Birthday Blowout at Bistro West - CLOSED

Bistro West

4960 Avenida Encinas

Carlsbad, CA 92008

So I guess we have a new tradition when it comes to Katie's birthday. Instead of me trying to guess what to get her, and having her end up returning it, I let her pick out her own gift. I know it's not the most romantic thing to do, but I want her to get something she's going to like and use. So we headed off to the Carlsbad Premium Outlets, and she got to go on a mini shopping spree.

Another part of this new birthday tradition is me picking out a restaurant to take her to. She's really easy when it comes to trying new places, so I went online and looked for restaurants near the outlet stores. I knew I was going to be pretty hungry after dealing with the Sunday crowds down there, and looking at the traffic on the 5 Freeway going north, I knew coming back to OC for dinner was not going to be an option. Best to let traffic thin out a little bit, and try a restaurant in Carlsbad. We decided on Bistro West, which is about five minutes away from the packed stores.

Bistro West is kind of off by itself, on the western side of the 5 Freeway. It's located on the same property as the West Inn and Suites but detached from the hotel. There's plenty of parking for restaurant guests, and there was not too much of a crowd at the awkward dining hour of 4pm on a Sunday, but there was a smattering of people eating in their rather large dining room.

The dining room was classy, but not stuffy, which is a hard balance to attain. We were in casual shopping clothes and did not feel too out of place here. It might be a little different as the night goes on though. For our OC fans, Bistro West kind of felt like the Winery, or maybe even JT Schmid's.

Bistro West is very proud of their own farm, which from what I have been able to gather, is located directly behind the outlet stores. This 3-acre farm ensures that they have fresh items to help them maintain their seasonally revolving menu. Speaking of their menu, it was rather diverse, with many appetizers, salads, pizzas, pasta, sandwiches, burgers, and entree options. I had a hard time picking something, but it was time to make our choices. Let's see what we came up with.

Our waiter, Reggie promised us some freshly baked rolls, and he delivered. These came to the table very hot and freshly baked. They kind of had the consistency of a sourdough roll, but not the sourdough taste I was expecting. Still a solid dinner roll though.

The birthday girl started things off with the small-sized Bistro Baby Mixed Green Salad ($6.95). For being small sized, this salad was pretty big with flavor. This one came with caramelized walnuts, roasted tomatoes, blue cheese, a balsamic vinaigrette, and of course fresh greens. Katie really enjoyed this salad. She liked that there was plenty of blue cheese on here, and the roasted tomatoes were a nice surprise. They were a little light on the dressing, but Katie favors that, as it lets the veggies be the star of the show.

I really wanted to try their Caesar salad, but I decided to buck the trend and have a go at their Ham and Bean Soup ($5.50). Like the rolls, this came to the table smoking hot. It was a very good hearty soup. Lots of flavors, and lots of shredded ham and beans in here. I should have had the bowl for an extra dollar, but I did have more food on the way.

Even though it was her birthday, Katie did not go for the most expensive thing on the menu, which would have been fine. Instead, she had this modest Hot Reuben Sandwich ($16.95). All the usual suspects were here; corned beef, Swiss cheese, house made sauerkraut, and thousand island dressing, all on toasted rye bread. Katie liked this sandwich but was not in love with it. The corned beef was not as tender as it could have been, and they needed a little more thousand island dressing on here to soak up some of the dryness of the meat. The toasted bread was very well done, and the sauerkraut that they make here did not overpower, like a lot of sauerkraut's can. She'd probably get something else on her next visit here. She was blown away by the Asian Coleslaw side that she had. I'm not sure what was in this, but she mentioned this coleslaw at least three times since we have left Bistro West.

I had read online somewhere that one of the burgers here was voted best burger in North San Diego, so I had to give one of them a try. I chose the Bleu Cheeseburger and added Bacon ($15.45). The burgers here are a half pound each, and this one came with caramelized onion, blue cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a sundried tomato truffle aioli sauce. This burger had a very good balance working for it. The blue cheese was strong on this burger, but the added bacon helped to cut the taste of it a bit. The bun here did a great job keeping everything together, it was toasted nicely, and had a nice crunch to it. The burger itself was overcooked though. They asked how I wanted it, and I said medium, but this came out closer to well done. It still tasted good, but I'm sure it would have been juicier if it was closer to medium. I went with French Fries for my side item, and they came out nice and crisp. A pretty good french fry, but nothing that made it stand out too much.

