Fish Camp, Seafood That's Off the Hook? - CLOSED

Fish Camp

16600 Pacific Coast Highway

Huntington Beach, CA 92649

It used to be that you could only get fish at fancy restaurants—places with white tablecloths, waiters dressed in bow ties, and prices that you had to take out a second mortgage to afford. At least, that was the way it seemed to me while growing up. The only fish we ever ate when we were young came from the freezer or H. Salt Fish and Chips.

Times have definitely changed. Since starting this blog, I have written about several casual fish restaurants. Slapfish is a casual seafood restaurant and one of my favorite restaurants in OC. Spike's Fish House opened in RSM last year. Boneheads is also a pretty solid fast fish restaurant with a great Peri-Peri sauce. Almost every other shopping center now features a fish taco place to help squelch your fish cravings. We recently became aware of another casual seafood restaurant to try in Huntington Beach,  so we made the trek up to Surf City to try out Fish Camp.

Fish Camp comes to you from the same restaurant group that gives us King's Fish House.  I have always enjoyed my numerous trips to King's Fish House, as you can read here. Fish Camp is King's answer to the casual seafood craze that has taken over lately. Opened in 2010, Fish Camp strives to deliver fresh seafood at more affordable prices. They recently revamped their menu to simplify and allow customers to personalize their dining experience. Customers now pick their favorite fish, select how they want it served (sandwich, salad, plate, or taco), and then choose a preparation style: grilled, crusted, blackened, BBQ spiced rubbed, and a la plancha. All these choices work out to over 700 combinations you can partake in. That is almost two years of dinners before you must have a repeat dinner.

We arrived at Fish Camp at 6pm on a Wednesday night. The restaurant has a cabin feel, lots of wood, and a lovely large patio off the dining area. Right near the registers is a nice-looking fish counter where customers can buy seafood and take it home to cook it themselves. There was a little backup of people at the register, but that is understandable, given that so many choices exist. It also gave me some extra time to figure out what I wanted for dinner. After ordering, guests are given a pager, and the food is brought to their table. Let's see what came out of the kitchen for us.

One of the things we love about King's Fish House is the bread, which is the same bread here. This Half Loaf of Sourdough Bread ($1.25) is a great way to start your meal. This came out warm, with butter packets. I could have eaten this all by myself, but I would have felt bad doing that to Katie.

I am a sucker for crab, so it was natural that we try the Fish Camp Crab Cakes ($7.95). These two crab cakes were good sized for being listed on the small plates section of the menu. They were not greasy, but the crab could have been more prominent in these. These were paired with a cocktail sauce and a tarter sauce. The cocktail sauce was okay, but the tarter sauce was where it was. It went very well with this crab cake.

There was a little chill in the air the night we were here, so some New England Clam Chowder ($2.95) was in order. I like my clam chowder a little thicker, but this flavor was spot on. I crushed up some of the crackers to thicken this soup. There were a good amount of clams in this chowder as well.  The chowder ultimately did its job of warming me up.

Now for the main event, the entrees. Katie had a little trouble deciding what to get here, but she finally settled on the Blackened Mahi Mahi ($16.50) served with a Remoulade sauce. Katie had one issue with this fish: it needed to be cooked thoroughly. The ends were cooked well, but the middle was a little raw. Nonetheless, the blackening seasoning was perfect on this fish, and the portion size here was generous. The fish plates come with two sides. Katie selected the Jasmine Rice and the Stir Fry Veggies. She felt the vegetables were fresh and prepared well, while the jasmine went well with the soy sauce on the table.

Fish Camp offers its Camp Favorites portion of the menu for those who do not want to make too many decisions. Seven items for the people who want to take the easy way out, like me. I was immediately drawn to the Wild Parmesan Crusted Sand Dabs ($12.95) for some reason. This plate came with three pieces of fish, which were fried pretty well. I really liked the flavor of this, and the Parmesan really did not overtake the sand dabs. They could have used more sauce on these, but the capers helped ramp everything up. I had the Cheesy Grits and the Fresh Sauteed Spinach for my two sides. I am not a grits connoisseur, but I found these flavorful, and the texture was right on for me. The sauteed spinach was a tad overcooked but very full of flavor. A good plate of food.

