Something Missing at Pasta Connection - CLOSED

Pasta Connection

2145 W. Chapman Ave. 

Orange, CA 92868

I love when good things happen to my friends. My buddy Richard has pretty much hit the life lottery in the last two years. He probably does not want me to broadcast this, but two years ago he had just gotten out of a horrible relationship. In the short two years since, he has met a wonderful woman, gotten engaged to her, bought a house, and has a child on the way. Basically, he wrapped up the American dream in two years, and has a bright future to look forward to. Needless to say I am very happy for both him and Lindsay. I am also happy because since Richard has moved yet again, there is a whole new set of restaurants to explore in his new neighborhood, starting with Pasta Connection.

This was not the first I had heard of Pasta Connection. A reader of the blog had mentioned it, and I had put it on our long list of places to hit up. Pasta Connection has this location, and another one located in Costa Mesa. They have been around since 1984, using Italian family recipes, along with Argentinian cuisine. This might seem like an odd duo, but one stat I read on-line, (so take it for what its worth), was that 60 percent of the Argentine population has Italian origins. This was mainly due to the open immigration policies of the Argentine government during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, along with a temperate climate, that Italians were already acclimated to. These factors, along with others that I will not bore you to death about, lead to the fusion of Italian and Argentine restaurants.

We got to the restaurant at about 6:45 on a recent Thursday evening. When we arrived there was no other customers in the restaurant. Kind of an eerie feeling, but as the night went on there were about four tables filled, out of the twenty or so that are inside the restaurant. The restaurant is adorned with many Italian and Argentine flags displayed proudly. Spanish music was playing from the speakers a bit loudly, while the TV was tuned to on of the Spanish language stations. The decor here is a bit dated, which helped lend to a laid back vibe. After waiting for Richard and his family to arrive, Katie and I had plenty of time to peruse the pretty large menu. Let's see if we had a love connection with the food here.

Before we get to the food that we ordered, let's take a quick peek at the bread that was served before the meal. This bread was served warm, with a nice crunch to the crust, while the inside was fairly soft. Of course since this is a half Argentine restaurant, the bread was served with a very good chimichurri. A little on the oily side, this added some good flavor to the bread.

You can tell what is Argentine on the menu at Pasta Connection, by the tiny Argentine flags placed by each item. No food item is probably more recognized as being from the second largest South American country  as an Empanada. ($1.95). Here they have five different varieties to choose from, beef, ham and cheese, spinach, corn, and chicken. Katie and I ordered the beef and the chicken. Both were very doughy. The insides were full of stuff, but they really lacked that punch of flavor that I was expecting. A little on the bland side. I did think these were a great value though. You could easily make a meal off of three of these, and get out of here for right around six dollars. Of course we had more food coming out for us.

Most of our entrees included salads, so here's a quick look at the Di Cena Salad at Pasta Connection. This dinner salad came with mixed greens, tomatoes, and carrots, along with your choice of dressing. Pretty standard dinner salad, but I did like the good amount of dressing used here.

Starting our entree portion off is Katie's selection for the evening, The Pasta Connection Speciale ($13.95). These tortellini were filled with meat and covered in white sauce, with a small dollop of their meat sauce. Katie was pleased with her dish. It came out of the kitchen scalding hot, the pasta was cooked well, and the flavor was just enough to keep Katie's taste buds interested. She would not hesitate to get this dish again, but would ask for more red sauce next time.

Richard's soon to be Mother in Law, the wonderful Jolene could not resist the special that they were offering on this night, the Grilled Salmon ($16.95). I really thought the grill marks here made this 8 ounce fillet look real good, but unfortunately her salmon was overcooked, so only the center section of this rather large piece of fish was done right. The ends were very dry and rubbery. The spaghetti this was served with was very heavy on the garlic, which can almost never be a bad thing. Jolene would opt to get something else when eating here again.

