Great Burgers Our Destiny at Mick's Karma Bar - CLOSED

Mick's Karma Bar

2010 Main St.

Irvine, CA 92614

I am willing to bet that there is not a restaurant in OC that has not been helped by social media more than Mick's Karma Bar. Social media has been blamed for a lot of things. Social unrest, inducing procrastination, invasion of privacy, and becoming a substitute for actual interactions, real face to face time. I have a feeling that Mick, from Mick's Karma Bar, does not have anything but love for social networking sites.

Mick opened his business at the bottom of a large office building complex in Irvine. Started as a juice/wrap driven restaurant, Mick's is susceptible to the booms and busts of the business world, more than he should have been, due to his location. He told us that the entire business's just disappeared from the office buildings during the recession. He lost a good majority of his customers, chunks at a time. Luckily, he had a burger on his menu that would change his business forever, the Karma Burger.

Well, it was not actually called a hamburger at the start. Mick called it a Steak Hache, which is French for ground steak. A customer told him to change the name to a burger, because Americans like hamburgers. From that point on people started to take notice of the burgers at Mick's. The on-line buzz started and has not stopped yet. Mick's has been reviewed on Yelp over six hundred times and gets 4.5 stars with all those reviews. Almost 90 percent of people on Urbanspoon like Mick's. I read a lot of OC food bloggers and almost all of them have reviewed this place and loved it. So I knew it was just a matter of time before we made it to Mick's, and that time finally was now.

Mick's can be a little hard to find. There is very little signage for this restaurant. It is easier looking for the parking structure off of Main Street, the same one you would use to park at for McCormick and Schmick's or El Torito. Park towards the back, in the visitor's area on the first level. Follow the signs to Kitima, and then walk past it, and turn the corner to the left, then you will be at Mick's.

It was a Saturday night around seven when we arrived at the sleepy high rise complex that is home to Mick's. It is not hard to imagine that this area would be quite crowded during regular business hours. The night we were here it was evident that a lot of social media had driven a good stream of people to Mick's. The restaurant is not a big place. They have limited counter seating, a few small tables inside, and the majority of seating is at patio tables outside, among the large art sculptures that I was trying to make sense of. The menu is written on chalkboards behind the ordering station. The menu is not huge. Five burgers, two wraps, and a fish taco are offered, but it is the burgers that have brought us here, so after ordering we grab a table outside and what for the burgers to be brought out.

The first burger was Katie's selection, the Patty Melt ($8.75 combo price). This burger comes with caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, Gruyere cheese, and mayo. I am used to Patty Melts being served on rye, but this one used a very sturdy, almost wheat bun. Katie liked the thickness of the onions and felt the burger really resembled a fresh, backyard style burger. The patty was one of the juiciest ones she has had in a long while. The combo came with fries and a drink. The fries here are fine, as far as steak fries go. The real star for Katie was the Strawberry Basil Lemonade. She liked that the basil cut the usual sweetness of the lemonade. It was refreshing, without being overly sweet.

The burger that caught my eye right away on the menu was the Habanero Karma Burger ($8.75 as a combo). This one came with chili's, garlic mayo, queso fresco, and all the usual hamburger accompaniments. Like Katie, the first thing I noticed here was the bun. It was very sturdy, without being too bready. The produce was good, but I did get rid of some of the lettuce. The queso fresco was an interesting choice for this burger. It kind of had the texture of cottage cheese, but I did not seem to mind it. It added a nice mellow flavor to counteract the heat from the chili spread. The chili spread was not outrageously hot but did make my tongue tingle a bit. Mick brought me a little extra, so I could add another layer to my burger. Even with all the other components of this burger going on, the meat was still the star of the show. You can tell it is made fresh, as the meat had a backyard BBQ quality to it. Not over seasoned, but not bland by any means. A high-quality burger.