We were full but got talked into having dessert by our food runner. We settled on the Banana Pudding ($4.45). This good-sized dessert featured smooth banana pudding, whipped cream, sliced bananas, and a couple of Nilla wafers. The pudding was a little light on the banana flavor, but the sliced-up bananas made up for that. I would have liked more Nilla wafers in this, but it was a solid dessert.

You can add Fish Camp to the growing list of good casual seafood spots in OC. I really enjoyed our time here. From what I can gather from the menus of Fish Camp versus King's Fish House, you can expect to pay about four to five dollars less per plate at Fish Camp. I did not notice a big difference in the serving sizes of the plates at Fish Camp either. We had a few minor hiccups with the food, but nothing would prevent us from returning if we were in the area. The people at the counter were accommodating in ensuring customers got exactly what they wanted, while the food came out reasonably quickly and with no temperature issues. We left Fish Camp having a good seafood dinner without withdrawing from the bank.

Out of five schools (because fish swim in schools, and the fish probably look forward to going to camp), five being best to zero being worst, Fish Camp gets 3 schools.

To check out the Fish Camp website, click here: http://www.samsfishcamp.com/

Battaling LA Traffic to Get to Britt's BBQ

Britt's BBQ

408 Main Street

El Segundo, CA 90245

Believe it or not, this is a milestone post in our blogs three-plus years of existence. Of course, it will not be a post about a place in our beloved OC, but will instead be a review of a restaurant in El Segundo. We were on our way to taking Chuck and his lovely wife, Stephanie to LAX for yet another trip to South Carolina. In return for our dropping them off, Chuck graciously offered to buy us dinner near the airport, as long as I could find a suitable place to eat. I did a little research and came up with what would be our 400th post, Britt's Bar-B-Que.

I was a little worried when we were driving up this way though because I was looking on the wrong side of the street for this place, but we eventually found it. Because it was a dark and misty night, this beach town was pretty sleepy. I could imagine that when the weather is nicer, it could be a lot harder to find parking on this main drag of El Segundo. The inside of the restaurant matched the lack of people from outside. There was only one other table of two eating at Britt's when we arrived. Throughout the course of our visit though, there would be numerous people coming and going to get to go orders.

Britt's is not a big restaurant by any means. They have eight tables, with some seating outside when the weather is a little more conducive to sitting out there. Britt's is owned by the Kovar and Cail families. The restaurant is named for the deceased daughter of  Tracy Cail, one of the co-owners. It had always been Brittany and Tracy's dream to open a business together, but a 2008 traffic accident prevented that from happening. Britt's is a living tribute to Brittany and a place that both families hope she would be proud of. I love when there are little stories behind family-run restaurants. I also love when the food is good too, so let's see how Britt's Bar-B-Que stacks up.

The four of us were pretty hungry from our hour drive up the 405, so we got the Potato Rounds ($3.95) to start us off. These sliced potatoes were a cross between a potato chip and a french fry. They were freshly fried and good without being too greasy. They were heavily salted, but that just added some needed flavor to the potato. Nothing earth-shaking, but it quelled our hunger until our food arrived.

This is one of the newer sandwiches over at Britt's. I did not get the exact name of it, but from what I remember it was called a Jalapeno Chicken Melt ($9.95). This was Stephanie's choice for dinner. I like dining with Steph because she always gets something that has a lot of spiciness to it. Maybe it is because of her other half, Chuck lost his spiciness long ago, during the Roosevelt administration. It was natural that she would be getting a sandwich with jalapenos in it. This sandwich featured pulled chicken, macaroni, and cheese, and diced up jalapenos, all on Texas toast. Stephanie must not have read the description of this sandwich too closely, because she was thrown by the fact that this had macaroni and cheese in the middle of the sandwich. She is watching her carbs, so she kind of ate around this sandwich. She felt the chicken was moist and tender, and the jalapenos added just enough spice. I did not try this sandwich, but the Texas toast looked really good, and I would have been happy ordering this sandwich.

