Cousin Conclave at Craftsman Pizza

Craftsman Wood Fired Pizza

148 Yorba Linda Blvd. 

Placentia, CA 92870

The holidays are a time for families to get together. I'm pretty lucky, almost all of my family lives in OC, and the rest live in the surrounding counties. So it's not rare that we all see each other throughout the year. The one exception to this is my cousin DJ. He moved to Chile last year and loves it. He's really done well down there, and I'm pretty proud of him. Going to Chile with no real plan, and ending up owning and operating a hot sauce company that he's grown from the ground up. I was excited to catch up with him and hear about all his adventures, so we headed out to dinner by where he was staying, and ended up at Craftsman Wood Fired Pizza.

Craftsman is located in Placentia, in the same shopping center as Marie Callender's. Open just over a year, they were named best pizza in Orange County by OC Weekly. Such high praise for a new restaurant, I immediately put them on our list of places to try.

Owned by a third-generation restaurateur, Joe Rasic has brought his experience to his own place. The restaurant was busy with activity on Friday night we were here to grab a quick bite. Usually, these wood-fired pizza places are kind of on the stuffy side, but this one kind of had the feel of the old family pizza joints from back in the day. You know the ones that your coach would bring you to after a Little League game, and you would run amuck, begging your parents for quarters all night long. No video games that I saw here, but I was totally focused on the food.

The menu here is, of course, pizza driven. There are 12 pizzas to choose from, but if you prefer there is also the build your own option. Not in the mood for pizza? There's a few sandwiches offered, and some salads. Another focus at Craftsman is the rather large beer selection. Craft beer rules here and the selection of large bottles and draft selections were a little overwhelming for me since I'm not really well versed in craft beers. I basically just picked one at random and went with it. Our waitress was was pretty knowledgeable about the beers, and when she couldn't answer our questions, she found someone that could. I was way more excited about the pizzas, so let's see if we think this is the best pizza in OC.

We started our meal with these Beer Battered Zucchini ($8). These were a little overcooked, and being that they were beer battered, I thought the outer coating would have been a little lighter, and more flavorful. These fried zucchini were rather boring and really did not leave a lasting impression on us. The ranch dressing was good though. Nice and thick.

The menu at Craftsman says that their 10-inch pizzas serve 1 to 2 comfortably, and that is definitely the case. The three of us each got one of their specialty pizzas, starting with Katie's selection, the Grilled Steak and Potato ($9). This pizza came topped with sliced potato, tri-tip steak, Gouda, caramelized onions, olive oil, and chimichurri. Katie liked this comforting pizza. The tri-tip was tender, and the chimichurri was a nice alternative to regular pizza sauce. A perfect pizza for meat and potato lovers.

My favorite pizza of the night, unfortunately, did not come to the table for me. This was DJ's choice, the Meatball and Grilled Peppers Pizza ($9). This pizza came with sliced meatballs, which they get from an outside vendor, a trio of roasted peppers, mozzarella cheese, and marinara sauce. The key for me with this pizza was that there was plenty of cheese on it. The meatballs were pretty solid, and the marinara seemed to pop on this pizza. I tried to sneak an extra piece of this, but DJ was having no part of that.

My pizza was so much like DJ's that I thought for sure I would like it just as much. I had the Principal Pizza ($9), which had sausage, garlic, red onions, and jalapenos. I expected this one to throw flavor in my face, but it kind of fell flat. I think it might have been the jalapenos that were the culprit. They provided no spice and added little in the way of flavor. The cheese and sausage kind of got lost here as well, and the garlic did not even make an appearance. I'd probably try another pizza on any future visits to Craftsman.

Before he left for Chile, DJ asked me to find him the best meatball sandwich in OC. I kind of have been lax on this quest, so I ordered this Meatball and Provolone Sandwich ($10) to show him I was still on the case. This was a pretty good meatball sandwich. It was served on rosemary bread and came with the same meatballs that were on the pizza, a marinara sauce, grilled onions, and provolone cheese. I would have liked the meatballs to be served whole on this, and maybe a little more cheese, but still a pretty solid sandwich. Not sure who does their bread, but this stood up well, and I liked the hint of rosemary. Still on my quest for a great meatball sandwich.

