Brutally Honest About Bru

Bru Grill and Market

23730 El Toro Road

Lake Forest, CA 92630

We have made some pretty good friends because of this blog. When I started this, I never thought we would make friends out of it. I knew we would be eating in some great restaurants, I knew I would have to step up my social media presence, but I never expected to make some really good friends because of this blog. Last Saturday night we would be meeting up with two of these friends of ours, Tom from Tom's Foodie Blog and Daniele from Dani's Decadent Deals. We met this husband and wife blogger duo at numerous events, and now we go out on our own to catch up with each other. They are always real busy, but they squeezed us in so we could try a place they have already blogged about, Bru Grill and Market.

Reading Tom's blog, he went here when they first opened and did not like it. He then went back a few years later, and was pleasantly surprised with how they had turned things around. I was excited not only to see our good friends, but also see what kind of experience we would have at Bru.

Bru is located in the old Carino's spot, which is right next door to the always busy Lucille's BBQ. Bru is part market and part restaurant. They have a pretty nice selection of beers in their refrigerated cases and shelves. They claim to have over 200 craft beers here, and over 40 beers on tap. I like that they keep their tap list very current on their website. While we were waiting for Tom and Daniele to show up, I enjoyed browsing their unique selections. No Coors Light or Budweiser here.

Bru definitely has a gastropub sort of vibe to it. Lots of dark woods everywhere you look. The menu is seasonal, with flat breads, appetizers, and a good selection of entrees offered. They appear to be going for a farm to fork kind of feel, which is all the rage now. They also are definitely very proud of their beer selection. I'm of course more into food than beer, so let's see if we would enjoy what came out of the kitchen for us on this night.

I must admit to you all, I'm not really fond of charcuterie. I think this stems from when I was growing up, and my mom sliced up some Hickory Farms beef stick, cut some cheese, opened a box of Ritz crackers, and added grapes to our table, and called that dinner. Even in my eight year old mind, I thought I was getting jipped. Dinner involves cooking, right? Sorry for the rant. This charcuterie was called The Five ($18) and had four selections of cheeses, Spanish speck ham, some candied pecans, dried fruit, and olives. I steered away from the cheeses, but the candied pecans and ham were both pretty good. There were no complaints about this cheese board from Katie or Daniele, who spearheaded us getting this.

Tom and I decided to try out these Stuffed Mushrooms ($9) instead of risking injury to our hands from taking some of the girls charcuterie. These mushrooms are stuffed with spinach, then topped with bread crumbs, a garlic white wine sauce, and grated Parmesan. These were good, but not great. A little bland, the garlic was not overly present, and I kept expecting a pop of flavor that did not come.

On the dinner menu at Bru they offer petite versions of their salads, which almost always entices me to order one. It must have also tempted Katie to order one too, as she had their Chopped Salad ($8). This rather large petite salad came with plenty of grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, red onion, crumbled blue cheese, and bacon tossed in a house vinaigrette. Katie felt this was a very hardy salad, and she would definitely get this salad on future visits to Bru.

The petite salad I went with was just as big. This Bloomsdale Spinach Salad ($7) had a lot of promise when I read the description on the menu. Spinach, sliced tart apples, candied pecan, a raisin gasrtique, and a blue cheese dressing to finish it off. The produce here is very fresh, but the dressing was bland, the apples and pecans did add a good crunch, but just like the mushrooms, I kept waiting for a pop of flavor here. I'd definitely go with a different salad on my next trip to Bru.

Katie beelined it straight to this Market Veggie Pasta ($20 with chicken added) when she saw it on the menu. They used spaghetti as the pasta, then added zucchini, squash, carrots, and green beans, then you have a choice of either marinara or an olive oil sauce. She went with the olive oil selection. She felt this dish was flavorless, and really did not leave a lasting mark on her. A very boring entree in her opinion.

For indecisive seafood lovers, Bru offers a Seafood Trio ($25) which Tom took full advantage of. The three fish represented here were a diver scallop, a 4 ounce piece of the fish of the day, (sorry I did not catch what is was on this particular night), and a German Speck wrapped prawn. The fish and the scallop were served on top of a truffle mashed potato with sauteed spinach, while the prawn was piled on top of a vegetable succotash. Tom did not really exclaim too much about his meal, although he did make quick work of it. The perfect dish for people who want to sample more than one kind of fish here.