Katie also went the sandwich route at Britt's. She had the Tri-Tip Sliders ($11.95). She was really impressed with the quality of the meat here, calling it, "melt in your mouth tender." She also thought that they were generous with the amount of meat that they put on the sliders. The barbecue sauce was given on the side and offered a good amount of flavor when applied to the sliders. Katie would definitely get this again.

Chuck was also enticed by the special menu board above the registers at Britt's. He selected the Short Ribs ($12.95) for his entree. Again, they were very generous with the amount of meat they put on the plate. As short rib can sometimes be, Chuck felt these were a little bony and fatty, but he did enjoy his dinner. Again Chuck did not allow me to sample his plate, (he's very territorial over his food at restaurants). This plate came with two side items, which Chuck went with the Cole Slaw and the Chili Mac. The Cole slaw was pretty average, while I liked the fact that they offered the chili mac. It is something that you do not see on a lot of menus. This one was pretty good, but I would have liked it to have been served warmer.

It was my turn to order next, so I took this opportunity to get the Beef Ribs ($13.95). I am transitioning from ordering baby back ribs to beef ribs when I go to barbecue restaurants. I like that beef ribs have way more meat than the tiny baby back pork ribs. These ribs were definitely full of meat. They were very tender, with a liberal amount of sauce on them. Even with all of the sauce, the meat shined through. Great flavor, while remaining tender. These kept me occupied for a long while.

Here's a closer look at the Chili Mac and the BBQ Beans, which came with my order. I liked both of these sides, but the beans were the better choice here. They were not overly sweet like some places tend to make their beans. They had a good spice to them, and they came out warmer than the chili mac.

From what I can gather reading the online reviews of this restaurant, they give these Cream Filled Donuts to everyone as a thank you for coming in. This was a very nice touch, as well as delicious. The donuts were dusted with powdered sugar on the outside and filled with custard inside. We learned that these are made by an outside bakery. They reminded me of Hostess O's, the raspberry filled powdered sugar donuts that I had as a kid, minus the raspberry of course. A nice end to the meal.

I believe that Brittany would have been proud of what her family and loved ones have created here. I think it would be safe to say that she would be proud to have her name attached to this restaurant. The food was pretty good, the prices are more than fair, and this is the kind of family run business that you can just not help but to root for. The food is not drive an hour out of your way for, but if you are in the area, and are craving barbecue, then this could be the place for you. This was a great send-off restaurant for Chuck and Stephanie, as they went off to see their family across the country.

Out of five airplanes, (because the top four employers in El Segundo are all aviation business's employing at least 3000 workers or more), five being best, to zero being worst, Britt's BBQ gets 3 airplanes.

For information about Britt's BBQ, click here: https://www.bbqelsegundoca.com/home/

Can This Place Cut the Mustard?

Mustard's Chicago Style Hot Dogs

3630 Katella

Los Alamitos, CA 90720

Hockey is back. Yes, as many of you may know from knowing me, or reading this blog, I love hockey. I have been going nuts with no sports to watch. I have never really been a basketball fan, my football team was pretty much counted out when they opened up training camp, and my college basketball favorite will be lucky to make any kind of appearance in a postseason tournament. To say that my teams stink, would be an understatement. So I was very excited when my beloved Ducks would be back on the ice after a delay of 113 days due to the NHL lockout.

One of my favorite days is when we divvy up our season tickets, so I can get to planning what games I will be going to. We usually do this in an area that is conducive to the three of us. My Dad works in Long Beach, Steve lives in Los Alamitos, and I live in south OC, so I am usually the one that has to drive the farthest. I don't usually mind because it gives me a chance to try a restaurant in an area that we do not frequent as much. This year we would be getting our game day tickets at Mustards in Los Alamitos.

Mustard's is located in a small strip mall on Katella. If you blink you may miss this place. It is sandwiched by a McDonald's and Maderas Steak and Rib Restaurant. Mustard's specializes in Chicago style food, although their menu covers just about everything from chicken sandwiches, burgers, and numerous sandwiches. Not only a large menu, but they also feature daily specials that are plastered near the register. I was ready to eat, so let's see how this compares to other Chicago style food joints we have visited.

