To kick-off the start of The OC’s first Restaurant Week, I went to Zov’s Cafe Bakery & Bar in Irvine for their $10 Prix Fixe Lunch menu ($15 with dessert).

Zov’s Cafe Bakery & Bar is owned by Zov Karamardian who owns Zov’s Bistro in Tustin. Zov has had acclaim from Food & Wine Magazine, Gourmet, The OC Register and even Julia Child. She opened her first restaurant in 1987 and it has been a success since day one.

Zov’s Irvine is located in one of those new shopping centers where there is just a start of housing being built, but beyond it’s a lot of open land. It’s about 2 miles from the 5 Fwy right off Culver Drive and Portola Parkway. This is one of Zov’s newer locations, HQ is the original Zov’s in Tustin off of 17th Street and the 55 Fwy.

Zov’s is open for breakfast/brunch on the weekends at 8am. I got there just after lunch service at 2:30 on my way to my parents house for my sister’s birthday.

I was greeted by the hostess and I asked to sit at the bar. The restaurant has the feel of a much more substantial place than a “cafe and bakery”. I was seated and asked immediately what I wanted to drink. I had a club soda with a twist of lime.

Leah was my server and she was attentive to my meal throughout. To start, the plate at my station was dirty. This wasn’t a good way to start for my first time ever to a Zov’s property.  Since lunch service was done, the restaurant was pretty empty. In addition to myself, there were only 3 other tables that had patrons. I slid the dirty plate forward and didn’t say anything to Leah about it, just pushed it forward.

On the Prix Fixe menu I opted for the Hummas with Toasted Pita, the Petite Sirloin Burger and Dessert.

The Hummus showed up at the table and I was actually surprised that the Pita wedges was actually toasted and warm. The hummus was flavorful and I enjoyed it until I hit a cold spot. I pushed a pita wedged into the hummus and brought it to my mouth and it was cold! Unlike the rest which was a room temperature. Other than the cold spot, I liked it. I’m not a fan of whole olives, so I left those on the plate.

Within a few minutes of finishing my starter, my sirloin burger arrived. There was a nice serving of shoestring potatoes on the plate along with my burger. Upon inspection I could already tell that it was beyond medium-rare as I had requested. A wedge of brie was melting between the bun and the burger and a large piece had just fallen over the edge of the burger.  

I cut into the burger to confirm that my burger had indeed pushed itself to medium. The only frills to this “petite” burger was lettuce and a tomato with the brie. I was given a side of ketchup but hoped I would not need it – say the fries. I took a bite and it lacked flavor. The sirloin was dry and I couldn’t taste the beef at all. All I could taste was the charred bits of the outer crust. I wish I had some mustard or something to go with it, but I like my burgers without mustard and ketchup and like for the meat to stand on its own. Unfortunately, this burger didn’t hold up. Compared to the even smaller mini-burger I had at the Signature Kitchen at Macy’s a couple of weeks back, this one was on the other end of the spectrum. I ate the shoestring potatoes as they were perfect. Crisp on the outside and not greasy. Potatoes and ketchup are a perfect pair!

My dessert showed up and I was given a duo of creme brulees: one vanilla and one chocolate. Both had berries on top and a tap of the spoon broke thru a hardened sugar shell at the top. The vanilla brulee tasted ok, there was a scant amount of vanilla beans in the creme, at least indicating that they used a real vanilla bean. Unfortunately the chocolate creme brulee was more like chocolate pudding with a sugar crust on top. It was not favorite. I ate thru the vanilla (I could never turn away anything vanilla) and ate my berries. It is my guess that the berries were placed on the brulees several hours ago and then placed in the fridge. The strawberry halves looked dry.

I wish my meal was just a tad bit better. I had heard many good things about Zov’s and wish my first meal would have been representative of this restaurateur. There was an interesting conversation that took place where a customer had come in and asked to look at the menu, a conversation ensued about where the original Zov’s was. The server could only say that it was somewhere on 17th Street in Tustin and didn’t know what the cross streets were. As an employee of Zov’s I would hope that my employees knew where the first Zov’s was located. After looking at the menu, the customer commented that it looked a lot like Mediterranean themed dishes. The server responded “yep…” and then the customer walked out the door.

I think I need to figure out a way to give half a fork in my rating system. This Irvine location probably only earned a 2.5 out of 5, so I’ll have to round up to 3 out of 5, but please note, that it is a round up. I am really saddened to give a Zov’s a 2.5, but I will have a real meal at her Bistro in Tustin and hope that I can give a higher rating for her flagship restaurant.

Zov’s Cafe Bakery & Bar
3915 Portola Parkway
Irvine, CA 92602
714-734-9687 (ZOVS)