Kissing Summer Goodbye at Baci Di Firenze

Baci Di Firenze Trattoria

416 North Lakeview Ave. 

Anaheim, CA 92807

Fall is finally in the air for Southern California. Not that the last few months have felt like it, as we have routinely had days in the 90's, but it seems like we have finally turned a corner weather wise. Now that the weather is finally cooperating, and with the arrival of pumpkin flavored everything and football, it is finally feeling like fall. Football is what brought us up this way on a recent Saturday night. My niece Kaylie is a cheerleader for her hometown Yorba Linda Giants, and we were coming to watch her perform, but first we were having dinner with my parents, and I chose to eat at Baci Di Firenze.

Baci Di Firenze is located across the street from the old Kaiser Hospital space in Anaheim Hills, and in the same shopping complex as the Steer Inn. From what I can gather looking at their Yelp page, they have been in business for 8 years, even though our waiter commented that they have been around for only six. The entrance to the restaurant is a little odd, as you enter through the side outdoor patio. Not a huge restaurant, with maybe about 15 or so tables inside, we got seated right away without a reservation at about 5:30 on a Saturday night. The place did fill up to capacity during our stay though.

The menu here is pretty much what you would expect from an Italian restaurant in Southern California. There are a good number of pasta dishes, veal, beef, chicken, and seafood entrees to choose from. Prices for entrees are in the $16 to $30 range, and they do include a side of pasta or veggies with them. We were kind of on a strict time schedule, so we made our choices rather quickly, and waited for our food to come out. This is what transpired for us on this evening at Baci Di Firenze.

Bread is always an important thing for Italian restaurants, and this bread at Baci Di Firenze was pretty solid. The outside had a good solid crust to it, while the center was soft. It went well with the oil and vinegar provided, but I would have liked to have tried it with some butter as well. Tasty bread, and they were generous refilling the basket throughout our stay.

Even though salads were not included with our meals, three out of four of us ordered one to start things off. Katie selected this Insalata Alla Baci ($5.50), their version of a house salad to get things rolling. This salad combined mixed greens, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, and red onion, with a very well done creamy Italian dressing. Katie of course mentioned the freshness of the produce here, and the wonderful house made dressing, that she could not get enough of. A very promising start to her meal.

I might be overstating my love for this Insalata Alla Cesare ($6.95), but this was one of the best I have had during the 6 year run of this blog. All of my requirements were met for a great Caesar salad at Baci Di Firenze. The dressing was on point, and there was plenty of it included here, without overloading the fresh romaine. There was also plenty of shaved Parmesan topping this, and some very well made croutons. My dad's not a crouton fan, and even he did not gripe about the inclusion of croutons on his salad. Since this visit, every time we are up this way, I think about stopping in for just this salad, it was that good.

Just like you can expect to be in for a crowded day when you visit Disneyland, you can almost always expect my mom to have chicken Parmesan in an Italian restaurant. This was the case on this night as well. This Pollo Alla Parmigiana ($16.95) had her singing its praises. The chicken breast was lightly breaded, with plenty of mozzarella cheese and a lighter than normal tomato sauce. The chicken was tender, and true to form, she took half of this to go for my dad's lunch the next day.

Sorry for the shot from across the table, but my dad could not wait to dig into this Pollo Al Marsala ($18.95), so I had to take this picture real quick. This traditional Italian Marsala dish had a good sized portion of chicken breast sauteed with Marsala and mushrooms. The chicken on its own was good, but what really made this dish was the delicious sauce. It really pushed this meal to well above average. My dad also enjoyed the mushrooms, which did not only taste good, but kept my mother, who has an adverse reaction to the fungi, from trying any of his meal. Well played sir.

 

I must have zoned out when Katie was ordering, because I was shocked to see her plate arrive at the table. She had the Involtini Di Pollo ($20.95), and this had a lot going on with it. Her chicken breast was stuffed with Italian ham, spinach, and mozzarella cheese, and topped with a mushroom sauce. Kind of like a saltimbocca, but with spinach added. The ham added a nice saltiness here, which gave this plate some bite. She was very happy with her selection.

I wish I could say the same with my choice on this evening. This Cannelloni Alla Romana ($16.95) did not live up to my expectations. The menu says that these crepes were stuffed with veal, cheese, and and tomato sauce, but they must have forgotten the veal, because there was none present. Still moderately tasty, this definitely needed meat to make it better. I will definitely try something else on my next visit.

