26 Miles Across the Sea for This?

Mi Casita

111 Claressa Ave. 

Avalon, CA 90704

Sometimes you have everything mapped out, and then there's a big wrench thrown in the machinery. The wrench in this scenario is Katie's family. Yes, I love them with all of my heart, but they are very loyal to some pretty mediocre restaurants. When I first met them, they had a rotating restaurant routine of Cedar Creek, Mimi's Cafe, King's Fish House, and El Ranchito. Don't get me wrong, there are some okay restaurants on this list, but when you eat at them almost anytime that you go out, it kind of gets a little monotonous. So when we were headed to Catalina Island for a weekend getaway, they asked me to come up with some new places for them to try.

One problem, they have their favorites on Catalina also. Sadly, my list of restaurants to try would be discarded, until Katie and I snuck off for a lunch on our own. One of their favorite spots is Mi Casita, which is about a block away from the harbor, and located on the same street as our beach house rental was situated. I had read about this place, while doing research, and had an idea as to how it was going to be. I did go in with an open mind, and because I was pretty hungry, I did not put up much of a fight that they wanted to eat here.

Mi Casita has been around forever it seems. I do not have an exact date on how long they have been in business, but their first Yelp review was 10 years ago, and I know they were around a long time before that. The decor here is bright and happy, with every color of the rainbow represented inside the restaurant. Our party of nine was seated in the back of the restaurant, right near the bar. The menu here is rather large, and mostly what you would expect a Mexican restaurant in a touristy area to serve. We made our selections rather quickly, or as quickly as 9 people can, and waited for our food to come out. Let's see if I had made a mistake by not adding this restaurant to my list of must-try places in Catalina.

As is customary when we eat in a Mexican restaurant, we have to show you the Chips and Salsa. The chips here were pretty good. nice and crisp, with a slight amount of grease on them, (not a bad thing in my book). The salsa was another story. Kind of bland, and really watery. Not a lot of chunk to it. which is the way I prefer my salsa.

I usually do not partake in alcohol when dining out, preferring to save money and space in my stomach for food, but we were on vacation this weekend, and I didn't want Katie's mom to be the only one drinking. I tried the House Margarita ($9.00) to help ease the pain of being with Katie's family for over 48 hours straight, (just kidding, kind of). This 18-ounce margarita was actually pretty good. Made with Cuervo 1800, it had a nice base of sweet and sour, and the tequila went down real smooth. Their signature drink might be the wine based cazuela, but it would be hard to beat this margarita.

After six years of knowing this family, I know that guacamole is always ordered when Doyle's sit down for Mexican food. That was the case on this night for sure, This was a different Guacamole Appetizer ($6.95). It came with three small scoops of mashed up avocado, and had onion, tomato, and chopped up Serrano chili's on the side. This kind of do it yourself guacamole was kind of flat. First, it was kind of awkward mixing the stuff into the guacamole on the plate provided. The guacamole itself was under-seasoned, and basically just mashed up avocados with no seasoning added. Not a big fan of this.

With a group this big, we needed to try the Mi Casita Sampler ($19.95). This appetizer sampler featured a bunch of the appetizers from the Mi Casita menu. There was a cheese quesadilla, buffalo wings, beef taquitos, and calamari included here, along with jalapenos escabeche, sour cream, and another scoop of the lackluster guacamole. The menu says that this feeds four people, but it fed all nine of us because it was very mediocre. The wings, like the calamari, was overly breaded, the taquitos were average, and the best thing included here was the quesadilla, which was your basic version. After eating this, it's easy to imagine them just opening up a big bag of frozen appetizers and dumping them in the fryer.

Entrees made their way out next, and first up is Katie's selection, the Panela Chicken ($15.95). This used a boneless chicken breast as a base and is then topped with panela cheese, a tomatillo sauce, and corn niblets. It also comes served with rice and beans. Katie really enjoyed this dish. She felt the chicken was tender, the panela cheese was lighter than expected, and the tomatillo sauce tied everything up neatly. She would definitely get this again and is looking for a similar version in OC.

My brother in law Kevin is not really a picky eater. He once told me that a burger from Wendy's is the same as him as one from let's say G Burger. Crazy to a food guy like myself, but I can kind of understand this. He's more of a car guy, and knows the ins and outs of cars, and loves everything about them. I just want a car that's dependable enough to get me to work every day. Kevin did not really give me much as to whether he liked this Beef Burrito ($11.95) or not. I know it had shredded beef, red sauce, beans, rice, and cheese in it, but he kept pretty tight-lipped about his impression of this good sized burrito. We did think it was odd that the burritos at Mi Casita come with fruit, which kind of seemed out of place on the plate. He left the fruit behind when he hurried home to his wife with food to go.

