Oishii Sushi Trying to Make A Go of It - CLOSED

Oishii Sushi

25542 Jeronimo Road

Mission Viejo, CA 92691

It seems like every city has that restaurant location where every time you drive by, it is a new restaurant. When I used to go to Fullerton College, there was this restaurant on Chapman and Raymond that seemed to be a new eatery every semester. It must have changed names and types of cuisine at least ten times during my way too long stint at FJC. In the city of Mission Viejo, there is a similarly cursed restaurant location that has now spawned another new venture, Oishii Sushi.

Oishii Sushi takes over for Inka Mar, which took over for Hacienda La Joya, which used to be another sushi restaurant, Fujiyama. I am sure it has been other restaurants, but I have only lived in this area for just under five years. You have to wonder what makes a restaurateur think they can turn a location around. I mean, if a place has averaged a restaurant a year, for a good length of time, chances are stacked against you. This is what is facing the owners of Oishii Sushi.

I do give Oishii some credit though. They have really brightened this restaurant up since the last time we were here when it was the Peruvian restaurant. The lighting is much better, and the staff seems very happy to interact with their customers. We were here on a cold Thursday night, with only about twenty people in the restaurant. Even with this small amount of people here, the owner or manager was really trying to incite a real party atmosphere at his restaurant. Not only do they have a Karaoke stage in the back corner, but he was walking around with a bottle of sake, offering free drinks to people. During our hour visit, we also watched two sake bomb drinking contests, where the slowest drinker had the added shame of having things drawn on their faces with a makeup marker. Good times.

Oishii has a rather large menu, but almost everyone we saw on this night opted for the all you can eat option ($23.95). I know sushi purists hate AYCE sushi places. I know that the quality of seafood always suffers at this version of an all you can eat sushi buffet. This is okay with me. To be honest, I have had some really good sushi, and I can appreciate it, but I feel it is too expensive, and it is kind of lost on me. I would rather have some pretty good sushi, but leave a restaurant with a full stomach and a full wallet. So take this review as you will.

At Oishii they were less strict with their rules regarding the AYCE sushi. Sure you have to eat all of the rice, and you have to finish everything on your plate, but there were no limits on anything on their menu. Want four baked lobsters, you can do that here, unlike other AYCE places that limit some of their most expensive dishes. As a rule at these restaurants, I almost always skip the appetizers and focus on the sushi. Katie selected these appetizers to start. The Edamame was pretty basic, while the Gyoza followed suit by being average. This gyoza was filled with chicken and vegetables, but that is about all I can remember of it. The Teriyaki Yaki Soba was good in Katie's opinion, but the teriyaki really overtook this appetizer and made it real salty.

Our first round we started out very slow. We had the Super Philadelphia Roll, Baked Lobster Roll, and the Lakers Roll. The Super Philadelphia Roll was pretty basic. It tasted pretty fresh but lacked a big pop of flavor. The baked lobster roll did have flavor, but the lobster on top of it is was pretty rubbery. The ponzu sauce really overpowered this. My favorite out of these three was the Lakers Roll. Funny, since I am not much of a basketball fan. This crunchy shrimp roll was topped with crab meat. How can you go wrong with shrimp and crab together? Basically, it is almost impossible. I would definitely get this one again on future visits.

Our sushi ship came in on the next round that we ordered. Starting from the bow of the ship and working our way back, we started with the Baked Green Mussels. These were okay. I have definitely had better-baked mussels. They were pretty rubbery, and not as flavorful as others. The Spider Crab Roll was next and included soft shell crab, avocado, cucumber, sprouts, and crab. I expected a lot more from this. The crab tasted a little off. Maybe it was not as fresh as it could have been, or it was not seasoned enough. Not bad, but very average. The Philadelphia Roll was pretty basic and very forgettable. Again, it was very average. The best part of this sushi ship was the Fire Cracker Roll. Inside of this roll contained spicy scallops, avocado, and cucumber, while the outside was topped with spicy tuna. The other sushi had put my taste buds to sleep, but this one woke them up with big flavors. I let Katie have the rest of this ship, as I gobbled down the rest of this Fire Cracker Roll. On to round three.