Yes, I ordered two hamburgers. I also needed to try their signature Karma Burger, with bacon added ($6.50). Along with the thick-cut bacon, this burger came with American cheese,  lettuce, tomato, and their Karma sauce. The sauce is kind of like a very mild thousand island. It adds just enough flavor to avoid being intrusive. This burger was good but lacked the big-time flavor of the habanero burger that I ate first. Still a solid burger, and one that I look forward to enjoying again.

Since I got an extra burger, I indulged Katie by allowing her to get an extra drink. She chose the Purple Palmer ($3.25), a concoction of pomegranate juice, hibiscus/cranberry iced tea, and then topped with lemonade. Katie liked this drink but was way more into the strawberry and basil lemonade. She liked the fruitiness of this and felt it was pretty refreshing.

After eating at Mick's I can now see what all the hype was about. These are some pretty solid burgers. They are some of the freshest burgers we have had in a restaurant. You can sense the care and craftsmanship that goes into each burger. Is this the best burger I have had? No, but it is one of the cleanest that I have eaten. Even after devouring two of these burgers, I did not feel overly full, and I think that is due to the fresh ingredients and the quality at Mick's. Mick took plenty of time to talk with us about his background, his business, and finding out about us. He is a real solid individual that loves what he does and is very passionate about it. He may give credit to the Karma Burger for helping save his business, but his personality and people skills also have to factor into his success. We really enjoyed our burgers at this unusual spot, but our conversation with Mick was equally as good. This is a must-try burger.

Out of five apples, (because one of my favorite songs, Instant Karma by John Lennon was released by Apple Records in 1970), five being best to zero being worst, Mick's Karma Bar gets 3.5 apples.

For more information on Mick's Karma Bar, click here: http://www.oftendining.com/restaurant_info/order.php?store_id=2151&oid=1

Destination Dessert in Westminster! - CLOSED

Crepe Corner

9329 Bolsa Avenue

Westminster, CA 92683

We had just finished a meal, but still had a little room for dessert. There is always room for dessert right? Our Asian food expert, Kat from Kat's 9 Lives, was with us and knew just the spot we should try for dessert, Crepe Corner.

I admit it, I get totally lost when I am in this area. Luckily, Kat knows her way around this neighborhood like the back of her hand. Crepe Corner is a restaurant inside another restaurant. The restaurant with a bigger sign and area is Zen Vegetarian Restaurant. Not exactly my favorite kind of place, so I was a little skeptical.

We got to Crepe Corner at about nine on a Friday night. The restaurant was buzzing with activity. I do not hang out in this area of town often, but almost all the places we passed on the streets had lots of people inside of them, and Zen/Crepe Corner was no exception. During our visit, large families, couples on dates, and older people came through the door, mainly for vegetarian food. The two restaurants are not overly large. Maybe fifteen tables, with a large stage off to the side that is used for Karaoke. Thankfully, that had not started during our visit, or I would have had to bust out my rendition of Monkey by George Michael.

Ordering for Crepe Corner is done at the counter to the right, as you walk in the door. Their menu includes four all-ready-made crepes, that come with specific toppings, or they offer a checklist-style of order, which is the route we went. The base price for each crepe is $2.49, and toppings, fruits, spreads, and ice cream is extra. After ordering, we found a table in the dining room and waited for the crepes to come out. After a wait of ten minutes, this is what came out for us.

Let's start with my crepe creation. At Crepe Corner you have the option of having your crepe crunchy or soft. We all went for the crunchy version. I think I would try the soft version the next time I come here. I kind of like a slight chew to the crepe skin. I added peanut butter, banana, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce to my crepe. The chocolate sauce was used very sparingly, so I did not get much of that. The peanut butter was good, but a little dry. Two scoops of ice cream may have been needed to moisten up this crepe. The banana was ripe and was probably the add on that stood out the most.

Katie had almost the exact opposite crepe as me. Yes, she did have it crispy, but that is where the similarities end. She got hers with chocolate ice cream, caramel sauce, and strawberries. When this came out of the kitchen the strawberries were absent, but she ate this anyways. She liked it but was not wowed by it. She also felt that the crispy crepe skin was a little off.