Lindsay's Dad, Greg got something that I have never ordered in a restaurant, Angleotti Romano ($13.95). I even had to look up what angleotti was. It's a kind of ravioli from the Piedmont region of Italy, which is in the northwest corner of the country, and shares a border with France and Switzerland, (who knew you would learn some geography on a food blog). Anyways, back to the angleotti. This angleotti was filled with meat, then sauteed with mushrooms and Parmesan cheese, and then topped with marinara sauce. Greg felt this was a good sized portion, he liked the taste of the red sauce, and the mushrooms really stood out for him. He made no mention of the angleotti, so I would assume it kind of got lost here. He did say that he would go a different direction when dining here again.

It too picky Richard a little while to come up with what he wanted to eat, but he finally settled on the Cannelloni Di Carne ($12.95). Here the tubular pasta was filled with ricotta cheese, meat, onion, and Parmesan cheese, then topped with white and meat sauce, and baked. Richard felt the fillings inside of this cannelloni were a little on the watery side, but he did think the pasta was cooked fine, and the combo of the red and white sauces worked well together. Take Richard's opinion for what its worth though, because he is a big fan of awful Chipotle. Sorry, Rich just had to get my anti-Chipotle rant in there.

Sorry for the faraway shot of Tricia's dinner, the Eggplant Parmigiana ($12.95), this was Katie's attempt at food photography. Good work babe, we will work on it. The eggplant parmigiana is baked with both white and marinara sauce, then covered with mozzarella cheese. Tricia was a little disappointed that there was no pasta served with this. She did however think that the serving size of this was more than generous. She liked the sauces used here, but had one slice of eggplant that was not cooked all the way through. Even with this minor hiccup, she could see herself getting this again.

I really struggled with my pick for dinner, but like Lindsay, I finally decided on the Tetrazzini ($14.95). This is usually something I would not order, so I was a little out of my comfort zone here. This dish was made up of chopped up chicken pieces, noodles, mushrooms, and white cream sauce, then was topped with a mound of mozzarella cheese. Neither Lindsay nor I were very pleased with this dish. It was very plain tasting, and was only made better when we asked for some meat sauce to help boost the flavor a bit. I will probably think twice before ordering tetrazzini again. Luckily, I had ordered another sandwich to fall back on.

I was not going to come here, and not try one of my favorite sandwiches, the Argentina specialty, the Sandwich de Entrana ($8.95). Argentina is known for their skirt steak, so I had no choice but to order this sandwich that comes with skirt steak, mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato. This sandwich was good. The steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare. It was tender, and had a decent flavor profile. I used some of the left over chimichurri to add some flavor and moisture to the sandwich, which made the sandwich even better.

Dessert was up next, and the seven of us split two desserts. You could probably guess that we were already full by this point of the evening. This Tiramisu ($5.95) is a pretty solid version of this now household known dessert, that is on hundreds of menus across OC. This tiramisu had just the hint of espresso, which I enjoy more because I am not really a coffee fiend. This one was not as drenched as others either. The Mil Hojas Cake ($5.95) was a little more adventurous. Translated, this means a thousand leaves. This dessert really struck me as a sister dessert to baklava, but with dulce de leche used on it. Some parts of the cake were dryer than others, but the dulce de leche helped to relive some of that dryness. I also really found the presentation of the desserts here pleasing to the eye. I liked the fork marks used in the design on the plate. Really nice touch.

Out of the seven of us, only two of us would order the same thing that we got on this visit the next time we were here. That is not saying a lot about the food that we had on this night. We were kind of all in agreement that the food was fine, but nothing really knocked our socks off here. My dish was the worst, and was also the only one that did not feature red sauce. It was made better when red sauce was added, so my advice is to order something with red sauce. We had some pretty good service during our visit, which is understandable since there were only four tables of people throughout our visit. The lack of customers at Pasta Connection was kind of unnerving as well. We are all looking forward to exploring more of the restaurants near Richard's new house, but with a baby on the way, we are going to have to make more room at the table. Very happy for Richard and his new family.

Out of five soccer balls, (because they serve Italian and Argentine food here, and both of these countries are soccer powerhouses that have combined to win 6 World Cups), five being best to zero being worst, Pasta Connection gets 2 soccer balls.