Chicago is known for their hot dogs, but I do not think they are known for their chili dogs. Nonetheless, both Steve and my Dad got the Windy City Chili Dog ($3.49). I  guess if you slap a Chicago style name on anything it becomes a Chicago kind of food. This chili dog came with the requisite poppy seed bun, onions, chili, and cheese. Both Steve and my Dad liked their dogs, as was evident by how quick they were gone from the table. The chili was not a spicy chili but added moisture and a little flavor to this hot dog. The chili and onions were pretty plentiful on here as well.

The people of Chicago do their hot dogs a little differently from the rest of us. I would describe this Classic Chicago Dog ($3.09) as a salad bar on top of a hot dog. Each of these hot dogs comes with more vegetables than I probably eat in a week. This hot dog starts with a soft poppy seed bun, and a 100 percent pure beef Vienna Kosher Style Hot Dog. The hot dog had a very nice pop to it, and the beef inside had a great flavor. Then here comes the cavalcade of veggies. The hot dog is topped with onions, relish, tomato, neon green pickle relish, a pickle spear, hot sport peppers, celery salt, and mustard. No ketchup ever touches a true Chicago dog. I learned that lesson the hard way. I took one bite with all of the veggies but took off the tomato and the pickle spear to finish this pretty good hot dog. This version lives up to the one that I had just outside the gates of Wrigley Field. I recommend getting this dog when coming to Mustard's.

To go along with my Chicago dog I had to have a side item, so I went with the Onion Rings ($2.89). These are a very basic onion ring. Not awful, but not anything that you couldn't get anywhere else. I did like that these came with ranch dressing, without me having to ask for it.

Along with the Chicago hot dog and deep-dish pizza, probably the next most iconic Chicagoland food is the Italian beef sandwich. My favorite variation of this fantastic sandwich is the Italian Beef and Sausage Combo ($6.95). You basically get two sandwiches in one with this variation. Thin sliced roast beef is placed alongside an Italian sausage in the same bun, then topped with sweet bell peppers, grilled onions, giardiniera (a relish of pickled vegetables), and au jus. Normally the sandwich is dunked into the au jus, but at Mustard's, they have the au jus on the side and you pour it on yourself. For someone that likes their sandwiches double dipped, I did not have enough au jus for my taste. I know I could have asked for more, but you do not get the sandwich submerged by pouring it on yourself. The sausage had a nice mild taste to it, but the Italian beef was lacking in the flavor department. It kind of tasted like nothing. The bun held up to the contents of the sandwich, but this was just a mediocre Combo sandwich.

One chili dog was not going to fill my Dad up, so for round two, he got this Turkey Melt ($5.75). This turkey melt came with tomato, Swiss and American cheeses, and mayo, all on rye bread. I did not think this sandwich looked appetizing at all, but the old man had no complaints about it. The turkey patty appeared to be very thin, but again this did not last long once it hit the table. This sandwich came with a side of potato salad. The potato salad was pretty solid. Not anything that wowed us, but it was good enough.

Mustard's fills a need when you need a taste of the Windy City, and want to forgo the cost of plane tickets to the Midwest. This restaurant is not as good as Portillo's in Buena Park, but if you are nowhere near Buena Park, you can get a good Chicago dog here. The Italian beef sandwich leaves a lot to be desired but will do in a pinch. Side items were pretty average, but on future visits, I would try the chili fries or fried zucchini. You are also not going to be wowed by Mustard's ambiance either. It is a little cluttered, and predictably there are lots of Chicago memorabilia on all the walls. Service was fair, we ordered at the counter and then your number is called and you pick up your food at another window. The food did come out fairly quick. We got here at about five on a Wednesday night, and there was a steady stream of customers through the doors. The food here kind of took a backseat to the excitement we felt about a new hockey season and getting our Ducks tickets.

Out of five stovepipe hats, (since Chicago is in Illinois, and that state is known as the Land of Lincoln, and Abe is known for wearing a stovepipe hat), five being best to zero being worst, Mustard's Chicago Style Hot Dogs gets 2.5 stovepipe hats.