Here's a quick look at Kat's crepe. I know for sure that she added Nutella to her crepe, but I am not sure what else she added. She did seem very pleased with her choice though.

Crepe Corner is one of those places that I think you need to go to more than one time to find your perfect crepe. They offer 8 kinds of fruit, 9 kinds of spreads, 4 kinds of ice cream, and 12 kinds of toppings. I am no mathematician, but even I know that makes for a lot of different combinations that can be made. The prices here were not too bad for dessert. I got the most things on my crepe, and it came out to less than $6. The service was fair here. We did not have a waitress or anything, so when we were done we walked back up to the counter and asked for our check. Not exactly destination dining, but if you are in the area, and craving a light dessert, this might be the place for you.

Out of five drive-in theaters, (in honor of this being our first Westminster review, and the last drive-in theater in OC appeared in this city up until 1997), five being best to zero being worst, Crepe Corner gets 2.5 drive-in theaters.

For more information on Crepe Corner, click here: http://crepe-corner.com/

Craving Claw's?

Claws Restaurant

12125 Brookhurst St. 

Garden Grove, CA 92840

I have wanted to go since I heard about Cajun/Vietnamese/Southern fusion restaurants. Which one to try, though? We had gone to one of these restaurants before, but the wait was over two hours, so we did not get to try it on that trip. Another time, we had it all set to go, but Katie suffered from a migraine, resulting in another aborted mission. This was our third attempt to come here, and like my Mom always says, "The third time is always the charm."

For this dining adventure, we were with our Asian food expert and fellow blogger, Kat, from Kat's 9 Lives. She has been to all these places and enjoys Claws the best. She rarely steers us wrong regarding food, so we decided to bite the bullet and listen to her boring stories to have a good meal. The price we pay as food bloggers is sometimes great!

I will explain it to those who need clarification on what kind of restaurant this is. It is a seafood restaurant with a twist. They offer about seven types of seafood, depending on availability. All seafood is served by the pound, and you are asked what kind of seasoning you would like out of the three offered, or you can go all the way and order a mixture of all three, which is the most popular choice. Your last option is deciding what heat level you want your seafood sauced in. They offer four heat levels here. You then can add extras to the baggies that the seafood is served in, but more on that later.

We arrived at Claws at a good time. We only had to wait about five minutes. The restaurant is a little small. They probably have about twenty tables for now. By the start of next month, the waitress says they will be moving into their new location in the same shopping center but is triple the size. This will significantly reduce wait times here. Guess this means business is doing fine. The decor here is a little dorky, but I like pirates and fishnetting everywhere. When you walk in, they have all of their fish selections for the evening on a blackboard, along with the prices. I like this. It leaves the guesswork out of guessing how much the market price is for items. I never thought I would type these words, but luckily, we had Kat with us, so we left the ordering to her expertise. This is what she selected for us.

Kat and I split the 4 Pound Meal Deal ($51). This came with four pounds of seafood and the three appetizers above. My favorite of the three starters that we got was the Fried Calamari. This was heavily breaded, but I still could taste the squid on the inside. It's not too rubbery, and I enjoyed the tarter sauce this came with. I ate my fair share of these. Our meal came with Cajun fries, but we upgraded to the Garlic Fries for an extra $2. This was a wise choice. These fries were fried well, and the garlic flavor was prevalent. The Butterfly Shrimp were okay but were my least favorite out of the bunch. These reminded me of the frozen ones my Mom used to fry up when we were kids. These were not frozen, but the taste reminded me of them. The breading was dominant, and the shrimp took a back seat to it. The odd green sauce was also bland. Cocktail sauce or ketchup would have been better.

