Karl Strauss Brewing Company - Costa Mesa
After having my iPhone replaced at the Apple store in South Coast Plaza we decided to head over to Karl Strauss Brewing Company in Costa Mesa for a bite to eat. This isn’t my first experience with Mr. Karl Strauss, I’ve drank his beer on occasion, and I’ve even had his fries at the ball game, but I’d never ate his meals. First thing you notice as you enter the restaurant is that it pretty much looks like most Brewery/Bar/Restaurant places, which isn’t a bad thing; it’s dark, filled with HDTVs playing sports, and has the required beer making area. Once again, this isn’t a bad thing; I like my Oggi’s and BJs so Karl just adds to the mix. Beer is a big focus at Karl Strauss, they even have a Cask Night on the first Thursday of every month at 5:00 PM that I’m planning to hit some time soon.
Since beer is the focus and I usually like beer, I got myself beer. Not just one beer, not just two, but SIX BEERS!
Karl Strauss Beer Tasters
Ok actually I just got the Taster 6 ($6.95) which is a 2oz. tasting of 6 of their beers, but it’s still six beers (and they even gave me two more because of the food I bought!).
Karl Strauss Beer Tasters
To go along with my beer I got the Big Beer Burger ($11.95) which I can only describe as their menu does
Karl Strauss - Big Beer Burger
“Basted with Karl Strauss Amber Lager, topped with Red Trolley Ale onions, I.P.A. mushrooms, Woodie Gold brined seasoned bacon, gruyere, tomato, lettuce, and fries. Served with I.P.A. steak sauce.” The burger was good, nothing really stood out, and the patty was huge (1/2 lb. I think), I think it would stand up better as a 1/3 lb.
Karl Strauss - Big Beer Burger
I couldn’t really taste the steak sauce which meant the burger was a little on the dry side, but all the toppings mostly made up for that. Sticking to tonight’s burger theme (oh you thought the theme was beer?) Mrs. DanGarion got the BBQ Cheeseburger ($10.50) that comes with, Red Trolley BBQ sauce, white cheddar, lettuce, tomato, crispy onions, and fries.
Karl Strauss - BBQ Cheeseburger
She liked it and was enjoying it till she got close to the center and realized that her medium well burger was actually medium rare, so she tossed out more then half the patty and ended up just eating the toppings and bun. We both enjoyed the fries, they were thin and crunchy, just the way I like them.
Service was good, the waitress explained what the numbers meant on the beer tasting sheet and explained that I should drink from light to dark (which I already knew), it’s nice to know they at least are acting like the know what they are serving. Overall it was a good meal, except for the fail on the one burger patty, unsure how it didn’t get as cooked as mine since they were ordered together, but I’ll give them a pass since this was our first visit.
Visit on 10/28/08 @7 PM
Karl Strauss - DanGarion drinking a taster
Pros : Beer, Beer Tasters, Burgers made with Beer
Cons : Undercooked Burgers, Not Enough Sauce
Rating: 
Karl Strauss Brewing Company
901A South Coast Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 546-2739
Mimi’s Cafe - Costa Mesa
This is really just a mini review of Mimi’s Cafe in Costa Mesa. We went there last night for dinner. First off what happened to their menu? It appears that a number of items are no longer present. I asked the waitress and she said that that are more items on the lunch menu as well (most of the sandwiches) and I could order of it as well, I declined and decided to order something off the dinner menu.
I’m a big fan of Mimi’s Cafe, but for some reason I wasn’t really feeling most of the items on the menu. I went with the Full Rack Spice Rubbed Baby Back Ribs ($15.29), which comes with fries and cole slaw. Unfortunately these ribs were not anything to talk about. They were bathing in a sea of BBQ Sauce and fell off the bone as I picked them up; the ribs were sopping wet. Their BBQ sauce just doesn’t really work with ribs, it’s great to dip fries in though. The cole slaw was blah as well. I ended up only eating half of my rack and when the waitress came over she asked if I’d like to box the rest up, I explained to her that I just didn’t really care for the ribs, she gave me a concerned look and walked off. A couple minutes later the manager walks up and asks me about the ribs, and I tell her that they just weren’t really that good, and that they were sopping wet in sauce, she apologized for the meal and charged me only for a half rack! I was really impressed that the waitress was attentive to my displeasure and that she did something about it.
