Sublime Sandwiches in Santa Ana - CLOSED

C4 Deli: The Cure for the Common

200 Broadway

Santa Ana, CA 92701

In May, the much improved Orange County Register food section published a 10 page spread all about burgers. I read that, and of course, I gorged myself on burgers trying to eat at all the top ten spots on their list that I had missed. I still have two more of those burgers to eat, but I took a self-imposed sabbatical from my quest. I found myself not enjoying them as much as I knew I should be. Yes, I have had an occasional burger over this summer, but I have been much more into sandwiches lately.

That's why we made a beeline for C4 Deli when we heard that it had opened. C4 comes to us from the same people that brought us one of our favorites, Chapter One, the Modern Local. In fact, they are located just a few doors down from Chapter One, on the opposite side of the street in Downtown Santa Ana. We were going to be meeting my cousin Daryl here, who is soon to be off to Chile to begin a new chapter in his life. Hopefully, he would be sent off with some great food from C4.

We got to C4 at about six on a very hot day in mid-September. They still were not done tweaking the restaurant during our visit. They were getting the new air conditioning unit installed the next day, the menu had a lot of, "coming soon" items on it, and work still needed to be done on the promised 20 seat patio. The vibe here kind of reminded me of the painting by Edward Hopper, "Nighthawks". See those two semesters of art history at Fullerton College really paid off for me (okay I had to look up the artist, but still). Much like the painting, we sat at the long counter. The interior here featured a very nice high ceiling, very small booths, marble countertops, and exposed brick walls. They are going for a kind of art deco kind of feel to the place, and I would say they are on their way to achieving that goal.  Just like I was on my way to achieving my goal of trying out the food at C4. Let's see how everything turned out for us.

Before our sandwiches came out, they brought us over some samples of their salads for us to try. These are not like any deli salads you find in other places. The Hearts of Palm Salad ($3.99) was pretty solid. White beans, avocado, peas, goat cheese, and red wine vinaigrette made up this salad. I'm not usually partial to goat cheese, but this salad had a wonderfully complex flavor. It had a little tang from the vinaigrette, a nice smoothness from the avocado, and a savoriness from the beans. All of these worked very well together. The Chickpea Salad ($2.99) was a little simpler, but delicious nonetheless. Here the chickpeas are joined by roasted garlic, red onion, olive oil, red peppers, and lemon and lime zest. The predominate flavors that I got with this salad were from the garlic and the earthiness from the chickpeas. Chickpeas are popping up on lots of menus around, and chefs are using them in a lot of different ways. I kind of like this trend.

Sandwich time, and we'll start with Katie's choice, the Muffuletta ($8.99). C4 brings this classic New Orleans sandwich to us in OC. All the traditional components of a muffuletta are here, the salami, mortadella, capicola, olive salad, and substituting for the usual provolone is Emmentaler cheese. Katie thought this sandwich was amazing. She liked the freshness of the sandwich, all the ingredients worked well with each other, and she has not stopped thinking about this sandwich since we left C4. She will definitely be back to have this sandwich.

My cousin Daryl quickly selected the Italian Sandwich ($6.50) for his dinner. This sandwich combined a cavalcade of items onto the bread; salami, capicola, mortadella, lettuce, tomato, Swiss cheese, chili oil, and red wine vinegar. It is very apparent that the meats here are sliced fresh and are of a higher quality than most other delis serve. My cousin seemed very pleased with this sandwich. I tried it, and really liked the dressing used on this sandwich. The chili oil provided a little pop, while the red wine vinegar provided some moisture and tang. The bread at C4 is made by the great OC Baking Company, which is helmed by the talented Dean Kim. You can always count on great bread when Dean is involved, and this was definitely the case at C4.

