Bottle Wars Commencing at Fleming's

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse

455 Newport Center Dr.

Newport Beach, CA 92660

Fleming's is quickly becoming one of my favorite spots to visit. Not only is their food very good, but they keep introducing new food items and having great promotions. This month alone they have a Memorable Feast for Two that is three courses for $99, and they are also having their Last Call Sale, where patrons can save 25% off bottles of wine. As much as I would have loved to have taken advantage of these offers, we were here for two other happenings going on at Fleming's, the introduction of their new Bar La Carte menu and Bottle Wars.

Bottle Wars is a fun, competitive way that Fleming's is introducing their latest version of the Fleming's 100. After a year long search, and numerous tastings, Fleming's introduces a new list of 100 wines offered by the glass. They leave about 25 to 30 wines on the list from the previous year, so that leaves 70 to 75 new wines for people to discover. Fleming's has come up with a great way to get people to sample some of these by having wine tastings every Friday night in September. Not your average wine tasting though. Fleming's is pitting wines against each other, based on style, location, and price. On the Friday we were here, it was a Battle of the Hemispheres. For $25 you get to sample wines from New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Chile, then see how they compare against wines from California. Here are the pairings, and what we thought was best.

The first match up pitted two Sauvignon Blanc's against each other. The Kim Crawford  was from New Zealand and had a slight fruitiness to it. I would have liked a little more sweetness out of it. The Hanna, from the Russian River Valley of California was my clear winner here. It was a clean tasting wine, with subtle hints of citrus. Score one for California wines!

Next up was the Chardonnay round, which had Women of the Vine, from California's Central Coast, going up against Indaba, from South Africa. The Women of the Vine was pretty mild for my taste. It needed a little something more. The Indaba was the clear favorite in my book. It had more substance behind it, and had a wonderful depth to it. We are all tied up now, California and the Southern Hemisphere knotted up at one apiece.

Also included in the $25 for wine tasting is the inclusion of some appetizers from Fleming's. The night we were here they started us off with these Shrimp Skewers with chimichurri. These went very well with the white wines we had. These shrimp should not be called shrimp, because they were so large. Very tasty, well seasoned shrimp, and the chimichurri sauce went very well with these. A nice respite from the wine tasting, but now it was on to round three.

Round three featured red blends, The Prisoner from Napa Valley versus Yalumba from Australia. This was the most difficult match up for me. They both were pretty good. I gave the edge to The Prisoner because the flavor lingered longer, and with more complexity. The Yalumba was good, but I did not get the intense finish I was expecting. California wines up 2 to 1 now.

The people at Fleming's may have been wanting to move things along, or they might have noticed my Dad getting a little rambunctious, so they sent out the next appetizer rather quickly. This Mushroom Crostini may have lacked meat, but it was delicious anyways. The bread had a nice crunch to it, the mushroom added a little meatiness, and the Gorgonzola cheese added a lot of flavor.

Cabernet Sauvignon was next to be tried, with Educated Guess from Napa Valley going against South American favorite, Primus, from Chile. This Chilean wine was my Dad's favorite of the night. He was trying to convince everyone to vote for it as well. He was very passionate about the rich fruit flavor of this one. The Educated Guess was a little too creamy for my taste, but not a bad wine by any means. We are all tied up with one more match up to go.
 

The last of our three appetizers was this Apple and Blue Cheese Flatbread. I am not usually a big fan of mixing fruits and cheeses, but this one worked out pretty well. The bread portion of this was sturdy enough to hold the toppings, and the blue cheese really made this pop with flavor.

Merlot's were the last wines of the evening. The California contender was Dreaming Tree from the North Coast of California. This wine is backed by musician Dave Matthews. It had a real rich fruity taste to start, then a peppery flavor took over. The Esk Valley, from New Zealand had a rich bouquet of fruitiness, then finished with a nice hint of vanilla. This wine won this match up, and won the tasting for the Southern Hemisphere. To be truthful though, all of these wines were winners. They all had their own unique qualities to them, and maybe your wine palette is different from mine. You have two more opportunities to enjoy this wine tasting, tomorrow and the next Friday, September 28th, but you can enjoy the new Fleming's 100 glasses of wine for the next 11 months.

