Last Meal of the Year at ECCO - CLOSED

ECCO Pizzeria and Bar

2937 Bristol St. #A103

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

There's a lot of pressure when picking a restaurant on New Year's Eve, even for a semi-informed food blogger. You never want a meal to be awful, but you especially do not want your last meal of the year to be mediocre or terrible. Luckily, I have a list of restaurants that are five pages long, and I am trying to get through. Not that these are guaranteed hits, but they have been recommendations from readers of the blog and food writers that I read regularly, so I had good reason to be optimistic.

I went to my list and picked ECCO as the restaurant for our last meal in 2013. I went to Open Table to see if they had any openings for 8PM on New Year's Eve. Yes, that's a little late for dinner, but Katie wanted to get her nails done, and for some reason, this takes about two hours. I will never understand why it takes this long, but it would keep us up later and give us more chances to be fully awake at midnight when the ball drops. We have not been awake for a while when the calendar changes to the new year (yes, we are getting old).

We were in luck. ECCO had openings for the time we wanted, so after Katie was done with her nail appointment, we made the trek up to The Camp in Costa Mesa. If you have been to this shopping center, you probably know the horrible parking situation here, but we were lucky and found quite a few spots available. We may be ending 2013 on a high note.

ECCO has been around for nearly three years and has won much praise from the OC food community. They were named one of the top 10 restaurants by Orange Coast Magazine. ECCO got its name when the owners of this restaurant were touring Italy and frequently heard the chef say the word ecco when they presented the food to the table. Ecco means, "Here it is, " and shows the chef's confidence.

We sat on the patio in the back of the restaurant, but luckily, thanks to the strategically placed heaters, the cold night air would not be an issue for us. Being on the patio also allowed us to talk with each other, as the inside of ECCO was pretty loud, with lots of activity going on. Lending to the hip, but not so over the top vibe here, was the young staff manning the restaurant. They had a special New Year's Eve menu offering, but they also had their regular menu to choose from, which is how we went. The menu is dominated by many pizzas, with a few starters, pasta dishes, entrees, and sides. After some perusing of the menu, we came up with this.

Wanting something warm to start us off, we selected the Homemade Meatballs ($6). These came three to an order and were served with marinara and grana padano, the cheese perched atop each meatball. Both Katie and I really enjoyed these. The meatball was fork tender without being too mushy, a tough balance to achieve. The marinara was very solid here as well. It was not too tangy and allowed the meatball to shine while adding a mild flavor.

Katie is crazy about Caprese Salad ($10), so it was no surprise that she got it. She also probably knows I'm not a fan, so she can have this all to herself. This is a traditional version of this salad. Big slices of tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and sea salt. This was a generous size for just one person. According to Katie, the tomatoes had a beefy flavor, the salt and pepper helped cut some of the acidity, and the ingredients here were pretty fresh.

As much as Katie is into Caprese salads, I am likely more into Caesars ($9). This version at ECCO was good but could have been better. The salad was a classic Caesar, but they used an olive tapenade spread on top of a crostini. I would have liked the tapenade to have been mixed into the salad to make the saltiness a little more even. The dressing was good here, but I needed more of it. Just like the Caprese, this Caesar was good-sized.

Katie took what I was going to order, but it was New Year's Eve, so I did not put up too much of a fuss about it. She snagged the Orecchiette Salsiccia ($15) from me. This dish used orecchiette pasta, sausage, Swiss chard, crimini mushrooms, basil, and olive oil. This had some positives: the basil was fresh but did not overpower, the sausage had a nice, subtle spiciness to it, and the pasta was cooked to a lovely tenderness. What Katie did not like was that this was dry. It needed a sauce, more than what the olive oil could have supplied. It's okay, but this needed to be tweaked a little more.

It was my last meal of the year, so I went with steak. This Skirt Steak ($25) was cooked to a beautiful medium rare. The beef was tender, so it was no problem that I did not receive a steak knife with my meal. The sauce used on the basil pesto potatoes was heavenly. Luckily, there was enough of it here that I could use the excess to compliment the steak. Besides the basil pesto sauce, the sides were just okay. The asparagus was unreliable, being too bitter in some spots, and the potatoes needed to be cooked a little longer, as it was tough trying to cut them with my fork. Great steak and sauce, though.

We also took a chance on the Mac' n cheese ($7). Thanks to the cast iron skillet, it came out hot and stayed that way. The mac and cheese was light, with some nice pancetta hiding among the noodles. I am not too keen on shell pasta, which lends to an uneven coating, but this warmed us up on this chilly night.