Everyone else, besides myself, had tacos at Mi Casita. I don't recall who had this Two Item Combination ($13.95), but it looked real average from across the table. You have your choice of beef or shredded chicken, and this was definitely shredded chicken. No rave reviews for his plate though. The taco shell looked and tasted like something from the grocery shelf. The chicken was okay, with nice crispy tips to it. The best part of this plate for me was the refried beans, which were a little overcooked, but made better with plenty of melty cheese on top of them.

It's probably no surprise to long time readers of this blog what I got on my first visit to Mi Casita. It's my custom to try Carnitas ($15.95) at a Mexican restaurant that I'm trying for the first time. This version was a little all over the map. Some pieces were tender and moist, while others were a little on the dry side. Kind of lackluster in the flavor department also. Not the worst version I have had, but definitely not above average.

Needless to say, I was a little disappointed with our visit to Mi Casita. This was very plain, boring, and uninspired Mexican food. Not anything that was awful, but it's easy to see why this was not on my list from the start. Katie's mom claims that they wanted to eat here to cut down on costs from other restaurants on my list, but I'd argue that this was way overpriced for mediocre food. An ala carte taco goes for five dollars here, and the eleven dollar burrito are just two of the prices that jumped out at me as being a little out of whack. I know this is a tourist area, and prices are always higher, but I don't mind higher prices if the food is better. We had no issues with the service on this evening. Our server Martin had everything under control during our stay. After eating here, I decided Katie and I would stick to my list for the rest of our visit to beautiful Catalina Island.

Out of five pieces of chewing gum, (because Catalina Island was developed as a tourist destination in the 1920s by chewing gum magnate, William Wrigley), five being best to zero being worst, Mi Casita gets 2 pieces of chewing gum.

There's no website for Mi Casita, but you can find out more info from their Yelp page here: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mi-casita-avalon

A Delicious Piece of the Big Apple Falls in Costa Mesa

The Halal Guys

3033 Bristol St.

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

There have been some pretty big restaurant openings this year in OC. There's Grits in Fullerton, which we hear is making fantastic breakfasts. There's also GD Bro Burger, which has gotten some good press with its supposedly excellent burgers and unique red hamburger buns. For those craving desserts, there's the Dirty Cookie at Union Market in Tustin, with their chocolate chip cookies formed into a shot glass filled with milk. Yeah, that's a real thing. Unfortunately, all of these restaurants pale in the hype we have experienced about the latest spot to open in Orange County, The Halal Guys.

I heard that the Halal Guys were going to be coming to Orange County earlier this year when the guys over at Foodbeast broke the story. Since then, the hype has been ramped up with every article I have read in the OC Weekly. The authors of those articles go on and on about the long lines at the original food cart location of the Halal Guys at 53rd and 6th in New York City and the legendary white sauce. Unfortunately, I never made it to the NYC location of Halal Guys when I was there, but a quick check of Yelp makes me wish I had. Four and a half stars with over 7000 reviews have excited me that we are getting our own location for this iconic New York restaurant.

We were lucky enough to be invited to a special sneak preview event a week before they opened. This Halal Guys location is on the corner of Paularino and Bristol Avenue, across from Garf's Sports Bar, and in the same shopping center as Japanese favorite, Anjin, the soon-to-be-opened Capital Noodle Bar, and a newly opened Creamistry. The media event was anytime within a two-hour time, and we got here a half hour after the start, and the place was mobbed. I had high hopes for this place if media folks were willing to battle the crowds.

The menu at Halal Guys is straightforward. They have plates or sandwiches and four options: chicken, gyro, a combo of both chicken or gyro, and then falafel. The plates come in two sizes, regular ($8.95) or small ($7.95). Do yourself a favor and get the regular for the extra dollar. You'll be glad you did. Sandwiches are very reasonable ($6.95).

Along with the plates and sandwiches, they also have a small number of side items, hummus, baba ghanouj, tahini, and fries. Ordering is done assembly line style, and you are walked through each step until you hit the register. Let's take a look at what we tried on this evening.

Okay, let's start with the obvious. This is not the most beautiful food out there, but my mouth is watering as I'm writing this. This was Katie's choice for the Chicken Platter ($8.95) this evening. You can have this with rice or salad; Katie selected rice as her base. It also comes with a few triangles of pita bread, any veggies you choose to add, and of course, the legendary white sauce. You can also add their spicy red sauce to pep things up a bit. Katie went a little easy with the red sauce and thought it was pretty spicy. The chicken was tender and flavorful, even though it was sliced thinly. The white sauce does a beautiful job of not hiding the chicken's natural flavor but enhancing it. I would have asked for more spicy red sauce if this was mine, but Katie was delighted with this meal.