So although my meal was less then fantastic, the service was exceptional! Plus it’s really nice being able to sit down outside by the Harbor/Newport intersection and enjoy some fresh air.
Visit on Thursday, 10/16/08 around 5:30 PM
Rating:
Rating:
Mimi’s Cafe
1835 Newport Blvd
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(949) 722-6722
Memphis Cafe - Costa Mesa
I have read numerous reviews about Memphis Cafe in Costa Mesa from people on Yelp to Kat at the OC Register, so we finally were able to check it out I’m just going to make this a quick review because I’ve lost my pictures and I’m starting to forget specifics of my meal.
Mrs. DanGarion meant to order a half order of the grilled chicken cobb salad, but ended up ordering the full salad ($10.50). I ordered the buttermilk friend chicken ($17.00). The salad was big, not huge, but definitely enough for any normal human to eat in one sitting. The salad came with a very light cracked pepper & herb dressing which was lightly drizzled on top of the mixture of lettuce, tomato, avocado, egg, croutons, gorgonzola, apple smoked bacon. My wife liked it a lot but wished it had just a little bit more dressing because it was slightly dry. There were so many different flavors that it didn’t need too much dressing but it stills needs a bit of moisture to help it go down. The buttermilk fried chicken was served with collard greens, mashed potatoes, country gravy with andouille sausage. The chicken consisted of a boneless chicken breast along with the drum part of the wing sticking up from it. The chicken was perfectly moist and the breading added extra flavor to it. The collard greens were my first experience and I liked them for the most part, they have a very distinct flavor (they were better than those from Burrell’s BBQ). The mashed potatoes were wonderful with just the right amount of gravy on them to use for the chicken as well. It was a great meal that I wouldn’t probably order again, although I feel I can get a friend chicken of the same caliber elsewhere for slightly less.
When we first walked in we weren’t greeted and it took a minute or two for any of the staff to realize we were waiting to be seated. One of the unfortunate things about places that don’t have a proper hosting area, people that have never been there before tend to get a little frustrated because you don’t know what you are supposed to do, do you seat yourself, or do you wait? We did like the hole in the wall roadhouse feel though. I’m happy it wasn’t too hot though because they don’t appear to have an air conditioner and it took a minute for me to adjust to the temperature. We sat inside, but there appears to also be a large covered outdoor area as well.
I wouldn’t put them on the top of my list, but I’d like to try some more of their dishes, I was very split on my order and almost got the grilled pork porterhouse ($19.50), I’ll have to save that for my next visit. I did hear they have a great happy hour.
My rating would be a 4 for the food and 2 for the experience when we entered, fortunately our waitress was really cool and on the ball with our orders and keeping out drinks running, which gives them back up to a solid 3 rating (don’t question my math!).
Visit 8/9/08 for Dinner
Rating:
Memphis
2920 Bristol Street
Costa Mesa, CA, 92626
(714) 432-7685
TK Burgers - Costa Mesa
So as I’ve mentioned before, my wife works every Saturday. Well due to that I have the opportunity to eat wherever I want for both breakfast and lunch while she’s at work. A couple months ago while looking for grubbage in the morning I stumbled upon this TK Burger that is located in Costa Mesa. Now TK Burger wasn’t new to me in the sense that I knew they existed; but I had never ate there until that glorious day I decided to try their combo breakfast burrito.
Now I don’t order the combo breakfast burrito straight up. The normal combo comes with bacon, ham, sausage, hashbrowns, cheese, and eggs; which is one packed burrito. But I’m not usually a big ham for ham, so I always get no ham on my tortilla packed goodness. Also because I’m trying to keep my aerodynamic shape of round, I usually order it without eggs. But here is the deal, eggs or not this is one of the best breakfast burritos I’ve come across in Orange County. The meats are cut up which allows them to intermesh themselves every other ingredient. This way you are able to get all the tastes and flavors in every bite of burrito heaven. In addition if you do order eggs I have noticed that they don’t tend to overcook them like most places. The eggs are light and fluffy like scrambled eggs should be, instead of dense and burnt tasting like many eggs end up when cooked on the short order cooks grill. I eat my burrito with a knife and fork because of its cooked to order hotness and size. I cut the burrito in the middle lengthwise spread it out a little bit and fill it with nearly two cups of the vinegary liquid gold hot sauce that they have. The hot sauce drowns my burrito into submission and nary is a piece of the burrito left when I’m done eating.