At this point we were nearing our capacity for food, so we ordered only two more rolls. The Spicy Tuna is a pretty simple roll but was pretty good. The last of our rolls were the Golden Tiger Roll. This was my favorite of the night. Here they deep-fry a crunchy shrimp roll and then top it with spicy crab. Deep frying anything can always make everything better. The very light batter still lets the contents of the sushi shine through. This was a very rich roll, but one that should not be missed.

At this point in the meal we were done, but the owner or maybe the manager brought out this complimentary piece of Fried Yellowtail with a spicy seafood sauce. This thing must have just come out of the fryer because it was scalding hot. After five minutes it finally cooled down enough so we could eat some of it. There were some big hunks of flaky fish on this. Katie is not fond of eating off of the bone, but I picked some good size pieces off for her. The sauce was an average tasting cocktail sauce but went well with the fried fish. Not bad for a free plate of food.

I was curious, so when I got home I totaled up everything that we ate, based on the prices on their menu. It came out to $98. So getting the All You Can Eat option at $23.95 is the way to go here. I am not going to tell you this is the best sushi you will ever have, but you will definitely leave here very full. We had a very pleasant experience with very friendly staff. They are really trying to promote a party atmosphere, reminiscent of a rock and roll sushi place, and for it being a slow Thursday night they succeeded. Everyone that we saw leaving the restaurant seemed to leave in a better mood. Time will tell what will become of Oishii Sushi and if it can break the curse of this location.

Out of five sake bombs, (because these were very plentiful on the night we were here), five being best, to zero being worst, Oishii Sushi gets 2.5 sake bombs.

Oishii does not have a web, but you can find reviews and information here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/oishii-sushi-mission-viejo

Dinner Date With Lola

Lola Gaspar

211 W. 2nd St.

Santa Ana, CA 92701

Every time we come to Downtown Santa Ana, we always leave wondering why we don't come back up here more often. I guess the answer is simple geography, but we are always game to travel for a good meal. It seems that our wish list of restaurants to try always has lots of Santa Ana places on it. Mil Jugos, Playground, Pop's Cafe, and Chimichurri have all been on our list so long, they are floating to the top of it. This place was near the top also, but we can now erase it, because we finally made it to Lola Gaspar.

Lola Gaspar is located in the burgeoning Artist Village area of Santa Ana. If you are unfamiliar with this area,  the Village is located between Broadway and Sycamore, on 2nd. This area of 2nd Street is closed to cars, and this has created a very quiet, urban oasis in this area. Paved with red bricks and a fountain in the middle of the walkway, this area is now home to art galleries, dance studios, theaters and of course restaurants.

Lola Gaspar has been located in this area since 2008. The inside of this restaurant is very small. We briefly walked inside to talk with the hostess, who pointed us to a very cramped table inside, or a more spacious table outside, next to the heat lamps. No surprise, we headed outside. The patio had a great vibe, with all of the white lights strung above it, along with the shrubbery that obscured part of the view of the Artist Village. It was reminiscent of the patio at Habana.

We were meeting up with my good friend Ed, who I have known since kindergarten. He lives in Philadelphia now, and he wanted to check out what was going on in Downtown Santa Ana these days. He was of course running late, as usual, so it gave us plenty of time to check out the menu. Their menu is kind of a mash up of Spanish/Mexican food, that is then tweaked by the chef to include other cultures culinary influences. Very unique, but not on the large side, I knew what I wanted very quickly. Unfortunately, Ed was a half hour late, so we ordered two appetizers to tide us over until he made his appearance.

I ordered one appetizer and Katie ordered one as well. See if you can guess which one I picked out. This is the Cured Chorizo and Goat Cheese Flatbread ($12). Not only did this have chorizo and goat cheese, but the base of this flatbread was whole milk mozzarella, plum tomato, and fresh thyme. When this came out I was reminded of those Stouffer's french bread pizzas that we had as kids, but this one had more pop to it. The cheeses were very fresh, the chorizo had almost a pepperoni quality to it, but was more meaty. The tomatoes were very subdued and the thyme added an earthiness to this flatbread. The bread portion of this was strong enough to hold the contents, but still let the toppings be the star of the show. Not a bad start, and something pretty different.