Here are a few shots of how the seafood is presented at the table and a look inside the bags that we got. We got two pounds of shrimp, a pound of crawfish, and a pound of clams. They offered four types of seasoning, Cajun, lemon pepper, garlic butter, or a mixture of all three, which they call Cannonball. This is the one that we got to go along with our medium sauce. I would have liked a spicier sauce, but Kat did not want to go hotter than medium. This was my first experience with crawfish. I was not too excited about it. These little lobster-like animals are tiny, painful to crack open and yield only a small amount of meat. I felt these were not worth the trouble. Also, before you ask, yes, I sucked the juice from the heads, but it really did nothing for me. I really liked the large shrimp that we got here. I should have gotten it peeled for an extra dollar a pound, but Kat feels it tastes better whole. The clams were good because they were easy to eat and soaked up a lot of the seasonings and sauce. I mentioned adding extras to the bags of seafood, and we took advantage of this. We added potatoes for an extra 35 cents apiece, and for a very reasonable 25 cents each, we added two dozen sausages. I really enjoyed the sausage. They went well with the sauce, and like the clams, they were easy to eat. The potatoes were heavy and did not soak up enough of the sauce.

This is the messy aftermath of our meal. My hands were caked with sauce, while Kat was good about keeping her hands clean. I'm not sure how she did it, but I got down and dirty while eating at Claws.

If you are not into peeling seafood or getting your hands dirty, you can opt for a more traditional dinner. Katie selected this option by ordering the Garlic Seafood Pasta ($12.99). The pasta is sauteed in a garlic butter sauce with scallops, shrimp, and calamari. Katie asked for the calamari to be left out because she is not a fan of squid. She liked the seafood in this dish and felt the plate had a well-balanced flavor. It had a little kick to it without being too much. The garlic was also present but not overpowering. This was served with fresh veggies, which were okay, and a small side salad she called "better than she thought it would be."

I really enjoyed Claws. I realize that it is not for everyone, though. Many people prefer to avoid getting messy when they eat, so this would not be the place for them. All of the food was fresh and flavored well. The prices were reasonable, even with the items we added to our bags of seafood. I felt full but was not overly stuffed when we left Claws. The service was excellent on our visit. The wait staff was on top of refilling drinks, ensuring everything was good, and asking us if we needed anything else. We will definitely use Claws as the benchmark for these types of restaurants. Can not wait to try others. Thanks for taking us here, Kat!

Out of five stuffed animals (because when I hear the word claw, it always makes me think of those horrible claw machine games filled with stuffed animals and other junk that I have never won), five being best to zero being worst, Claws Restaurant gets 3 stuffed animals.

For more information about Claws Restaurant, click here: http://www.clawsrestaurant.com/index.html

A Pleasant Burger in Placentia

B & C Burgers

1868 Placentia, Ave.

Placentia, CA 92870

Has it really been six months? Yes, I guess it has. This year is flying by. Every six months, like clockwork I have a standing appointment to get my teeth cleaned at my childhood dentist. Yes, I live in south county, but I have not wanted to change dentists. So every six months I make the trek up to Yorba Linda, get my teeth cleaned, and then usually have lunch with my Mom. It works out perfectly. I get to eat at a restaurant in an area I am usually not in, and she gets to eat lunch with her favorite child, (sorry to break this to my sister, but she will get over it).

After another spotless dentist visit, I had to choose where to eat. As an added wrinkle to my selection, my Mom informed me that my three nieces would be joining us for lunch. That narrowed my list quite a bit, so we headed to Placentia's very own B & C Burgers.

Restaurants like B & C Burgers dot every city in OC. They usually have names like Gus's, Bill's or Ted's. The menus are always very large, serving breakfast, burgers, sandwiches, and Mexican or Greek food. At B & C there is no Greek gyros, but they do have a wide assortment of Mexican favorites. After reading the Yelp reviews, I knew what I was going to be having when we showed up here.

We got to B & C right as the lunch rush was forming. The restaurant is pretty small, with six tables inside, and about the same number outside. Ordering is done at the counter, and with such a big menu, of course it takes awhile for most people to find out what they want, including my nieces. The heat was getting to me, so we ordered, got our drinks and waited for our food to come out.

