Decent Dining at Don Jose?

Don Jose

23972 Avenida de la Carlota

Laguna Hills, CA 92653

This is my 99th post on this blog, and it surprises me that I have not reviewed Don Jose before. I probably eat at Don Jose at least three or four times a year. That is a lot for me. It seems that since I have started this blog, I am always trying new places. So if I frequent a place more than twice, it must be among one of my favorites. I am always a little embarrassed to admit that I like Don Jose. I know that there are more authentic Mexican places around, but I always leave Don Jose feeling like I had a good solid meal there.

Don Jose has been around since 1972. They have nine locations, spread out through three counties. I usually go to the Laguna Hills location, and they always seem to have a steady stream of customers. They are very liberal with their coupons, (one arriving in my mailbox at least once a week), and they also send out coupons for your birthdays and anniversaries. Hopefully, the food will live up to the celebration.

The first things people notice about a Mexican restaurant is the chips and salsa. Both of these are passable at Don Jose. The salsa here is a little watery, but they score points for the big hunks of onion and cilantro in it. The salsa is not spicy but has a nice mild flavor to it. The chips are okay, but not too memorable

On this trip, Katie got the Fajita Quesadilla. This quesadilla is stuffed with cheese, chicken, green chile's, tomatoes, and green onions. I had half of this quesadilla, and it tasted fine. Not too greasy, but not big on flavor. The chicken was good, but a little overcooked, (what I have come to expect from Don Jose chicken items). Katie liked the quesadilla because it was not over-stuffed with cheese. She also felt that she could not go wrong ordering this again.

My old standby at Don Jose is the Ultimate Chimichanga. This behemoth of a chimi is filled with carnitas, beef, chicken, cheese, and beans. I always ask for no chicken to avoid dry pieces. The chimi is then topped with red sauce and more cheese. The picture above really does not do this dish justice. The carnitas is cooked well, and the beef goes so good with the red sauce. This is really more brick of food, and it will fill you up. The only gripe I have about this is the amount of guacamole they include with this plate. For a chimichanga this size you really should be provided more.

Going back through my pictures I had taken on a previous trip to Don Jose, I found these next two dishes. This was Katie's choice, the Mini Tostada, and Enchilada. Really more of a taco salad, than a tostada, the tostada included pieces of chicken, beans, greens, cheese, and their tostada sauce. The enchilada that came with this was cheese. Katie liked the salad and thought that the chicken was moist. The enchilada she was not so excited about. She felt the red sauce was off. I liked the red sauce here, so I guess we will have to chalk that up to a difference of opinion.

My combination plate on this night was the Taco and Cheese Enchilada. I felt that the shredded beef taco was okay, but needed more meat on it. The cheese enchilada was really good, but again they could have added more cheese. I almost forgot to mention that the beans and rice here are pretty good.

For dessert, we ordered the Deep Fried Ice Cream. Ice cream coated with crunchy bits and then topped with whipped cream. The coating here is kind of like a cornflake deep-fried. It contrasts with the smoothness of the ice cream to form a kind of yin and yang effect. Pretty good.

After writing this review, I came to a realization that Don Jose should not be in southern California, but maybe the Midwest, or somewhere that they do not have an over-flow of great Mexican restaurants. Do not get me wrong, I like Don Jose, and the above statement is not meant as a put-down, but we are spoiled here with some really great Mexican places. A place like Don Jose could clean up in the Midwest, where there are not too many places serving up even half as good of plates as Don Jose.

In the OC, Don Jose kind of gets lost in the shuffle, but they have been around for 38 years, so they must be doing something right. And that something is, that they never change. You are always guaranteed to have a solid meal there. When you find something on the menu that you like, you can stick with it, because it will taste the same next week, next month and in the years to follow. The service is always really good too. The food arrives quick and hot. In these times of change, Don Jose is as reliable as you can get.

Out of five Carmen's, (because Don Jose was a character in the opera Carmen, and you all know how I love operas), five being best to zero being worst, Don Jose's gets 2.5 Carmen's

For more information on Don Jose, click here: https://www.don-jose.com/

Football Frenzy # 2 - Stadium Brewery

Stadium Brewing Co.