Usually when I'm at a new place that I've never been to, I always order off the regular menu, but something told me to try this Hanger Steak Special ($28). Wish I had not listened to that little voice in my head. Much like Katie's meal, this steak was very boring. It was cooked to my desired medium rare, but eating this got to be monotonous because of the lack of flavor. It came with mashed potatoes that were fair, and green beans that I actually enjoyed, and I'm not even a green bean fan. Fresh and very crisp, these were the highlight of this plate for me.

This Prime Rib ($28) gave Daniele all sorts of fits. Only available on Fridays and Saturdays nights, Daniele wanted this medium rare, and as is evident from the picture above this was way more on the rare side, bordering on tartare. She tried to eat it, but it was sent back to get extra time on the grill, and when it came back it was medium well, so after a slight delay, she started all over again with a new piece of meat. Sorry I did not get a picture of the prime rib she eventually ate, because I was busy eating my meal. The new piece of prime rib was much more to her liking, and she was generous enough to let me have a bite of it as well. I thought it was definitely better than my hanger steak. The prime rib came with a baked potato with all the fixings, and sauteed spinach.

Dessert time was up next, and we selected two to share between the four of us. The first was this Bru Gelato S'more ($8). I did not get a real good description of the desserts, but this one had a graham cracker crust filled with chocolate gelato, which was topped with a toasted marshmallow topping. I liked this, but was not in love with it. For this to be a s'more dessert, it needed the chocolate to be more pronounced, as it really got lost here. Not bad, but it could have been so much better.

I liked this Bru Cake ($7.50) better than the gelato for sure. This cake is only for people over 21, and after my first spoonful, I can understand why. It really packed a punch. Inside the mason jar was a flour less chocolate cake, which had a nice chocolate flavor to it.

Needless to say, Bru really left us underwhelmed. All of our entrees kind of needed some help, and I couldn't help but think that their appetizers and salads needed a little extra something as well. They were probably a few ingredients away from really making a statement. Bru is an anomaly in South OC. There are not many gastropubs around, so that might explain why this restaurant is quite popular. Their beer list is unique for the area, and we just wish they had the food to match it. Service on this night was pretty good. Our waitress did not shy away from visiting our table, even though we had some issues with the food. Glad we could finally get together with Tom and Daniele, and we're also happy that food blogging has brought us together.

Out of five sunglasses, (because the city of Lake Forest is home to Oakley), five being best to zero being worst, Bru Grill and Market gets 2.5 sunglasses.

For more information about Bru Grill and Market, go to their website here: http://www.brugrill.com/

Hoping That Da Lu'au Will Be Da Bomb - CLOSED

Da Lu'au Hawaiian Grill

41 Auto Center Drive Ste. #101

Foothill Ranch, CA 92610

One food that doesn't get enough love is Hawaiian cuisine. A quick search of Urbanspoon shows that there are only 43 Hawaiian restaurants in OC, and some of those are fusion restaurants that just happen to have a few items from the islands on their menu. Almost every time I have had Hawaiian, I've left the restaurant enjoying my meal. I hoped that would happen when we left Da Lu'au in Foothill Ranch.

Da Lu'au gets a lot of love from the OC Weekly. They named this one of the top 10 spots for breakfast, gave a pretty glowing full review of the food here, and Gustavo wrote them up in his always entertaining "Hole In the Wall"  column last year. Besides all that, I had this place written down in my notes because a blog reader, Missy, had commented that I needed to try this place. Not one to let a tip go un-followed, we headed up to Foothill Ranch on a recent Saturday night.

This Hawaiian restaurant is located in an out-of-the-way shopping center that people would only come to if they made a wrong turn or had a specific reason for coming. The shopping center is home to Jersey Mike's, Cinnamon Productions, and Mustard Cafe, a restaurant we reviewed back in 2011. We were hoping for a more positive experience at Da Lu'au than there.