Even though my meal was not what I expected, everything else we had on this evening was above average. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the mood for upscale Italian, in a relaxed, family run atmosphere. Yes, the prices might be a little on the high side, but you're paying for the quality here, and they do Italian the right way.  The service was a little stiff at first, but quickly warmed during our stay. A great place to eat before watching my niece cheer, and enjoy some of the cooler weather we have in store for us.

Out of five boars, (because this restaurant's name translates to Kisses of Florence, and one of the most popular tourist spots in that city is a bronze statue of a boar, which tourist rub its snout hoping it will bring a return trip to the city), five being best to zero being worst, Baci Di Firenze Trattoria gets 3.5 boars.

For more information about Baci Di Firenze Trattoria, head to their website here: http://www.bacianaheim.com/

A Send Off for our Friend Josh at Ricardo's Place

Ricardo's Place

32082 Camino Capistrano 

San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675

One of my favorite people just left where I work recently, and he'd be pretty shocked that I would write this statement. My friend Josh has taken some good natured, and some not so good natured ribbing from me over the last eight or so years. No matter what came out of my mouth, Josh would respond with his trademark laugh. I wanted to congratulate him on getting out of where we work, and doing something that he's really passionate about, nursing. So we decided to meet up for a celebratory dinner at Ricardo's in San Juan Capistrano.

Ricardo's Place is the sister restaurant of one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in South OC, Cocina de Ricardo, which is in Lake Forest. That restaurant is run by Ricardo's brother, Mario, and this San Juan outpost is run by Ricardo himself. Opened since 2003, Ricardo's Place uses the recipes of his Mamacita Alicia and Grandma Juana. Ricardo is a local guy, who graduated from San Clemente High School, and wanted to share his family's passion for good Mexican food with the people of his community.

San Juan has quite a good number of Mexican restaurants within its borders, and to have stayed in business for over ten years, speaks well in this highly competitive market. We arrived here on a recent Thursday evening around 6pm, and were seated while waiting for our guest of honor, Josh to arrive. This restaurant appears bigger than Cocina de Ricardo, and the place was filled with lots of people throughout our stay. Josh finally arrived, and we made our choices from the rather large menu of the usual Mexican favorites we have come to expect from a Mexican restaurant in this neck of the woods. Let's see if we can add this spot to our list of favorites in San Juan Capistrano.

Since we had to wait for Josh to arrive, we had plenty of time to have some Chips and Salsa. I really enjoyed this salsa, with its bright red glow about it, and plenty of chunk to it. Yes, it could have been a little more spicy for my taste, but it was a great vessel for the well made chips. We were well into our second basket of chips when Josh sauntered in. Hope he's going to be more punctual at his new job.

Since the chips were pretty good, and they did not hesitate refilling them as Josh had more than his fair share, we decided to try the Guacamole ($8.95) at Ricardo's. Again, the texture of this was right on point. It had some decent sized chunks to it, but was still easy to get a chip through. It was not overly seasoned, which allowed the natural flavor of the avocado to come through. I would have liked the inclusion of maybe some red onion or sliced jalapenos to spice this up a bit though.

The entrees made their way out pretty quickly, which was nice so at least Josh would be quiet while he was eating, and we could have a little peace during our meal. Let's start with Katie's meal first. She had the Two Item Combination ($11.50). There were a good number of choices for her to choose from to form her ultimate combo, and she went with her standard, a chicken hard shelled taco and cheese enchilada. She called this meal, "solid, good old fashioned stick to your ribs Mexican food."

I had the Three Item Combo ($14.50) as my meal. I usually try carnitas when I'm eating in a Mexican restaurant for the first time, but I was in a combo kind of mood on this night. I had a shredded beef taco, cheese enchilada, and a carnitas burrito. I really enjoyed the carnitas burrito. The pork was fried crisp, just the way I like it, and the burrito was filled pretty full of the swine. The beef taco was filled with a good amount of beef as well, and topped with plenty of cheese. Ricardo's gets a lot of praise for their enchiladas, and I thought they were just okay. The red sauce here just didn't do it for me. I also would have liked there to be a little more cheese in them. The beans and rice were pretty good. The beans were definitely my favorite of the two, and tasted freshly made. A very solid combo meal, just like the ones I've had up the freeway at their sister restaurant, Cocina de Ricardo.