26731 Aliso Creek Road

Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

In our second attempt to find the ultimate spot to watch football, we headed to Stadium Brewing Co. Our criteria are great food, fun atmosphere, and great service. I have been to Stadium Brewing one other time last year to watch football and had a decent time, so we gave it a shot this year. Let's see how it worked out

We got to Stadium at about 9:25, because this was the first week of football. We got there a little early because we expected a big crowd. One problem, they do not open until 10. This was not a good sign, but we decided to wait it out. They have to realize that football fans like to hunker down, get a good seat, and watch the pregame shows, to see if there are any last-minute injuries or news they should know before game time.  So we waited by the door, with about twenty other early risers. 

The set up for football is okay. They have about ten TVs, but they have limited seating in the bar area, and it is hard to see all the games at one time. This was the first week of football, and since they opened at ten, and everyone was getting seated, it was chaos trying to decide what games were going to be put on where. Everyone wants to see their game where they are sitting, and the guys at Stadium Brewery did their best to make everyone happy. Let's check out the food.

Stadium Brewery has a special menu for Sunday breakfast. There are six items on this special menu, and this is what Katie chose from it, the Bourbon Apple Pancakes. These were some of the best pancakes Katie and I have had in quite a while. Three buttermilk cakes, topped with sauteed cinnamon apples, bourbon sauce, pecans, and whipped cream. This was a winning combination. The sauce is what really made these, sweet, but not overly sweet, and the apples were cooked well also. This would definitely be what I would get next time I came here for breakfast.

For my breakfast, I went with the Prime Rib Omelet. This three-egg omelet contained thin slices of prime rib, bell pepper, onion, bacon, and was topped with cheddar and jack cheese. I would have taken a picture of the inside of the omelet, but it disappeared too quick. You will have to take my word for it, they had a lot of meat here, and the taste was really quite good. I thought that for $12, you should get some potatoes or at least some toast to go along with this, but nothing was offered with this. Kind of over-priced.

Mark waited until the lunch menu was offered, and went with his old standby, the Stadium Buffalo Wings. Again, I felt that these were not a great value, $9 for six to eight wings. The flavor tasted good to me, but these needed to have more meat on them if they were going to be worth $1 a wing. Mark felt that these were nothing special. I did like that he said he wanted lots of ranch dressing, and they actually brought him two sides of ranch dressing, that was cool.

What wasn't cool, was the service at Stadium Brewing. I know that this was the first week of football, and they seemed under-staffed by about five people, but what did they expect? This was not their first time having the NFL on Sundays. The bartender was trying to get to everyone, but it was impossible for him. Richard and Steve showed up on their lunch breaks and did not get a chance to eat, because no one came around to see them the entire time they were there. I wonder how much business they lost, by not having more than four people staff the whole restaurant?

I liked the food at Stadium Brewing. I liked the food enough, that I might even come back for dinner, but this will not be our ultimate football hangout spot. The service was awful, and the atmosphere was okay, not great. We are still looking for a great place to watch football on Sundays, so if you know of a place drop me a line.

Out of five tailgaters, five being best to zero being worst, Stadium Brewing Co. gets 2.5 tailgaters.

Stadium Brewing company does not have an active website, so check out their Yelp page for more information. https://www.yelp.com/biz/stadium-brew-aliso-viejo-4

Rockin Out at the Slidebar - CLOSED

The Slidebar

124 E. Commonwealth Ave.

Fullerton, CA 92832

It is so rare that Katie and I get up to Fullerton, so we took this opportunity to try out Slidebar. I had been here once, right when they opened about four years ago. I remember it being loud and really busy. This trip was a little different. When we walked in on this Saturday night at seven, the restaurant inside was deserted, except for one other table of two. All of the action was out on the patio, and people kept on coming, but they all headed out to the patio.

The only things I know about this place are that the band members of Lit are investors in this place and that this place has a reputation for not having the coolest clientele hanging out here. The reviews on yelp, make this restaurant sound like you will get beat up if you look at someone the wrong way. They have bands that play here, so maybe that is when the violence starts. Luckily for Katie and me, we are going to be long gone by the time the slam dancing starts. On to the food.