The other two bloggers that were attendance, Anne Marie from Brekkie Fan's Blog and Tiffany from Wine Taste Travel, and myself got to have the added bonus of checking out the new Bar La Carte Menu. This menu was recently introduced in the bar, and features seven appetizers/light meals that are available anytime. We got seated at a table and got to break into this bread. If you have not had the bread at Fleming's, it is one of the best ways to start a meal. It came out warm and was served alongside two great spreads. The Sundried Tomato and Basil is good, but the Feta Cheese Spread had a great flavor to it. I knew a lot of food was on the way, so I tried to limit myself to only a few pieces of bread.

Of course Fleming's is famous for their meat, so it was a natural that we start with their Prime Rib Melt. This hefty sandwich comes with Swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and a whole grain mustard slaw. The meat was of course tender, the Swiss helped give a little extra flavor boost and the slaw added a little extra crunch. Good solid sandwich, and not a bad way to start off this Bar La Carte Menu..

This was the most interesting item that we tried the whole night, the Salt and Pepper Shrimp. This appetizer also came with crispy French green beans and a rich caper-mustard sauce. The shrimp were very good. I did not detect the salt here, but the pepper was evident. I am not a big green bean fan, but with this very flavorful sauce, it even made these taste good. The serving size for this was very generous as well.

This hearty dish is the Prime Steakhouse Meatballs. The meatballs were of course the big draw here, but the peppercorn sauce and shiitake mushrooms should not be overlooked. They both helped make this more of a meal than just an appetizer. I could imagine eating this comforting dish on a cold winter night.

Going around the table at the end of the meal, this House Made Burrata seemed to be a clear favorite. I did not get a chance to try this, because I was getting full and wanted to save room for the last two appetizers. The burrata was served with charred grape tomatoes, wild arugula, and toasted garlic crostinis.

We ended our night with two flatbreads. The Filet Mignon Faltbread was very tasty, with its Danish blue cheese, Monterey jack cheeses and red onion confit. Just typing these words makes my mouth water. The Cedar Roasted Mushroom and Artichoke Flatbread may have been missing meat, but it still was a nice light option here. The red peppers, jack cheese, and garlic married well here to create a very flavorful union.

It was quite a night at Fleming's. As you can see from this post, there is always something happening here. On this Friday night the restaurant was popping and the bar was filled to capacity. We even had a visit from Fleming's founder, Paul Fleming. Just like the rest of the staff, he made us feel real comfortable. A special thanks goes out to PR guru, Lee Healy for the invite to Fleming's. Also we would like to thank all of the staff at Fleming's. Everyone we have ever run across is always so pleasant and nice. Thank you all very much, we look forward to coming back soon!

For more information on Fleming's, and all the happening there, click here: http://www.flemingssteakhouse.com/

Great Burgers Our Destiny at Mick's Karma Bar - CLOSED

Mick's Karma Bar

2010 Main St.

Irvine, CA 92614

I am willing to bet that there is not a restaurant in OC that has not been helped by social media more than Mick's Karma Bar. Social media has been blamed for a lot of things. Social unrest, inducing procrastination, invasion of privacy, and becoming a substitute for actual interactions, real face to face time. I have a feeling that Mick, from Mick's Karma Bar, does not have anything but love for social networking sites.

Mick opened his business at the bottom of a large office building complex in Irvine. Started as a juice/wrap driven restaurant, Mick's is susceptible to the booms and busts of the business world, more than he should have been, due to his location. He told us that the entire business's just disappeared from the office buildings during the recession. He lost a good majority of his customers, chunks at a time. Luckily, he had a burger on his menu that would change his business forever, the Karma Burger.

Well, it was not actually called a hamburger at the start. Mick called it a Steak Hache, which is French for ground steak. A customer told him to change the name to a burger, because Americans like hamburgers. From that point on people started to take notice of the burgers at Mick's. The on-line buzz started and has not stopped yet. Mick's has been reviewed on Yelp over six hundred times and gets 4.5 stars with all those reviews. Almost 90 percent of people on Urbanspoon like Mick's. I read a lot of OC food bloggers and almost all of them have reviewed this place and loved it. So I knew it was just a matter of time before we made it to Mick's, and that time finally was now.