Da Lu'au had a good flow of business on this Saturday night. There were lots of takeout orders, and half of the fifteen or so tables in the small dining room were filled at least once during our stay. Ordering was a little confusing. There was a register near the front, where we ordered, but everyone else dining here was served by a waitress. After ordering at the counter, we selected a table, got our drinks at the fountain, and waited for our food to arrive.

I didn't know this when I started dating Katie five and a half years ago, but she's a poke fiend. It's almost always assured that she will order poke anytime she sees it on a menu. That was the case at Da Lu'au as well. This Ahi Poke ($8.95) came seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, and sea salt, then was served on top of mixed greens, sliced avocado, green onion, lettuce, sliced cucumber, and a few tortilla chips scattered about. This was more like an ahi salad than I had imagined getting. The ahi was fresh and seasoned simply to allow the fish's natural flavor to come through. It came with a soy-sesame ginger dressing that was rather boring. The spicier dressing they provided us with was a much better option for me. We wish there was more of the ahi and less of the greens, but it was a good cure for Katie's ahi cravings.

When considering Hawaiian food, Katie selected what many people probably think about a Two Item Combo Plate ($9.95). At Da Lu'au, you can pick two of their fifteen entrees to complete your combo meal. Katie had the BBQ Chicken and the Kalua Pork. The BBQ chicken was the better of these two. It was tender, with a nice char to it. The pork was a little dry and only made better when the sauce was added. This was far from the pork we had at Hapa J's, which was the best kalua pork we have had on this side of the Pacific. She went with White Rice and Potato Macaroni Salad for her two sides. The rice went well with the chicken, but the clear winner was the potato macaroni salad. I'm not a big fan of macaroni salad, but this was excellent. It had equal parts of potato and macaroni, the right amount of moisture, and the flavor was spot on. An excellent side.

When it came time for my order, I decided to recreate the same two-item combo meal the guys from OC Weekly had when they ate here. That meant I would be having the Meat Jun and Mochiko Chicken. Two items were brand new to me and rarely seen on Hawaiian menus on the mainland. The Meat Jun could best be described as a flat slice of rib eye, egg dipped, then grilled. It's like a meat version of French toast. It had a sweetness that went with it, but neither of the sauces that came with this was the right fit for the meat jun. The mochiko is deep-fried chicken thighs with ginger and battered in sweet rice powder. These fried chicken nuggets were a winner. They were not overly greasy, tender chicken and made even better with their hot and spicy sauce. Along with the potato macaroni salad, I opted for the Asian Coleslaw. If you are not a fan of cilantro, forgo this side item. The overpowering cilantro gave this an almost minty quality. Refreshing, but only for some.

We're glad reader Missy and the group over at OC Weekly steered us towards Da Lu'au. It's not the best Hawaiian food we have had, but it's not the worst by a long shot. In fact, it's pretty good for a fast-casual place. Prices were not crazy, with only a few items reaching the double-digit mark. It's maybe not destination dining, but if you're in the area and jonesing for Hawaiian food, this could be the spot for you.

Out of five outrigger canoes (which happen to be the official team sport of Hawaii), five being best to zero being worst, Da Lu'au gets 3 outrigger canoes.

For more information about Da Lu'au Hawaiian Grill, go to their website here: https://daluaulakeforest.wixsite.com/1234

Cashing In Last Years Christmas Gift at Taco Rosa

Taco Rosa

13792 Jamboree Road

Irvine, CA 92602

I'm real bad at using gift cards. Don't get me wrong, I love getting them, but I think I like having them in case there's a rainy day, more than parting with them. For Christmas every year, we have a gift exchange with Katie's brother, sisters, and all of their significant others. We pick the names out of a hat at Thanksgiving, and all hope that we do not end up picking Katie's brother Jimmy, (that guy is hard to buy for).

Anyways, I usually just tell whoever picks my name to just get me a gift card to a restaurant. It's easy, and during the busy holiday season, the last thing you want to do is run around trying to find the perfect gift. Last Christmas I received a Taco Rosa gift card from Jimmy. I had mentioned that this restaurant was on my list of places to hit up and he remembered that, and made the trip to Irvine to buy the gift card. So now that we were watching the Ducks light their Christmas tree at the Irvine Marketplace, it seemed like the perfect time to use our gift card.