I could not decide between two sandwiches, so of course, I got both. My first sandwich was this Porchetta ($8.99). I knew I would be consuming this sandwich when I saw a picture of the porchetta on their Facebook page. After you are done reading this review, you have to get over to their Facebook page and have a look at the porchetta yourself. You will not be able to resist it. They make this pork every day, and they have sold out of it almost every day as well. Joining the pork on this sandwich was a citrus-tinged broccoli rabe and an aioli. The pork was as advertised, it was great. I could eat a lot of this. The broccoli rabe was not a good match for this sandwich though. I thought it overpowered with too much bitterness. I also would have liked a little more aioli on this sandwich. A good sandwich that can be made great with just a few tweaks.

My other sandwich would be the Reuben ($11.99). This sandwich was endorsed by one of my favorite OC food writers, Gustavo Arellano, from OC Weekly. It did not disappoint. At C4 they use 100 percent natural, antibiotic and hormone-free beef. This pastrami was spiced perfectly, and you could taste the difference with this natural beef. The sauerkraut used here did not overpower, but I was still aware of its presence. My only small complaints about this sandwich were that the marbled rye bread could have been toasted, and a little more Russian dressing could have been used on this sandwich. If you haven't figured it out yet, I really do like using extra condiments on sandwiches.

We are not done with the sides at C4 yet. We each ordered one to try. The hit of this trio was definitely the Lentils with Chorizo and Pork Belly ($6.99). I have said it many times, and I will probably say it until the day I die, if you see pork belly on a menu, order it because you will not regret it. This was definitely the case here. The lentils provided a nice base for the chorizo and well-cooked pork belly. I was a little bummed when my cousin wanted to take our remaining portion of this home with him, but I know I will be back, and it was a nice parting gift for his trip to Chile. The Pickled Pasta Salad ($2.99) was a little different from regular pasta salad. This one was oil and vinegar-based, with corn, pickle, green and red peppers added. It was a little on the boring side for me. The Heirloom Potato Salad ($4.99) had a little wrinkle to it as well. It was mustard and aioli based, with chives added. I really liked this potato salad, the dressing did not overwhelm, the flavor was nice and mellow, and the little potatoes were cooked to a very nice tender texture.

For our first visit, C4 sure did impress us. I usually like to give new restaurants at least six months to a year to get in a good rhythm, but I was so excited to come to C4, I could not wait. I have a feeling that they will only get better. They have started offering breakfast items recently, along with a happy hour and late-night menu. I am looking forward to trying their sausage sandwich, fresh baked cookies, and house-made pickles on my next visit here. I have also expressed my interest in the management and the powers that be at C4, that I would really appreciate their take on a Cuban sandwich. I think they can make one that would be amazing. If you love the sandwiches at Subway and Quiznos, C4 is not going to be the deli for you. If you appreciate a good sandwich, like quality ingredients, and don't mind paying a little more for it, C4 is definitely worth a trip for you. Glad they came around to help satisfy my needs for a great sandwich, while I was on my burger sabbatical.

Out of five bombs, (because of course C4 is a type of plastic explosive, and also because these sandwiches are the bomb), five being best to zero being worst, C4 Deli gets 3.5 bombs.

For more information about C4 Deli: The Cure for the Common, go to their website here: http://www.c4deli.com/

Real Deal Pizza in Fullerton?

Fuoco Pizzeria Napoletana

101 North Harbor

Fullerton, CA 92832

The last time we were up in Fullerton my friend Clay had mentioned how much he liked the pizzeria that is on Harbor, and that we must go. For Clay to say that he likes a place is something of an anomaly. Let's just say that he and I do not share the same criteria when it comes to restaurants. He seems to judge restaurants more on service and atmosphere than on the actual food. His whole night can be thrown upside down if there is a loud talker seated next to him. If he feels an injustice has been preformed against him by a member of the waitstaff, he will shut down and have a miserable time the rest of the night. Don't get me wrong, he is one of my best friends, and one of the best people that I know, but we usually just don't see eye to eye when it comes to restaurants. So, going into this restaurant, I knew that he had at least experienced great service, and he liked the food enough to recommend this restaurant for a meet up between us, and our other good friend Erven and his family.