Mick's can be a little hard to find. There is very little signage for this restaurant. It is easier looking for the parking structure off of Main Street, the same one you would use to park at for McCormick and Schmick's or El Torito. Park towards the back, in the visitor's area on the first level. Follow the signs to Kitima, and then walk past it, and turn the corner to the left, then you will be at Mick's.

It was a Saturday night around seven when we arrived at the sleepy high rise complex that is home to Mick's. It is not hard to imagine that this area would be quite crowded during regular business hours. The night we were here it was evident that a lot of social media had driven a good stream of people to Mick's. The restaurant is not a big place. They have limited counter seating, a few small tables inside, and the majority of seating is at patio tables outside, among the large art sculptures that I was trying to make sense of. The menu is written on chalkboards behind the ordering station. The menu is not huge. Five burgers, two wraps, and a fish taco are offered, but it is the burgers that have brought us here, so after ordering we grab a table outside and what for the burgers to be brought out.

The first burger was Katie's selection, the Patty Melt ($8.75 combo price). This burger comes with caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, Gruyere cheese, and mayo. I am used to Patty Melts being served on rye, but this one used a very sturdy, almost wheat bun. Katie liked the thickness of the onions and felt the burger really resembled a fresh, backyard style burger. The patty was one of the juiciest ones she has had in a long while. The combo came with fries and a drink. The fries here are fine, as far as steak fries go. The real star for Katie was the Strawberry Basil Lemonade. She liked that the basil cut the usual sweetness of the lemonade. It was refreshing, without being overly sweet.

The burger that caught my eye right away on the menu was the Habanero Karma Burger ($8.75 as a combo). This one came with chili's, garlic mayo, queso fresco, and all the usual hamburger accompaniments. Like Katie, the first thing I noticed here was the bun. It was very sturdy, without being too bready. The produce was good, but I did get rid of some of the lettuce. The queso fresco was an interesting choice for this burger. It kind of had the texture of cottage cheese, but I did not seem to mind it. It added a nice mellow flavor to counteract the heat from the chili spread. The chili spread was not outrageously hot but did make my tongue tingle a bit. Mick brought me a little extra, so I could add another layer to my burger. Even with all the other components of this burger going on, the meat was still the star of the show. You can tell it is made fresh, as the meat had a backyard BBQ quality to it. Not over seasoned, but not bland by any means. A high-quality burger.

Yes, I ordered two hamburgers. I also needed to try their signature Karma Burger, with bacon added ($6.50). Along with the thick-cut bacon, this burger came with American cheese,  lettuce, tomato, and their Karma sauce. The sauce is kind of like a very mild thousand island. It adds just enough flavor to avoid being intrusive. This burger was good but lacked the big-time flavor of the habanero burger that I ate first. Still a solid burger, and one that I look forward to enjoying again.

Since I got an extra burger, I indulged Katie by allowing her to get an extra drink. She chose the Purple Palmer ($3.25), a concoction of pomegranate juice, hibiscus/cranberry iced tea, and then topped with lemonade. Katie liked this drink but was way more into the strawberry and basil lemonade. She liked the fruitiness of this and felt it was pretty refreshing.

After eating at Mick's I can now see what all the hype was about. These are some pretty solid burgers. They are some of the freshest burgers we have had in a restaurant. You can sense the care and craftsmanship that goes into each burger. Is this the best burger I have had? No, but it is one of the cleanest that I have eaten. Even after devouring two of these burgers, I did not feel overly full, and I think that is due to the fresh ingredients and the quality at Mick's. Mick took plenty of time to talk with us about his background, his business, and finding out about us. He is a real solid individual that loves what he does and is very passionate about it. He may give credit to the Karma Burger for helping save his business, but his personality and people skills also have to factor into his success. We really enjoyed our burgers at this unusual spot, but our conversation with Mick was equally as good. This is a must-try burger.

Out of five apples, (because one of my favorite songs, Instant Karma by John Lennon was released by Apple Records in 1970), five being best to zero being worst, Mick's Karma Bar gets 3.5 apples.

For more information on Mick's Karma Bar, click here: http://www.oftendining.com/restaurant_info/order.php?store_id=2151&oid=1

Destination Dessert in Westminster! - CLOSED

Crepe Corner

9329 Bolsa Avenue

Westminster, CA 92683

We had just finished a meal, but still had a little room for dessert. There is always room for dessert right? Our Asian food expert, Kat from Kat's 9 Lives, was with us and knew just the spot we should try for dessert, Crepe Corner.