Without a doubt, the most disappointing part of our meal was dessert. We had ordered this Chocolate Chip Brownie Sundae ($5), which came out totally burnt. We ate it anyway because it still looked good, but there were definitely parts of this brownie that were on the charcoaled side. We liked the ice cream, but the hot fudge could have been a little thicker.

We had a good visit and a good meal with my cousin DJ on this night. Is this the best pizza in OC? In my opinion, it is not. It was good, but not great. I like pizzas covered in cheese and toppings, and these were a little light in both of those areas. I did like the fact that this is not a Chipotle-style pizza place, which seems to have taken over the entire world. Blaze, Pieology, Mod Pizza, Pizza Rev, and others are decent, but I miss the days of pizza parlors, which Craftsman is a nod towards. We would come back here for sure. Our waitress, Jasmyn was very personable and explained everything to us very well. I thought the prices were more than fair, and there are other pizzas I'd like to try. A great place to catch up with my world traveler cousin.

Out of five blackboards, (because the owner of this restaurants wife is a Placentia school teacher for over 22 years, and I am a proud graduate of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District), five being best to zero being worst, Craftsman Wood Fired Pizza gets 3 blackboards.

For more information about Craftsman Wood Fired Pizza, go to their website here: https://craftsmanpizza.com/

Ending the Year at Del Frisco's Grill

Del Frisco's Grille

772 Spectrum Center Dr. 

Irvine, CA 92618

I'm a big fan of New Years Day. I know it's a new beginning and all that stuff, but that's not why I like the first day of the year. I love New Years because it signals the end of the holiday season. I work a retail job, and the holidays bring in people that never shop for food. It's like they have never been to a supermarket all throughout the year. They forget how to read price tags, they sit there for hours choosing what kind of butter to buy, and customers stress out like they have never made this holiday dinner before, even though these recipes have been passed down from generation to generation. Yes, the holidays are not my favorite times.

So when New Years Eve rolls around, I like to celebrate that I made it through another holiday season with a great dinner.  Usually it's just me and Katie, but this year her parents joined us at the Irvine Spectrum. If you haven't been to the Spectrum lately, you might be surprised to see how many new restaurants were added to this shopping center. There's the new grilled cheese spot, The Melt, a brick and mortar version of the Lime Truck, which is shortened to TLT Food, Umami Burger now has a spot near the recently relocated Improv, and there's also a new Italian restaurant, Brio Tuscan Grille, which is right next to our dining destination on this evening, Del Frisco's Grill.

Del Frisco's Grille, or as the cool kids call it, DFG, comes to us from the same restaurant group that runs Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse, which has it's closest location to OC in Las Vegas. I haven't been there, but it's definitely on our list. Del Frisco's Grille describes itself on their website as a modern take on the bar and grill concept, but taken to the next level. We were excited to experience this firsthand on one of my favorite nights of the year.

I had made reservations a few days prior to New Years Eve, but the restaurant had plenty of tables available when we arrived at 7pm. As the night went on, the restaurant did fill up, but I'm sure walk-ins were still welcomed. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of DFG. It felt to me like an upscale, Vegas coffee shop. The restaurant had a wonderful wall of wine display as you enter the restaurant, and there's plenty of dining area in this 8,000 square foot space. The dinner menu has enough diversity to satisfy most diners. Let's see if we would leave DFG satisfied or not.

DFG came across our radar when we visited the Newport Beach Wine and Food Festival, where they were sampling these Ahi Tacos ($17.50). Katie's been thinking of these since that September day. These mini tuna tacos come with fresh avocado and a spicy citrus mayo. I liked these a little better when we had them the first time. Still they were good, but the tuna seemed a little fresher back in September. Katie still was enamored with these. She likes the citrus flavor of the mayo, and the contrast between the creaminess of the avocado and the slight spiciness of the mayo. I liked the crunch of the sturdy taco shells here.

