You'll Go Crazy for Taco Asylum's New Menu - CLOSED

Taco Asylum

2937 Bristol St., Suite B102

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Sometimes, you just have to start all over with a clean slate. That's the feeling I got returning to Taco Asylum. A new head chef, a new general manager, a new menu, and a new owner. Before May of this year, Taco Asylum was part of the Haven Collective, which included Haven Gastropub and Provisions Market. Former partial owner of Taco Asylum, Ace Patel, has now taken over the entire reign of this restaurant and brought in his own people, including new Executive Chef Carlos Anthony.

Chef Carlos has quite the restaurant pedigree. He's worked at the critically acclaimed Searsucker in San Diego and at Michelin-starred Redd's in Northern California. He takes over the kitchen at Taco Asylum with a lot of energy. We had the privilege of speaking with him at this new menu preview at Taco Asylum, and his personality is definitely infectious. Katie and I could sense his excitement for the tacos here, and he assured us that he had many taco ideas running around in his head. He excited both of us about what was coming out of the kitchen shortly.

One big thing they have changed here at Taco Asylum is doing away with the small, street-sized tacos. All tacos are served on a 6-inch tortilla. The menu features 11 specialty, four vegetarian, and four classic tacos. I'm glad they included classic tacos, including carnitas, chicken, carne asada, and a fish taco. When we were here before, we saw two parties looking at the old menu and walking out. This new menu allows less adventurous eaters to eat here and be more comfortable with the food. I was also pleased to see they got away from their sides of lentils and quinoa, which they amusingly called "beans and rice." Not sad to see those items go. If you'd like to see our old review of Taco Asylum and how far they have come, click here. 

Back to the present day, though. For those of you who are not aware, Taco Asylum is located on Bristol in Costa Mesa, inside the Camp shopping center. For all the changes to the menu and staff here, the inside of Taco Asylum is the same. In a small space, a tiny bar seats four or so, facing a large HD TV above their six rotating craft beer tap handles. Let's see if all these changes are positively impacting Taco Asylum.

While waiting for the other food media to arrive (slackers), we munched on some Chili-Lime Tortilla Chips ($3.50). These were served with salsa verde and salsa rojo. I'm always a little more partial to red salsa, and that was the case here at Taco Asylum. The chips were crisp, and they had just the right amount of seasoning on them to not overpower the chip. I managed to eat these sparingly, as I knew there were tacos in my future.

I know I promised you tacos, but the beverage program at Taco Asylum is definitely worth mentioning first. They, of course, have their six rotating taps, but they also have a great selection of canned beers, which range in price from $6 to $8, and $2 off of those during happy hour, which is Monday through Friday, 3PM to 5PM, and a late night happy hour from 9PM til closing. I was impressed with the beer selection, and I liked that they were listed on the menu from light to dark, so even a beer novice like myself could act like I knew what I was doing. Sydney runs the beverage program here and does a great job. She steered me to this Bikini Blonde Lager by the Maui Brewing Company. It was a lighter beer but still had plenty of taste. A perfect pairing with the tacos that were coming up next.

With 20 tacos on the menu, it was hard for me to pick three to try at Taco Asylum. I went with the Carnitas, Bacon PB and J, and Duck Mole. Let's examine each of these tacos closer.

The first one was what others called Chef Carlos's "baby," the Duck Mole Taco ($7.50). He got his mole recipe from his grandmother, and he has definitely made her proud with this. This is an Oaxacan mole with braised duck leg, queso fresco, and salsa crudo. It was not as sweet as other moles I have had, but it was a great compliment to the very tender duck. They definitely did not skimp on the amount of duck they used in this, either. An excellent taco, and it's easy to see why the staff here has such an affinity for it.

I was happy that they had some classic tacos on their new menu, so I had to try one of them. Carnitas Tacos ($3.75) is my usual barometer for judging Mexican restaurants, and this taco passed with flying colors. They use bone-in braised pork, salsa rojo, and pico, garnished with a lime wedge. A straightforward take on a pork taco. The carnitas were moist and flavorful, the pico was fresh, and the hint of citrus the lime added gave this taco a pop of flavor. Nicely done.