Taco Rosa has gotten a lot of praise for their food. Their margaritas have won the OC Register's best margarita contest from 2011 to 2013, they won two Golden Foodie Awards, and their queso fundido and churros have been named best in all of OC by Orange Coast Magazine. Taco Rosa was started by Ivan Calderon, the same guy that gave us the much more casual Taco Mesa. There are now two locations of Taco Rosa in OC, this one in Irvine, and another in Newport, in close proximity to Fashion Island.

We arrived at Taco Rosa just before 7pm on a Wednesday night. The shopping center was swarming with Ducks fans, but we had no problem getting a seat right away. I thought the restaurant would have been bigger, but they have 30 or so tables in this upscale Mexican restaurant that specializes in the cuisine of Mexico City. I asked the waiter how he would describe Mexico City cooking, and he claims that it's kind of a melting pot of all the cuisines from all over Mexico. Sounds good to us, so we checked out the menu, made our selections, and waited for our food to come out.

From what I've heard about Taco Rosa, they start off most meals with a free appetizer, or what fancy people call an amuse bouche. I'm not really that fancy though. This appetizer was called a Sopecito by our waiter before he hurriedly ran off to another table. It was a very small sope, smeared with beans and then topped with lettuce and queso fresco, served alongside some sliced carrots, cauliflower and onion. The sope portion of this was a little on the doughy side, and overall the flavor of this was a little boring, but it was free.

My camera did not pick it up too well, but this Queso Fundido en Cazuela ($15) came to the table, and was lit on fire by our waiter. I always like when things are set on fire table side, it's kind of like a little extra show. This queso fundido has won praise from Orange Coast Magazine, which called it the best one in the county. At Taco Rosa they use a four cheese blend which is served with mushrooms and longaniza, which is a Spanish sausage similar to chorizo. It might be the different sausage used here, but this was not as heavy as other versions we have had. There was lots of meat in here, the mushrooms added a nice dynamic, and the fried cheese at the bottom of the skillet was an added bonus. This queso fundido deserves all of the praise it receives.

After over five years of being together, maybe Katie is starting to take on some of my habits. I usually tend to get a combo plate when eating at a new place, so I can try as many things as possible. Katie selected the Cuatro Combination Plate ($13). This plate came with a cheese enchilada, a blackened chicken taco, beans, rice, and a sweet corn tamalito. Katie called this plate, "delicious", but it had some temperature issues, as it was a little on the lukewarm side. Nonetheless, Katie liked all the flavors on this plate. The rice was soft and the beans tasted good. Katie was also a fan of the sweet corn tamale, but wished that there was more of the buttery sauce poured on top of it.

I went away from my love of combo plates, when I saw this Dos Puercos Burrito ($15) on the menu. This large burrito was filled with pork shoulder and pork belly carnitas, rice, pico de gallo, cheese, and covered with a chile negro sauce and onions. I had higher hopes for this burrito. First off, just like Katie's plate, this came to the table just tepid in temperature. I also wanted more from the pork here. I could not really distinguish between the shoulder meat and the pork belly, and I love pork belly. The chili sauce was good, even without being spicy. A very rich flavor. The pork belly beans that came with this were very hearty, and a nice alternative to refried beans.

Also from Orange Coast Magazine, these Churros Coloniales ($7) were rated best in OC. I have to admit, these were really good. Not oily, and nicely dusted with cinnamon and sugar. They came served with a chocolate sauce which was not overly sweet. A very good churro, and I'd tend to agree with Orange Coast Magazine that these are the best churros I have had recently.

Taco Rosa was a good restaurant, just not great on this visit. The items that we had heard about as being great definitely were, but our entrees were just a little bit above average. Nothing that would prevent us from coming back though. The service that we experienced on this night was spotty in the beginning, but came on strong midway through our meal. Glad we finally used our gift card, now that it's time to pick names again for this Christmas.

Out of five mushrooms, (because ROSA also stands for the Romanian Space Agency, and they are conducting experiments on the International Space Station about the growth and effect of growing fungi in space), five being best to zero being worst, Taco Rosa gets 3 mushrooms.

For more information about Taco Rosa, head over to their website here: http://www.tacorosa.com/index.php