It was not breakfast time, but a number of people in reviews had made mention of how good the B & C Breakfast Burrito ($6.99) is, so of course I had to try it. The potatoes were very creamy and the large pieces of sausage were very tasty. The eggs did get lost here and this burrito needed a little more cheese and bacon. What really made this burrito pop was the salsa that came with it. I am pretty sure it was homemade, and it added a nice kick of heat to the burrito. I almost wanted to steal the whole container of it and bring it home with me, but my Mom was sitting right next to me, so I was good.

I only ate half of the burrito, because of course I had to try their burgers. The one hamburger that got more mentions on Yelp than all others, was the Double Frisco Burger ($7.99 as a combo). I know his sounds like a huge burger, but the patties at B & C are very thin. I would have been very disappointed if I had only got a single patty. The sourdough bread could have been toasted a bit more, but it held the contents of the burger well. The cheese kind of got shoved to the side on this because the bacon was some of the best I have had in awhile. This is thick cut bacon, which was full of salty flavor. I also liked that they put mayonnaise on this burger. Not too many places opt for this condiment, and it was a refreshing change. Instead of fries I went with onion rings, and they were pretty good. The breading was not over the top, and the onion was cooked well, without being crazy greasy. Insiders tip, the yellow squirt bottles on the tables are not mustard, they are filled with ranch dressing.

If there is one food that I would say my Mom orders more than any other in restaurants, it is a Tuna Sandwich ($3.99). I can remember her ordering these when I was a kid at Polly's Pies, and the tradition continues today. She liked the basic looking tuna sandwich at B & C. The tuna was fresh, the produce was fine, and the bread appeared to be wheat of some sort.

My Mom and I split the Fried Zucchini ($2.99). This was a pretty good fried zucchini. Not a heavy breading, the zucchini seemed pretty fresh, and the light dusting of Parmesan cheese was much appreciated. This was not a real heavy fried item. The serving size for this was not awful for three dollars. We had some left over to take home.

Two of my three nieces had the Bacon Burger Combo with Fries ($5.99). Kids are picky eaters, and these two are no exception. Neither of them wanted cheese or produce on their burgers, which makes for a very drab looking picture. Both of them only ate a few bites of their burgers, after complaining that they were starving before the food got to the table. They were way more interested in the fries than the burgers.

Gracie of course did not want to be like her sister's, so she had the Kid's Chicken Strips ($4.99). She struggled to finish these and really only started eating when I told her I would get her a milkshake. She finally finished after forty-five minutes, but the milkshake would have to wait for another day because her sisters were getting antsy. I did try the chicken and it was good, nothing special.

B & C claims to have the best burger in Placentia, and up to this point in my research I believe that to be true. Although there is not much competition in this north county city. There is only fifteen burger places listed on Urbanspoon in Placentia, and nine of those are fast food chains, including the supposed number one burger in the city from In N Out. I like this burger better than In N Out. The patties might be thin, but the thick bacon makes up for that in my book. The service was really good. The guy working the counter came out and checked on us frequently. He also made sure that we were happy with everything, and cleared our plates for us while we were waiting for Gracie to finish her chicken strips. There were signs on the soda machine warning people that they are only allowed one refill, but we did not see anyone enforcing that. Now, where to go when I have my next dental visit in March?

Out of five Olympic medals, (because former Placentia resident, Janet Evans won five Olympic medals in her swimming career), five being best to zero being worst, B & C Burger gets 3 Olympic medals.

For more information on B & C Burgers, click here: http://www.bncburgers.com/index.html

Blazing a Trail for Pizza

Blaze Pizza

4255 Campus Drive #A120

Irvine, CA 92612

The restaurant business is really funny. Someone has an idea, and within a couple of months, that idea gets copied and then copied again. I am not sure who came up with the idea of a build your own pizza place, but they seem to be popping up with great regularity all of a sudden. Spin Pizza is one of these concepts. They are a pizza chain from Kansas City, that will be started out here by Hof's Hut honcho, Craig Hoffman. He plans too open before the year is out if everything goes right. Another assembly line pizza place opened up right by Cal State Fullerton, Pie-ology. We have not been yet, but most people online really like it. Now enter a third contestant for your fast casual pizza dollar, Blaze Pizza.