When I saw Bacon PB and J Taco ($4) on the menu, I had to try it. You might not think this would work like Slater's Peanut Butter and Jealousy Burger, but you'd be wrong. Included in the flour tortilla were roasted peanut butter, a carrot-ginger jam, greens, a strip of sweet and spicy bacon, and pickled Fresno chili. This was a very balanced taco. The carrot and ginger jam added a nice sweetness, while the plentiful amount of bacon here added a smokiness. It was all evened out by the smooth peanut butter. This is a taco I can see myself getting on every trip to Taco Asylum.

Katie also selected three tacos this evening. The Paneer ($4.25) was listed under vegetarian tacos, so I had a bias against this one even before it hit the table. I can admit I was wrong. This Indian-inspired taco contained a curried paneer, raita, and a crispy herb salad. I almost did not miss the exclusion of meat in this taco. The paneer was very well made, and the raita, which I learned is a yogurt-based Indian condiment, helped smooth out the flavors of this taco. The Banh Mi Taco ($5.75) takes the whole fusion thing from India to Vietnam in a few time zones. This one is stuffed with spiced pork, mint, cucumber, cilantro, carrot, radish and ponzu sauce. This was probably my least favorite of the night, but one of Katie's favorites. I expected a little more from this. The pork got lost here, and I would have liked a little more ponzu sauce. The third taco on Katie's metal tray was the Shrimp Pad Thai ($6.75), but she's no fan of shrimp, so she substituted chicken. The chicken was pan-fried with Thai basil, crushed peanuts, onion, sprouts, crispy rice noodles, and red Thai chili. Katie felt this taco lost its way by not getting the pad Thai experience. Maybe because she changed it up from shrimp to chicken. She still liked this taco, as the contents were fresh, but she just expected a slightly different experience with this one.

I lied earlier when I said I only had three tacos. Chef Carlos has a rotating taco, which he has dubbed The Chef's Prescription. That night, it was a Pork Head Cheese Taco (Market Price). Many people have a squeamish reaction to head cheese, but this is not like the head cheese you have seen in the lunch meat section of your local grocery store. They took all the delicious parts of the pig's head and threw it in a taco with some blackberry Cabernet salsa, Stilton cheese, and a little Dijon. The result was a delicious pork that was a little more dense than normal carnitas and flavorful. The blackberries were an excellent add-on, giving this taco a Thanksgiving feel.

On our first visit to Taco Asylum, I lamented that they did not have traditional sides here; instead, they served lentils and quinoa as their version of beans and rice. Yeah, I didn't get it either. Anyway, I am happy that they have expanded their menu's side items area to include black beans and rice and other offerings like Brave Potatoes ($3) and Corn Off the Cob ($3). Both of these were much better than the old sides. The potatoes were fork-tender, with plenty of flavoring from the garlic, mint, lemon, and fantastic fire-roasted aioli topping. The corn was also a favorite, with bits of bell pepper, onion, garlic, and a corn crema. Big improvement.

I would be remiss if I did not mention their awesome hot sauces at Taco Asylum. Honestly, I only tried one this time because it was so good, the Roasted Ghost Chili. During this visit, this bottle was my best friend and did not leave my side during my meal. It had a good amount of heat, but it was tempered a bit by the smokiness, which was definitely evident. This allowed for a slow buildup of heat to accumulate, which grew during my use. I planned to sneak this out of the building when I was given a bottle to take home. Thanks so much, Sydney. You saved me from a life on the lam of being a hot sauce thief. Since I got this home, I have used it almost daily for everything.

Another new addition to the Taco Asylum menu is dessert, which is always a nice thing to add. The first of the two desserts was these Dessert Nachos ($7). These tortilla chips are dusted with cinnamon, orange zest, sugar, and chili, then drizzled with Mexican chocolate and topped with red chili anglaise. This was not a sweet dessert nacho. The sugar and cinnamon provided enough sweetness, but the chocolate was not as sweet as American chocolate, and the chili added a bit of spice to this, which woke up the taste buds. Really a well-done dessert.

