LAX Pickup With a Stop at Truxton's

Truxton's American Bistro

8611 Truxton Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90045

We have been looking to explore more of LA, so when we were set to pick up our friends at LAX, we decided to see what restaurants were around the area. A quick search of Yelp lead us to Truxton's, which is only a few miles away from the airport, and looked pretty promising. We left OC an hour and a half earlier than we usually do when traveling to LAX, which gave us plenty of time to give Truxton's a try.

Truxton's has been around for ten years now at this Westchester location, which is not easily seen from busy Manchester Avenue. A good landmark to look for is the much more visible Paco's Tacos Cantina, which is situated right in front of Truxton's. Along with this spot, they also have another location, which is situated in Santa Monica.

Truxton's describes itself as an American Bistro, a restaurant where the neighborhood comes together to enjoy classic dishes which are reinvented using unique flavors from around the world. The menu definitely reflects this, as they have a wide assortment of things to choose from. A quick glance at the menu shows the influences of Vietnam, India, Korea, and Thailand just to name a few. There are plenty of appetizers, burgers, entrees, and healthier options, some with a global twist.

We got here at just after 8 pm on a recent Sunday evening. Even at this rather late hour, the restaurant had a fair amount of people eating here. Truxton's is one of the more comfortable restaurants we have been to in a while. A high wooden ceiling absorbs a lot of the noise, so you can actually hold a conversation with your table mates, but the restaurant does have ambient noise, so it does not feel like you are eating in a mausoleum. The center of the restaurant has a nicely sized bar, which has 2 TVs above it. I was trying to come up with a restaurant that this feels like, and I could only think it was a brighter, more open version of a Lazy Dog Cafe. Let's hope the food is better than at Lazy Dog.

When I hear the words monkey bread, I automatically think of the delicious cinnamon pull-apart that my mom used to make on Christmas morning. The Monkey Bread ($4.75) at Truxton's is not like that, but still pretty tasty. This is a pull-apart, but instead of being made with butter and cinnamon, it's made up of cheddar cheese and garlic and served with three dipping sauces; marinara, garlic butter, and ranch. I really enjoyed this version. The bread was soft and cheesy, and the three dipping sauces kept me interested. I'm usually a ranch kind of guy, but I think I liked the garlic butter best with this. I can see why this gets a lot of love online from their customers.

Both Katie and I had salads here to start with, and for Katie, it was an easy choice, the Truxton's House Salad ($4.95) would be her selection. Their house salad starts with romaine lettuce and is then topped with plenty of feta cheese, tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, and an oregano vinaigrette to finish it off. She liked the lightness of this salad, and that they kept things simple and fresh. She'd have a hard time not getting this salad on future visits here.

Longtime readers of this blog know that it's almost impossible for me to pass up a Caesar on my first trip to a restaurant, and that was the case at Truxton's also. This Creamy Caesar ($5.25) had a different dressing than most but was constructed very well. The dressing did not seem to be anchovy based but had a smoother tang to it than a traditional Caesar dressing. Nice for a change. I was also a big fan of the shaved Parmesan and croutons here. They were big enough to have a real influence on this starter salad. A very good version of my favorite salad.

Katie really had a hard time making a decision about what to have for the main portion of her meal at Truxton's, but after some great debate going on inside her head, she finally made up her mind to have the Taos Chicken Sandwich ($14.98). This sandwich was anchored by a grilled chicken breast, with chipotle mayo, greens, pepper jack cheese, bacon, tomato, and avocado added to the very good torta-style bun. She felt this was a great spin on a traditional chicken club sandwich. She liked the use of the torta bun and the moderate heat from the insides of this sandwich. She opted to upgrade to sweet potatoes for an extra dollar and was happy with the result. They were fried nice and crisp, with a tender inside.

With so many options on this menu, I'm almost ashamed to admit that I reverted to my old standby of a bacon cheeseburger. Truxton's version of this classic burger is called the Gilly Burger ($15.85), and it comes with shredded lettuce, tomato, applewood smoked bacon, Tillamook cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, a spicy 1001 dressing, and crispy onion strings, all on a brioche bun. I liked this burger but was not blown away by it. It had a lot of my favorites on here, but they kind of fell flat. The spicy 1001 sauce was neither spicy nor did they add enough of it to make its presence known. I loved the Tillamook cheddar cheese, as it is one of the best, and it spreads wonderfully when melted. The half-pound beef patty was fine, but the real star of the show was the brioche bun, which did an admirable job of keeping everything in line. I upgraded to garlic Parmesan fries for an extra dollar, which was actually pretty tasty. The garlic and seasonings actually clung to the fries and did not settle to the bottom of the basket like other restaurants' garlic fries are prone to do.