Katie had mentioned that it was her birthday, and our waiter Reggie brought out this Warm Gingered Pear Cobbler ($8.95, but free for her birthday). This was topped with a little bit of a crumble, Tahitian vanilla gelato, and surrounded by two dollops of whipped cream. I'm usually not too partial to fruit desserts, but this one was pretty solid. The pear was a nice deviation from apple that is almost always used. The crust of the cobble could have had more crumble, but the gelato added a little sweetness. Katie has been abstaining from desserts recently, but really seemed to enjoy this one.

Now, this is definitely more my style of dessert. This Bistro West Mud Pie ($8.95) might be misnamed, but it did not detract from its deliciousness. When you usually think of mud pies, you probably think of a cake layered with ice cream, and this was more of a deconstructed version of the classic mud pie. The base of this starts with an Oreo cookie crust with peanut butter, then is topped by coconut and white chocolate chip brownie, and topped with whipped cream and berries, with a coffee stout gelato on the side. The brownie portion of this was very rich, but oh so good. Very moist, and me being a peanut butter lover, this got me from the first bite. I did not really get a lot of coconut or white chocolate here, but I did not mind. The gelato was nice and mellow, and the coffee flavor did not overpower. A few other desserts sound pretty good on their menu, but I can't see myself getting anything else, but this one.

We both left Bistro West satisfied, but not blown away, (except with that last dessert). The food here was good, but we both remarked that we would like to try somewhere else when we come down here again next year for Katie's birthday. Maybe we just ordered the wrong things, and something else on this diverse menu would totally make us want to come back here. This restaurant is very comfortable, the service was good, and there's plenty to choose from on the menu, so you'll definitely find something to order at Bistro West. I'm already starting to do some research for next years restaurant, so if you have somewhere that will blow us away, leave us a comment or shoot us an email. I'm just glad I don't have to head back to those outlet stores for another 12 months.

Out of five golf clubs, (because the city of Carlsbad is home to many golf makers corporate headquarters, like Callaway, Cobra, and Taylormade), five being best to zero being worst, Bistro West gets 3 golf clubs.

For more information about Bistro West, go to their website here: http://www.bistrowest.com/

Flavors of Aloha Cookbook Release Party at Tommy Bahama

Tommy Bahama Island Grille 

854 Avocado 

Newport Beach, CA 92660

Now that we have settled back into our normal routine after all the wedding shenanigans that we had to endure the last year, we both made a vow to eat at home more often. Just this week we ate at home two times, which almost doubles the amount of home-cooked meals that we have made since we moved in together a year and a half ago. Yes, we eat out a lot.

It makes sense that we would want to cook more at home now though. Thanks to family and friends, we have all new cooking utensils, a new set of fantastic pots and pans, new dishes, silverware, and new appliances to use. The only thing we were missing was a really great cookbook. Now thanks to the great folks at Tommy Bahama, and world-renowned, cookbook author, Rick Rodgers, we are now in possession of a great cookbook, "Flavors of Aloha". If you love the food at Tommy Bahama Island Grille or the food of Hawaii, then this book is a must for you.

We were recently treated to a few of the 100 recipes that are included in this first in a series of Cooking with Tommy Bahama cookbooks. Many of these recipes are served at one of the thirteen Tommy Bahama restaurants located throughout the country, so you can make some of your restaurant favorites right in your home. Cookbook author, Rick Rodgers uses clear and concise step-by-step directions that will have novice cooks like myself, basking in the glow of friends and family. The cookbook is also photographed beautifully and transports you across the Pacific for the short time that you are preparing your meal. Let's take a look at what Tommy Bahama had in store for us this evening.

As we were ushered to the back patio of the restaurant for cocktails, we were lei'd with beautiful flowers around our neck, and presented with arguably the most iconic cocktail from Hawaii, the Mai Tai. Now with the help of Flavors of Aloha, you can entertain at home with this classic beverage, which can be found on page 167. A little rum, along with other potent potables, and you will be whisked away to that tropical beach of your dreams as you sip this cocktail. Very relaxing.

Probably the first recipe I'm going to tackle out of this cookbook will be this one, the Sweet Maui Onion, and Bacon Dip. Way better than those dry packets you get at the supermarket, this dip had a great depth of flavor, which was rounded out by bacon, and that can never be wrong, right? This dip was served with root chips, which were good, but I'm going to go old school and use good old Ruffles potato chips when I make this. I already can't wait to attempt this one.

If you've been to Tommy Bahama Island Grille, and not had their World Famous Coconut Shrimp, you have truly missed out on one of the best items on the menu. A lighter-than-usual breaded shrimp is served with a sweet papaya-mango chutney, which goes great with the brininess of the shrimp. Great crunch to this one, and then the sweetness of the chutney hits you. This might be the first thing we make using the new deep fryer that we received for our wedding.