Josh is never one to pass up a free meal, and I was a little surprised when he only ordered this Shredded Chicken Burrito ($8.95). I thought he was going to order a few plates of food, and then take the leftovers home to feed his family. Anyways, this was a very simple burrito, filled with shredded chicken and beans. It was about double the size of my carnitas burrito that I had with my combo, and filled him up nicely. He said the chicken was  moist and tender, but he'd probably try something else on his next visit here.

I entered Ricardo's Place knowing exactly what I was going to be experiencing food wise. The food here is exactly just like what we have every time we eat at Cocina de Ricardo. We live right in the middle of both of these fine Mexican restaurants, so depending on which side of the 5 Freeway has heavier traffic will dictate which one we drive to. The service on this evening was pretty good, with minimal, to no wait times for food, refills, or the check. Be aware that for some reason Ricardo's Place is closed on Mondays and Wednesdays, but you can head to Cocina de Ricardo on those days. I'm glad we could take Josh out to celebrate his new job, and add another pretty solid Mexican restaurant to our rotation in San Juan.

Out of five islands, (because when I hear the name Ricardo, I always revert to my childhood of watching Ricardo Montalban as Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island), five being best to zero being worst, Ricardo's Place gets 3 islands.

For more information about Ricardo's Place, head to their website here: http://ricardosplace.net/

Searchers of a Great Burrito at Duke's Cafe - CLOSED

Duke's Cafe

23030 Eastpark Dr. 

Yorba Linda, CA 92887

It's been a while since we've had breakfast out anywhere. There are a couple of reasons for this. We have been busy with family functions lately, and I have had to work on Sundays since my day job is short-staffed. I have yet to have time to watch my beloved Jacksonville Jaguars play this year. It's a blessing since they have started 2 and 5, but they are only one game out of first place in their dreadful division.

Anyway, I want to return to my search for the best breakfast burrito OC offers. It worked out perfectly because we would be up this way for my niece's birthday party, and they would just have pizza from Domino's. We opted out of that business and instead tried a reader's suggestion to try Duke's Cafe in my hometown of Yorba Linda.

Duke's was not here when I lived up this way. Located right near the TGI Fridays and Wahoo's Fish Tacos, this is off the beaten track, but it was still pretty busy on this particular Sunday, just before noon. Duke's reminded me of all those restaurants every neighborhood seems to have. You know, the spots with many items on their menu, like Tom's Place in Anaheim, Ted's down in Laguna Niguel, and Troy's in Orange. These restaurants all have breakfast as the focus of their menus, but there are many other options.

I was surprised walking into Duke's and finding such a big dining room. Ordering is done at the counter, and the food is brought to you. Even at this late breakfast hour, we had trouble finding a seat in the dining room. There's an attached private room that would have added more than enough seating, but it was closed off and only used for parties. The decor here, like the TVs, has an auto-racing theme. Even though it was football Sunday, all the TVs were turned to some motor sports. This could be a nod to famed Yorba Linda resident and drag racer John Force, who has headquarters about a block away. Like John Force in his races, I was excited to see if Duke's was worth burning rubber to try the food here. Let's check it out.

Katie is not usually one to have a breakfast burrito, but she succumbed to the pressure and tried their Egg Burrito ($4.79). This burrito lacked breakfast meats but contained hash browns, cheese, and salsa, which she opted for on the side. She felt this was a very manageable size for a breakfast burrito, as if they were not trying to shock you by serving a massive burrito. She enjoyed what she called "a solid breakfast burrito effort."

Since Katie tried the basic burrito model, I went with the all-out Ultimate Breakfast Burrito ($6.49). This one contained all three breakfast types of meat; ham, bacon, sausage, hash browns, cheese, and salsa. I agree with Katie that this was a very manageable burrito. I had no problem finishing it, but it did have its flaws. I like the meats in bigger chunks than here, and the grease poured out of this burrito. I did enjoy the hash browns, and there was plenty of cheese included in this, which was on the plus side. As I ate this breakfast burrito, I liked it less with each bite. It's not awful, but it's not my favorite breakfast burrito in OC to date by a long shot.