One of the most talked about appetizers at DFG are these Cheesesteak Eggrolls ($13). These seemed misnamed to me. I did not really get a cheesesteak kind of feel from these. Don't get me wrong, they were pretty good though. They came topped with a honey mustard sauce, and placed on top of a sweet and spicy chili sauce, two sauces that do not bring to mind cheesesteaks. They came out piping hot, and I would have liked to have had the chili sauce in a ramekin for easier dipping. I may forgo these for the crab cake on my next visit to DFG.

Katie's dad Dennis was not feeling either of the two appetizers that we had, so he ordered this Corn Chowder ($7.50). Joining the corn chowder in the cup was some bacon crumbles, crab meat, and a small potato chip for texture. The bite I had of this seemed pretty sweet, but Dennis thought the inclusion of the crab kind of put the sweetness in check. He's a soup connoisseur, and he gave this corn chowder his seal of approval.

Our entrees started making their way out to us, and the first one to hit the table was Katie's selection, the DFG Chicken Alfredo ($18). I did not get a chance to try this, but it looked real good from across the table. Pappardelle pasta is used here, along with sauteed spinach, and a very good Parmesan garlic cream sauce. Katie also added chicken to this dish to round it out. She was pretty happy with this, exclaiming that she will probably get this on future visits here.

Dennis was taken by surprise by his dinner on this evening, when this Prime Beef Short Rib Stroganoff ($29) was placed in front of him. This is not your mothers stroganoff. DFG is known for their meats, and this short rib came out perfectly, but Dennis was expecting it to be in pieces, not all in one hunk. Nevertheless, it was tender, and had a pot roast quality to it. I liked that it went easy on the sour cream sauce, and the onion strings added a nice texture component. A much better version of a classic dish that we all grew up with.

Lynn kind of threw me for a loop by ordering this Wild Mushroom Flatbread ($15). Kind of out of character for her, but she seemed to really enjoy this. This flatbread came topped with Fontina cheese, caramelized onions, baby arugula, and of course mushrooms. This was a pretty good sized flatbread just for Lynn, so I got to try it as well. There was not an abundance of toppings here, but just the right amount. The crust had a good chew to it, the mushrooms provided an earthiness, and the cheese, while not added with a heavy hand, melded well in the background. This even had me, a meat fanatic, thinking this flatbread was pretty solid.

It was special night, so I decided to have the Veal Meatloaf ($19). This meatloaf had a little spice to it. The veal was of course very tender, but the Bordelaise sauce kind of overpowered it. Still a really good dish, which was rounded out by mashed potatoes, and a couple of wild mushrooms. A very nice meal to end the year with.

By this time of night we were getting pretty full, and I knew we would probably not make it to see 2015 come in at midnight, so we decided to indulge one last time by splitting a dessert. The Coconut Cream Pie ($10.50) came highly recommended from our waiter, so we got one to share. This light coconut cream pie was topped with curls of white chocolate. I liked this lighter than expected dessert. It was not overly sweet, the cream did not punch you in the face with coconut, and the graham cracker crust  held thing together well. Maybe a little too much white chocolate on this, but you can never complain about too much chocolate.

All in all, Del Frisco's Grill was a good way to end our 2014 culinary journey. No, it's not the best restaurant that we ate at all year, but it was solidly good. I look forward to coming back again and trying one of their steaks, or maybe their burger, which has gotten some very good press. The service we experienced on this night could not have been better. Our waiter, (sorry I forgot your name), was right on top of everything, without being intrusive. Everyone we encountered on this night really seemed like they wanted to be here to ensure that their guests had a great experience, which is a minor feat on a party night like this. Glad I could spend the last meal of the year with some of my favorite people. Now bring on 2015.

Out of five footballs, (because DFG's corporate headquarters are located in Southlake, Texas, which is home to many current and former Dallas Cowboy players), five being best to zero being worst, Del Frisco's Grille gets 3 strong footballs.