Fuoco Pizzeria has been open for almost a year now. This place is run by second and third generation pizza makers from Italy. They are doing things the way that they do them in Italy. They had their pizza oven built near Naples, and then had it shipped over here. Fuoco in Italian means fire, and they get their oven cranked up to nearly 1000 degrees by using only wood. This creates a pizza that only takes 90 seconds to bake. When it comes to the ingredients that go into making the pizza, they are getting their major components imported from Italy as well. So you can count on having 00 Caputo flour and San Marzano tomatoes used on your pizza. The result is a lighter than usual pizza that has a slightly charred crust.

We got to Fuoco just after 6PM on a Saturday night. The restaurant was about half full, but there was definitely a steady stream of customers trickling in during our visit. The restaurant had a nice and comfortable openness to it. The high ceilings and nicely spaced tables account for that. The exposed brick walls help convey the history of this older building. The menu here is pretty straight forward. They offer salads, pizza of course, a couple of calzones, a few sandwiches, and dessert. There are 16 pizzas to choose from, and if you are not up on your Italian, it might take you some time to look through all of their descriptions, which are nicely described on the menu. We put in our order with our waiter, and waited for it to make its way out of the kitchen. This is how it all turned out for us.

Katie and I were the only ones to start out with a salad, but there was enough of this Spinaci Salad ($9) to share some with Erven. I am not usually one to order spinach salad in restaurants, but for some reason this one caught my eye. Joining the spinach in this salad was red onion, tomato, prosciutto bits, Gorgonzola, and a balsamic dressing. Okay, it was probably the crispy prosciutto bits that really caught my attention here, but this was a very good salad. The spinach was very fresh, dressed well, and was a great vehicle for the other components of the salad. There were plenty of prosciutto bits on this, and the Gorgonzola added a nice flavor boost. I would not shy away from this salad on future visits here.

Right after finishing our salad, the pizzas started to come out, which was good because we were with Erven's four kids, and they started getting a little restless. Up first is Katie's normal selection at a pizza place like this, the Bianca. This white pizza came with mozzarella, ricotta, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and is then topped with arugula and parmigiano. Katie really liked this pizza immensely. She liked the freshness of the pizza, and the crust had a nice smokiness that made this pizza unique.

When I am going to have pizza, I almost always get the pizza with the most meat on it. When I was looking at the menu, all of the pizzas at Fuoco only had one kind of meat on them. I grew a little worried. I was relieved to hear the waiter say that they had a pizza that he thought might be right up my alley. Not sure if this is a secret pizza, or maybe just a special on the night we were here, but the 4 Salumi Pizza ($18) would be my choice on this night. I believe the four meats on this pizza were prosciutto, salami, sausage, and a spicy salami. The pizzas here are 12 inches across, and do not come pre-sliced. They are meant to be eaten the Italian way, with a knife and fork. The pizza was pretty good for what it was. The meats were very authentic, the tomato sauce and cheese definitely did not overpower, and the crust held everything, but was a little soggy in the middle, which is to be expected with this kind of pizza.

Since I was at the end of the table, I did not really get to hear what the rest of our party of nine thought of their pizzas. I asked Erven later his thoughts of this pizza and the restaurant. He would come back for sure to Fuoco. He is a fan of this thin, wood fired, style of pizza. His kids on the other hand were not so excited by their pizza. This might not be the kind of pizza kids here are used to. It's a little different from the stuff they get at pool parties, pizza parlors and delivered to their houses.