I knew these Buttermilk Pancakes ($5.49) would push me to the limit of my eating, but sometimes, I just crave pancakes. These three pancakes soaked up the syrup but were still dry, no matter how much I poured on them. They were like sponges. The buttermilk flavor was spot on, but I was not too big of a fan of these.

Duke's failed to live up to the hype of having one of the best breakfast burritos in OC. This restaurant is very average when it comes to breakfast. Maybe their omelets are the way to go here or something else we did not get to try during this visit. We had no qualms with the prices here or the service we encountered. They could have relieved the congestion in the dining room by clearing tables a little quicker, but that's just our casual observation on this particular Sunday afternoon. I hope to get some more Sundays off to continue my search for great breakfast burritos in OC.

Out of five stagecoaches (because my favorite John Wayne movie is Stagecoach, and of course, his nickname was Duke), five being best to zero being worst, Duke's Cafe gets 2.5 stagecoaches.

You can see their menu and get more information about Duke's Cafe by clicking here: http://www.dukescafeyl.com/#home

Dropping In On the Beach Barrel - CLOSED

Beach Barrel

3305 Newport Blvd. 

Newport Beach, CA 92663

Back when I started this blog six years ago, one of the first people that I met in real life was Niyaz Pirani. For those of you that read the popular OC Register Food Frenzy Blog, or know his work from the OC Weekly, or his past blog, Fat Dude on a Diet, you know about his great food writing. About a year or so ago, he moved up to Northern California to start a PR company, and those of us left in OC had lost a great champion for all things food in Orange County. The good news is he's now back based in OC, with his PR company, Knife and Spork Public Relations, and even better news, he's back writing again on his company's blog, which you can see here. He's now got quite the impressive lineup of restaurants in his portfolio, and I was thrilled when he invited me and my friend Ryan to try one of them, Beach Barrel in Newport Beach.

Beach Barrel is located on Newport Boulevard, right as you cross over the bridge going over PCH. It's on the right hand side of the street, across from the old Newport Beach City Hall. There's plenty of metered parking on the street, and also a small parking lot just past the restaurant on the right hand side.

Beach Barrel is owned by two friends, Jared Jones and Mac Carlson. Mac Carlson is one of the former owners of the highly rated Social in Costa Mesa. Jared is the founder of Midnight Muncheez, a late night delivery company, which suspended operation last year to focus on Beach Barrel. Beach Barrel is their take on a rustic, surfer style restaurant concept.

Even though the storefront is small, with tables adorned with pennies, surfing images hanging on the wall, and practically an open kitchen, the menu at Beach Barrel is pretty sizable. They have 7 varieties of flatbread pizzas, including a build your own option. There's nine different sandwiches to choose from, along with four unique hot dogs. There's also some salads for people who want a lighter meal, and of course some sides. The guys at Beach Barrel were generous enough to let us order a wide array of their greatest hits from their menu. I was excited to see what was going to be coming out for us from this small kitchen.

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you probably know that my favorite sandwich in the world is a Cuban sandwich. It's the most balanced sandwich out there. There's the savory pork, the tang from the pickles, the creaminess of the cheese, and the crunch of the pressed bread. Unfortunately, Orange County does not have a lot of choices when it comes to authentic Cuban sandwiches, but now we have this wonderful option from Beach Barrel, the Playa Cubano ($12). This impressive sandwich starts with a very tasty citrus glazed shredded pork, smoked ham, Swiss cheese, Dijonnaise, and house made pickles, all of which is then pressed on the grill. The result is one of the better Cuban sandwiches in OC. It rivals my favorite one at De Simonne's in Huntington Beach. It's that good, and a fantastic start to our meal on this evening.

When I heard that this Shredder Sandwich ($10) was their version of a pulled pork sandwich, I had no doubt it was going to be good. The pork in the Cuban was tasty, so it reasoned that the pork in this sandwich would be good as well. The brioche bun was filled with the delicious pulled pork, slaw, and just enough BBQ sauce to not overwhelm the pork, but compliment it. The crunch from the slaw, along with the very well made bun rounded out this sandwich wonderfully. Not sure who their bread supplier is, but all the bread was great on this evening.