Please excuse my poor hand modeling in these shots, but don't let that distract you from this wonderful Ahi Tuna Poke. Poke has definitely become way more mainstream within the last few years, and this was a very good version. There was just enough going on here, so it did not distract from the natural flavor of the ahi. This very fresh cubed tuna was made even more special with the addition of an excellent avocado wasabi cream, which added a nice dynamic to this unique presentation, which was served in a sesame cone.

Here's a different take on your standard wings. These Roasted Korean Chicken Wings don't look like anything you can get at Hooters, and they tasted way better as well. What these wings lacked in spiciness, they made up for in flavor. A nice mix of ginger, garlic, and honey washed over each bite in waves. Very nicely done.

And the hits just kept on coming. This Coconut and Curry Marinated Pork Satay was absolutely delicious, and hard to resist since I knew we had a full-on meal coming our way. Char-grilled and then finished with a very well-made peanut sauce. I limited myself to only three of these but could have made an entire meal of them.

There was a chef demo going on near the back of the patio, which I missed, due to me talking way too much to my food friends. I was lucky enough to get a quick shot of the end result of the demo item, Spam Musubi. A factoid I learned while reading the Flavors of Aloha cookbook is that Hawaiians eat 5 and a half cans of Spam a year on average, many of which are used this way. I'm not much of a Spam lover, but eating it this way was not too bad.

After what seemed like an endless assortment of appetizers, we were ushered into the restaurant for dinner. Here we started with a Green Papaya and Chilled Shrimp Salad. Julienned veggies were tossed with cilantro, peanuts, and fresh lime. After all of those appetizers, I really appreciated the lightness of this salad.

The main course was up next, and much to my delight, it was both fish and red meat, which I always feel is like hitting the lotto. The better of the two on this night was the Kona Coffee Crusted Skirt Steak. Big-time flavors on this one. You could actually taste a hint of coffee in this well-made rub, and the steak was cooked to a wonderful medium rare. Then the generous serving of steak was topped with heirloom tomato relish, for a great finish. Very tasty. The Ginger Glazed Wild King Salmon was also good but was a little overshadowed by the steak for me. This salmon also had a lot of things working here, a hoisin sauce, fresh ginger, and sesame seeds. The seafood lovers around us were pretty content with this presentation.

Side items in the Flavors of Aloha cookbook definitely starred in their own right. We had four of them on this night. The one that was the most buzzed about was the Wasabi and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. These had that special wasabi flavor, but without that burn hole in your stomach heat, you would expect from wasabi. I'm always partial to mushrooms, and these Drunken Mushrooms were on point. Made drunken by the addition of sake, I counted at least three different kinds of mushrooms here, but there could have been more. The Chili and Lemon Broccolini added a big pop of green to our plates, as well as a boost of citrus. I'm no fan of kimchi, so I was a little hesitant to put too much of the Cabbage and Daikon Kimchi on my plate, but from what I had, it was pretty good, but I'm still not a kimchi guy.

Dessert is always special at Tommy Bahama, and one of the main reasons for this is because of their famous Pina Colada Cake. The lightness of this cake and the excellent island flavors are a great finish to any meal, and now that the recipe is included in the Flavors of Aloha Cookbook, you can enjoy this cake at home whenever you want. Which may get me in some trouble. Vanilla cake, with dark rum, diced pineapple, white chocolate mousse, and toasted coconut will even have coconut haters liking this cake. A wonderful end to our evening at Tommy Bahama.

When we left Tommy Bahama we were presented with the Flavors of Aloha Cookbook, and I have to say that I am pretty impressed, and more importantly, inspired to use this cookbook. It is written very well, not only with the directions, but with little tidbits about Hawaii, and the food from there. No, we will not stop going out to restaurants, like Tommy Bahama Island Grille, but since we have an all-new kitchen, we will definitely make use of this cookbook with all of these great recipes.

We would like to thank everyone that made this night possible for us. First, we would like to thank everyone at Tommy Bahama for hosting such a great event. It was a pleasure meeting Rob Goldberg, Executive Vice President of Tommy Bahama, and getting a chance to learn the process of how the cookbook came about, and talk little sports with him as well. We also would like to thank the Director of Culinary Operations at Tommy Bahama, Don Donley, and his team in the kitchen, who brought all of these wonderful recipes to life on our plates. Great work guys. Lastly, we definitely have to thank the author of Flavors of Aloha, the wonderful Rick Rodgers, who without him, we would not all be here on this night. He's worked on and authored way too many cookbooks to mention here, he's a much-in-demand teacher of cooking classes, has been featured on many TV shows, and was such a great guy, that he didn't mind answering annoying questions from a restaurant blogger from Orange County. Thanks for everything Rick.