For more information about Mustard's Chicago Style Hot Dogs, head to their website here: http://www.mustardhotdog.com/

A New Slater's 50/50 Opens In OC - CLOSED

Slater's 50/50

24356 Swartz Dr.

Lake Forest, CA 92630

My love for Slater's is of course known to almost everyone that knows me, or reads this blog. I mean you only have to look at our Restaurant Roll Call section, along the right hand side of this blog to see that we have done three stories on Slater's 50/50. Well make that four because Slater's has now opened up another restaurant, and this time it is dangerously close to where I live. I might be in trouble.

Yes it is true. Slater's has now opened up their third OC location, and fifth restaurant overall. In case any of you are still not sure what the big deal about Slater's 50/50 is, here's the big deal. Slater's has come up with a fifty percent ground beef burger, along with a fifty percent ground bacon burger, put it all in one patty, and made bacon lovers across Southern California very happy in the process.

What's that you say? You don't get the big fuss about bacon. Okay, they have other things for weird people that do not enjoy bacon. They have some great appetizers, massive chicken sandwiches, all beef burgers, turkey burgers, veggie burgers, and some outrageous desserts and milkshakes. Between the regular menu, the design your own burger selections, and the burgers of the month that they feature, I have never gotten the same thing twice here. No surprise, but this trip I was also going to get a burger I have never had here before.

This Slater's 50/50 is located in the old Hooter's location that you can see going up the 5 Freeway at El Toro Road. Some say this shopping center is cursed. I think it is just hard to get in and out of. There is a patio store, a Tommy's Burgers, and a dance studio in this center. This shopping center kind of fits the mold of other centers where Slater's is operating. Out of the way shopping centers where you expect them to fail, but they end up driving people into these out of the way shopping centers. They have definitely brought the people into this shopping center on their first Friday night. People were standing outside waiting for a table, the bar was packed and the food was flying out of the kitchen. Let's see what we got on this visit.

Since it was just Katie and I having dinner on this night, we did without our usual order of Vampire Dip, which is a great appetizer, but more geared towards more than two people. Slater's offers a pick your own appetizer option, which we took full advantage of. On this jaunt to Slater's we tried the Fried Dill Pickle Chips, the Beer Battered Jalapenos, and the Fried Bacon Mac N' Cheese Balls ($6.95). My favorite of this trio was the fried jalapenos. These breaded jalapeno rings were paired nicely with the cilantro-lime sour cream. The jalapeno had a little heat to them, but was cooled down a bit by the sour cream. These were addicting. The fried mac n' cheese balls went away quickly as soon as this plate hit the table. The bacon was not as prevalent as I would have thought, but the macaroni was cooked well, and the Tapatio ranch went hand in hand with these. Fried pickles are not usually my thing, but Katie really enjoyed these fried pickle chips. These were supposed to go with the mustard sauce, but we used the Tapatio ranch on these instead.

Katie wanted to prove to the world that you do not have to have a burger when you come to Slater's. She had a Side Salad ($4.95) and the Buffalo Chicken Mac N' Cheese ($7.95). She really liked the big time flavor of the mac and cheese, but it was very rich. She had enough for lunch the next day. This mac and cheese came with a three cheese Alfredo sauce, buffalo chicken nuggets, blue cheese crumbles, celery, and crumbled up Cheez-Its. Everything that makes buffalo wings great. The side salad was pretty basic. The greens were fresh, and the ranch dressing had a great consistency to it. Not a bad sized salad for under five dollars.

I had decided what I was going to order when I was at work during the day. Of course once I sat down, I had second thoughts, but I stuck with my initial choice of the Big Daddy Patty Melt ($11.95). This is not your Grandparents patty melt. This two-thirds of a pound ground beef patty melt included melted cheddar and Swiss cheeses, grilled onions, and a horseradish aioli on large slices of rye bread. I did make one modification to this big burger by adding bacon to it. It is Slater's 50/50 after all. I am usually a big eater, but even I had a little trouble finishing this patty melt. I would have liked the bread to have been toasted a little more, but the insides of this patty melt were very good. The cheeses went well with the big burger patty, the onions added a sweetness to the burger, and the horseradish sauce was subtle, but I did get some tanginess from it. Very good and filling dinner.