I guess that after you see this picture you can tell that this is the appetizer Katie ordered. Big shock that I wouldn't order this, I know. At the top of Lola's menu they feature three different market vegetable selections. Katie wanted to try the Roasted Rapini ($6). The rapini came out in a skillet and was joined by reggiano shavings, lemon and olive oil. To be blunt, I was not a fan of this. This had far too much lemon for me, and the rapini was very bitter. Not a good combination. Katie liked this a little better than I did, but probably would not order this again. By this time, Ed had finally made his appearance, so let's see how are dinners turned out.

We might as well start out with my dinner, the Burrito Mojado ($10). This wet burrito came with carnitas and  potato hash inside, and mozzarella, sour cream, and guacamole on top of the burrito. To be honest, when this burrito came out I was less than thrilled. The tomato sauce had a real pungent tomato smell to it. I was also skeptical about the use of mozzarella cheese in a burrito, but everything turned out to be fine with this dish. The sauce actually went well with the inside of the burrito, and the mozzarella cheese blended in here better than I imagined. The inside of the burrito had some tender pork, but the potato hash kind of got lost here. This is not your typical carnitas burrito with big pops of flavor, but it was flavorful and more subdued than other burritos. I also thought all of the ingredients were very fresh on this plate.

Both Katie and Ed ordered tacos at Lola Gaspar. These are the Grilled Rock Fish Tacos ($9) that Katie had. These fish tacos came with a pomegranate pico de gallo, cabbage, and guacamole.  Katie felt these tacos had a fresh, tangy flavor from the pomegranate. She was a little put off by the pomegranate seeds, but she liked the serving size of these. The fish was cooked well, but kind of got pushed to the background with the pomegranate on these.

Ed went for the Pastor Tacos ($10) here. The pork is prepared yakatori style, and topped with cilantro, creme fraiche, and a green salsa. Ed was pretty stingy with this meal, so I did not get a bite of it. He was also was pretty stingy with his thoughts about these tacos, only calling them. "good". Way to be descriptive there big guy.

At Lola Gaspar, they only have two deserts on the menu, so we ordered both of them. The Butterscotch Pot De Creme ($6) was the clear favorite at our table. This dessert was as smooth as Fred Astaire out on the dance floor. The flavor was spot on too. This pudding like dessert had a very good butterscotch flavor, which was not too over the top with sweetness. The Espresso Affogato ($6) was liked by us, but not as much as the pot de creme. I am not a big espresso fan, so my opinion of this dessert could be a little biased. It was a soft ice cream, with hot espresso poured over it, then topped with a good amount of whipped cream. Not bad, but too much coffee flavor for me.

When we came to Lola Gaspar I was not sure I was going to like it. I thought that the menu was going to be too small, and the chances of me getting something I liked was going to be against the odds. The menu is small, but almost everything we tried on this night was very good. Another positive for Lola Gaspar was that it's different from other places we have been to. Sure they have burritos and tacos, but they put their own spin on it. They are not like the burritos and tacos you can get just anywhere. It is also pretty impressive that they make all of their food out of such a small kitchen, with just electric cooking equipment. Maybe because of this our food was served in stages, instead of all at once. My burrito came out first, then after a three minute delay, Katie's tacos came out next. Poor Ed had to wait another ten minutes after that to have his dinner brought out to him. Always a little awkward to have food sitting in front of you, but having to wait for the other food to get to the table. Other than this issue, we had no problems with the service at Lola Gaspar. I have heard that this restaurant can fill up quickly, and wait times can be pretty long. We were here on a weekday night, and had no such problems. Glad we made the trip to Downtown Santa Ana for this restaurant. Hopefully we can get back soon enough to experience other great places in Downtown Santa Ana.

Out of five yellow feathers, (because in the song Copacabana, by the great Barry Manilow, Lola was a showgirl, with yellow feathers in her hair), five being best to zero being worst, Lola Gaspar gets 3 yellow feathers.

For more information about Lola Gaspar, click here: http://www.lolagaspar.com/

An Old Favorite, Rubio's - CLOSED

Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill

23981 Alicia Parkway

Mission Viejo, CA 92691

In Southern California, it is almost a requirement to love fish tacos. Like having a tan in February, enjoying high-speed chases on the news, and seeing celebrities at your local Starbucks, fish tacos are a way of life in Southern California. Tons of fish tacos dot menus from the Mexican border to points far north. Fish tacos can be found in restaurants that are holes in the walls, all the way up to some of the highest-end places to grab a bite. A quick Yelp search of fish tacos around my city yielded over 90 matches. Wow, if I want to hit them all, I have some eating to do.

Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill is one fish taco place I am very familiar with. I was thrilled when they invited us in to have dinner. We may have Rubio's at least once a month. That might not seem like a lot, but writing this blog, we rarely visit the same restaurant twice. This location of Rubio's is right by the house, so it is always convenient to grab food on the way home from work or when we are out running errands.

Rubio's was one of the innovators that brought the fish taco to the masses. Starting in 1983, Ralph Rubio and his father, Ray, opened a walk-up stand in the Mission Bay area of San Diego. The story goes that while Ralph was in college, he made frequent trips down to the beach areas of Mexico and fell in love with fish tacos. After college, he opened his first fish taco restaurant, which became so popular that Rubio's expanded to three stores rather quickly. Today, there are close to 200 locations scattered across five western states.

We got to Rubio's Mission Viejo location at about 6PM on a cold winter night (okay, not that cold, but cold for California). The story of Rubio's was plastered on one wall, along with signs indicating how far Mexican beach cities were away from us. Just looking at the sign made us long for warmer weather. After ordering at the counter, we went to the salsa bar. They had four salsas available the night we were there. Tomatillo, Mild Salsa, Roasted Chipotle, and my favorite, the spicy Picante. No matter what salsa you choose, it will have a pop of flavor. I like the Picante because it adds a lot of heat, but you can still taste the food. It wakes up your taste buds so you can enjoy your meal. Speaking of which, our food was brought to our table, and it was time to dig in.

Reliable Katie usually gets the same thing every time we come to Rubio's, the Two Taco Fish Plate. She does change up the kinds of tacos she gets, though. Katie felt an Original Fish Taco and an Avocado Corn Fish Taco that night. She really likes that you can get two different tacos with two different tastes here. The original fish taco is a classic. It has a white sauce, mild salsa, and cabbage wrapped around a corn tortilla. The beer-battered Alaskan Pollock is fried perfectly. Crisp on the outside and flaky inside. Improving the original fish taco is hard, but Katie liked the Avocado Corn Taco even better. This taco came with the same beer-battered fish but added a creamy chipotle sauce, cilantro, cotija cheese, a fresh avocado wedge, and a corn-based salsa. Katie liked the freshness of the taco fillings here, and the tomatillo salsa from the salsa bar really pushed the flavor quotient up. She was also impressed by the portion size of this dinner. It really filled her up.

During our visit, it was Langostino lobster season at Rubio's. Who could pass this up? Not me, for sure. I took full advantage of this limited-time offering by getting a Langostino Lobster Taco and a Langostino Lobster Burrito. Both were very good. The taco could have had more wild-caught langostino lobster in it for my taste, but they could probably put six pounds of the langostino in there for me, which would not be enough. The langoustine lobster there was very rich and went well with the creamy chipotle sauce, the handmade guacamole, the salsa fresca, and the red and green cabbage. The tortilla was a little on the rubbery side but did its job of holding the ingredients of the taco together. I devoured this rather quickly. The burrito was filled with the same fillings as the taco, but rice and pinto beans were added. I thought this burrito had too much rice, but the sweet, rich langostino shined through it. This good-sized burrito did a great job of quenching my hunger.

Rubio's really heated us up on this cold winter night. We left feeling very full and satisfied with our meals. It is visits like these that Rubio's has made it into our rotation of restaurants that we frequent. We have never had a favorable experience here, and the food always hits the spot. The menu always features a rotating selection of specials, termed "featured catches." This helps make every visit to Rubio's very unique. Of course, the regular menu is always available if you are averse to change like Katie. The service, as usual, was excellent that night. We were greeted warmly, and the food came out very promptly. Another night when Rubio's really hits the spot.

We would like to thank everyone at Rubio's for the opportunity to come in and try their food. We really enjoyed it. We would also like to thank Danielle Solich for contacting us and providing us with this incredible chance to write about Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill.