For more information about Pasta Connection, go to their website here: http://pastaconnection.net/wp/

A Slice of the Big Apple Comes to OC - CLOSED

Johnny's Real New York Pizza

1320 Bison Avenue

Newport Beach, CA 92660

My first experience in New York City was not a pleasant one. It was the summer of 84, and my parents had taken us on a long three-week trip back east to see family, friends, and historical sites along the way. It was an awesome trip, and probably one of the highlights of my childhood, but it was also a long trip with just the four of us in a car, for what seemed like 6,000 miles. Surprisingly, my parents only included one night in New York City, which was also the last night of our trip. My Dad had no desire to see NYC. Back then it still had the reputation of having a high crime rate, rude people, and was pretty expensive. As I remember, it was my Mom that finally convinced my Dad to take us on a bus from Newark, into the city. We wandered around, went to the Plaza Hotel, and saw Central Park. All memorable moments, but there are two things that I remember most about this time in New York. One was my sister almost getting hit by a cab, and the other was a pizza that we had.

That was my first taste of a great New York pizza. Not soon to be forgotten. I do not recall the name of the place, but I do remember my Dad ordering a large, and the strange look on the guys face when he did it. My Dad had no idea that a large New York pizza could easily feed eight people, let alone our little family of four. We ate at a newspaper rack, and I can still remember how great that pizza tasted. I like to think that pizza helped change my Dad's mind about the city of New York. He has since been back maybe three other times. We could not finish off that pizza and left it on a trash can in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel. I still regret that to this day.

Okay, sorry for that trip down memory lane, but those are the thoughts I had when we were invited to try Johnny's Real New York Pizza. Now I know what you are thinking, real NYC pizza in Orange County? Yes, I was skeptical too, as I am whenever a place has New York or any other locale in its name. Most of the time these places fall well short of the mark of being truly authentic. So yes, I was cautiously optimistic.

I was even a little more optimistic after talking to the man behind Johnny's, Johnny Younesi, a native of Queens New York. He has a real passion for bringing a little piece of his home cuisine to OC. He opened his first Johnny's location in Corona Del Mar two years ago. Just like that location, this bigger Newport store is adorned in red, white, and green in homage to Sicily, and of course New York. Another reason for my hopefulness about this place is the use of a water purification system that filters out the hard water chemicals that are in California water. A lot of people believe that what makes NYC pizza so great is the water, so Johnny's uses this filtered water to make their dough every day. I had skipped lunch in anticipation of this event, so I was famished when the first food came through the kitchen door. I was polite and let people take their pictures, but man was I hungry. Let's take a look at what Johnny's considers to be the best pizza in California.

The first thing to hit the tables for us were these Big C's Best Eva Garlic Knots ($5.99). I wish this blog was equipped with a smell feature because the garlic aroma was intoxicating with these. I really liked the manageable size of these garlic knots. They were just a little smaller than a golf ball, and had a crunchy exterior, while the inside was soft. The marinara served with these was good, but I almost always prefer ranch dressing with garlic knots. I knew a lot of food was on its way, so I let everyone else fill up on these.

Naturally, a pizza place that prides itself on its New York roots has to have good wings, and these Johnny's Wings ($9.95) were definitely good. I really liked the sauce used on these. It had a very nice kick to it, without being too over the top. These came out scalding hot, but as they cooled down they became more manageable to eat. I wish they had a little more meat on them, but I made up for that by eating about ten of them.

With the mild heat from the wings, a beer was definitely in order. I was in luck, Johnny's has my favorite Italian beer, Peroni, on tap and also in the bottle. For wine drinkers out there, they offer Chianti, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Grigio.

When Johnny was giving his speech welcoming us, and telling us about his restaurant and food, he made a point of mentioning the house salad served here. He wanted a house salad, that went above and beyond what people would expect from a typical house salad. Hence, Johnny's Famous House Salad ($7.95/$11.95/ $15.95). Not only did this salad photograph well, but it was also chock full of goodness. This salad was made up of romaine lettuce, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, salami, mortadella, Kalamata olives, baby corn, and pepperoncini's. How's that for a house salad? This was simply dressed in Italian dressing. The dressing added a touch of flavor, while still allowing the produce to be the star of the show. This is a must get item when coming to Johnny's.