Of course, I had to try the sandwich since Katie had the platter. I went with the Halal Classic Sandwich ($6.95), which combined the chicken and the gyro meat. Again, not the best-looking thing out there, and it doesn't help that I did not want any of the colorful veggies that would have made these pictures pop a little more. Wrapped ready to eat in aluminum foil, this is the epitome of NYC street food. The chicken was delicious, the gyro meat was spiced wonderfully, the white sauce was predictably delicious, and the pita did a solid job of holding things together while remaining soft. I'd get extra red sauce on future visits here and maybe add some onions to make this an even better sandwich than it was on this night.

I was still a little hungry, and intrigued by their falafel, so I ordered a Falafel Sandwich ($6.95) to try. I'm glad I tried this, as this was one of the best versions of the deep-fried chickpea dish I have ever had. This falafel was fried perfectly, with a crunchy outer layer and a softer, nicely spiced inner core. With this one, I let them make it with the veggies, and it was still pretty tasty, but that might have had more to do with the white sauce than the lettuce and tomatoes. Just a guess, though.

Again, I had never eaten at Halal Guys when I was in New York, but my good friend Minerva from Much Ado About Fooding has been, and she said this was just as good as what she experienced in New York. I heard this more than once, and I have to say I was pretty impressed with our first experience at Halal Guys. All the employees we encountered seemed very positive and upbeat about the food they were serving here and seemed primed to have a big hit on their hands. Now that they are open, I have heard that the lines have been pretty long, with up to a two-hour wait, but that's to be expected during this much-hyped restaurant's first few weeks of operation. They are also working on speeding up order times, so I'm sure these waits will not be the norm in the future. Leaving the Halal Guys, I felt like Orange County has hit the restaurant lottery. They could have opened anywhere, like Los Angeles, Miami, or Boston, but they chose to open in our own backyard, and we all should be really thankful for that. Just another sign that OC is becoming a force in the culinary scene of the United States.

For more information on the Halal Guys and where they are going to be opening up next, check out their website here: http://thehalalguys.com/

Hoping for a Golden Meal at Conca D'Oro - CLOSED

Conca D'Oro Italian Restaurant

776 North Tustin Ave.

Orange, CA 92867

It seems that when we go out to dinner with my parents, we kind of go through streaks. Earlier this year we had gone to about five straight barbecue restaurants with them, and now we have gone to about as many Italian restaurants on our, "double dates". As is usual, we try to pick a place in the middle of both of us. That usually lands us in central OC, and that's what landed us at Conca D'Oro in the city of Orange.

For those of you that are not familiar with where Conca D'Oro is located, it's in a nondescript strip mall on Tustin, between Katella and Chapman Avenues. Fans of the TV show Storage Wars might know this shopping center because this is where Brandi and Jarrod have their store, Now and Then Second Hand Store. We did not have any sightings of either of them, but we did take a picture of the cardboard cutout in their store window.

As popular as Jarrod and Brandi are, Conca D'Oro might be a little more popular. This Orange restaurant has been here for 55 years now. That's a long time. Back when Eisenhower was in the White House, the top three TV shows were all westerns, and Chubby Checker was teaching us all how to do The Twist, Conca D'Oro was doing what they were doing on this night in 2015, feeding lots of hungry people.

We got here right around 6pm, and the restaurant was half full, but during the length of our stay, it got full, with at least a 15-minute wait to be seated. The vibe inside had a family-style Italian restaurant written all over it. From the Sinatra playing over the speakers to the broken in booths, and the dated decor, this is definitely an old school joint. Maybe 15 or so tables, and a very large menu, with many options, almost all of which you have seen before. They have a bunch of pasta dishes, baked dishes, chicken, beef, and fish entrees as well. It took us a little bit of time to go through the menu, but we made our choices and waited for our food to arrive. Let's see if it's the food that has kept this place in business for over six decades.

After ordering we were brought a basket of bread. The bread here was reminiscent of the garlic bread my mom used to make using the Lawry's Garlic Spread. Toasted well, with equal parts of butter and garlic, this simply made bread was a good start to our meal and added to the nostalgia of this restaurant.