After eating at Fuoco, and while writing this review, I have come to a conclusion. I am not really a fan of true Neopolitan pizza. I think I am more of a cheese and meat kind of guy. I can definitely appreciate how people would like this pizza though. The guys that run Fuoco are doing things the right way for the people that enjoy this kind of pizza. They are making pizzas the way they are made in Italy, not skimping on anything, and using authentic ingredients. For me, I want to know that I had pizza after eating one. I like the heaviness I feel after eating a New York style or deep dish pizza. That's just me though. That's what I grew up with, just like these guys grew up with this kind of pizza. Much like politics, religion, and sports loyalties, I am not going to try to convert whichever side of the pizza spectrum you happen to fall on. If you like Neopolitan pizza, I can almost assure you that you will enjoy Fuoco. If you had a great pizza while you were in Italy, and have not been able to find something close to it in OC, give this place a try. They are more expensive than the average pizza, but with all of the attention to detail that Fuoco is putting in, it might be worth it to you if you are into this style of pizza. Our server on this night was great. Robert had his hands full with us five adults and four kids, but he managed everything well. Glad that for once Clay and I could see eye to eye on a restaurant. There might be hope for us yet.

Out of five marshmallows, (because Fuoco means fire in Italian, and there's nothing like roasting marshmallows over an open fire), five being best to zero being worst, Fuoco Pizzeria Napoletana gets 3 marshmallows.  

For more information about Fuoco Pizzeria Napoletana, go to their website here: http://www.fuocopizza.com/index.html

Cooling Down at the Seashore - CLOSED

House of Big Fish and Ice Cold Beer

540 South Coast Highway

Laguna Beach, CA 92651

I have been trying to find ways to get out of the oppressive heat that we have been experiencing the last month or so. After such a nice cool start to the summer, now that the calendar has turned to September, summer does not want to release its grip, and let fall take over. So we have been making the trek down towards the beach and cooler conditions, every chance we get. This time we are headed down to Laguna, which is a lot easier to get around in now that the Sawdust Festival, Pageant of the Masters, and school is back in session. After finding some really good parking, we proceeded to the House of Big Fish and Ice Cold Beer.

Just off the top of my head, I think this is probably the restaurant with the longest name that we have reviewed. Anyways, House of Big Fish and Ice Cold Beer, or as it will be called for the rest of this review, HBFICB, (wow that has a great ring to it), is on the opposite side of PCH from the ocean. They still have ocean views, since this is on the second story of a shopping plaza, just south of Main Beach Laguna. HBFICB is owned by Casa Resorts, which also operates several other restaurants, K'Ya Bistro, The Rooftop Lounge, and American Tavern, among others.

We arrived at HBFICB at 7PM on a Friday night. We arrived about 15 minutes before our reservation time but were seated almost immediately. The crowd on this night was pretty lively, lending to a really loud restaurant. If you are looking for a quiet, romantic place, this is not the restaurant to head to. Lots of big groups, families, and just a few parties of two dominated the dining space. They did have about 5 TVs throughout the restaurant, all turned to soccer games on this evening. The restaurant does convey an openness to it, kind of reminiscent of a beach house. After our order was taken, the food found its way to our table surprisingly quickly.

We both selected an appetizer to start with, and much to my surprise, Katie got the Chips and Salsa ($4). I thought this was a little odd, since this is a seafood restaurant, and she did not lean towards a seafood appetizer. I guess even after four years, she can still manage to surprise me. The chips and salsa here were okay. The chips were not very greasy, and the salsa was on the very mild side. I would have liked a little more chunk in the salsa, along with more spice.

It seems that Chowder Fries ($6.50) has been showing up on more and more menus lately, and I could not be happier about this trend. This version at HBFICB had plenty of bacon placed on top of their clam chowder. The chowder here was pretty thick, which I like. I did not detect a lot of clams in this chowder unless they were chopped up so fine, that I did not detect them. The fries did get a little limp by the end of the meal, but that is understandable. The serving size of this was pretty generous, as this is a very filling appetizer.