Kind of unusual for a pizza place to serve fries, but at Johnny's they serve two kinds of fries. The New York Fries ($3.95) is your run of the mill fries, served with ketchup. The Sicilian ($4.50) are the same fries, but with garlic and Parmesan poured on top of them, and then served with their Caesar salad dressing, which resembled a garlic aioli. The fries came out crisp and hot and were great dipped in the dressing.

Now the main star of the evening made its way out of the kitchen, the pizzas. For as many pizzas as they had come through the door, I thought they were going to have to replace the door. We had all kinds of pizza, but the one thing they had in common was that these were some large pies. At Johnny's, they have 12 inch, 16 inch, and the massive 20-inch pizzas that are pictured above. The slices were so huge they almost did not fit on the standard size paper plate. The first thing I noticed about these pizzas was the freshness of the cheeses, along with the flavorful meats used liberally to top them. The sauce took me by surprise a bit because it was a sweeter sauce than I am used to, but I quickly learned to like it a lot. Johnny was right about the crust. It had a good chew to it while being light enough to let the toppings be the highlight of the pizzas. My two favorite pizzas were the Andolini, which came with a lot of meat on top of it. House-made meatballs, which come from an over 100-year-old recipe, Genoa salami, sweet Italian sausage, and of course mozzarella and tomato sauce made this pizza a meat lovers' dream. The other pizza I was excited about was nicknamed The Big Bambino and came out with pepperoni, thick-cut onion, and green peppers. I am not much for green peppers, but in this combo, they really worked.

Almost overshadowing the pizza, but not quite, was this Penne Bolognese ($12.95). The Bolognese meat sauce is truly legit here. This meat sauce comes to us from Johnny's family recipe. We have even heard rumblings that they are in talks to bottle and sell this sauce in markets across the country. We will be first in line when that happens for sure. The pasta was cooked fine, but to be honest, this sauce could have been served over my shoes, and I still would have eaten it. If you're not in the mood for pizza, this is what you should get.

I am not sure why this appetizer came out so much later than the other ones, but these Authentic Mozzarella Sticks ($6.50) were well worth the wait. These could have been one of the best-fried mozzarella sticks I have had at a pizza place. The breading was very good, you could taste some herbs in it, and the cheese on the inside was creamy smooth. The cheese paired wonderfully with the marinara sauce.

By this time of the night, I had thrown in the towel, and could not eat anymore. Of course, the guys at Johnny's were not done and brought out three of their four sandwiches. I snapped some quick pictures of the Johnny's Authentic New York Sloppy Joe ($8.95), and the Eggplant Parmesan ($8.25). Both looked really good, but I took the Meatball Parmesan ($8.95) with me to lunch the next day. The meatballs were great on this sandwich. Very flavorful, and you could tell that they took great care getting the seasoning just right in these. I would have liked a little more mozzarella cheese in this sandwich, but the sandwich was still a winner and was the envy of everyone at my work the next day.

By the time we left, both Katie and I needed to be wheeled out of Johnny's on a dolly. We did not even get the chance to try their O's Famous Cinnamon Knots, which are served with a glaze dip. I guess this means we will have to come back soon to give those a try, along with other things we were too stuffed to eat. We really did enjoy Johnny's a lot. There is not anything really like it around OC, and after eating the food here, you can see why Johnny and his partners are so passionate about their restaurant. They really have brought the basic concept of an NYC pizzeria and enhanced it with some good quality ingredients and extra special attention to detail. I still regret when my Dad left that first NYC pizza on the trash can in the Plaza Hotel, but it's good to know that we only have to go as far as Newport to experience good New York pizza.

Both Katie and I would like to thank everyone at Johnny's Pizza for making us feel so welcome. Johnny, Angie, Corey, and Jan have assembled a great staff, who know what they are doing and welcomed us into their restaurant like family. You all should be very proud of what you have created here. We would also like to thank the public relations powerhouse, Jane Gillespie for thinking of us, and inviting us to this great event. It is always good catching up with you Jane. Lastly, I would like to thank all of my fellow bloggers and media friends that were in attendance this night. Usually blogging is a very solitary thing, so when I get the chance to interact with all of you, whose blogs I read religiously, it makes it an even better night. Looking forward to seeing you all again real soon.