For more information about Del Frisco's Grille, go to their website here: http://delfriscosgrille.com/

 

Juiced for Breakfast at Orange Cafe

Orange Cafe

1608 E. Mayfair Ave. 

Orange, CA 92867

For the most part, Katie and I are pretty similar. Since we have moved in together and gotten engaged, I've noticed some small things that we have had to work out. She likes to squeeze the toothpaste from middle, and that drives me nuts. For a long time she would refuse to put the toilet paper on the roll, leaving it just inches away on the counter. I'm sure there's lots of things that have irked her about me, but she's kept pretty quiet about them.

One of our biggest differences is that she loves to sleep. You probably think that you love to sleep, but Katie loveeeee's to sleep. She can easily sleep soundly for 12 hours at a time, while I like to get the day going, and am out of bed after 7 hours on most days. With all of this slumbering by Katie, it really is rare that we make it out for breakfast. I got her up early, (9am) on a recent Sunday though, and we met our good friends Chris and Adrienne at Orange Cafe.

Not surprisingly, Orange Cafe is located in the city of Orange, right near the corner of Mayfair and Tustin Avenue. If you blink you might miss this place. Not crazy large, it has about twenty or so tables, and we got a seat right away, but they were going quick, and there was a wait when we left an hour later.

A real locals place, Orange Cafe had a real comfortable vibe. Not overly decorated, they have a ring of old license plates near the ceiling, and a board on the wall displaying their specials of the day. Their menu is of course breakfast driven, but they also have lunch items for people that do not like breakfast, or maybe for people like Katie, who like to sleep through breakfast. Make note, they are only open until 2pm, and closed on Tuesdays. Let's see what we thought of the food here.

We'll start things off with Chris's breakfast, the Spinach, Mushroom, Bacon and Swiss Cheese Omelette ($9.95). No need to tell you what's in this one, as all the ingredients are in the name of the dish. Chris took his time savoring this very good omelette. From across the table this looked very buttery, and full of spinach and bacon. This came with a breakfast side, and your choice of toast. Chris had the white toast and the home fries. No complaints from the birthday boy about any of the food he consumed on this morning.

Chris's much better half, Adrienne, is pretty vanilla when it comes to breakfast. Not liking onions, mushrooms, and a long list of other foods really limits what she will order. After much debate she settled on the Two Eggs Combo Breakfast ($7.55). This basic breakfast also included hash browns and three strips of bacon. Even with her pickiness, she enjoyed this very generic breakfast.

A lot of the on-line reviews for Orange Cafe talked about the Denver Potato Pancake Combo ($9.95). We're happy to report that all of those glowing reviews are warranted. Not to ruin the rest of this post for you, but this was the best thing we tried all morning. The potato pancakes came with bell pepper, ham, cheddar cheese, onion, and a dollop of sour cream. The potato was definitely the star here. I did not really notice the cheese or the ham, but these were still great potato pancakes. Unfortunately this is what Katie ordered, and I was trying to be respectful of her food, but I tried to swipe as many bites of this as possible. So good. The combo also came with eggs and bacon. A must get when coming to Orange Cafe.

I had also been advised to check out their blackboard specials that are posted everyday. The Creme Brulee French Toast ($9.95) came highly recommended, so I gave it a shot. It was good but not great. The sauce resembled the inside portion of a creme brulee, but it needed to be a little sweeter. The french toast portion of this was pretty average, and could not carry the dish. Again, not awful, but I'd probably try something else on my next visit here.

I'm glad I also ordered something besides the french toast. Orange Cafe has three Benedict's on their menu, each one sounded promising, but I selected the Country Benedict ($9.95) on this morning. Two biscuits are topped with sausage patties and poached eggs, then covered in country gravy. As you can probably imagine this was a very filling breakfast, but a little lighter than I had imagined. The biscuits were good, and went perfectly with the sausage patty. The poached egg got a little lost here, while the gravy had the texture on point, but I needed a bit more flavor from it. Still a solid breakfast plate, which was rounded out by the very well made home fries.

When we invited Chris and Adrienne out to breakfast, they suggested that we try another breakfast spot in Orange that we have already been to, and we ended up convincing them to come here instead. We made the right choice. Orange Cafe is a very solid breakfast spot that kind of gets overlooked because of their location, and because there are some better known breakfast spots in the city. Orange Cafe is definitely worth a try though. We experienced some pretty solid service on this day. Even though every table was filled, the food came out quick, and our waitress made sure we were doing alright. We're looking forward to coming back here again, if I can get Katie out of bed.