The entrees started to hit the table fast and furiously now, and this was our flatbread pizza choice on this evening, the Buff Chick ($11). I've been in the mood for buffalo wings lately, and this pizza quenched my cravings, for at least this night. This pizza was topped with mozzarella cheese, spicy chicken, buffalo sauce, blue cheese crumbles, celery, and a blue cheese dressing. This could have been a little spicier for my taste, but they got the essence of the buffalo style pizza down at Beach Barrel. I'm looking forward to trying their Jamaican style Jerk Pizza on my next visit here. We were able to sample their jerk seasoning , and it was very flavorful, with lots of spice. Right up my alley.

There's four varieties of quarter pound hot dogs on the Beach Barrel menu as well. We tried two of them, and my favorite one was the Street Dog ($8). This is not like any street dog you could get outside of Staples Center. This was way more complex. It starts with a very good toasted bun, which is topped with bacon, grilled jalapenos, caramelized red onions, Dijon mustard, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. As you would probably expect, this one was filling and so good. The mozzarella surprisingly worked well here, and the jalapenos added a nice pop to this hot dog. The BBQ Bacon Cheddar Dog ($7) was a lot simpler, but pretty solid as well. An abundance of cheddar cheese was paired with a smattering of the mild barbecue sauce, and bacon crumbles. The hot dogs here taste like the meaty ones they have at Costco, which is one of my favorites.

Not on their printed menu, these Garlic Herb Fries were fried correctly, and flavored with just the right amount of garlic. They also had an awesome ranch dressing paired with them. The sauces at Beach Barrel are all made in house, with the exception of the jerk sauce, which is brought in from Jamaica. This ranch was phenomenal, and really had me craving a salad, which is rare for me. I also tried the blue cheese dressing, which was stellar as well. I'd get these fries again, just so I could try that delectable ranch.

Back to the sandwiches, and this Hawaiian inspired, Da-Kine Chicken Sandwich ($12). Shredded chicken, bacon, provolone, caramelized red onion, grilled pineapple, and a house made Sriracha teriyaki sauce, was piled high between the brioche bun. I'm kind of anti-pineapple on pizza for sure, and to a lesser extent sandwiches, but the unusual Sriracha teriyaki sauce, along with the bacon, helped to mask the pineapple here. A good sandwich that hit all the right notes. This was my buddy Ryan's favorite sandwich of the night.

Just when I started thinking that the only thing Beach Barrel was missing was a great burger, this Barrel Burger ($10) came out for us. Visually appealing, and just as delicious, this burger can rival almost any burger in OC. All the essentials are included on this burger. Melted cheddar cheese, romaine lettuce, tomato, red onion, a wonderful house made thousand island dressing, avocado, and grilled bell peppers, are all piled on the brioche bun to create this fantastic burger. I can admit I was a little leery about the bell peppers on this, but they actually worked to provide a good flavor profile to the burger. I'd probably add some bacon when ordering this the next time I'm here, just to make this burger even better.

By this time Ryan and I were getting pretty full, but Niyaz had insisted that we needed to try these Hawaiian Sticky Buns ($8). This dessert was just featured on the KTLA Morning News, and the guys at news desk loved this dessert, as evidenced by their eyes rolling back in their heads while sampling this. A four pack of Hawaiian rolls are topped with marshmallows, a homemade caramel pecan sauce, and a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. Simple, but so delicious. Niyaz is astonished that during the heyday of food trucks, and everyone using Hawaiian rolls for everything, that no one's come up with this before. I'd have to agree with his sentiments. A very good finale to our time at Beach Barrel.

Beach Barrel is proof that great things come in small packages. They are really churning out some great food out of this tiny spot. Everything we tried on this night was a winner, and their is only two problems I see with Beach Barrel. One is that their location is very easy to miss, especially with all of the construction going on these days on Newport Boulevard, but this restaurant is definitely worth hunting down. The other thing Ryan and I discussed on our way home was that we would be unsure as to what to have on our next trip here. The Cubano would be my must have here, and with their great dressings that we tried, I'd probably get one of their salads, so I could save room for the Hawaiian Sticky Buns. Be advised that they have some funky hours. They are closed Monday and Tuesdays during the winter months, and only open for lunch Friday through Sunday. They are open late for you guys that are out in the bars, with a closing time of 3am on weekends. So now there's another option besides Laventina's for your late night hunger in Newport. Really impressive little place, but I should not be surprised since this place is being represented by Niyaz, and his great taste in food. Welcome home buddy.

If you would like to experience Beach Barrel for yourself, get all the details about them, their food, and location by heading to their website here: http://www.thebeachbarrel.com/