For more information on Johnny's Real New York Pizza, go to their web site here: http://www.johnnysrealnypizza.com/

Meeting Up With a Nice Crab in Corona

El Cangrejo Nice

510 Hidden Valley Parkway #101

Corona, CA 92879

It was time to come out to Corona again to see Sabrina and Anthony. It had been a while, and true to form, I was left in charge of picking the restaurant. Before we had left home, I had two places in mind. One was a run-down shack restaurant, that Yelp promised had good food. The other was a sit-down restaurant, that would prove to be a little more comfortable, especially with the stifling heat that Corona was experiencing. I gave Sabrina and Anthony the options, and just like I had predicted in my mind, they went with the more upscale of the two choices. That Sabrina is always so high maintenance. So it was off to El Cangrejo we would go.

El Cangrejo was a short trip up the 15 Freeway from Sabrina and Anthony's house. This is a newer looking shopping center right off of Hidden Valley Parkway. The shopping center features a Stater Bros., a Kohl's and the recently relocated Twisted Gourmet. There was also another restaurant in this center that caught my eye, the Hot Dog Shoppe. We almost got sidetracked by their large hot dog menu, but our resolve was strong. The hot dogs would have to wait for another day. We had Mexican seafood to consume.

El Cangrejo Nice translates to the nice crab in English, so I had a sneaky suspicion that we would be in for some good seafood during our visit. The restaurant is much larger than it appears from the outside. Black and white checkered floors, large TVs, loud, booming music, and a DJ booth dominated the dining room. With all of this going on, it really reminded me of restaurants on the Mexican Riviera that I have been to, without the 80 percent humidity. Kind of a laid back, vacation type vibe going on here. Now that I was relaxed, I was ready for some food. We ordered, and the parade of food just kept on coming. Here's how it came out for us.

As with most Mexican restaurants, we were given chips and salsa to start off with. These tortilla chips were not your standard chips. They were of the lighter variety, maybe using white corn instead of the standard yellow. Also, they were seasoned with a light dusting of chili powder. Not too greasy, and definitely a lighter chip. The salsa could have been a little chunkier, but there was definitely some heat in this. Not a bad start to the meal.

A lot of the Yelp reviews recommended the Shrimp Empanadas ($12), just like our waitress, so that's what we started with. I have never had a shrimp empanada before. The outside of this empanada was also a little foreign to me as well. It was not as doughy as others I have had. It was fried to a very crispy, golden brown, but lacked any residual grease. The inside of the empanada was very basic. It only had lightly seasoned shrimp in there, which was very fresh, and not on the briny side. This came with a sauce that is prepared tableside by your server. She was very coy about what was in these sauces, only telling us that ketchup was one of the ingredients. Whatever was in there made this a wonderful dipping sauce for the empanadas. Mellow, but with a tiny little kick, by the end of the empanadas we had wiped the dish clean of the sauce.

Ceviche is not something I normally order in restaurants. It's not like I do not enjoy it, but I kind of like my shrimp to be on the warm side. This Ceviche de Camaron ($5) might help change my ceviche habits. This thing was loaded with cooked, chilled shrimp. Just like with the empanada before, the shrimp here was very fresh. The onion, tomatoes, avocado and other assorted items heaped together with the shrimp, really combined to make one heck of a ceviche tostada. The only minor complaint about this dish was that the tortilla got a little lost under the mound of shrimp, but that can never be a bad thing.

Now on to the entree portion of the evening for us. Sorry for the poor photo quality of Sabrina's dish. Her dark personality must have affected the camera. Sabrina is not much into seafood, so she stayed within her comfort zone by ordering a very traditional Trio Combination ($12). For her three items, she went with a Cheese Enchilada, a Chicken Flauta, and a Pastor Taco. Sabrina was not too impressed with her meal. She was not too big of a fan of the enchilada sauce that was used here. She felt it was a little too creamy, and really detracted from the cheese and the tortilla. She also thought the flauta was a little over fried, and it was hard to cut through to the chicken inside. She passed the pastor taco onto Anthony, who had it for lunch the next day. Anthony felt it was an average taco. The beans and rice also failed to impress fickle Sabrina. She summed up this dish by calling it middle of the road. She would probably try something else on future visits.