Out of five Cadbury eggs, (because this famous Easter treat was made by the Cadbury company, which used to be headquartered in the Mayfair section of London), five being best to zero being worst, Orange Cafe gets 3 Cadbury eggs.

Orange Cafe does not have a website, but you can check out their info and other reviews here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/orange-cafe-orange

Cornering the Market on Thai Food?

Thai Corner

22371 El Toro Road

Lake Forest, CA 92630

All of a sudden, we have been in a Thai mood lately. Maybe it's the colder weather, or perhaps we just have really enjoyed it, but Katie and I found ourselves craving Thai food on a Friday night. Not wanting to frequent the same old place we have hit up three times in the last two weeks, we ventured onto Yelp to find another highly rated spot around us. Up popped Thai Corner, with its 250-plus reviews and a four-star rating, so we headed out to see if Thai Corner could quench our Thai cravings.

Thai Corner is located at the far end of the Stater Bros. shopping center, at the corner of Trabuco and El Toro in Lake Forest. There's some sort of facelift going on in this center, but from what we could tell, all the construction was limited to the facade of the building.

This is not a huge restaurant, with maybe twelve or so tables. When we arrived at about 6pm, about seven of those tables were occupied, with only one lady serving everyone. We learned near the end of our visit that she's the owner, and her son also has another Thai Corner in Chino Hills. At our very conservative count, she must have said the word sorry about 150 times. She was sorry that she was short-staffed, that the food took longer than usual, and that it took a long time for a refill on drinks. We weren't in a hurry or anything, so we did not even notice it taking a long time, except for all the sorry's being thrown around. We were just hoping the food wouldn't be sorry, so let's see how it all turned out for us on this night.

I've been trying to find an OC equivalent to the excellent Thai soup I had at Lotus of Siam in Vegas, so it was natural that I would try their version of Tom Kah Gai ($9.95). This coconut-based soup came with sliced chicken, mushrooms, cilantro, and galanga root, like ginger. I had wished this was a little spicier. The chicken was tender, but not nearly enough of it for the serving size here, which was generous. The broth-to-chicken ratio was way off. Thus, we had lots of bites without any chicken. The base of the soup was flavorful, with the smooth coconut bursting through.

Katie selected these Deep Fried Wontons ($6.95) as an appetizer. These were filled with chicken, potato, and carrots. A pretty basic won ton. The filling did not really speak to me here. It was rather bland but livened up a bit when I used the sweet sauce that came with this. Not greasy at all. I left most of these for Katie.

I almost always stick to the curries at a Thai spot, which held true to form here. I opted for the Panang ($9.95). This was actually pretty tasty. The curry portion was right on point. A mild heat was provided by the red chili curry, which was instantly cooled down by the smooth coconut milk. I like the contrasts of Thai curries. You also have your choice of meat, and I went with the pork, which was just okay. Some of the more significant pieces were on the dry side, so I'd opt for a different protein on my next visit to Thai Corner.

I'd probably be shocked if Katie ever ordered anything but Chicken Pad Thai ($9.95) in a Thai restaurant. This popular dish comprises stir-fried Thai rice noodles, chicken tofu, and egg, then garnished with crushed peanuts and bean sprouts. Katie liked this well enough, but she would probably get another item on her next visit. She claims that it had a red chili sauce, which in her opinion, did not belong in a pad Thai. The bite I had was good, just not excellent.

Thai Corner definitely quenched our Thai cravings on this night. Is this destination dining? Not at all, but if you are in the area and want to have some inexpensive Thai food, this might be the place for you. Even though the lady said sorry a hundred times this night, we did not experience any awful service. The food came out promptly, and our drinks were refilled with regularity. I thought the prices were more than fair for a sit-down restaurant. Luckily we now have an alternative spot for our Thai cravings near our house.

Out of five babies (because no one puts baby in a corner, a Dirty Dancing reference,) five being best to zero being worst, Thai Corner gets 2.5 babies.