A special dessert on their New Year's Eve menu was this Chocolate Budino ($7). Whenever we order budino, there is never enough for the both of us. This one had a nice smoothness to it, which was a little more sturdy than a traditional pudding. The whipped cream and chocolate flakes were a nice added touch.

We both really liked our time at ECCO. We look forward to returning soon and trying more of their menu, including their Neapolitan pizzas, with ingredients sourced directly from Italy. Their menu constantly changes with the seasons, so we look forward to what Executive Chef Carlos Abarca has in store for us on future visits. The service was spotty for us on this busy night. Our waiter took a while to check on us, but the food was ready promptly. ECCO was a great place to have our last meal of the year.

Out of five dolphins (because there's a video from the 90s about a time-traveling dolphin who battled aliens in the oceans, and the dolphin's name was Ecco), five being best and zero being worst, ECCO Pizzeria and Bar gets 3.5 dolphins.

For more information about ECCO Pizzeria and Bar, check out their website here: http://www.eccopizza.com/

Good Things to Come at Solita's Preview Night

Solita Tacos and Margaritas

7631 Edinger Ave. Suite 1508

Huntington Beach, CA 92647

I have a feeling that 2014 is going to be a kick ass year for restaurants. Sorry for the vulgar language, but I'm really excited about what is happening culinary wise in our fantastic county. There are a number of what I anticipate to be some great places coming down the pipeline this year. Provenance will be opening their doors this year, at the space that used to house Sage in Newport Beach. The award winning restaurant, The Winery is taking over the picturesque Villa Nova spot. Also, you can almost always count on Bruxie opening up a new location somewhere during the year. Probably one of the openings I was most looking forward to actually happened with six days remaining in 2013, and that was Solita at the Bella Terra Center.

Solita comes to us from the creative team behind one of our favorite restaurants, Sol Cocina in Newport Beach. We have been there numerous times, celebrating birthdays, holidays, and restaurant week events. This is kind of the reason that Solita came into existence. Sol Cocina, for some people, is more of a special event kind of restaurant. A restaurant where you celebrate things at. They wanted Solita to become more of a regular, every Friday night kind of place, but they wanted it to evolve.

Think about your local go to spot for sit down Mexican food. For most of you, it is probably a place like Don Jose's or El Torito, where the menu has not changed very much in the last 30 or so years. You know what you are going to have when you walk in the door, you know how it's going to taste, and you know you will probably be back again the next week. Trust me, I like Don Jose just fine, they are very consistent in what they do, but I could never imagine eating there every week, like so many people do.

Solita wants to be your neighborhood Mexican restaurant, one you will eat at regularly, with a lower price point than Sol, but they want you to see that Solita is a new style Mexican restaurant. The dated decor of sit down Mexican restaurants is gone, and replaced with a more updated, sleek feel to it. The decor in this 38,000 foot restaurant is inspired by some of the great Mexican resorts. The chairs and furniture are from Mexico, they have roll up doors in the restaurant, that lead to an enclosed, large patio, lending to an openness, that is probably the envy of most Mexican restaurants.

Another thing that will separate Solita from other neighborhood restaurants is that their food is inspired from actual trips to inland Mexico. We learned that in the interior of Mexico, food is prepared over wood, and that is the case here at Solita. You can even smell a slight hint of the wood from their wood fired grill when you walk in the door. We were recently invited to come see what makes Solita different from other Mexican restaurants, and check out their vision. Let's see what they had cooked up for us.

I did not actually get a chance to try this Wood Grilled Wild Fish (Market price), but I liked the simple, clean presentation here. Solita is going to use a rotating seasonal, local fish as the centerpiece for this plate, which will be grilled simply, with lime and butter.

I am a huge fan of skirt steak, and this Skirt Steak Asada with Toreados ($19.50) was delicious. I learned that toreados are roasted chilies, which added a good pop of flavor to this tender skirt steak, that was a perfect medium rare. Kind of in the vein of an Argentine dish, this was also served with a well made chimichurri. A good dish for you steak lovers out there.

I have recently gotten into ceviches, and it was just my luck that they offered this Yellowtail Ceviche Tropicale ($10.50) at Solita. Diced up yellowtail is mixed with lime juice, Serrano chiles, cucumber, tropical fruits, salsa fresca, and avocado, to create this colorful and refreshing ceviche. I really liked how the sweetness of the fruit interacted with cubed yellowtail.

