Story!
I decided to…read morego with Story for my wife's and I 1 year anniversary of marriage. My wife is a book worm and seeing how this restaurant is a nice blend of romantic but also fun with the books around the restaurant, the chairs and table to even the glassware my wife even complimented how much she loved the water glasses.
We had a reservation at 730 on a Sunday, originally had one at 6pm, but we had to drive to Dana Point to pick up our anniversary cake, it was a smooth reservation change. Also during my reservation, I did call to make sure if they were okay with storing our cake and serving it out to us at the end of dinner, which they happily said yes to.
The theme currently is the Great Gatsby, I can see this a fun day or night out for a group of friends.
Staff was very friendly!
Here is what we ordered:
Saw they offered a Japanese Whiskey flight, had to order that! Even if I have tried them before, you can never say no to whiskey. Small little taste of Nikka Coffey Grain, Nikka Coffey Malt, Suntory Tokiese and best for last Hibiki Harmony
Chicken Pesto Oven Fried Pizza $20 - Pistachio Pesto, chopped grilled chicken breast, mozzarella cheese, heirloom cherry tomatoes arugula and balsamic glaze | I usually don't care for pesto, but if its pistachio or macadamia I do like that way better. Let me begin with, I had trouble thinking where do I put this, is it a pizza or is it a flat bread? It didn't rise to have its iconic crust on a pizza, so I have been labeling this as a flat bread and because of that I can easily say the best flat bread pizza I have had to date. The dough was baked perfectly, had a nice crunch but also pillowhheee chew. The ingredients on the flat bread, all were fresh, seasoned but most importantly delicious and blended well. At first bite you are able to taste each ingredient as you continue chewing the balsamic comes into play and brings each flavor together. Seriously as mentioned the best I have had so far, I really want one right now just talking about it!
Yuzu Lobster Pasta $38 - Butter Poached lobster, cherry tomatoes, yuzu, black garlic butter, jalapeno, basil topped with bread crumbs and parmesan cheese | I told my wife this was most talked about in a lot of reviews, so she went with this. There was a good amount of Lobster pieces, but sadly the yuzu or any kind of citrus was not there. At this time while we were eating our main dishes, sadly we didn't see our server pretty much the whole time. It would have been nice to be able to ask her for either more yuzu or even lemon on the side. Any kind of pasta dish with seafood needs to have that citrus punch. Coming in at the most expensive dish we ordered, it was sadly placed last amongst the three dishes.
Braised Short Rib $34 - Red Wine Braised Short Rib, topped with crispy fried onion strings, demi-glace, pomme puree and seasonal vegetables. This was really good, short rib cooked and seasons perfectly, those crispy fried onions, complimented the meat and its flavors perfectly, and also gave it a nice crunch texture. As mentioned before the ingredients all were fresh, I ended up cleaning my plate!
As mentioned about during our mains we didn't see our server during that time, she finally showed up when we were all finished, so she ended up coming back with our wedding cake and a candle. She did apologize that she was having a deep and lengthy conversation with another table. We ended up asking if she was allowed to take a piece of our cake which we were glad to share it with her, and she loved it as she does like tiramisu.
In conclusion, I will def be back to get that flat bread pizza and try different foods on their menu. The pricing is pretty fair! I do want to try to get to a brunch time here as well as I do see a lot of Filipino inspired brunch items. Very good food, atmosphere, perfect for a date night!
Feast Well Fellow Yelpers!
Kaizokuō Ni Ore Wa Naru!
- Taicho