As much as I liked the dessert nachos, the Churro Bites ($7) fell flat. These are described on the menu as Mexican donuts rolled in cinnamon and sugar, then drizzled with a dulce de leche. I would have liked these better, but the insides were too dense and needed to be lighter, with more sweetness. It was not exactly what I had expected when I heard churro bites.

All of the changes at Taco Asylum have made this an even better restaurant than it was before. They are more mainstream for less adventurous eaters but still have some wild, over-the-top tacos for people who want to step outside their comfort zone. We loved Chef Carlos's exuberance, and his passion is shown in the tacos he created. We look forward to seeing the other hundreds of tacos he said he has in his head. Owner Ace Patel says they want people to eat here every day, and with the variety on this menu, that will be easy to do.

We thank everyone at Taco Asylum for sharing their new menu with us. General Manager Jenelle, Beverage Coordinator Sydney, and Chef Carlos could not have been nicer and answered our crazy questions without hesitation. Thanks also to the man behind Taco Asylum, Ace Patel. You have something special here, and we look forward to returning many times. Lastly, we thank Bryn Mohr at Food For Thought PR for inviting us. We had a great time, Bryn, and it was fantastic meeting you.

For more information about Taco Asylum, go to their newly launched website here: http://www.tacoasylum.com/

No Chance of Ending Up in the Doghouse After Eating Here

Dog Haus

105 N. Hill Ave. #104

Pasadena, CA 91106

Now that I'm engaged, there's so much stuff to do. For the most part, I leave almost everything up to Katie and her family. Not that I don't care about stuff, but I'd just assume get married at the courthouse, or Vegas, but those ideas did not fly. So here we are having a large wedding, and getting farther and farther behind in planning it. My job right now for the most part has been to ask my five friends to be my groomsmen. I'm doing this all in person, so that's what brought us up to Pasadena on this afternoon.

The friend that I have known the longest, since kindergarten, is Ed, and he recently moved back here from the East Coast. I'm really glad he's a lot closer, but I'm also glad he moved to Pasadena, which has some pretty good restaurants. Might as well get some blogging done while we are up here, right? I had never heard of Dog Haus before, but they started following me on Twitter a few months ago, and it piqued my interest. After checking out their website, I liked what I saw, and I knew we would hit this restaurant up eventually, and that time is now.

Dog Haus first opened in Pasadena in 2010, and just four years later they now have four locations running, with four more coming soon, including one in our own backyard, at Main Place Mall in Santa Ana. From what I can gather, a group of three friends opened this place, which offers 100 percent all-beef skinless hot dogs, sausages, and black Angus burgers all served on King's Hawaiian rolls. They have a very aggressive franchise plan with 51 planned locations on the horizon, with some of those being in Utah and Colorado. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to eat here, and I guess to also ask Ed to be in my wedding. Let's see how everything worked out for us at Dog Haus.

We'll start with the man of the hour, Ed. He's a pretty light eater, so he just had the Frickin Chicken ($6.99). This was off of their sausage portion of the menu. This starts with chicken sausage, house-made marinara, melted mozzarella, and a basil leaf, which you can not see in this picture. Kind of an Italian sausage sandwich feels to it. Ed liked this sausage and finished it with no problem.

Dog Haus has a great option for those that do not want a full-sized hot dog, like Katie. This Hot Dog Slider ($1.69) was about a fourth of the regular size and topped with cheese sauce and bacon. Of course, this is not for everyone, as I could have finished this all in one bite, but Katie was happy with this slider.

Not the most photogenic burger shot of all time, Katie's main meal was this Little Mule Burger ($6.99). This burger comes on a King's Hawaiian Bread bun, then is topped with a fried egg, pepper jack cheese, tomatillo sauce, cilantro aioli, and sliced avocado. Usually, Katie likes a simpler burger, and she liked this burger but felt it was a little too rich. The beef got a little lost here with all of these toppings. The Hawaiian roll bun was a real highlight for Katie. She'd definitely go with a simpler burger on her next visit to Dog Haus.