We still had an hour to kill before picking up our friends at LAX, so dessert was needed to stretch things out. Salted caramel, according to my dad is played out, and if a guy that still loves Peter, Paul, and Mary thinks something has reached its expiration date, then maybe it has. We still tried this Salted Caramel Carnival Sundae ($6.98), just to spite my dad and his trend theory. They use a salted caramel gelato here and include caramel-infused cinnamon churros and fresh whipped cream.  I kind of thought that this was going to be better than it was. The gelato here was a little on the runny side, and I think this would have tasted better with ice cream instead. I did not really get too much salt out of this, but there was plenty in the way of caramel. The churros were the best part of this, with a good amount of caramel inside of them, but it was hard to incorporate them into the gelato portion of this dessert.

Truxton's is a great option for people picking up or dropping off people at LAX. We are up this way quite a few times a year, and with a large number of offerings on their menu, we look forward to coming back again and trying more of their food. The standouts for me on this visit were the monkey bread and my Caesar, but everything else was good, but not driving all the way from OC was great. The comfortable feeling we encountered at Truxton's was not only due to the decor and feel of the restaurant but also from the great service we received from our server, Stanley. He was personable, answered all of our questions, and perfectly balanced the fine line between making sure we had all that we needed and being too intrusive. We will definitely keep Truxton's in our minds when we are near LAX.

Out of five lions, (because this restaurant is located in the Westchester section of LA, which is also home to LMU, whose mascot is a lion), five being best to zero being worst, Truxton's American Bistro gets 3 lions.

For more information about Truxton's American Bistro, head to their website here: http://truxtonsamericanbistro.com/

A Little Italian Before Takeoff - CLOSED

Scarantino's Sports Bar and Grill

23862 Bridger Road

Lake Forest, CA 92630

It seems like it had just happened last week, but it has been a couple months now, and it was again time to take our good friends Chuck and Stephanie up to LAX for their seasonal trip to South Carolina. They usually leave the picking of a restaurant to me, but this time our wise, old friend Chuck wanted us to try one of his favorite places, Scarantino's Sports Bar and Grill in Lake Forest.

I've lived in South OC for a good amount of years now, and have seen this restaurant numerous times while passing it on El Toro Road. It's really kind of out of the way, sharing a building with Arby's and across the street from McDonald's and Honey Baked Hams. This area of El Toro Road is always hard to get around because there's always so much traffic, so we almost always try to avoid it, unless good old Chuck is driving, which he was on this evening.

When we arrived at Scarantino's on a recent Friday around 6, we were met with a change of ownership announcement on the window and an alert that they are only going to be open Thursday through Sunday for dinner during this transitional phase. I've also heard rumblings that they might just close or be remodeling this restaurant, but haven't gotten confirmation on that as of this writing. There's also no mention of them closing on their Facebook page, which is updated rather frequently.

The sports bar portion, along with the front patio of this restaurant was teeming with people all throughout our stay, but the restaurant side only had us and one other party eating here. The restaurant is dark, sunken, and almost cave-like. Not dirty exactly, but definitely its seen better days. The menu has all of the Italian classics that you would come to expect from an Italian restaurant in Southern California. There are plenty of pasta choices, along with seafood, chicken, and beef dishes, with none of them exceeding the $20 price point. Now I was starting to see why Chuck wanted to eat here. Let's check out what each of us had to fuel us up for our long drive up the 405 Freeway.

Shortly after ordering, this bread basket arrived. Toasted Bread and Herbed Foccacia were included here, with plenty of butter. Nothing out of the ordinary, but pretty decent for a bread basket, and they were pretty good about refilling this.

Main entrees come with either your choice of minestrone soup or a house salad. Katie and I both selected a House Salad to start out with. Again, this was a pretty basic salad, with iceberg and romaine lettuce, red cabbage, a few shards of carrots, tomatoes, and your choice of dressing. The produce was fresh, and they did use plenty of dressing on it.

Not that we needed any more bread, but we ordered this Garlic Bread ($5) appetizer before we knew we would be getting a bread basket to start our meal. This garlic bread kind of resembled one that I grew up with, made with the Lawry's Garlic Spread. They also added some seasonings to top this off. Pretty good bread, which was toasted well, and included a good amount of garlic flavor.