If you would like to get your hands on the Flavors of Aloha cookbook, you can buy it by following this link, http://www.tommybahama.com/TBG/Home/PRD_TH33001/Flavors+of+Aloha+Cookbook.jsp

Also, do not forget to think about heading to Tommy Bahama Island Grille for some great food. More information can be found here: http://www.tommybahama.com/TBG/Stores_Restaurants/Newport_Beach.jsp

Finally a Reunion Worth Going To

Reunion Kitchen and Drink

5775 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road

Anaheim, CA 92807

It was that time of year again, one of the two times that I trudge my way up to Yorba Linda to get my teeth cleaned, and fit in a lunch with my mom. I always enjoy these outings because it gives me someone on one time with my mom, and also because it gives me a chance to try a restaurant up in North OC that's usually been on our list for a long time. This trip we had the chance to cross Reunion Kitchen and Bar off of our restaurant bucket list.

Reunion has gotten a lot of positive press from Orange Coast Magazine, and I have seen many of my North OC friends posting pictures of their experiences at this Anaheim Hills hot spot. Reunion comes to us from Scott McIntosh, whose pedigree includes stints at Claim Jumper, French 75, and Nick's. The menu here can be described as American comfort food, with only one item over the $25 mark, (the filet mignon goes for $37). There's only one menu for both lunch and dinner, and the portion sizes are reported to be very generous.

I met my mom here on a Thursday, just before noon. The lunch rush started with a trickle, but then it exploded, with people filling up the restaurant and the patio out front. This spot used to be home to Rick Mead's Canyon Restaurant, and before that, when I was in high school it was a Sizzler.

My high school self would not recognize this space now though. Lots of woods dominate here, and some yellow walls liven up the place. The prevailing feeling of this restaurant was kind of like the Ranch in Anaheim, but without a dance floor, and a little less stuffy. A good many of the seating areas are booths, which is always nice. I came here hungry, so I was definitely keyed up to experience the cuisine at Reunion.

Of course, I did a little research online before coming here, and these Cajun Tater Tots ($8) made quite an impression on a lot of people, so of course, we needed to start with them. I was pretty impressed with these. They weren't greasy, fried nicely, and the sour cream sauce paired up well. I also enjoyed the serving size here, more than enough for my mom and I to share while waiting for our entrees to arrive. A great start.

My mom has been craving a BLT, and they just happened to have one on the menu at Reunion. Their version is called the Awesome BLT ($14), and my mom added avocado to this to make even more awesome. All of the usual suspects are included here; applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, salt, and pepper, all on a Parmesan grilled sourdough. This was very good sized for my mom, who actually took half of this home to my dad. The bread did a great job of keeping things together, while there was plenty of bacon included in this. My only complaint would have been that there was way too much lettuce on this and not enough mayo for my taste. Still one of the better BLT's we have had though.

Even though I was going to be sitting in a dentist's chair in a few hours, I could not resist having a big lunch. This Barbecue Glazed Meatloaf ($17) filled the bill perfectly. This classic meatloaf was wrapped in bacon, and sauced with a sweet, but not overpowering barbecue sauce. The BBQ sauce complimented the tender meatloaf wonderfully. Definitely not your mother's meatloaf. This came served with grilled vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, and garlic cheese toast. American comfort food at its best. The vegetables were grilled nicely, with a lot of flavors. The mashed potatoes were just left lumpy enough to add some texture, but the gravy kind of got lost here. The cheese toast was probably the weakest link on the plate, but with such a big portion size, the last thing you need is more carbs.

If there's one dessert on a menu that I can't refuse, it's Warm Butter Cake ($8). I had a feeling that this version would be as great as Scott McIntosh's last place of employment, Nick's. I was correct in my assumption. For those of you that have never had this dessert before, I would describe it as a Twinkie on steroids. Soft, rich yellow cake is topped with vanilla ice cream, and served alongside a couple of berries and whipped cream and a smear of raspberry sauce. The perfect bite for me involves the ice cream, the cake, and the raspberry sauce. So good. You must save room for this dessert when eating at Reunion. A great end to a wonderful meal.

I was pretty pleased with everything we had at Reunion Kitchen and Drink. It's easy to see why all of my North OC friends have been raving about this place in their Facebook and Twitter posts. The food here is really good, and reminiscent of the great food at Claim Jumper, back when they used to be good. With ten sandwiches and ten entrees to choose from, I look forward to trying more of their menu in the near future. I'm looking at you turkey pot pie and bacon avocado cheddar burger. The service matched the comfortable ambiance here. Our server was very steady and answered all of our questions. Reunion was so good, I almost am looking forward to going back to the dentist in another six months.