For more information about Rubio's, or to find a location near you, click here for their website: http://www.rubios.com/

Hoping Not to Get Burned at Smoqued BBQ

Smoqued California Barbeque

128 North Glassell St.

Orange, CA 92866

Barbecue has always mystified me. Why is it always so much better in other parts of the country? I mean enough people in California have come from other barbecue rich parts of the US, so surely they could use their expertise to open a great barbecue joint like the ones we have seen in Texas, Kansas City, and the South. California is a wasteland when it comes to barbecue. Sure there are some good places, but they are far and few between. To show how bad it is in the Golden State when we went to Florida earlier this year we had a layover in Dallas, coming and going. The barbecue that we had in the airport was way better than almost anything you could get in OC. When airport food is better, something has got to change.

The thing I find most frustrating about barbecue restaurants is the lack of consistency. Some places have really good tri-tip, but then their ribs are awful. The pulled pork could be excellent, but then the brisket is bad. Inconsistency gets kicked up to another level when you throw the barbecue side items into the mix. It seems a lot of restaurants out here like to specialize in one particular barbecue item, instead of doing all of their barbecue items well. I was really hoping this was not going to be the case when we visited the new barbecue kid in town, Smoqued California Barbeque.

Smoqued is located in Downtown Orange. It replaces Beach Pit BBQ, which are closing locations at a record clip. I haven't made it to Beach Pit yet, but now there are only two of them left. Smoqued has been open since September. On their website, they claim to cook their meats low and slow in a wood-fired pit. We got here on a brisk December night around 5PM, and the place was buzzing with activity, but we did not have to wait for a table.

The vibe at Smoqued was pretty welcoming. The restaurant is dominated by brick walls and high ceilings that show off the wood beams above. Not as big as I had imagined, they maybe have twenty or so tables. The tables are pretty close together and might need to be spaced out a little more. We kind of felt like we were eating on top of people. By the time we left, this restaurant was packed and had a wait at the front door. Enough about the atmosphere at Smoqued, let's check out the food.

After reading about one of my favorite local food writer's visit Smoqued, I knew I would start my meal with the Chingaderas ($10.99) Over at Stick a Fork In It, the great Dave Lieberman wrote about this interestingly named appetizer, which you can read about here. I have never seen anything like this on any menu. Cream cheese jalapeno, wrapped in bacon, with shrimp and dates, then deep-fried. Yes, you read that right, all of these items deep-fried. When I heard about this appetizer I could not imagine it. I thought there was going to be too many big-time flavors in this, that they would all cancel each other out. That was not the case. We got little bits of all the ingredients, all in different bites of this. The sweetness of the date, along with the brininess of the shrimp, the heat from the jalapeno, and the saltiness of the bacon, all came in different waves of this appetizer. We would definitely get this again, but be aware that there are only three of these to order, so if you are here with four people or more, there could be some fighting as to how to divvy these up.

Starting up the entree portion of our evening will be my Dad's choice for dinner, the Smoqued Brisket Sandwich ($10.49). The brisket here is joined by caramelized onions and placed on a Challah Roll. The brisket was in bigger pieces than I had thought it would be, which made eating this sandwich a little more awkward. My Dad had mixed thoughts about this sandwich. He really liked the toasted Challah roll and the caramelized onions, but he felt the meat lacked flavor and was too fatty. He did not detect a smoked flavor from the meat. He said he would get something else next time he was here.

Another parent another sandwich. Apparently, my parents love to get sandwiches in barbecue restaurants. My Mom had the Smoqued Pulled Pork Sandwich ($9.99). This sandwich usually comes with coleslaw on it, but my Mom got it on the side here. She liked the taste of this sandwich but would have liked the pork to be shredded a lot more than it was. She felt the meat was moist and had a nice mellow flavor, but the coleslaw was very bland. I tried it as well, and could not detect any sort of dressing on this. Tasted just like shredded cabbage.

Tacos at a barbecue restaurant? It does kind of make sense, and it was Katie's selection for dinner. The Street Tacos ($9.49) came three to a plate and were filled with pulled pork, coleslaw, and avocado sauce. She was gracious enough to let me have half of a taco, and I was surprised how good these were. The pork was very moist, the coleslaw added a good crunch, and the avocado sauce was very smooth and flavorful. I also liked that they put plenty of peppers and pickled cauliflower on the plate, even though Katie is averse to heating up her food with them. With any sandwich or taco entree, you have the option of getting a side for $3 more, or just 99 cents off of the regular price. Big time bargain. Anyways, Katie took advantage of this by getting the Deviled Eggs with Smoked Bacon. She really enjoyed these deviled eggs. The bacon at Smoqued is one of their claims to fame, and she really enjoyed this different take on the breakfast staple, bacon, and eggs.