Both Katie and I had salads included in our meals at Conca D'Oro. These Small Dinner Salads were pretty good and made even better with a very well made blue cheese dressing. It was thick, with a good blue cheese flavor. Joining the fresh greens on the plate are olives, shredded carrots, and tomatoes. I really enjoyed that there was plenty of dressing used here. It always makes a salad more enjoyable for me.

It always amuses me what Katie orders when we go out. I think I know which way she's leaning, then she picks something out of the left-field, like this Chicken Marco Polo ($23). This heavy dish had pieces of chicken in it, along with broccoli and ham, then is covered in a thick white sauce and baked. The top gets nice and crusty, while the inside was steaming hot. She really enjoyed this, as the chicken was tender, the sauce was flavorful, and the ham added a little liveliness to the plate. This also came with a side of pasta, which she chose to go with the rigatoni with a white cream cheese sauce. Just like the white sauce for her main course, this cheese sauce was pretty tasty and heavy. She ended up taking most of this home for my lunch the next day. As if that was not enough food, this also came with a generous side of vegetables. This bowl of veggies included asparagus, green beans, carrots, and what I'd describe as a potato croquette. All the vegetables were fresh and cooked to fork-tender. The potato was my favorite of course, as it is probably the least healthy for you.

Kind of like Katie's selections at recent dinners, my dad's choices have been all over the map. He has stayed true to seafood in Italian restaurants, as he did on this night, with the Angel Hair Shrimp and Scallops ($17.95). This usually comes with fettuccine, but my dad is more partial to the thinner angel hair pasta. They were very accommodating with substitutions at Conca D'Oro. Along with the angel hair, this plate included bay shrimp and bay scallops in a fettuccine sauce. The big guy had no problem polishing this plate off, which he said was good, and he loved that there was plenty of seafood in this. He'd probably try something else on future visits here but had no qualms about his dinner.

My mom zeroed in on the pizzas at Conca D'Oro, and could not resist this Small Pepperoni Pizza ($8.25). My mom thought this was a pretty good-sized pizza for under nine dollars, but she's not really a big eater. The pizza here is pretty solid, with a good amount of cheese, and I enjoyed that they put the pepperoni underneath the layer of cheese. It helps insulate it, and you forget it's there, so it's a nice surprise when you bite into it. She took a few slices home for my dad's lunch the next day.

Back when I thought Olive Garden was great Italian food, when I was eight years old, I would always order their Tour of Italy dinner. It had fettuccine alfredo, lasagna, and chicken Parmesan, and this Combo #2 ($26.25) from Conca D'Oro kind of reminded me of that dish. This version still had lasagna but also featured veal Parmesan and rigatoni with meat sauce. Predictably, this is better than what you can get at Olive Garden, but of course, what isn't? I liked this dish but was not in love with it. It was missing something. The veal was good but not as tender as I would have liked. The rigatoni was good but needed to be jazzed up with Parmesan cheese and peppers. The lasagna was probably my favorite out of the three, but even that kind of seemed lacking from a shortage of meat included in this version. It had meat, but I like when the meat is left in bigger chunks, so you know it's there. Still not a bad plate of food, and perfect for people with big appetites, or people that are indecisive about what to order.

Both Katie's and my dinners came with our choice of ice cream or sherbet. I don't remember the choices offered, but I got the Rainbow Sherbet, for some reason. It was pretty good and helped cleanse my palate after eating all of that food. Katie had the Chocolate Ice Cream to round out her dinner, which she shared with my parents. The ice cream kind of tasted like Thrifty brand ice cream, but I could be wrong about that.

It's easy to see why Conca D'Oro has been around so long. They give you lots of food for a pretty decent price. We saw many people leaving here with food for the next day, or maybe a midnight snack. Everything I tried was good here but wasn't drive thirty minutes out of your way good. Nothing really popped for me at Conca D'Oro, but it is a fine restaurant. If we ran out of places to eat with my parents, I would definitely come back here again. A solid neighborhood Italian joint. Service was a little hurried, but everyone we encountered was really nice and welcoming. Another successful night of Italian food and catching up with my parents.

Out of five subway cars, (because in 2012 the Rome Metro added a Conca D'Oro station to it's underground), five being best to zero being worst, Conca D'Oro gets 3 subway cars.

Not surprisingly, Conca  D'Oro does not have a website, but you can find information about them on their Yelp page, which you can access here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/conca-d-oro-italian-restaurant-orange-2

Punching Your Ticket for New Food at Stubhub Center

Taste of Stubhub Center

18400 Avalon Blvd.

Carson, CA 90746

I'm not going to write about this great event and try to fool you into thinking I'm a soccer enthusiast. To be truthful, I try to get into soccer every four years when the World Cup rolls around, but then there's always some sort of awful call, or I get tired of watching the players rolling around on the ground trying to draw penalties. I know athletic skill is involved here, but flopping is the biggest reason I tune out when soccer comes on.