I admit it, I get totally lost when I am in this area. Luckily, Kat knows her way around this neighborhood like the back of her hand. Crepe Corner is a restaurant inside another restaurant. The restaurant with a bigger sign and area is Zen Vegetarian Restaurant. Not exactly my favorite kind of place, so I was a little skeptical.

We got to Crepe Corner at about nine on a Friday night. The restaurant was buzzing with activity. I do not hang out in this area of town often, but almost all the places we passed on the streets had lots of people inside of them, and Zen/Crepe Corner was no exception. During our visit, large families, couples on dates, and older people came through the door, mainly for vegetarian food. The two restaurants are not overly large. Maybe fifteen tables, with a large stage off to the side that is used for Karaoke. Thankfully, that had not started during our visit, or I would have had to bust out my rendition of Monkey by George Michael.

Ordering for Crepe Corner is done at the counter to the right, as you walk in the door. Their menu includes four all-ready-made crepes, that come with specific toppings, or they offer a checklist-style of order, which is the route we went. The base price for each crepe is $2.49, and toppings, fruits, spreads, and ice cream is extra. After ordering, we found a table in the dining room and waited for the crepes to come out. After a wait of ten minutes, this is what came out for us.

Let's start with my crepe creation. At Crepe Corner you have the option of having your crepe crunchy or soft. We all went for the crunchy version. I think I would try the soft version the next time I come here. I kind of like a slight chew to the crepe skin. I added peanut butter, banana, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce to my crepe. The chocolate sauce was used very sparingly, so I did not get much of that. The peanut butter was good, but a little dry. Two scoops of ice cream may have been needed to moisten up this crepe. The banana was ripe and was probably the add on that stood out the most.

Katie had almost the exact opposite crepe as me. Yes, she did have it crispy, but that is where the similarities end. She got hers with chocolate ice cream, caramel sauce, and strawberries. When this came out of the kitchen the strawberries were absent, but she ate this anyways. She liked it but was not wowed by it. She also felt that the crispy crepe skin was a little off.

Here's a quick look at Kat's crepe. I know for sure that she added Nutella to her crepe, but I am not sure what else she added. She did seem very pleased with her choice though.

Crepe Corner is one of those places that I think you need to go to more than one time to find your perfect crepe. They offer 8 kinds of fruit, 9 kinds of spreads, 4 kinds of ice cream, and 12 kinds of toppings. I am no mathematician, but even I know that makes for a lot of different combinations that can be made. The prices here were not too bad for dessert. I got the most things on my crepe, and it came out to less than $6. The service was fair here. We did not have a waitress or anything, so when we were done we walked back up to the counter and asked for our check. Not exactly destination dining, but if you are in the area, and craving a light dessert, this might be the place for you.

Out of five drive-in theaters, (in honor of this being our first Westminster review, and the last drive-in theater in OC appeared in this city up until 1997), five being best to zero being worst, Crepe Corner gets 2.5 drive-in theaters.

For more information on Crepe Corner, click here: http://crepe-corner.com/

Craving Claw's?

Claws Restaurant

12125 Brookhurst St. 

Garden Grove, CA 92840

I have wanted to go since I heard about Cajun/Vietnamese/Southern fusion restaurants. Which one to try, though? We had gone to one of these restaurants before, but the wait was over two hours, so we did not get to try it on that trip. Another time, we had it all set to go, but Katie suffered from a migraine, resulting in another aborted mission. This was our third attempt to come here, and like my Mom always says, "The third time is always the charm."

For this dining adventure, we were with our Asian food expert and fellow blogger, Kat, from Kat's 9 Lives. She has been to all these places and enjoys Claws the best. She rarely steers us wrong regarding food, so we decided to bite the bullet and listen to her boring stories to have a good meal. The price we pay as food bloggers is sometimes great!

I will explain it to those who need clarification on what kind of restaurant this is. It is a seafood restaurant with a twist. They offer about seven types of seafood, depending on availability. All seafood is served by the pound, and you are asked what kind of seasoning you would like out of the three offered, or you can go all the way and order a mixture of all three, which is the most popular choice. Your last option is deciding what heat level you want your seafood sauced in. They offer four heat levels here. You then can add extras to the baggies that the seafood is served in, but more on that later.