Katie must have been real hungry on this afternoon, as she also had these Cheese Fries ($2.99). The fries here were just okay, and I was not really a big fan of their cheese sauce. It was a little too runny, and I'd rather have grated cheese melted on top of my fries. Not my favorite side item at Dog Haus.

These Tater Tots ($1.99) were much more to my liking. Tater tots always remind me of being a kid and having these at school. These were way better than the soggy ones we had in our school cafeteria. They had a good crunch to the outside, and the soft potato inside made these a winner. Hopefully, tater tots are making a comeback and will be featured on more menus.

I admit that I went a little overboard here, because I did not know when I was going to come back, and there were so many things I wanted to try on their menu. The first of my three things to have was this Little Leaguer Hot Dog ($5.99). Kind of like a Frito pie on a hot dog. The all-beef hot dog is topped with chili, shredded cheddar cheese, onion, and Frito's. This hot dog was pretty killer. The chili was good, but not a spicy chili. Good consistency, it added some moisture to this. I kind of missed the snap of the hot dog, but with everything else going on here, it made up for it. I also appreciated that the bun was toasted. Really a solid chili cheese dog.

In retrospect, I should have probably tried one of their sausages, but this Old Town Dog ($5.99) really caught my attention. It starts with a bacon-wrapped hot dog, then caramelized onions, sauteed jalapenos, chipotle mayo, and cotija cheese are added. Really big flavors here. The bacon-wrapped hot dog added a salty element, while the jalapenos and mayo added a bit of spice. The sweetness of the onion tried to balance things out. A good hot dog, but a little overshadowed by the toppings.

The last of my Dog Haus trifecta was the Holy Aioli Burger ($6.99). Now, this was a rich burger. Smoked bacon, white American cheese, caramelized onions, and just for good measure, some garlic aioli is included. A really strong burger. I liked the meatiness of the beef, the aioli was not slathered on, but there was enough of it on there that you could taste it, and the sweet bun helped break up the saltiness a bit.

Needless to say, I was pretty happy that Dog Haus started following me on Twitter, because it got me in here to try them out, and learn that they are coming to OC soon. I liked everything I had, even though I kind of overindulging. When they open up closer to us, I will have a little more self-control. I felt that the toppings on the hot dogs overshadowed the hot dog itself, and I think I might have even enjoyed their burgers a little bit better than their hot dogs. This is more of a casual spot, so service was not an issue, but it did take a while for the food to get ready, but that just insured that it was freshly made. Can't wait for Dog Haus to open at Main Place, it will help fill the void of the departure of Pee Wee's Hot Dogs and Game Day Hot Dogs in Orange, which both shuttered last year. Oh yeah, and for the record, Ed said yes to being in my wedding, so, that's one thing I can cross off of my list, so now we're making progress.

Out of five huskies, (because my beloved University of Washington Huskies has played in the Rose Bowl more than any other college that has a dog mascot), five being best to zero being worst, Dog Haus gets 3.5 huskies.

For more information about Dog Haus, go to their website here: https://doghaus.com/index.html

Bondi Grill House, Coming Up From Down Under - CLOSED

Bondi Grill House

7821 Edinger Ave. Suite 110

Huntington Beach, CA 92647

When you think of Australia, probably a few things come to mind. If you are like me, these things are koala bears, the music group Men at Work, the movie Crocodile Dundee, and of course one of my crushes growing up, Olivia Newton John. Okay, I might be dating myself with this list, but the point I wanted to make was that food is never really one of the things most Americans think about when it comes to Australia. Probably when you are asked to think about Australian foods, you either think of Vegemite, or maybe even meat pies. A new restaurant in the Bella Terra shopping complex wants to alert you to the fact that there's more to Australian food than just that brown spread that millions of Aussies wake up to each morning.