For the first of our two appetizers, we got the Irish Nachos pictured above. French fries are covered in cheese, bacon, cheese, green onions, and cheese. Did I mention that these had cheese? I love cheese, and this almost had too much for me. The fries were really good, and after dipping these into the ranch, they were fried pieces of heaven. Maybe the cheese overpowered us because we were only two people trying to eat our weight in cheese, but I would definitely get these again.

Of course, the last thing that I would want after our last appetizer would be more cheese, but you know me, I am a glutton for punishment. We had to order their famous Macaroni and Cheese. I am a moderate fan of macaroni and cheese, but this one is pretty good. I think I remember the menu saying that they used five different kinds of cheese in this, Fontina, cheddar, Parmesan, Velveeta, and jack cheese. The cheese stuck to the noodles very well and had a real creamy taste. It was a little browned on the top, good portion size for an appetizer.

I ordered the Straight Out of Hell Burger. This burger was invented by former Pantera guitarist, Dimebag Darrell. It has jalapenos, yellow peppers, bacon, cheese, onion rings, and a spicy barbeque sauce. Usually, when an item says spicy, it is not. This for sure was! It was not an uncomfortable heat, but it was pretty close. The toppings were the real star here, the bacon was cooked well, and the cheese kind of slowed the heat down. The meat was okay but was kind of unnoticeable with all of the other stuff going on. Good solid burger. I also liked the grill marks on the top of the bun for some reason, it kind of looked cool.

Katie opted to get the Tequila, Chicken, and Sausage Pasta. This is tossed tableside, and that is when they add the shot of tequila, so it does not cook off. I liked this dish when I had half of it the day after for lunch. The sausage was really good, and the sauce had a good flavor. Some extra Parmesan cheese would have been good on this. Katie, on the other hand, thought that this dish was too tangy for her taste. She was not a fan of the sausage, and would not get this again.

Slidebar is a must for OC music fans. The place is adorned with all sorts of memorabilia from Orange County bands. Even if you are not a fan of music, the food is pretty good also. Our service was pretty good, but they only had three tables filled when we left. I would definitely come back here again.

Out of five guitar picks, (for obvious reasons), five being best to zero being worst, Slidebar gets 3 guitar picks.

Slidebar does not have a website, but click here for reviews and information; http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-slidebar-fullerton

Football Frenzy #1 at Buffalo Wild Wings

Buffalo Wild Wings

23600 Rockfield Blvd.

Lake Forest, CA 92630

Fall brings autumn colors, declining temperatures and NFL football. Okay, southern California does not get any of these things, but the rest of the nation does. I still love football, even though we do not have a team. In fact my team, the Jaguars, are so seldom on free TV, that I have no choice, but to go out and watch them somewhere that they have all the games. And thus, that is the dilemma we face every Sunday, where to watch the game?

We look for a place that has good food, service, and a pleasant atmosphere. This may seem like an easy task, but it is hard finding a place that has this hat trick of characteristics. So I have set it as my goal, to find the best place to watch football in Orange county, (at least until my team is eliminated from playoff contention, which could be by the beginning of November, because they are not too good).  Our first stop is Buffalo Wild Wings.

I had never been to a Buffalo Wild Wings before. They seem to have sprung up all over the place in the last few months. I know of at least three in Orange county, (this one in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, and Irvine). According to the Orange County Register they are looking to expand to at least 20 units in the near future. Let's see if this is going to be our new hangout for football.

BWW is a sports fan paradise, TV's all over the place, a full bar and for those that do not like football, they even have trivia boxes that you can lose yourself in, if you are not into the football. The service on this night is really good, so they are two-thirds of the way to becoming our football hangout. Now let's see about the all important food category.

Our first appetizer that we tried was the Crispy Southwest Dippers. In the menu these are descirbed as tortilla dippers, filled with fajita-spiced chicken, pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, corn and black beans. All served with a southwest ranch dipping sauce. This sounds like it would be big on flavor, right? No they were not. These were bland, and over fried., and that made the insides of this taste like nothing. If the menu had not told me what was in this, I would have had no idea what was in here.

The second of our starters was the Mini Corn Dogs, served with honey mustard sauce. These were fair, but nothing that you could not get at your local Weinerschnitzel, for about half the price, (these were $5.99).