The Wood Grilled Canre Asada Fajitas ($16.75) kind of threw me for a loop, because they are not served on a sizzling platter, with lots of steam. In this version, the carne asada is combined with roasted poblano chiles, tossed with red peppers and red onions,  then served with guacamole and salsa fresca on the side. Predictably, the carne asada was flavored well, and was very tender. This is also paired with your choice of beans and Mexican rice.

Not something I was expecting at a Mexican restaurant, but they have Sweet Potato Fries ($7.50) at Solita. These are presented in a paper cone, with cotixa cheese and a chipotle dipping sauce. I'm not really a big fan of sweet potato fries, but others that are, really enjoyed these.

Without a doubt, this Grilled Corn Elote ($3.50 each) was the big hit of the night with all of the foodies in attendance. The whole corn is roasted and grilled with chipotle salsa, butter, California chiles, cotixa, and green onions. People were waiting right by the kitchen for this to come out, and snapping them up before they even hit the dining room. I'll predict that this will become one of Solita's signature items.

Another unique item that you will not see on many Mexican restaurant menus is this Tequila Shrimp and Avocado Sundae ($10.50). The shrimp is cooked with blanco tequila, salsa fresca, lime juice and chipotles, and then layered with a creamy avocado sauce. I liked this updated version of a shrimp cocktail. The brininess of the shrimp, with the smooth avocado went nicely with each other.

While everyone was waiting for more corn to come out of the kitchen, I was quite happy taking these Chicken Taquitos ($7.50) down. These were not as heavy as other taquitos I have had, and not greasy either. The chicken inside had a nice moistness to it, and these were perfect for dipping into Solita's awesome guacamole.

The kids aren't into Mexican food? Not to worry, Solita has you covered with their Cabo Loco Chicken ($8.50). The menu says these are breaded with a crispy coconut, but I did not get too much of the coconut here. What I did get was that these were fried nicely, the chicken was of good quality, and the lemony salsa these were served with was spot on. I definitely ate my fair share of these, my apologies to my table mates.

I had my first queso fundido at Cha Cha's in Brea awhile back, and became addicted to this heavy cheese dish. At Solita they have a version of this dish called Queso al Forno ($8.75). Not sure what the difference is between forno and fundido, but this version was right up there with the one at Cha Cha's. The cheese was bubbly, with green onions and Serrano chiles included in this. Nicely made corn and flour tortillas are used for the dipping here. Very filling, so make sure you share this, even though you will want to keep it all for yourself.

The tacos at Sol Cocina are great, so I knew that the menu at Solita would feature some great tacos as well. They have plenty to choose from, and if you are indecisive, or just want to try as many as possible, they offer taco tasters, which include a 4 taco platter. Pictured above is one of the two taco tasters, the El Primo ($14.50). With this platter, you get to choose from among these premium tacos; wood grilled carne asada, red chili beef borracho, chicken mole, wood grilled fish Mazatlan, spicy garlic shrimp, beer battered shrimp, or sauteed mushroom tacos. With all of these great choices, it would be hard for me to make this delicious decision.

They also have a more basic taco platter, which is anything but basic. This Just Tacos Platter ($11.50) also includes 4 of your choice of tacos. Varieties include, wood grilled ancho chile chicken, oak roasted chipotle chicken, carnitas, chorizo bacon and sweet potato, crispy fried fish, or chile garlic tofu. The carnitas taco I had here was legit, with a tender pork, wrapped in their great corn tortillas. I'm usually more of a flour tortilla kind of guy, but these corn tortillas are really good.

The menu at Solita features 13 different tacos, so you might have a tough time deciding on one. If you want my two cents, I would go with these Cadillac Tacos ($15.50). One of my favorite tacos at Sol Cocina is their El Jefe Taco, and this is kind of Solita's version of that taco. This surf and turf taco combines wood grilled carne asada and chipotle shrimp. These proteins go great together, and will leave you satisfied.

Solita is not just all about tacos either. They have other Mexican restaurant staples as well. Their Burritos ($11.00) come with your choice of meat, and are filled with cheese, beans, rice, and sour cream, lettuce, and salsa fresca on the side. You also have the option of having your burrito wet, wet with cheese, green sauce or red sauce, or all three, which they call El Flag style, because it resembles the Mexican flag I am sure. These pictures do not show how big this burrito actually was, it was a good size.