Entrees were out pretty quickly, and we'll start with Katie's choice, the Cannelloni ($12). These pasta crepes were filled with ricotta and Romano cheeses, meat, and spinach, and served on top of a meat sauce, with Mornay sauce covering the crepes. Katie called this a solid Italian dish, but nothing that knocked her socks off. She thought it would be heavier than it was, and she liked the way the red sauce and Mornay sauce balanced each other out. She'd probably get something else on her next visit to Scarantino's though.

Not wanting to fill up on a big meal before their flight, (or is it another cost-cutting move by Chuck?), Stephanie and Chuck split this Chicken Parmesan ($16). Two lightly breaded chicken breasts, doused with marinara and topped with mozzarella cheese. Chuck predictably loved this dish, while Stephanie thought it was just okay. The menu did not state it, but this came with sauteed veggies and a side of pasta. I tried both, and they were both all right.

Before showing up at Scarantino's, I did a little research about what people online liked here, and the overwhelming favorite was this Lasagna ($12). They used words like huge, delicious, and cheesy. I'd use words like tiny, okay, and cheesy. I was expecting this to be huge, but I polished this off rather easily. The bolognese was good, and I liked the fact there was a lot of cheese here, but the rest of this was kind of flat flavor-wise. This could have been helped with some sausage or even more meat in their sauce. I doctored this up with some much needed red pepper flakes and Parmesan cheese, but even then this was just average lasagna. Not one of my favorites.

Scarantino's really failed to impress. I'd sum this restaurant up by saying that it wasn't awful, but if you want food that's going to satisfy, you might want to head somewhere else. Of course, they are getting new owners, so this restaurant might improve in the future. We all declared that there is much better Italian dining around this area, (Biaggio's, Tutto Famiglia, and Romano Cucina just to name a few). We did experience some polite and efficient service this evening, and the food did get out on time, so we could get Chuck and Stephanie to the airport in plenty of time to catch their flight.

Out of five koala bears, (because some of you are probably not aware that the city of Lake Forest is home to a 400 plus acre grove of eucalyptus trees, a favorite among koala bears), five being best to zero being worst, Scarantino's Sports Bar and Grill get 2 koala bears.

Scarantino's Sports Bar and Grill does not have a website, but you can find information about them on their Yelp page here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/scarantinos-sports-bar-and-grill-lake-forest

Sliders Going Down the Hatch - CLOSED

Hatch

2493 Park Avenue Suite #27

Tustin, CA 92782

It's not every day my good friend Richard can get out of the house for a little guy time. He's a very doting father, a great husband, and loves spending time with his family when he is not at work. So it's really rare that he can make our weekly Tuesday night poker game. The problem is we don't start playing until 6 pm, and we get off of work at 3, so it really wouldn't be wise for him to head home, just to turn around and come back down the busy 5 Freeway for cards. So, while waiting for our card game, we decided to try out a new slider place at the Union Market at The District in Tustin, Hatch.

It seems like it has taken the Union Market at the District a long time to launch, but I think they are finally on their way. There's finally more shops than empty retail spaces, and every time we come here, there seems to be a new spot that has opened up, and been featured on my Instagram feed. On my list of places to hit up here are, the Kroft, Churned Creamery, and Crepe Coop. This visit was all about Hatch though, which Richard had seen when he was here watching the latest Disney movie and had wanted to give it a try.

The Hatch concept comes to us from Leonard Chan, who has had a string of successful restaurants lately. He is responsible for The Iron Press, The Blind Rabbit, Rolling Boil, and California Shabu Shabu in Costa Mesa. This restaurant is his nod towards a mid 20th century-inspired bar specializing in craft beers, rum/tiki inspired beverages and the real reason I was here gourmet sliders. They totally nailed the decor, as it really reminded me of what I imagined the Brady Bunch set to look like in real life. Satellite looking lights hanging above the bar, plastic chairs like the ones we used to sit on in school all around the space, and muted wood paneling give this restaurant a mod feel to it, one where you would expect Austin Powers to hangout if he were around now.

The menu is pretty straight forward, with 20 sliders offered, and they are ordered in pairs ($14), but you can mix and match them, and they also come with a half order of a side of your choosing. There are three each offering of sliders from the following categories; beef, pork, poultry, fish, and veggie. There's also a Loco Moco available, but other than that, this is a joint for sliders. We arrived at the odd time of 3:30, found a seat at the bar, and ordered our food. Let's see how everything turned out for us on this guy's afternoon out.