We arrived at Claws at a good time. We only had to wait about five minutes. The restaurant is a little small. They probably have about twenty tables for now. By the start of next month, the waitress says they will be moving into their new location in the same shopping center but is triple the size. This will significantly reduce wait times here. Guess this means business is doing fine. The decor here is a little dorky, but I like pirates and fishnetting everywhere. When you walk in, they have all of their fish selections for the evening on a blackboard, along with the prices. I like this. It leaves the guesswork out of guessing how much the market price is for items. I never thought I would type these words, but luckily, we had Kat with us, so we left the ordering to her expertise. This is what she selected for us.

Kat and I split the 4 Pound Meal Deal ($51). This came with four pounds of seafood and the three appetizers above. My favorite of the three starters that we got was the Fried Calamari. This was heavily breaded, but I still could taste the squid on the inside. It's not too rubbery, and I enjoyed the tarter sauce this came with. I ate my fair share of these. Our meal came with Cajun fries, but we upgraded to the Garlic Fries for an extra $2. This was a wise choice. These fries were fried well, and the garlic flavor was prevalent. The Butterfly Shrimp were okay but were my least favorite out of the bunch. These reminded me of the frozen ones my Mom used to fry up when we were kids. These were not frozen, but the taste reminded me of them. The breading was dominant, and the shrimp took a back seat to it. The odd green sauce was also bland. Cocktail sauce or ketchup would have been better.

Here are a few shots of how the seafood is presented at the table and a look inside the bags that we got. We got two pounds of shrimp, a pound of crawfish, and a pound of clams. They offered four types of seasoning, Cajun, lemon pepper, garlic butter, or a mixture of all three, which they call Cannonball. This is the one that we got to go along with our medium sauce. I would have liked a spicier sauce, but Kat did not want to go hotter than medium. This was my first experience with crawfish. I was not too excited about it. These little lobster-like animals are tiny, painful to crack open and yield only a small amount of meat. I felt these were not worth the trouble. Also, before you ask, yes, I sucked the juice from the heads, but it really did nothing for me. I really liked the large shrimp that we got here. I should have gotten it peeled for an extra dollar a pound, but Kat feels it tastes better whole. The clams were good because they were easy to eat and soaked up a lot of the seasonings and sauce. I mentioned adding extras to the bags of seafood, and we took advantage of this. We added potatoes for an extra 35 cents apiece, and for a very reasonable 25 cents each, we added two dozen sausages. I really enjoyed the sausage. They went well with the sauce, and like the clams, they were easy to eat. The potatoes were heavy and did not soak up enough of the sauce.

This is the messy aftermath of our meal. My hands were caked with sauce, while Kat was good about keeping her hands clean. I'm not sure how she did it, but I got down and dirty while eating at Claws.

If you are not into peeling seafood or getting your hands dirty, you can opt for a more traditional dinner. Katie selected this option by ordering the Garlic Seafood Pasta ($12.99). The pasta is sauteed in a garlic butter sauce with scallops, shrimp, and calamari. Katie asked for the calamari to be left out because she is not a fan of squid. She liked the seafood in this dish and felt the plate had a well-balanced flavor. It had a little kick to it without being too much. The garlic was also present but not overpowering. This was served with fresh veggies, which were okay, and a small side salad she called "better than she thought it would be."

I really enjoyed Claws. I realize that it is not for everyone, though. Many people prefer to avoid getting messy when they eat, so this would not be the place for them. All of the food was fresh and flavored well. The prices were reasonable, even with the items we added to our bags of seafood. I felt full but was not overly stuffed when we left Claws. The service was excellent on our visit. The wait staff was on top of refilling drinks, ensuring everything was good, and asking us if we needed anything else. We will definitely use Claws as the benchmark for these types of restaurants. Can not wait to try others. Thanks for taking us here, Kat!

Out of five stuffed animals (because when I hear the word claw, it always makes me think of those horrible claw machine games filled with stuffed animals and other junk that I have never won), five being best to zero being worst, Claws Restaurant gets 3 stuffed animals.

For more information about Claws Restaurant, click here: http://www.clawsrestaurant.com/index.html