Enchiladas are also on the menu at Solita. These Lazy Enchiladas ($12.75) use corn tortillas folded over your choice of meat, then are topped with either red or green sauce, sour cream, cotixa cheese, lettuce, and salsa fresca. I think these are called lazy enchiladas because they are not rolled, but they were still delicious even without being rolled.

The last food item that I tried was the Quesadilla ($11.00). This is not your typical fast food variety quesadilla either. They use two flour tortillas, which are buttered crisped, then filled with Mexican cheeses, and the meat of your choice, with salsa fresca and guacamole on the side. This was a lighter than you would think quesadilla, without sacrificing flavor. The carnitas are the meat to get in this. So good.

The bar program at Solita is not to be overlooked by any means. I am not much of a margarita guy, but the Solita House Margarita ($8.00 got rave reviews from the assembled media on this night. They also have frozen drinks, which are much more my style. The bartenders were busy experimenting with their slushy machine, whipping up kiwi-strawberry, guava, and watermelon frozen margaritas. My favorite drink of the night was the Horchata Cocktail ($10.00). Solita uses their house made horchata, which is mixed with Agavales blanca tequila, 1921 Crema, and is topped with cinnamon. I usually get tired of horchata after a few sips, but I drank two of these on this night. Kind of like an adult milkshake, but lighter. These could get me into some trouble.

I think the brain trust at Solita nailed what they were trying to accomplish here. Chef Deb has created a great menu that will not only keep people coming back, but they will become regulars here. The menu has items that customers will recognize, but they have their own Solita twist to them. I am really looking forward to coming back. Wish I lived closer so I could become one of the regular customers that they are trying to grab, but Solita is definitely worth the drive up from South OC. With so many good restaurants coming to OC this year, you can definitely count Solita among them.

For more information on Solita Tacos and Margaritas, go to their website here: http://solitatacos.com/

Rekindling Old Friendships at Quinn's Old Town Grill - CLOSED

Quinn's Old Town Grill

405 El Camino Real

Tustin, CA 92780

It's so funny how people come in and out of your life. When you are young, you think you will be friends with the same people forever, but some people just drift away. We grew up with a family that kind of drifted away from us, The Hoffman's. They had two daughters, one a few years older than myself, and another daughter who was a few years younger than my sister. I was young, but I can remember going up to the mountains with them, going over to their house for dinner, and them coming over for birthday parties and other events. I'm not sure when we lost contact, but I always wondered what had become of them.

I was shocked when my Mom told me that she had gotten a phone call from them, and they wanted to meet up. The parents of the two girls live in Tustin now, and they wanted to have dinner, to see how the last thirty or so years have treated us. My parents naturally left the restaurant picking to me. Since my parents live in Yorba Linda, and both Katie and I live in South OC, I decided to focus my restaurant search on the Tustin area, kind of in the middle for all of us. Not knowing what kind of food Jim and Carol were into, I picked something that I felt almost anyone would like, classic American food. We headed to Old Town Tustin to try the grub at Quinn's Old Town Grill.

I guess I should have done more research though, because there was a band playing when we met up here, and they were pretty loud. Not really conducive to catching up on the last thirty years, but the band was wrapping up as we were being sat, so we would have plenty of time to talk about all that's gone on with us. On this particular Sunday night Quinn's was filled with what I would consider to be locals. As the band ended, people were filling out, and more of a dinner crowd was coming in. Quinn's had a nice comfortable feel to it. Not too stuffy, and definitely not a dive, Quinn's was comfortably in between. The dinner menu includes salads, sandwiches, and pretty traditional entrees. Let's see what this night had in store for us long time friends.

As soon as we were done ordering, we were given a Dinner Roll to start off with. This was a very sturdy dinner roll of the sourdough variety. Not too bad, but I would have liked the butter packets to have been room temperature, so the butter could spread evenly.

As if we did not have a enough bread, I ordered their "To Die For" Garlic Bread ($5.50). I thought the presentation of this was a little odd, but when it was opened up, I could see why they are so high on this garlic bread. The bread had a decent crunch, and the insides had a nice, not overpowering garlic flavor to it. This was more than enough for the six of us, and I would definitely order this again.

Salads are not included in the entrees at Quinn's, but both Katie and I wanted a salad to start off our meal. She went with the pretty pedestrian looking Dinner Salad ($5.50). This is your basic dinner salad, with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, shredded carrots, and croutons. No surprise, but Katie thought the produce used here was fresh, and she was generally pleased with her salad. I guess we are both creatures of habit, because I almost always get a Caesar Salad ($6.50), and that was the case on this night as well. This was a pretty good version of a Caesar. I liked the classic presentation of using a real anchovy on top of this. The salad was dressed nicely with a mild dressing, the croutons were kind of plain tasting, and I was pretty happy with the serving size of this.