Of course, I had to start off with a beverage since we were celebrating Richard's one-day independence on this afternoon, and I went with the first cocktail listed on their drink menu, Donn's Dream ($10 usually, but happy hour priced at $6). From what I could gather, this drink was inspired by the disputed inventor of the mai tai, Donn Beach, more famously known as the man behind Donn the Beachcomber. This was not like those sugary Mai Tai's I have had before. This was a more grown-up version, which used Plantation Grand Reserve 5-Year-Old Rum, Flor de Cana 4-Year-Old Rum, Clement Creole Shrubb Orange Liqueur, and their own simple syrup recipe. A little more of a punch than I was expecting, but still rather good. The bartenders here know their stuff and take great pride crafting these cocktails with high-quality ingredients.

Richard and I came up with the game plan of sharing 4 of their 20 sliders that they offer, starting with this Fried Soft Shell Crab Slider. The crab was fried nicely, with limited greasiness, and was topped with a tomato slice and togarashi aioli, which had a faint wisp of heat from the chili used in it. I would have used a little more of the aioli on this, but the crab was already kind of missing in action here. Not a bad slider, but I was expecting a little more from the crab.

More to my liking was their namesake burger, The Hatch. An all-beef patty is placed between the very sturdy bun, along with fried onions, hatch sauce, which resembled a thousand island dressing, and what made this for me was the fried cheese hat. The cheese had a very good texture to it, the beef was pretty solid, and the hatch sauce was tasty, but they could have used a little more on here. A very solid slider.

Another winner for me was this Buffalo Slider. I love buffalo flavored anything, and this was like a buffalo wing in slider form. It used a buttermilk fried piece of chicken, and then was doused with a sriracha buffalo sauce, and paired with Parmesan cheese and a carrot and celery slaw. The only thing this was missing was either some blue cheese or ranch dressing. The chicken was good, the sriracha sauce had a nice low kick to it, and the slaw provided a nice crunchy texture element.

Our last slider of the afternoon before we had to head off to poker was this Rum Braised Slider. I had some pretty high hopes for this pork slider, but it did not live up to my expectations. The rum braised pork was tender, but the roasted garlic aioli, pineapple chutney, and cilantro kind of canceled each other out here, and left this slider in chaos. I think this would have been better with just the aioli, but I can see that they were going for a sweet and savory thing here. For what its worth, this was Richard's favorite, so maybe I just wasn't feeling this one for some reason.

Like I said earlier, each pair of sliders comes with a half side of your choice. The options include fries, onion rings, Caesar salad, or a chopped salad. We, of course, went with the fries and onion rings. The fries were pretty standard, but the onion rings rose above the norm. They had a good thick breading, did not break away from the onion, and went well with the provided togarashi aioli. One of the better onion rings in my recent memory.

I've been on quite a roll with bread puddings this year and wanted to see if my luck would hold out with this Aloha ($8). This dessert was fried bread pudding, with ice cream and a few strands of caramel. I liked this dessert because the bread pudding was not mushy like a lot of bread pudding tends to be, but they could have used a little more ice cream and caramel here. Still good, and my hot streak with bread pudding desserts continues.

Before we hit the road for my ultimate demise at poker on this evening, I ordered one more cocktail, the Hemingway's Ghost ($10). This simply made drink used Papa Pilar's Blonde Rum, lime juice, and simple syrup. This really was a strong drink, and I left half of it on the bar, or I wouldn't have been able to make it to poker. Not really my kind of cocktail, but for rum purists, this is probably right up their alley.

I'd have to say that I was not really a big fan of the drinks I had at Hatch. I know they are made with great ingredients, and by bartenders that really take great pride in crafting cocktails, but I'm usually looking for more of a refreshing beverage, than one that will knock me out for a while. As you may have guessed, I'm more of a food guy, and I liked what we consumed at Hatch. For the most part, the sliders were good, but did not blow me out of the water with their awesomeness, but definitely pretty solid for bar food. I would have liked to have had the option to have a full-sized burger here, but I guess sliders are their thing. For people that are cocktail enthusiasts, Hatch might be a destination spot for you, but as far as the food goes, I'd come back here if I were in the area, and looking for a spot to eat, at this kind of underwhelming, restaurant rich, shopping center. Service was on point this afternoon, as the bartenders did a great job of answering questions, and making sure we had everything we needed. This was a great afternoon hanging out with my long lost friend Richard, even though I ended up losing at poker.

Out of five chilies, (because whenever I hear the word hatch, I automatically think of the delicious hatch chilies from New Mexico), five being best to zero being worst, Hatch gets 3 chilies.

For more information about Hatch, head to their website here: http://www.eathatch.com/