For the combo breakfast burrito alone I give TK Burgers 5 stars. I have only been there once for anything else, like their Orange County famous hamburgers. The hamburger was very good, it’s one of the better ones in OC and I would wait them a 4 if it was on the burger alone, but to me the real star is the breakfast burrito.
Service is fast in the morning at 8 am on Saturdays, I can’t really speak about any other times. And in case you are into the sort of thing, the two girls that work the front counter are both cute; hey I may be married but it doesn’t hurt to admit the truths!
No pictures included since burritos pretty much always look the same.
Visit 06/21/2008
Rating:
TK Burgers
615 W 19th Street
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(949) 548-2858
Maggiano’s Little Italy - Costa Mesa
My wife Kelly had been singing the praises for Maggiano’s since we first met, but unfortunately it took us just over 2 years for her to finally take me there!
We went on Saturday night, and arrived at 7:00 PM, the place was packed, fortunately for us we had a reservation at 7:45 and there was a seat open in the bar. We took a seat in the bar area and relaxed while we drank some tasty beverages (mine was a Blue Moon Hefe, her’s was a Coke). At just about 7:45 our pager went off and we were quickly seating in the middle of a huge open room that was full of couples, families, and parties chowing down on Italian food. We looked over the menu and my eyes immediately saw the appetizer of the night, Parmesan Garlic Bread, that I didn’t know at the time, was served with some of the best marinara sauce I’ve ever tasted. The bread was perfect except for the fact that we ordered a full order that was way more then the two of us could finish and still eat the rest of our meal, so we packed the rest up to eat the next day. We followed the delicious bread with a half order Caesar Salad that was big enough for 4 people to enjoy. Then came our main dish… I was a little on the fence after looking through the menu, I had my mind set on two items that sounded good, one was a normal menu item, called Rigatoni D, which was described on the menu as; Rigatoni pasta, herb roasted boneless chicken, mushrooms and onions, tossed in a light Marsala cream sauce. And the second offering I was thinking about was on the specials menu, it was a Penne Pasta with Chicken and Shrimp, along with a light asiago cheese sauce and caramelized onions. I went with the later and. Kellly went with the Chicken Parmesan, which is always a good choice as long as they make it fresh. My meal was great, the bowl came to the table piping hot with the perfect look of baked pasta on the tips of Penne. I took a bite and enjoyed the mix of flavors of large stringy chicken pieces and medium sized shrimp. Unfortunately I was already pretty full from the bread and salad, so I only ate about 1/4 of my main entree, because I didn’t want to be stuffed. Kelly’s chicken consisted of 3 chicken breast halves that were lightly breaded and just slightly dark, probably from the mixture of frying the chicken and then baking it with provolone cheese and marinara sauce. The menu said her’s was supposed to come with parmesan chips, so either Kelly was holding out or she didn’t get them, but it was more food then any human could eat in one sitting anyway, so it wasn’t an issue. Along with our main dishes Kelly also ordered us some Garlic Mashed potatoes that we took a couple bits of, but weren’t able to make a dent in due to already being stuffed! So you may ask, what did you do with all this food after you were done? We’ll we did what any smart 20-30 something couple would do with it, we have them box it up and ate it for dinner the next night; which made for a fabulous Sunday dinner that recooked up well in the oven.
Now for a couple observations, our waiter was subpar, I was more impressed with the busboy, since he kept checking on our plates and table to make sure things were cleared or we needed our food packaged up; I’m not deducting points for the service, because overall it was good. The place gives Buca and Macaroni Grill, and probably comes out ahead in the long run, except for how busy they tend to be when you want to go just on a spur of a moment.
I highly suggest Maggiano’s if you are looking for a good, from scratch cooked Italian meal, but just be ready to make a reservation.
Rating:
Maggiano’s Little Italy
3333 Bristol St
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 546-9550
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