I was a little taken aback when my Dad ordered soup, which he almost never does in restaurants. I was also a little shocked when he chose the Chicken Artichoke Soup ($5.95). Not something that he would normally go for, but he liked the creaminess of this soup, and felt that it had a nice subtle flavor. Even after 42 years of knowing this big guy, I still learn something new about him from time to time.

Entree time, and Katie threw me for a loop again by getting the Filet Mignon Stroganoff ($17.50). This classic dish combined egg noodles, sliced filet mignon, mushrooms, a dollop of sour cream, and chives. Katie thought this embodied comfort food. This was well cooked, the noodles were tender, and the sour cream added a creaminess. On the downside, Katie would have liked the meat to be a little more tender here.

On Sundays at Quinn's, they offer their Fried Chicken ($18.50), which they tout as the best tasting in Orange County. You can count Carol as one of the believers of this. She called this chicken, "Excellent". She appreciated the breading used on this, along with the tenderness of the chicken. This half chicken came with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. If she had to pick the weak link for this meal, it would have been the bland tasting vegetables. She was very pleased with the serving size of this, and had plenty to take home.

My parents split their meal, the Three Piece Alaskan Cod Fish and Chips ($16.50). Yes, I realize that there are only two pieces on the plate, there must have been a mistake in the kitchen, because they eventually brought the third piece out on a separate plate. My parents really liked this version of fish and chips. The cod was light and flaky on the inside, while the batter on the outside had a nice crunch to it. Not overly greasy, they felt comfortable eating this. The cod came with Cole Slaw and Steak Fries. My parents are not really big fans of steak fries, but they did not complain too much about these.

Jim went with the Filet Mignon ($33). This 8 ounce steak is cooked in Quinn's 2500 degree broiler, and aged for 28 days. Jim called this steak, "good, but not great". It was tender, and a good cut of meat. He felt this was worth the price, and would get this steak again, rating it 8 out of 10. This came with herb roasted potatoes and green beans, which he was very pleased with.

Since Quinn's prides itself on being an Irish bar, I of course had to try their corned beef, and when I saw they had it in sandwich form, I knew immediately that I would be having the Reubenesque ($14.95). This Reuben sandwich came filled with corned beef, Cole slaw, and Swiss cheese, on toasted rye bread. I really enjoyed this sandwich. The corned beef was tender and flavorful, the Cole slaw added some crunch, and the Swiss kind of brought everything together. The bread was almost not like a rye bread flavor wise, but it did its job of keeping the contents of the sandwich together. The menu did not say that this comes with fries, but it did. These fries were more of a fast food style variety, which is much more to my liking.

By this point of the meal I was pretty full, but there were six of us, so I figured we could all split the Warm Shamrock Brownie ($7.75). Quinn's version of a brownie sundae comes with a drizzle of caramel, vanilla bean ice cream, and hot fudge. The brownie was a little too loose. I like this sundae better when the brownie is cooked a little bit more, this one was a little too soft. There is almost never enough ice cream for me on these, but this one came close. The caramel and hot fudge were well represented, and helped make this dessert a must get when coming here.

Quinn's was the perfect place for us to catch up with the Hoffman's, after over thirty years. Not only was it geographically desirable, but there was something for everyone on this menu. We all left relatively happy with the dinners that we had. I'd definitely come back if I were in the area, and wanted a corned beef sandwich. There were a few hiccups at Quinn's though. Our server, or it could have been the kitchen, were not really on top of their game on this night. Not that anything was crazy wrong with the service, but at times it seemed a little chaotic, with empty glasses, missing food, and long times before being checked on. I also thought that the prices here were a tad on the high side. My sandwich was good, but was it $15 good? No, it wasn't. If you don't mind paying $15 dollars for a sandwich or $33 for a half pound steak, this might be the place for you. What you can't put a price tag on is renewing old acquaintances with friends that you thought were lost long ago.

Out of five steel drums, (because the movie, "The Mighty Quinn", took place on an unidentified Caribbean island, and when I'm in the Caribbean, I love listening to steel drums), five being best to zero being worst, Quinn's Old Town Grill gets 3 steel drums.

For more information about Quinn's Old Town Grill, go to their website here: http://www.quinnsoldtowngrill.com/