Katie and I each ordered five of the Boneless Wings, because it was Boneless Thursday at BWW. The price for each boneless wing was 65 cents, as compared to the usual 90 cents they are the rest of the week. The hard part was to choose two of the fourteen sauces that they have. I went with the Asian Zing sauce, and Katie, surprisingly, went for the Hot sauce. She was sweating after a few bites of the hot sauce, but she said she could not stop eating these. I liked the heat on these, but found that the chicken was just average. The Asian Zing sauce was good too. Sweet and with a hint of spice. I would have liked a little more heat in this sauce, and then it would have been excellent. As a whole I liked these, but I would like to try the traditional wings next time.

As bland as Katie's Steak and Potato Flip looks, it tasted equally as plain the next day when I had the other half for lunch. The Potato Flip is flatbread pizza crust filled with steak, mozzarella, french fries, southwestern ranch dressing and honey BBQ sauce. There were only a few pieces of steak on here, and the cheese was almost non-existent. Katie, who is usually pleased by everything, was very under-whelmed by this also.

The Black and Blue Burger is pictured above. This burger was flavored with Cajun spices, and topped with blue cheese dressing. At least that is what the menu said. If I was blind folded and asked what kind of burger this was, I would have replied that it was a regular burger with no spices or blue cheese in the vicinity of this plate. I even asked for extra blue cheese dressing, and this still did not help this burger out. It was cooked okay, but I could not get over the lack of flavor.

So after reading the above, you know that this is not going to be my ultimate place to watch football. I liked the atmosphere and the service was good, but the food was the killing point here. I would go back to watch a game or two, but I would only eat the wings here. Our first drive in our goal to find a great place to watch football resulted in a field goal. We stalled in the red zone and had to take the three points. If that is too much football talk for you, the translation is that they started off good, but failed to deliver when it came to the food.

Out of five Bills, (for you non-football fans, that is the name of the Buffalo football team), five being best to zero being worst, Buffalo Wild Wings gets 2 Bills.

For more information on Buffalo Wild Wings, click here: http://www.buffalowildwings.com/

Eating Around the Globe at the Orange Street Fair

Orange International Street Fair

1 Plaza Square

Orange, CA 92866

The Street Fair in Orange always is my cue that the end of summer is near. It is always about 90 degrees at the fair, it is always packed with people, and the parking is awful. So what brings all of these people out to endure all of this? Well of course it is the food, (and drinks).

This is the 38th year for this food festival in the heart of downtown Orange. The blocked off streets have booths set up, where they feature foods from around the globe. After reading the Fast Food Maven, I had compiled a list of items that we must try. Katie and I had a, divide and conquer technique this year at the fair. We were going to split everything that we got, and thus, the guilt that I felt from last years glutenous outing, would be halved. Let's see how this worked out for us.

To start the food festivities, we went with the Bratwurst from the Orange Lutheran booth. This is the king of the brats at the street fair. Other places sell them, but these are the best. The sandwich roll is soft, but holds up to the meat and kraut. After biting into the brat, it snapped a little, and the kraut is a good scene on this. A very good start to the night.

Here is the highlight of the night for Katie, the Loukoumades. These mini football sized pieces of fried dough, always have one of the longest lines at the street fair. These have honey inside of them, and also are dusted with cinnamon and sugar. Very sweet, and very addictive. I crown this the Greek's best innovation since the Olympic games. Very delicious.

Chris and I took a quick detour from my list of things to try, and got the Fried Calamari above. This was fried well, and was not too chewy at all. I would have liked some lemon on top of this, but it was good without it.

Back to our list of places to try, so we were off to Mexico Street. The quesadilla, with handmade tortillas, was greasy but good. You could tell that they cooked this with lard. We had one with carne asada, and the other with just cheese. Both were very good. The pork tamale was also on my list but I did not try this. Mark's sister, Marie, thought that this was very tasty. I will have to have one next year.

Another quick detour, for Riles and Mark to enjoy some Corn. I am not too big of a fan of corn on the cob, but they both thought that this was cooked well. I have never had corn with mayo on it, but almost everyone was doing it, so I am sure it is good. This might make my list for next year also.