For a restaurant that has only been open for five days, and dealing with their first Friday night of business, Slater's 50/50 was in complete control. We recognized many of the staff from other Slater's locations. In fact, our great waitress Sarah was from the Huntington Beach restaurant, helping out train the new hires. All of this extra staff really helped  by keeping things moving along. The food came out in a timely manner, it came out hot, and they were quick with refills of our drinks. I would say the night was a complete success. Welcome to the neighborhood Slater's 50/50. I am sure we will run into each other soon and often.

We would like to thank everyone at Slater's 50/50 for the wonderful opportunity to experience their new restaurant. We would also like to express our gratitude to Gabrielle, from Bread and Butter Public Relations for helping us set up this great night.

To find out more information about Slater's 50/50, click here to go to their web site: https://slaters5050.com/

Taking the Plunge at DivBar - CLOSED

DivBar

2601 W. Coast Highway

Newport Beach, CA 92663

It's another week in the early part of the year, and another city is hosting a restaurant week. This time it is a city where I lived for over ten years, Newport Beach. Newport not only holds special memories for me, but the city also has some of my favorite restaurants located within its boundaries. So, it was no big surprise that we would make a special effort to try as many restaurants as we could during this week long culinary event. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with our busy schedules, we only had time to hit one of the restaurants on our list, so it was a done deal that we would be heading to DivBar for our only Newport Beach Restaurant Week experience.

DivBar is located in the old Josh Slocum's location on PCH. In fact they still have the Josh Slocum's sign on their fence by the valet stand. Josh Slocum's is of course the restaurant that Dennis Rodman famously owned about ten years ago. This is not the only reference to a long gone Newport restaurant, there is also an Arches sign up by the bar. I kind of liked the slight nod to local restaurants that have since met their doom.

Now back to the present though. DivBar opened their doors in the middle of last year. They are owned by Jeff Reuter, of 3-Thirty-3 Waterfront fame. We have not been able to try that restaurant yet, but have heard some good things, and it is definitely on our list of places to go. DivBar kind of had a rocky start to its business, much like lots of other restaurants. They opened in early July last year, and on-line there were many people who were complaining on Yelp about their service, food, and anything else they could think of. This must have just been early growing pains though, because lately almost all of their reviews have been glowing, and then the cherry on top must have been this review from Brad A Johnson, the award winning food journalist at the Orange County Register, who had lots of nice things to say about DivBar here.

We got to DivBar on a very busy Saturday night in Newport. The parking here is valet, but it is probably worth the hassle due to the lack of parking in this Mariners Mile section of Newport. They have definitely made some improvements to this restaurant since it was Josh Slocum's. There is a nice patio out front that has maybe six tables, the inside is decorated with lots of stuff on the walls, and they have a bar placed right in the middle of the restaurant that dominates the space. The noise level in this restaurant is pretty loud, while the restaurant lighting is on the dark side. I mention this so you do not judge my pictures too harshly.

We are seated right next to the bar, and are promptly welcomed by the now former Consultant of DivBar, Bill Bracken. Bill was in charge of setting up the kitchen at DivBar, after very successful stints at the Island Hotel in Newport and The Peninsula in swanky Beverly Hills. Bill was very personable, we talked barbecue and he seemed very excited that we were here. He was eager to show off DivBar's three course $20 restaurant week menu, so let's get to the real reason we are here, the food.

Not part of the restaurant week menu, Bill sent this appetizer out for us to try. The BB's Original Mac ($8.95) came out in a cast iron skillet that contained macaroni combined with Taleggio cheese, crushed truffles, and Parmesan tuile. I will admit that I had to look up what tuile is when I got home. It is a thin crisp of cheese, and in this case the cheese used was Parmesan. This mac and cheese was pretty rich, but straddled the line of not being too rich. It was not overly cheesy, but the truffle was a good substitute for the absence of cheese. I would sum this mac and cheese up by calling it simple, but with a little kick.