Even though I had ordered the chowder fries, I still wanted to try their Classic Caesar Salad ($6.50). This was a very bland tasting Caesar. The only real flavor came from the anchovy that was placed on top of it. This salad needed more cheese, better croutons, and a thicker dressing. The garlic-anchovy dressing did not really provide much in the way of garlic or anchovy flavor. On the plus side, the salad was good sized and the romaine lettuce was fresh.

Entree time and Katie went with Blackened Barramundi ($13.50 market price). This dish was off their Just Hooked portion of the menu, where you choose the kind of fish you want, preparation style, sauce, and side items. She felt that the fish was cooked well, with no raw pieces. She thought there was going to be more flavor coming from the blackened piece of fish, but the pop of flavor never materialized for her. The size of fish was a little on the small size, but that is to be expected when paying under fifteen dollars for a fish dinner. Her choice of sauce was the interesting tapenade tarter sauce. She seemed to like this olive-based tarter sauce but wished it was a little thicker. For her side items, she selected the garlic herb potatoes and the dirty rice, both of which were kind of just average.

For my meal, I went a little out of my norm. I usually stay away from tilapia, but when I saw the Macadamia Nut Crusted Tilapia ($12.50), I had to give it a try. The fish itself was good, but a little mushy in parts. The real winner of this plate was the spicy coconut risotto that came with. It elevated this average plate a little higher. The coconut was very prevalent, and then I got an unexpected slight hit of spice. This also came with spinach, mushrooms, onion, and lemon butter, but the star of the show was still the coconut risotto. When this was placed in front of me, I thought it was a little on the small side, but this was a rich dish and filled me up, especially after the chowder fries and the salad.

As if I needed more food on this night, we got a dessert as well. The Brownie Sundae ($4.50) was just the right size for us to finish up our meal with a small treat. Katie thought this dessert was good, but I thought the brownie needed to be cooked a little more, and this sundae needed hot fudge in place of the chocolate sauce. They did put just the right amount of ice cream on here, so Katie and I did not have to duel with our spoons over who would get the most ice cream.

I really like that there are more casual fish restaurants opening up. It used to be that seafood was only for the elite, but now there are more places like HBFICB opening up all around us, bringing seafood to the masses. I really liked what I had here, but I think that was more from the coconut risotto than the seafood. Sure I liked the chowder fries, but pretty much everything other than that was just a little bit above average, nothing remarkable. Even though it was difficult hearing our waitress Tiffany over the loudness of the restaurant, she was very attentive and offered us some great suggestions. Just because this restaurant did not knock our socks off, it's still a great night when you can escape the weather inland, and enjoy the ocean breezes on a Friday night with the one you love. Sorry, I did not mean to get all mushy there at the end.

Out of five blue marlin, (because when I looked up biggest fish caught in California, the largest one I could find was a blue marlin weighing in at an impressive 692 pounds, reeled in by A. Hamann way back in 1931), five being best to zero being worst, House of Big Fish and Ice Cold Beer gets 3 blue marlin.

For more information about House of Big Fish and Ice Cold Beer, go to their website here: http://www.houseofbigfish.com/index2.php

Crowing About Our Trip to Early Bird

Early Bird 

1000 E. Bastanchury Rd.

Fullerton, CA 92835

I have always said that breakfast is the most difficult meal to make. Not that making an omelette is difficult, or pouring the frozen pancake batter into a skillet is burdensome. No, that part is easy, except for maybe Katie. Anyways, the tough part about breakfast is making it your own. Standing out from the crowd. Most breakfast menus contain the same old items. Pancakes, French toast, and some uninspired egg dishes.

Don't get me wrong, I love breakfast food, but I like when restaurants make breakfast their own by spicing things up. I can count on one hand the most memorable breakfasts we have had during the run of this blog. Matt's Big Breakfast in Phoenix, Doughnut Plant in New York, Mike's City Diner in Boston, and our only OC representative on our great breakfast list, Break of Dawn in Laguna Hills. All these places take breakfast items, and took them up a notch using great ingredients and making their dishes unique. After all I had heard about Early Bird, I had a sneaky suspicion that they could make it onto our great breakfast list. Let's see if this premonition would come true.