The last thing on my list was the Beef Teryaki on Japan Street. The first picture was a plate of samples they were giving out while we waited in line. The teryaki was sliced thinly, and had a very sweet sauce on it. I liked this a lot. Very tender pieces here.

The last thing I consumed was the Rosette's from a Norwegian booth. These are a deep fried cookie, that is dusted with powdered sugar. These dissolve in your mouth as soon as you consume them. I am not too big of a fan of these. I need a little more substance, and our group was under-whelmed by these.

Another successful year at the Street Fair. I am always amazed by how calm the crowd is here. You would think with all of the alcohol, and the big turn out, there would be some bad apples, but that is never the case. The security and people that put on this fair should be applauded. I would also like to thank my group for allowing me to pick the places that we went to eat. They are pictured below. I am looking forward to going to the Street Fair with you guys again next year!

For more information on the Orange International Street Fair, click here: http://orangestreetfair.org/

Converging on the Crosby CLOSED

The Crosby

400 N. Broadway

Santa Ana, CA. 92701

If you blink, you are going to miss the Crosby. Above is all the signage you will see that the Crosby exists. I had read about this place on Yelp, and it has received good reviews. Then someone told me that this place has the best hamburger in the OC. So I had the motivation to go; now, all I needed was a spark. That spark came to fruition by Katie, and I chose to go to a play in the downtown arts district. So away we went on a Friday night.

We got to the Crosby at 6:00 on a Friday night. It was a chore trying to find parking, but we found some street parking a few blocks away. I had made reservations, but there were plenty of tables available. A few after-work parties were going on, but the place was not packed.  I liked that the walls were decorated with old boom boxes. I might have had one or two of those old models. Let's see if the food will be music to our ears.

The Crosby has an interesting happy hour. $1 Pabst Blue Ribbons and $3 Sangria. I got one PBR (just for laughs), and Katie got a Sangria. She liked the sangria but did not finish it. I am not a sangria person, but I liked this flavor. It was not too fruity and not too much like wine. It was right in the middle. Also on the happy hour menu is the Chili Cheese Fries for $5. I thought these were not so great, but they are not my thing. I like chili with beef; this was vegetarian chili, and I am not a big fan of sweet potato fries. Katie, a fan of both of these things, really liked these both a lot, so we will go with what she says.

For Katie's dinner, she got Creole Shrimp. This is linguine pasta with a spicy creole sauce and brandy sauteed shrimp. She could not say enough good things about this dish, even going as far as saying that this was the best pasta dish she could remember having in recent memory. She thought there was just enough heat on this, enough not to distract from the plate. She also liked that this had just the right amount of sauce for her taste. High praise from Katie. I tried this and would have liked a little more heat, but I like spicy things.

So when someone says the best burger in Orange county, that is what I have to get. This is the Smoked Angus Beef Burger. This burger featured a cavalcade of things on it. It had caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, greens, muenster cheese, spicy ketchup, fried egg, and apple cider brandy aioli. Wow, what a mouthful. My first bite of this burger brought to mind a meatloaf I had before. All of the flavors on this burger worked well with each other. It was not the best burger in the OC, but it was good. I was not so fond of the fries. They were truffled fries, but the flavor seemed to be a little off for me.

At the end of the meal, we could not resist the Crosby Sundae. When I think sundae, I usually believe ice cream in a glass, but as you can see, this is not that. This is two towers of deep-fried tortillas stuffed with cinnamon and bananas, with three scoops of ice cream. We both thought that this banana foster-type dessert was pretty good. Not too rich, and just the right amount of ice cream. When I saw only three small scoops, I was worried there would not be enough, but it turned out cool.

Katie loved the Crosby and is looking forward to going back again. I liked it well enough to try it again, also. The menu changes every other month, and they have a chef's selection menu with some higher-end items. Most of those piqued my interest, and now that I have had the burger here, I can move on from that. The service was friendly and casual. The atmosphere was a little trendy, but we felt comfortable inside.

Out of five penguins (because Sidney Crosby plays for them), five being best to zero being worst, The Crosby gets three penguins.

For more information on The Crosby, click here: http://thisisthecrosby.com/