There was so much going on with Anthony's selection for dinner, that it was hard getting it all in one picture. Hence, the four shots above. La Campesina ($17) means the peasant in Spanish, but I do not know too many peasants that eat as well as this. There was a lot of food on this platter. I would characterize this meal as a deconstructed combo fajita plate. Included in this were beef ribs, Asada, grilled chicken, nopal, chorizo, and queso. Anthony seemed very pleased with everything on his plate. I tried some of the chorizo and the Asada and felt both were pretty good. This was also served with a large side of guacamole. Most places skimp on this, but at El Cangrejo they make sure that you get plenty of guacamole.

El Cangrejo is known for their seafood dishes, so both Katie and I got meals that featured our friends from the sea. Katie loves fish tacos, so it was no surprise that she selected the Ensenada Style Fish Tacos ($12) for her meal. Katie said something complimentary about each layer of these tacos. Starting with the fish, she was excited by the light breading that really showcased the fresh fish underneath. The cabbage added a nice texture, while the sauce that was drizzled over the fish added a pleasing flavor to the taco. Lastly, Katie was pretty impressed with the two tortillas that encased the contents of the tacos, which she determined to be made on the premises. Not sure about that, but I thought these were some pretty good fish tacos as well.

Much like Anthony's meal, my dinner plate had a lot going on with it as well. The La Mariscada ($16) is a seafood lovers delight. Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp, along with Breaded Shrimp, a Tilapia Fish Filet, Langostino, and an Octopus Rice made up this large tray of food. I am usually not much for tilapia, but this filet was seasoned well and cooked just right. The bacon-wrapped shrimp were a little on the salty side, but that was to be expected. The breaded shrimp were large and went well with the cocktail like sauce that came with this plate. This sauce had a nice little kick to it, and really enhanced a lot of the seafood on this plate. The one and only time I have had langostino, I thought it was too much work for such a small amount of meat. El Cangrejo split these miniature lobsters for me, and there was more meat in them than the smaller ones I had eaten at the other restaurant I had them at. The octopus rice was hidden under the tilapia, and it was full of flavor. I had thought it was going to be too fishy, but they got the right balance here. Even seafood novice Sabrina did not think the octopus rice was too bad.

Even though all of us were full to the rafters with food, the owner, Jorge, brought us out a sampler of two of their desserts. The Flan de la Casa ($3) was not very heavy with caramel-like a lot of other restaurant flans are. Here the caramel was drizzled on the plate, along with a strawberry sauce. The flan was good, not drenched, but still moist enough. The Churros ($6) are the dessert to get here. The outside of these looked like any churro you could get at the ballpark or amusement park, but they were served warm, which made them softer than normal. The real surprise was inside, there was a cream waiting to be bitten into. Not overly sweet, this was a great way to end our meal at El Cangrejo.

I was very pleased leaving El Cangrejo Nice. I left the restaurant very full and satisfied, and because of the tropical atmosphere inside, I left feeling like I was on vacation while I was here. I'm not going to lie and tell you this restaurant is for everyone. If you just want regular Mexican food, you might want to head somewhere else, but if you want Mexican seafood that is fresh, spiced well, and if you are an eater with an adventurous streak, this could be the place for you. I really liked the uniqueness of it. The menu was a little overwhelming for us, but if you listen to what the servers recommend, you will more than likely enjoy your dining experience. We met one of the owners of El Cangrejo, and he let us know that they are headed to OC soon, with details to soon be announced. We definitely will be headed back when they open in OC, if not sooner to this Corona location.

Out of five mermaids, (not only because of the nautical theme here but because the nicest crab I have ever seen was Sebastian, from The Little Mermaid) five being best to zero being worst, El Cangrejo Nice gets 3 solid mermaids

For more information on El Cangrejo Nice, click here to go to their website: http://cangrejonice.com/