Blaze Pizza just opened up about a month ago. We were going to go to the media preview party, but we had a scheduling conflict. We put it on our list of places to try and waited for the perfect opportunity to go. That perfect opportunity came up on a recent Sunday when we went to watch our friend Rachel play soccer for the Anteaters. We needed a place to eat nearby, and Blaze Pizza was right around the corner.

Blaze Pizza was founded by pretzel people, Elise, and Rick Wetzel. The same people who brought you Wetzel's Pretzel's to almost every mall in the US, have teamed up with Executive Chef, Bradford Kent to open this quick-service pizza restaurant. Ordering is done at the counter, where you have the option of building your own pizza creation or you can take the easy way out and just go for one of their signature pizzas.

We got to Blaze Pizza at about 5:30 on a Sunday afternoon. Since school has not started yet, I thought it was going to be pretty dead, but the restaurant and the entire center had plenty of people roaming about on this lazy Sunday. Blaze Pizza is dominated by the color orange, which is a real attention grabber. I was watching people when they first walked in, and they were real standoffish about ordering. It took people about three to four minutes to decide what they wanted, which is understandable at this new eatery. It did back the line up a little bit.

Here are a few shots of the assembly line process that goes on at Blaze Pizza. As each customer orders, their pizza dough is flattened, sauce of their choice added, along with the toppings they choose. At the end of the process, the pizza is put into a large oven and baked for 180 seconds at 800 degrees. Sorry I failed to get a picture of the oven. I was done snapping pictures, it was now time to eat.

Okay, guess I still have to take pictures of the food. Starting us off is Blaze's Caesar Salad ($3.50). This prepackaged salad was just okay. The lettuce was fresh, the dressing was pretty good, but there were too many croutons on this salad, with most of them losing their crunch due to the moisture of the greens. I could tell that this was a fresh salad, but they should really keep the croutons separate.

Of course, I have been talking up the fact that you can build your own pizza masterpiece here, but neither Katie or I built our own. We both went the signature pizza route. True to form, I opted for the Meat Eater ($6.85). This pizza came with pepperoni, crumbled meatballs, red onion, mozzarella, and red sauce. The crust here is thin. It did a great job of holding the toppings and did have a slight chew to it. They did not overload this pizza with toppings. The meats were all pretty good, but I would have liked just a little more on this pie. The sauce was fine, but again, there was not much of it on here. The thing I noticed most about this pizza was the lack of grease. Not really any, which made this a very light tasting pizza.

Katie's pizza could not have been any more different from mine. She had a modified version of their White Top Pizza ($6.85). This sauceless pizza usually comes with bacon, but she substituted the swine for sliced tomatoes. A trade-off I would never make. Anyways, this pizza came with mozzarella and ricotta cheeses, chopped garlic, arugula, and oregano. Katie thought the cheese was melted nicely, and that the pizza had a nice mellow flavor. She liked the sliced tomatoes on this but will opt to cut out the arugula on her subsequent visits.

I liked Blaze but was not blown away by anything we had here. I think this concept will definitely flourish at this location. Students love pizza and inexpensive food, and the prices here are pretty good. Time is also an important factor for students, and at Blaze Pizza, you walk in, and five minutes later you are eating your pizza creation. The pizzas are better than anything you can get a chain pizza place, (Pizza Hut, Domino's, or Little Caesars). The toppings are fresh, the dough is really good, and the concept seems to be spreading. Blaze Pizza might have a winner on its hands.

Out of five rocking horses, (because in 1962, toy maker Mattel introduced the world to its version of a rocking horse, which they called Blaze), five being best to zero being worst, Blaze Pizza gets 3 rocking horses.

For more information on Blaze Pizza, click here: https://blazepizza.com/