First a little background on Early Bird. This restaurant has been around for just over a year now. Joesph Mahon, the man behind the great burgers at Burger Parlor was the original boss of the kitchen, but earlier this year he left to focus on Burger Parlor. Enter new Executive Head Chef Frank DeLoach. With chef Frank at the helm, the kitchen has not missed a beat according to people that have eaten here before and after Mahon's departure. Early Bird is also expanding soon. They are going to be opening another location in Yorba Linda, a city that is definitely starved for a great breakfast place.

We met my parents at Early Bird at 10am on a recent Sunday morning, and were met with a 40 minute wait. I, of course did not mind waiting, because this place had been on my list of places to try forever. My parents must have sensed my excitement about this restaurant, as they were real troopers about the over half an hour wait, as they passed the time talking to both Katie and I. Early Bird is located in the same shopping center as Stater Bros. Once seated inside, I really thought the space was pretty comfortable. A lot of breakfast joints try to cram as many people in as possible, but the distance between tables here was nicely spaced. The decor here is pretty minimal, while conveying a nice clean image. The waitstaff texts orders into the kitchen on Blackberries, and then the food is brought out. I believe this was the first time I had seen this in a restaurant, and it seemed to be a good system. The food made it out to our table in a pretty timely manner, let's see how everything turned out for us.

We will start with my Dad's selection for breakfast, the Frank Floyd Benedict ($9.75). This Benedict was made up of poached eggs, roasted portabella, spinach, smoked salmon, and a Bearnaise sauce. My Dad seemed very pleased with this meal. He finished quickly, and felt that this was one of the best Benedicts he has had. The Bearnaise sauce was not too heavy, but still maintained a good flavor profile, the spinach was not over cooked, and the eggs were poached perfectly. Along with the Benedict, this was also served with a choice of potatoes, which my Dad got the Skillet Potatoes. These were fried well, not too greasy, and seasoned nicely. I always think it is odd when my Dad gets Rye Toast at breakfast, but it works surprisingly well. I'm not sure where they get their bread from, but this was a good marble rye.

Maybe not as artistic looking as the chilaquilles from Anepalcos, but in Katie's opinion, this version is pretty close when it comes to taste. This Carnitas Chilaquilles ($12.95) came with two eggs any style, carnitas, avocado emulsion, fried tortillas in a chili sauce, and queso fresco. She really liked this. She thought it was going to be a heavier dish than it was, but it surprised her with the lightness of it. The tortillas were fried perfectly, and the of course the eggs were prepared just as she had requested. I kind of thought that the carnitas got a little lost here, but Katie only parted with one bite of this, so maybe she was keeping them all to herself. We still like the chilaquilles at Anepalcos just a little bit better, but these are not to be missed here.

I had a pretty hard time making a decision on what to have at Early Bird, but when I saw the Duck Confit Hash ($13.50) it made my decision for me. I love duck, but do not get to have it too often, and I can not recall a time I had it with a breakfast dish. At Early Bird the duck is joined on the plate by two sunny side up eggs, arugula, potatoes, onions, scallions, and golden raisins. Let's start with the duck. It was not crazy greasy as some duck tends to be. It had a nice smoky flavor that went well with the eggs. The veggies were great, and I was skeptical about the raisins in this, but they helped balance out the plate by adding just enough sweetness. The serving size of this was just enough, (but of course I could have eaten a lot more). A very solid breakfast plate.