Out of five cowboy hats, (because Reunion Tower is located in Dallas, and people there sometimes wear cowboy hats), five being best to zero being worst, Reunion Kitchen and Drink gets 3.5 cowboy hats.

For more information about Reunion Kitchen and Drink, go to their website here: http://reunionkitchen.net/

Will This Be Hello or Goodbye to Ciao Pasta?

Ciao Pasta 

31661 Camino Capistrano 

San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675

The city of San Juan Capistrano is not usually a city you would think of when you want Italian food, but a quick Yelp search yields the same amount of Italian restaurants, as Mexican joints. Not something I would have expected.

We have been craving Italian for awhile now, so we checked out Ciao Pasta, which is across the street from the Mission on Camino Capistrano. We walked in on a recent Saturday night, and were seated right away. Their website suggests having a reservation on weekend nights, but our experience would seem to indicate that it's not needed. Most patrons opt to eat on the much more lively patio in the front of the restaurant. We chose to sit inside, and were placed with a good view of the kitchen, which I always kind of enjoy.

The dining room at Ciao Pasta is very comfortable and spacious. Tables are not right on top of each other, and the lack of other customers really lead to a private dining encounter. Tiled floor, soft rock, and muted lighting really added to the relaxed atmosphere here too. The menu is Southern Italian focused, and reads like almost every Italian menu across the county. Starters, salads, meat and seafood dishes, a few pizzas, and pasta dishes are all well represented here. We made our selections, settled back, and enjoyed each others company while I watched the inner workings of the kitchen area. Let's see what came out of there for us.

As is the usual routine in Italian restaurants, we were started off with a bread basket. The bread here is pretty standard focaccia. It was soft, and freshly baked. It was served alongside an olive dip, which really would appeal to olive lovers. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of olives, so I only had a little bit of this. Katie enjoyed it though.

One of my favorite things about dining in Italian restaurants is that for the most part, salads are included with the meal. That was the case here at Ciao Pasta as well. This Dinner Salad was made up of romaine lettuce, red cabbage, shredded carrots, a generous dusting of parmesan cheese, and an Italian vinaigrette. A very basic salad, which had plenty of dressing on it, which I like. The grated parm was a nice touch here too.

Let's start with Katie's meal first, the Halibut Mediterraneo ($29.95). This oven baked halibut came crusted with olives, capers, and parmesan, and was then topped with olive oil, garlic, cherry tomatoes, and served over spinach. Katie really enjoyed this plate. The breading was not overly heavy, the halibut was fresh and flaky, and the sauce really added some subtle flavor here. She'd definitely get this again.

I had mixed feelings about my selection, the Paccherri Porro E Salsiccia ($17.95). The first few bites of this wide tuned pasta, with leeks, spicy ground sausage, and a cream sauce were pretty good, but then it became kind of boring. I'm not really a big fan of the wide tube pasta, as it does not allow the sauce to cling to it. The sausage here was not spicy at all. This plate was only saved when I ordered a Side of Meatballs ($3.95), and used the red sauce to doctor up my own kind of pink sauce. The added meat helped make my dinner way more enjoyable. Good, tender meatballs here.

Dessert was still an option for me, since I was not quite at capacity food-wise. I gave their Chocolate Souffle ($8.50) a try. They topped their souffle with vanilla ice cream, which can never be a bad thing. I liked this, but was not in love with it. I really think the ice cream was there to distract from the below average souffle. Not that it was awful, but we've had much better.

From reading above, I think you know the way I am leaning towards Ciao Pasta. Nothing we had was totally awful, but this is a very average Italian restaurant in my opinion. Yes, it could have just been our choices that we made on this night, but the prices were also a little out of whack here. The serving size of Katie's fish did not warrant a thirty dollar price tag, and mine should have been a few dollars less than the $24 I had to pay for the meal and the meatballs to make it a more interesting dish. I'm sure the prices are a result of this high traffic area right across from the mission, but I'm not going to help pay their rent by eating average cuisine. Service was good though, and since this restaurant has such a nice patio out front, this might be more of a spot to grab a drink and some appetizers, rather than getting a full meal.

Out of five peppers, (because the largest California pepper tree in the US, once resided at the mission across the street until 2005), five being best to zero being worst, Ciao Pasta gets 2.5 peppers. Maybe they can use these peppers to bring some life to some of their dishes.

For more information about Ciao Pasta, go to their website here: http://www.ciaopasta.net/