Also not on the restaurant week menu, but we had to order the Kaylie's DivBar Artichoke Dip. This dip was also served in a skillet, along with a side of Frito's. This was a pretty smooth artichoke dip. No big pieces of artichoke were found here. If you are sensitive to salt, this dip might not be for you. It did have a nice spice, and the Frito's were a nice touch here. We liked this appetizer and would get this again on future visits.

Okay, two items in and we finally will start with the $20 Restaurant Week dinner. The first course was a Sampling of DivBar Appetizers for us to share. This sampler platter came with three different appetizers. The DivBar Fries with Chipotle Aioli, Ahi Tuna Tartar, and a Crispy Calamari. The fries were cut into wedges, which were fried perfectly. The chipotle aioli was very good, but these fries needed some more of it, or maybe it should have been put on the side instead of on top of the fries. Katie is no fan of calamari, so I got all of this squid to myself. This calamari was buttermilk soaked, then quick fried and finished with a chili lime sauce. The breading was not too heavy, the calamari was pretty fresh, and the chili lime sauce really hit the spot here. Very good, and they definitely made this calamari their own. I am not too much of a tuna tartar guy, but this one was not too bad. It was served oddly enough with tortilla chips, but it was very fresh and almost had a tuna salad feel to it. Not something I would probably order again, but I was glad I got a chance to try it.

So naturally we are in a restaurant that features barbecue, and Katie opts to get a fish dish. The fish offering on the restaurant week menu was a Potato Crusted Black Cod. The fish was paired with an orange reduction and fresh dill oil. It also had shredded veggies hiding underneath the fish. Katie felt that the cod here could not stand on its own. The fish in her opinion was tender, but was not remarkable in any other way. She liked the citrus and dill sauces that came with this, because she felt these were more of a necessity than just a side condiment. The vegetables were fresh, but more of an afterthought.

I was not going to come to DivBar and not try their barbecue, so I went with their Smoked Meat Combination. This combo included smoked brisket and baby back ribs. Both meats were very good. The smokiness of the meat was very evident, so if you are not partial to that, these would not be the meats for you. I do like the smokiness, and it was very apparent that they actually do smoke their meats for at least 12 to 18 hours before serving. The meats were both very tender, and full of smoky flavor. The sauce here was good and subtle. It allowed you to still taste the meat. I would definitely come back here for barbecue. This plate also came with Asian Slaw and a hunk of Jalapeno Corn Bread. I enjoyed the corn bread, but wish that it came with some butter. The slaw was fresh, but I am not sure what made it Asian. It was still a decent side dish though.

It seems like almost every restaurant we have been to lately has had a skillet cookie dessert. DivBar was no exception. Here they call it the Kast Iron Kookie. This skillet was not very big, maybe six inches, but the cookie was cooked a little longer than other skillet cookies I have had in the past. It made for a crunchier cookie, which I liked. Of course there is never enough ice cream on these desserts for us. Both Katie and I ended up fighting over the forkfuls of ice cream. It almost got heated, but cooler heads prevailed.

As far as restaurant week menus go, this one was a winner. Both Katie and I left feeling very full, and at only $20 this was practically a steal, and a great way to try a bunch of items at a restaurant we have never been to. This visit really piqued our interest in returning to DivBar. They not only have barbecue, but they have pizzas, chicken and burgers that grabbed our attention. The vibe here is a little on the cool Newport Beach kind of scene. Lots of good looking people in front of the bar and behind it. The service was very good for us on this night. Our waitress really made sure we were taken care of, which can sometimes be tricky when you are seated in the bar area of a restaurant. One last thing, it is not too late for you to experience this restaurant week menu for yourself. Starting on Sunday, February 24th til March 2nd, DivBar will be featuring this same restaurant menu for the upcoming Orange County Restaurant Week. A great deal, so there is no excuse not to go.

Out of five worms, (in honor of Dennis Rodman, since he used to own the restaurant in this same location, and that was his nickname during his NBA career), five being best to zero being worst, DivBar gets 3 worms.

For more information about DivBar, click here: http://www.divbar.com/index.html