Bondi Grill House comes to us from famed surf spot, Bondi Beach, which is a suburb of Sydney, the largest city in Australia. See, you can learn some real facts reading food blogs, just give me half the money you win on Jeopardy if this comes in handy. Anyways, there are several sister restaurants to Bondi Grill House that operate under the name Hurricane's Grill in Australia. Of course back in Huntington Beach there's already a well known restaurant/bar with this name, so that's probably the reason for the name change. Even though Bondi Grill House has only been open for a couple of months, they are already working on another location that's under construction at the Tustin Marketplace. This new location, which will be bigger, is scheduled to open by the end of the year.

The people of Huntington Beach seem to have really taken to Bondi Grill House. The restaurant was full from the time we arrived, until we left. For those of you familiar with Bella Terra, Bondi Grill House is situated across from the Cheesecake Factory. Not an overly large restaurant, 3,500 square feet, but they offer a wonderful patio that is great for people watching. Even with the smaller size here, the table spacing allowed for a comfortable gap between customers. After driving up here during rush hour traffic, both Katie and I were excited to see what Bondi Grill House had in store for us.

To calm our nerves from dealing with the 405 Freeway, we had to partake in an adult beverage, or two. At Bondi they only serve beer and wine, so the powers at be came up with some great cocktails using wine, including this Blue Hurricane ($8.95). This drink starts with a base of Lillet Blanc, a hurricane liqueur, orange, and Luxardo cherries. I really liked the look of this, the way it separated into layers in the glass. The cherry sunk to the bottom, with the wine floating near the top. Not overly sweet, with a nice and refreshing taste, this drink started our night off with a bang.

Also getting us excited for what Bondi had in store for this evening, was this Garlic Bread Roll ($2.95). At some restaurants you order garlic bread, and you are sometimes not sure they remembered to add the garlic, but that was not the case here. This loaf of bread was very garlicky, as you can see from the picture above. The bread had a nice crunch to the crust, and was soft and flavorful inside. Exactly what I want when I order garlic bread.

I know I said that Bondi Grill House was an Australian import, so I'm not sure how these Boerewors ($11.95) found there way onto their menu, but after eating them, we are not complaining. For those that do not know, like me until this night,  Boerewors are a traditional South African sausages made of beef and spices. This is a very lean sausage, with little, to no fat inside of it. These sausages were served with the interesting sounding Monkey Gland sauce. We were assured that there was no actual monkey used in the making of this sauce. This sauce is actually more of a tangy barbecue sauce, which is sweetened with dried apricots, which went well with the beefiness of the sausage.

Artichokes seem to be on every menu we have come across recently, so maybe they are the new, hip food item of this year. At Bondi they keep the trend going with these Roasted Artichokes ($10.95). These fire grilled artichokes are served with a tzatziki sauce, which worked wonderfully with these very meaty artichokes. Perfect for sharing with friends.

Probably one of the biggest winners we tried on this night were these Peri Peri Prawns ($12.95). This got the nod of approval from the assembled food media on this night. These prawns were sauteed with butter, garlic, and peri peri sauce. Really reminded me of a lighter shrimp scampi, without sacrificing flavor. Maybe for lighter eaters this could be an entree, since it was served with rice.

Before we start the salad portion of the meal, it was time for another cocktail. This time I selected the Strawberry Basil Smash ($8.95). Again, this is a wine based drink that uses Sauvignon Blanc, strawberry syrup, fresh strawberries, basil, and soda water. When this came to the table I thought it might be too sweet, but the wine and soda water helped to balance things out.

The first of the two salads we got to try was my favorite of the night, the Spinach and Strawberry Salad ($12.95 for the large size). I'm usually against having fruit included in my salads, but this one was pretty good, and I liked that each bite had a different element to it. Baby spinach, sliced strawberries, goat cheese, spiced candied almonds, and a poppy seed dressing were all included here. I could not help but think that this would be my mom's favorite dish at Bondi Grill House, it has her written all over it.