Readers of this blog know that when I got to a barbecue restaurant, I almost always get a combo meal of meats to sample. This is the best way to sample a little bit of everything. At Smoqued I got the Choice of Three Meats ($21.99). I selected the beef jalapeno sausage, beef brisket, and baby back pork ribs. All three portions of meat were pretty good. I liked the sausage,, but did not get a lot of the jalapeno flavor from it. The casing was well made and the inside of the sausage had a rich, meaty taste. The brisket was very tender and had just the right amount of fat on it for my taste, although I can see how some people would not like this much fat on their meat. The baby back ribs were very solid. The meat cleared the bone, with just a little tug. The rub was pretty good and added a good amount of flavor.

Another thing I liked about the meats at Smoqued was that they came out without sauce. I like the option of adding my own sauce to barbecued meats. At Smoqued they had three sauces available on the table. Their Backyard BBQ, the California Gold, and the spicier Hab Raz. I actually liked all three of these to a different degree. My favorite was naturally the Hab Raz, which was a, you guessed it, habanero/raspberry concoction. This combination worked well together. The sweet raspberry and the spicy habanero kept each other in check. I am hit and miss when it comes to mustard, and I assume that the California Gold sauce must be mustard-based, but it was still a solid and unique sauce. I probably liked this one second best. The Backyard BBQ was okay but did not strike me as anything special. I liked that all of these sauces were different from each other, so you could experiment with what went well with each type of meat.

I guess I got a little sidetracked here, but with my dinner, I also got to choose two side items to try. I went with the Amazing Mac and Cheese and the BBQ Beans. The macaroni and cheese were good, but nothing set it apart from others I have had. The cheese coated the noodles well, and the bread crumbs on top were a nice touch. The beans were a different story. I liked the uniqueness of them. These are not an overly sweet baked bean, they are more robust in flavor. It appears that they use two types of beans in here, and the consistency of this was more like a soup. Not a bad side item.

It used to be that you could only get cookie skillets at BJ's, but that is not the case anymore. It seems like almost every restaurant we go to has a version of this dessert on their menu. At Smoqued they call theirs the Chocolate Cookie Skillet ($6.99). This is a pretty standard version of this dessert. The cookie was a little undercooked, but that helped us eat this easier. The chocolate fudge sauce could have been thicker. This sauce was just a basic chocolate sauce. I did think that they put plenty of ice cream on this, and I was thankful for that since we were eating with my Dad, and he has a tendency to hog all the ice cream. Just kidding big guy.

I left Smoqued liking it, but not loving it. There were some hits, (the meats, the chingaderas, the tacos, and the beans), but there was also some misses, (the mac and cheese, the big hunks of meat on the pulled pork sandwich, and the dry cornbread that I forgot to mention that came with my meal). The one thing that bothered me the most about this restaurant was the serving sizes, for the amount of money they charge. If you look at my plate and ask yourself how much this plate costs, you would never guess it was over twenty dollars. Four ribs, a sausage link, and two strips of brisket do not work out to twenty dollars. Yes, side items are included, but even these were on the small size. The mac and cheese came in a six-inch skillet, and the beans were not served in a very large container either. I know that barbecue is a very labor-intensive food to make, thus the higher prices, but the servings could be bigger for what you are paying. Also, aside item for a ten dollar sandwich would not be too much to ask for. They do give the option of getting a side item for 99 cents less than the original price, but even that is too much for two deviled eggs. The service was pretty strong on the night we were here. Jericka was our server and was running around making sure things were running smoothly for us and a good majority of the restaurant. We will be back to Smoqued. I liked the California spin on their barbecue, and I am looking forward to seeing how this young restaurant grows.

Out of five grapes, (because before the orange groves took over in Orange, the farmer's most successful crop had been grapes used for raisins), five being best to zero being worst, Smoqued California Barbeque gets 3 grapes.