So you ask, why am I at Stubhub Center? My love of food outweighs almost everything. I was told that many great new food options are being offered to the LA Galaxy supporters, along with many craft beer options. I also wanted my good friend Richard, one of the biggest fans of the Galaxy, and soccer in general, to experience this event with me. So we left work a little early and braved the traffic on the northbound 405 freeway.

This was my first visit to Stubhub Center, which is not only a world-class venue for soccer but also has an 8,000-seat tennis stadium here and a soccer stadium with over 27,000 rabid fans. Opened in 2003, Stubhub Center has hosted some of the biggest soccer games in Major League Soccer (MLS) history, has been the setting for some of the hottest entertainment acts around today, and is located on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills. Even though I'm not a big soccer fan, I am a sports fan, and being this close to the field was pretty impressive. I may or may not have gone out there and kicked a few imaginary goals for my adoring fans in the stands. All that running around made me hungry, so I was looking forward to seeing what the folks at Stubhub had in store for us.

I was told this was not your typical stadium grub, and the first thing we tried, the Hawaiian Tuna Poke confirmed that. Poke is all the rage right now, with many restaurants solely serving these tasty dice-sized morsels of seasoned tuna. This was a good version, with plenty of avocados and cucumber slices on the side, and it was simply seasoned to allow the natural flavor of the tuna to shine through. An excellent light option for fans who don't want to eat heavy, they have the energy to cheer on Alan Gordon and the rest of his LA Galaxy teammates.

Also, not something that you see every day at sporting events was this Korean BBQ Short Ribs with Asian Slaw. These were probably one of my favorite things I had this evening. The short ribs were easy to eat since they were so tender and tasted great. I'm a big fan of short ribs, and having these while watching sports, would be a winning combination.

You've probably had nachos at baseball and football games, but nothing like these from Stubhub Center. No gross orange liquid cheese here. They use real cheese, roasted corn, cotija cheese, and some delicious tortilla chips. Not overly heavy like other ballparks nachos, you still have the energy to cheer on your LA Galaxy.

The hits kept coming at Stubhub Center, with this Jamaican Jerk Chicken served with Quinoa Salad and Yucca Fries. The chicken really did have a jerk feel to it, but it was a little clumsy to eat because it was such a big piece. The yucca fries were pretty solid, even though I'm not a big fan of yucca. I also am no fan of quinoa, as I've been burned by it many times during the run of this blog, but the girl next to me raved about this salad, so I'll take her word for it.

Of course, Hamburgers are nothing new at sporting events, but this might have been one of the better ones I've had at a stadium. I liked the natural bacon strips used on these burgers, and the cheese melted perfectly. The burgers could have used a little more condiments, but they are still juicy burgers. Garlic fries are all the rage right now, and these were excellent. Fired nicely, with a good crunch to them, and the right amount of garlic was used here.

After all this food, I did not try these Pizzas from Fresh Brothers, but they looked pretty tasty. Fresh Brothers is a pizza chain that is expanding instead rapidly, and it just became the official pizza of Stubhub Center earlier this year. So I'm looking forward to trying them out real soon.

Not only is the food being upgraded at Stubhub Center, but they have also added many local craft beer choices at many of the concession stands here.  We were talking with the craft beer guys here, and they said that this South Bay area is becoming a hotbed for craft beer in Southern California. They rattled off over a dozen brewers producing their beverages in this area, many of which are available at Stubhub Center. I enjoyed the Absolution Hefeweizen, as it went down smoothly on this relatively warm day.

I left Stubhub Center pretty impressed. The food was, of course, pretty stellar, but I was most impressed with the fact that they were taking chances and bringing items to a sporting event that you usually do not see. Talking with a few people from Stubhub Center said that soccer fans are more demanding of their food than other sports fans, and their concessions have to reflect that. But they nailed it with the new food items we tried.

The end of the LA Galaxy season is fast approaching, and if you haven't been paying attention, they currently are sitting in first place, with two games to go, and then they will be trying to win their MLS record-leading sixth championship. So you have one more regular season game (October 18th against the Portland Timbers) to try this food available at Stand 18, located on the Stadium Club end of the stadium. I might not be the biggest soccer fan in the world, but food like this, they might have made me a convert.

To find out all the latest things going on at Stubhub Center, including their schedule of events, go to their website here: http://www.stubhubcenter.com/