It kind of resembles the other salad, but this Arugula, Orange, and Beet Salad ($12.95) was the only blight for me on this night. Just like the other salad, this also had the candied almonds and goat cheese, but it also added orange slices, arugula, beets, and organic quinoa. I think this lost me with the quinoa. I am no fan of quinoa, and have yet to have it in anything I have liked. Katie really did enjoy this salad more than the other though.

Now we were starting to get into my wheelhouse, when the entrees started to arrive at the table. Starting things off was this very good Lamb Burger ($13.95). I don't really get a chance to have lamb nearly enough, and this burger really hit the spot. A half pound of grass fed lamb, with red onion, tomato, lettuce, feta cheese, sun dried tomato, pickle, and tzatziki sauce gave this burger a very Greek feel to it. The bun was soft, but still held everything together. Lamb can sometimes be gamey, but this version was anything but. Eating this really got me excited to try their other burgers, like the one that caught my eye, the Millionaire's Bacon and Cheese Burger. That will be my next conquest on my next visit to Bondi Grill House.

Pulled pork is delicious, but so many things can go wrong with it. This one at Bondi was pretty stellar. They pile on a half a pound of tender pulled pork, then add coleslaw, and then place it all on a large roll. The pork had just the right amount of BBQ sauce in it, so it was not too soupy, and did not overpower the natural taste of the pork. I would have liked bigger hunks of  pork in this, but still a good sandwich. The onion rings are also worth mentioning here. They were lightly breaded, and used smaller onions than other versions. I imagine these would be great with a side of ranch dressing for dipping.

Bondi Grill House is famous for their ribs, and after trying these, it's easy to see why this is so. They have three kinds of ribs; baby back pork, beef back ribs, and these Bondisaurus Pork Ribs ($34.25 for a full rack). These ribs are huge, with tons of meat on them. I'm not even sure I could have finished this entire rack, even though I would like to try it sometime. This is 3 pounds of free range, all natural, Australian ribs. Bondi is the first restaurant in North America to sell these ribs, so they are a must order. They are basted in their house made barbecue sauce, then seared at 825 degrees. There are two sauces available, a mild sauce and another one with a little more of a kick to it. Of course I enjoyed the spicier version, but both were good.

As much as I liked the pork ribs, I might have liked these Beef Back Ribs ($29.95) a little bit more. I've always been pretty partial to beef ribs, and the ones here at Bondi had lots of meat on them. These were also one of the juiciest ribs I have had recently. A really tasty end to the entree portion of our night.

I had no idea that Sticky Date Pudding ($8.95) was a traditional Australian dessert, but Bondi Grill House educated me on that fact. This was not what I was expecting when it came to the table. It was a cake made with California dates, with vanilla ice cream perched on top of it, and a salted caramel placed around the base of the cake. I guess I was expecting more of a pudding, but this was pretty solid. I'm not even a big fan of dates, and I liked this dessert. The moist cake and the salted caramel sauce made this for me. A wonderful end to a great night.

Besides the new location in Tustin, Bondi Grill House has other things going on, like the premier of a new lunch menu coming soon. Their happy hour is also not to be missed. It's a daily happy hour between the hours of 3PM and 6PM, then it starts up again from 9PM to closing. Great food specials, along with fifty percent off all beer, wine, cocktails, and bottles of wine. A great place to eat before you hit up a movie at Bella Terra, or maybe a spot to get a drink after one. We really enjoyed our time at Bondi Grill House, and look forward to coming back soon.

Special thanks to General Manager, Elizabeth Flaherty for keeping tabs on us all night, and making sure we had everything that we needed throughout our stay. Also we would like to thank Bondi Grill House co-owner, Peter Hough. He answered all of our silly questions, and was a very cordial host. Of course we would be remiss without acknowledging our waiter and bussers on this night. Thanks for all that you did for us during our stay here guys. Lastly, thanks to Jane Gillespie for putting this all together and thinking of inviting us. Much appreciated.

For more information about Bondi Grill House, check out their website here: http://www.bondigrillhouse.com/home