For more information about Thai Corner, go to their website here: http://thaicorneroc.com/Home.html

Dropping Some Green at Tender Greens

Tender Greens 

4237 Campus Drive

Irvine, CA 92612

I'm starting this year by checking some places off our list, the first of which is Tender Greens. On my restaurant wish list, I usually write down the city a restaurant is located, and then I write down a few random bits about the place. On my notes next to Tender Greens, I jotted down "mashed potatoes." Not sure where I heard about their mashed potatoes, but that gave us plenty of reason to head out and try this place.

It was the day after Christmas, and we had the bright idea to head to the Irvine Spectrum location of Tender Greens. Unable to find parking after about a ten-minute drive through the cluttered parking lot, we decided to try the other OC spot for Tender Greens, which just happened to also be in Irvine, at UCI, which was far from the throngs of shoppers returning all their gifts for something that they truly wanted.

I was pretty shocked that there were so many people out and about at University Center in Irvine. Classes ended early in December, and the next quarter doesn't begin until January, but there were plenty of people out on this cool night. Back when I was going to school, I wouldn't have been caught dead around my school during Christmas break, so this gave me hope that Tender Greens would be excellent.

Tender Greens describes itself as "slow food done fast." Ordering is done at a register, then the food is placed on a tray, and you pick it up at the end of the line. Kind of like a modern-day cafeteria. You pick your protein, then choose whether to have it on a sandwich, as a plate, or on top of a salad, then you finish it up by choosing a side salad to go along with your meal. There are also entree salads, soups, and some bakery goods to round out your meal. We ordered, got our trays, and found a table in the very relaxed dining room. Let's see how it all turned out for us.

Since it was a night in the low 50's, Katie tried some Rustic Chicken Soup ($4) to warm her up. This soup came with potatoes, carrots, celery, leeks, thyme, and shredded chicken. Although it had dark and white meat chicken, Katie enjoyed this soup. The chicken was tender, the veggies were plentiful, and this soup had a comfortable feel. It definitely did the trick by warming Katie up.

Staying with Katie's meal, we'll look at her Albacore Tuna Sandwich ($11.50) with a simple salad of Baby Spinach. Katie liked this sandwich as well. It was not very fishy, it could have used a bit more aioli, but the ciabatta did a great job of keeping things together. The spinach salad included goat cheese, hazelnuts, and a Cabernet vinaigrette. Again, the produce was fresh, and the goat cheese made its presence known. She left Tender Greens very satisfied.

I had heard good things about their Backyard Marinated Steak ($11.50), so that's the way I went here. The menu promised that this would come medium rare, and they did not lie. It was cooked perfectly but needed to come out warmer. Temperature-wise, this was just a tad over lukewarm. Good flavor and is very tender. I would still not hesitate to get this again. Those potatoes that I had made a note of on my list, they had a good texture but needed more pop to them. A sauce or gravy would have made the meat and potatoes even better. I went with a Romaine Hearts salad, their version of a Caesar. It was good, but it could have used a little more dressing.

Katie gets soup to go along with her meal, but I could not resist the urge to try one of their Cowboy Cookies ($2.50). They really nailed the texture of this cookie. A little crunch around the edges and softer in the middle. It had coconut and chocolate chips inside of it. A little more chocolate would have made this cookie even better. Still good, though.

We left Tender Greens feeling pretty good about our experience here. The food had a few minor flaws, but it was fresh, tasted good, and came out quickly, which is probably the goal of Tender Greens. The prices were fair, and the portion sizes were about what I would expect from a place like this. The food here is not too heavy, and we had enough room to make a trip to Stax Cookie Bar for some of their fabulous cookies. An excellent start to our year by having a good meal and knocking down our list of restaurants we want to eat at by just a bit.

Out of five koala bears (because there are 33 species of eucalyptus trees on the UCI campus, and those happen to be the favorite trees of the koala), five being best to zero being worst, Tender Greens gets 3 koala bears.

For more information about Tender Greens, head to their website here: http://www.tendergreens.com/