My Mom is pretty predictable when it comes to ordering in breakfast restaurants. She almost always gravitates towards breakfast sandwiches. It is kind of her thing I guess. After consuming her Grand Moff Breakfast Sandwich ($8.95), she exclaimed, "this is the best breakfast sandwich I have ever had". This is some pretty strong praise from a woman that knows a thing or two about breakfast sandwiches. This breakfast sandwich came with both sausage and bacon, a sunny side up egg, tomato jam, and smoked Gouda for the cheese. This is like an Egg McMuffin on steroids. Of course both bacon and sausage can never be a bad thing on anything, the smoked Gouda really was a nice choice here, and the tomato jam provided just a touch of sweetness to cut the smokiness from the breakfast meats. Glad this sandwich could make my Mom so happy.

Even though I had ordered the duck confit, I still had enough room for the special they were offering on this particular Sunday. I love waffle sandwiches, and the Elvis Waffle Sandwich ($7.95) did not disappoint. This waffle was filled with banana, bacon, and Nutella. I really liked this sandwich. The outside of the waffle was crisp, and held everything together well. The bacon was crisp as well, and was a nice contrast to the sweetness of the Nutella and banana. I think some peanut butter would have gone good with this also, just a hint for the guys at Early Bird when they want to offer this special again. It pained me to give bites of this away to my fellow table mates, but I did the honorable thing and gave them some.

I was pretty excited by all of the food we had at Early Bird. This definitely is a breakfast spot worth hitting up. They are doing some great things here for breakfast, and it has really piqued my interest to try their dinner soon. It is true that they are a little on the high side for breakfast, but you are paying for higher quality than you would get at Denny's and other regular breakfast spots. They are using locally grown ingredients from family farms here, and the result is a better tasting breakfast. It is safe to say that after eating at Early Bird, they have now made it onto our list of the most memorable breakfast places we have been to during the run of our blog.

Out of five worms, (come on, this was an easy one because everyone knows what the early bid catches), five being best to zero being worst, Early Bird gets 4 worms.

For more information about Early Bird, check out their website here: http://www.earlybirdoc.com/

A Taste of the Islands at Hapa J's

Hapa J's

2016 S. El Camino Real

San Clemente, CA 92672

Katie and I have not really gone on vacation this year. Last year we took a road trip to the Grand Canyon, by way of Vegas, and we also went on a Caribbean cruise out of Tampa. This year, we have not been anywhere. We have another trip to Las Vegas planned, but we are playing our vacations very low key this year. We had thought about Hawaii, but when we looked at the airfare, it was pushing towards the $600 mark. A little steep for us. So we are going to have to settle on getting our island vibe here on the mainland.

I had heard about Hapa J's while reading the OC Weekly Best of 2011 edition. Hapa J's won for the best looking waitstaff category. This of course caught my attention, but was not the only reason that we had to come to Hapa J's, (at least that's what I told Katie). While we were eating at Rider's Club Cafe one evening, we got to talking to some people, and they told us that we must go to Hapa J's to try their Man Style Hapa Fries. After what they described, I knew we would be feeling the Aloha vibe of Hapa J's very soon. So, we trudged down to San Clemente on a recent Saturday night to escape the inland heat, and experience what Hapa J's has to offer.

Hapa J's has been around for 4 years now. Back in 2011, they not only won the best looking waitress category, but they won first place at the I Love Poke Festival down in San Diego. We got to Hapa J's at about 8PM. This restaurant is pretty good sized, with vibrant colors adorning the walls, nice comfy booths, and a more muted island theme than I was expecting. The customers ranged from surfer dudes getting a bite to eat before heading out for a night of drinking, to families with little ones coloring quietly, as their parents enjoyed a rare night out. Since there were all these people here at this later than normal dinner hour, I had an inkling that were going to be in for a good meal at Hapa J's. Let's see how everything turned out for us.

Much like chips and salsa are presented at Mexican restaurants, this Edamame showed up at our table, just after we had ordered. These were salted, and provided a quick little snack for us. We had ordered a lot of food, so I steered clear of eating too much of this edamame though.