To find out more information about Smoqued California Barbeque, click here: https://www.smoquedcaliforniabbq.com/

Football Frenzy #11 at Daily's Sports Grill

Daily's Sports Grill

29881 Aventura

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688

I know I have been pretty lax on finding the best sports bars to watch football on Sunday mornings for you. This year has been another bummer for my beloved Jacksonville Jaguars. They have won only one game all year going into this late November tilt with the hated Tennessee Titans. It has been hard to get up and go watch the many fumbles and interceptions ruin a great Sunday off of work. We were at Katie's apartment, and of course, they were not showing our game on TV at home, so we decided to make the mile trip over to a sports bar I have been to before, but haven't blogged about, Daily's Sports Grill.

Daily's is kind of an iconic sports bar in these parts. They opened their doors seven years before the city of Rancho Santa Margarita was even incorporated. To say that the bar scene in RSM is limited, would be an understatement. Sure some of the restaurants in this city have bars, but those are not bars that people go to hang out in. According to a quick search of bars in the city, besides a couple of wine bars, RSM has one other stand-alone bar, (Tapas and Beer). I have not been to that bar, but when I lived in this inland city, I visited Daily's from time to time during my five-year residency here.

Daily's is located well off of the main street of Santa Margarita Parkway, in the back of the same plaza that houses a KFC and the post office of this fine city. From the outside, this sports bar does not look so big, but once inside, it really is a pretty spacious place. The front area is dominated by a long bar and booths, the cavernous back room has plenty of high top tables and some smaller booths. Of course, a wide array of sports memorabilia is plastered to every wall you glance at.

We got to Daily's ten minutes before kickoff. We had no problem getting a table. It always seems that as the season moves along, the bars get a little more empty as teams drop off the playoff chase. There was a group of boisterous Steeler's fans near one of the TVs, but Daily's also caters to families as well. When we sat down we were surrounded by two families that had children ranging in age from seven to newborn. The waitress made sure that we sat at a table where we could see the game of our choosing, which was very nice of her. Now we just had to sit back, hope for the best with our team, and have some breakfast. This is how it came out for us.

Katie had the French Toast and Eggs ($6.95) for breakfast. Okay, not the most picturesque bacon and egg picture, but Katie felt these over hard eggs and bacon were pretty standard. What really woke up her taste buds was the French toast. Daily's french toast comes with sliced strawberries and bananas, then topped with a thin caramel sauce. Katie liked this different take on French toast and felt that this version was a little less sweet than if she would have had this with maple syrup. She claims she would get this again.

I saw that they had this Montana Skillet ($7.95) on the menu, and it said it was made for someone with a lineman's appetite, so of course, I had to get it. I love skillet breakfasts because you get all of the breakfast food rolled into one plate. This skillet came with two scrambled eggs, bell peppers, onions, and choice of breakfast meat, (I went with bacon), all topped with cheddar cheese. The menu said that this was going to have hash browns in it also, but the plate came out with baby red potatoes on the side. The potatoes were cooked fine, but I did miss the crunchiness of the hash browns. To be honest I thought this was going to be a little bigger. I had no problem polishing off this breakfast. The eggs were a little too diced up, and there was not enough bacon in this. The gravy served with this was very thin, so I used this sparingly. I did enjoy that the sourdough came with more than enough butter for the two slices that was served with this.

In case you have forgotten our criteria for judging places to watch football on Sundays, we base it on ambiance, service, and food. Daily's definitely had the first two criteria met. Our server, Jules was very nice, kept great tabs on us, and really seemed to know almost everyone in this bar. Both Katie and I felt really comfortable here as well. Sometimes local bars can seem a little cliquey, but that was not the case at Daily's. Everyone was really nice, and even asked how we became Jaguar's fans. The area that Daily's needs to improve on if it wants to ascend to the ultimate football hangout spot, is its food. There was nothing too wrong with it, but it was nothing that made us clamor for more. The only thing the food really had going for it was that it was very reasonably priced. Looking through their menu, they only have one item that is above the ten dollar mark, and none above ten dollars for breakfast. They did have drink specials during football as well. I took advantage of their $4 Screwdriver special, which came in handy when Katie and I had to toast to the Jaguars second win of the season on this afternoon. Unfortunately, this would be the Jags last win of the season, and they would finish 2-14, but there is always next year.

Out of five newspapers, (because a daily could also refer to that thing that you used to have delivered to your house to get the news of the day), five being best to zero being worst,  Daily's Sports Grill gets 2.5 newspapers.

For more information on Daily's Sports Grill, check them out here: http://www.dailyssportsgrill.org/