked this presentation, and my parents and Katie raved about the flavor of this salad. I did not try this, though.

For my salad, I got the Slice of Ice. This cool salad (ahh, get it, because of the name, wow I am so sorry, my sense of humor is awful), anyways, this salad was half an iceberg lettuce, with Point Reyes blue cheese, red onions, grape tomatoes, bacon, and blue cheese dressing. I liked this salad, the flavors were big, and it came out cold.  The dressing-to-salad ratio on this was good as well.

The winner of the salad portion of this meal has to go to this one, the Vermont Maple Salad. Mixed greens with maple vinaigrette dressing, Cotija cheese, sliced apples, candied black pepper bacon, and toasted pecans. Yes, I said candied bacon! Also, the unusual maple dressing was killer on this. I am not big on salads with fruit in them, but this one worked. I would for sure get this salad next time.

Our appetizer arrived at the same time as our salads, so the Teriyaki Dragon Rolls were made to wait. The dragon roll consisted of marinated pork and shrimp, with vegetables in a spring roll and flash fried. These were served with a black bean sauce with a little kick. They were delicious, and we all liked these.

Now we move on to the entree portion of the meal. Katie got the Shrimp, Christopher. Large shrimp are butterflied and stuffed with crab, scallops, and fish. It was like a mini crab cake on top of a shrimp, not what I had pictured when she ordered this. It was okay, not excellent. With all of these killer items in this dish, I would have thought it would have tasted better. The garlic mashed potatoes that came with this were pretty good, though. The rainbow chard was sauteed perfectly but got lost under all the potatoes.

My Mom chose to get Victor's Fish and Chips. Cod dipped in beer batter, then fried and served with a tarter sauce. This is served with garlic fries, which did not seem too garlicky, and Louisiana hot slaw, which definitely had a kick. I liked the fish but again was not wowed by it. It was not oily and was flaky on the inside. I usually like more dressing for my slaw, but this was good slaw.

The winner in the main dish category was again chosen by my Dad. He opted for the Drunken Mahi-Mahi. Blackened fish, splashed with tequila, over tomato risotto. The fish was done perfectly, and it was hard for me to get a bite from my Dad because he liked this so much. The fish was presented well and paired with crab tostadas (which were more the size of a nacho). The tostadas were topped with tomatillo-avocado salsa and Cotija cheese. Delicious, solid dish here.

I was the only one that did not go for fish at the table. I saw the Double Header on the menu and knew that was what I would have. Two filets, one with shrimp scampi over it, and the other were prepared Oscar style, with hollandaise sauce and crab. I loved that they offered this on the menu, but that is where my love ended for this dish. The hollandaise sauce was too thick, and the crab was unnoticeable. One of the filets was overcooked (the other was cooked perfectly the way I ordered it, medium rare). The scampi steak was okay, and they did not shortchange you on the shrimp with this one. The flavor just did not pop out at me.

I had mixed feelings about the Catch. I really liked the salads and appetizers. I felt the entrees were not the best, but they seemed to be trying hard. The service was good, but there were only two tables in the dining room, so it might be different on busier nights. The bar seemed like the place to be, and I am looking forward to trying their huge, four-pound burger (with friends, of course) and some of their different appetizers.

Out of five Willie Mays gold gloves, (because he was the one who had, "The Catch"), five being best to zero being worst, The Catch  gets 3 gold gloves.

For more information on The Catch, check them out here: http://www.catchanaheim.com/