We had ordered two appetizers and two entrees, and they all hit our table at the same time. I thought our table was going to tip over with all of this food. Let's start with what Hapa J's is probably most famous for, their poke. We selected their Ahi Poke Trio (market price, but on the night we were here this was $18). I really liked the variety of this plate. It really showed how varied they could make the poke taste, just by using different preparation styles.  My favorite of the three was the Spicy Tobiko. I know, not really surprising that I would like something that was spicy. This was not crazy spicy, but had just enough of a pop of flavor to not overwhelm the poke. My silver medalist out of this trio was the Sesame Poke. This one had more of an earthiness to it, that helped to cut the richness of the ahi. I probably liked the Shoyu poke the least. It was very fresh, but the flavor of this compared to the other two just kind of seemed plain. I really did enjoy this appetizer a lot though. The poke was rich and tender, and I enjoyed the way the chef played around with different flavors here.

Our second appetizer could have fed about six people. These are the Hapa Fries Man Style ($13.75). Here they take a very large plate, use yukari seasoned fries as a base, then add three different sauces, add cheese, and plenty of Kahlua pork. Wow, this rocked my world. I still had my entree to eat, but I could not stop eating these. The Kahlua pork was some of the best I have had. It was very moist, lots of flavor, and they did not skimp on the amount they used here. Even though the fries were weighted down by two tons of toppings, they still remained crisp, even as they were being scooped into the to go container. Even with all of these big flavors working here, everything was very well balanced. Next time I come here, this will be the only thing that I will need to order, of course I will still need three friends to help me finish it.

As if we needed them, we still had our entrees to consume as well. Starting with Katie's dinner, the Chicken Yakisoba ($12.75). Here the yakisoba noodles are stir fried with mixed vegetables and chicken breast, then topped with cilantro and green onions. This big portion had some pros and cons in Katie's opinion. She felt there was too much cilantro on this, and the flavor was only enhanced when she added soy sauce and Sriracha to this big pile of food. She did feel that the chicken was tender, the veggies were fresh, and she liked this option of having a lighter meal than she was expecting to have at Hapa J's.

As is my custom when eating at a restaurant for the first time, I almost always look for menu items that contain numerous elements, so I can try as much as possible at a restaurant. At Hapa J's this meant I would be having this Mixed Plate ($12.50). The mixed plate includes a mound of Kahlua pork, Kal-bi short rib, and chicken katsu. Easily, the pork was the best out of these three meats. This was the same pork that was used on the Hapa fries, and it was just as good on its own. It was still moist, tender, and the Kahlua was very noticeable. The chicken was probably my next favorite. The breading was alright, and the chicken inside was pretty solid, if not a little boring. The short rib was the real disappointment of this plate for me. There was not a lot of meat on these, and they were kind of fatty. This plate is served with two scoops of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad, as is the tradition in Hawaii. The rice was pretty average, and the macaroni salad was about the same. It's safe to say, the highlight of this plate for me was the Kahlua pork, and I was thankful that there was a lot of it here.

I ended up taking a good deal of this food home with me, and had enough for lunches the next two days afterwards. If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know that I am a pretty big eater, so you know that this was a lot of food if I had enough for three meals. I am really happy those guys at Rider's Club told me about Hapa J's. For the most part I really liked most of the items that I had here. Basically, anything that featured their Kahlua pork, or their poke is going to be a winner here. The service on this night was a little on the spotty side. The food all came out at once, and our waiter only checked on us sporadically during our visit. Yes, instead of getting one of the good looking waitress's, it was just my luck that we ended up having a waiter. No big surprise there. I am sure that some of you out there are going to bemoan the slightly inflated prices here, but you do get a lot of food, and it is definitely cheaper than that $600 round trip ticket to the Aloha State.

Out of five ukuleles, (because it is the unofficial musical instrument of Hawaii), five being best to zero being worst, Hapa J's gets 3.5 ukuleles.

For more information about Hapa J's, go to their web site here: http://www.hapajs.com/index.html