The Veggie Grill, yes…I went to a vegetarian restaurant. I was a bit hesitant, but in the interests of health, we went. Tim and I left the office and headed towards UC Irvine for lunch. After having a hard time finding parking in the University Town Center lot, we found something near Trader Joes. 

The Veggie Grill was the first restaurant we saw and decided that was our choice for the day. We walked into a somewhat crowded restaurant (for the after lunch crowd) and looked at the menu. At first glance I saw they had Carne Asada, Chicken…but then I read more carefully. The “chickin” and “steak” are made from specially seasoned and marinated veggie protien blends. The texture of the “chickin” was AMAZING! Taking my first bite, I would never have known it was a veggie sandwich. 

I had the Santa Fe Crispy Chickin’ that had lettuce, tomatoe, red onions, avocado and a southwestern spiced vegan mayo. I also had their red cabbage slaw.

Tim opted for the Grillin’ Chickin’ complete with grill marks on the “chickin’”. The sandwich comes on a wheat roll, avocado, lettuce, tomato, red onion, cilantro pesto and a chipotle ranch sauce. Tim had the Sweet Potato fries, to compare to the Sweet Potato fries we had at The Counter.

[Show as slideshow]

Overall, I will come here again (after NRO month) and try some of their other selections. Go visit this place. They offer outdoor seating and the best thing is – NO SODA! 

The Veggie Grill
4213 Campus Drive
Irvine, CA 92612
949.509-0003
Hours: 11am to 10pm 

Other Locations in El Segundo and soon at the Irvine Spectrum

It literally is a hole in the wall but has authentic Mexican food, all made by hand. Nothing frozen then deep fried, we’re talking handmade rolls into flautas, buritos filled by hand using crema and cotija cheese. The beans probably had been cooking for several hours, most likely made with lard.

There wasn’t anything special about this place. Had it not been for my boss’ recommendation, I might have just driven right past it. They have seating for about 20 people inside and there is a large board with photos, descriptions and a number. While they had burritos, enchiladas and molé, tacos weren’t on the menus. I ordered the chicken flautas which came with rice and beans. My compadres ordered enchiladas and bistek con chile also served with rice and beans. 

While we waited for our food, we ordered drinks. Note: the staff doesn’t speak much english, so alot of finger pointing will be required to point to what you want to order. They also only take cash. Oh back to the drinks, Hop ordered an Horchata which is a kind of milky drink made with rice, sometimes ground almonds or barley. The rest of us had Coca Colas. But not just your regular Coca Cola, this was Coca Cola bottled in Mexico. Why does that matter? The cola formula in Mexico doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup. They use real sugar. To me it tastes just a tad bit sweeter, but with a more earthy flavor. I like it.

Once our food arrived, we all cleaned up our plates pretty quickly. My flautas were pan fried and not deep fried. The beans were nice and creamy, but the rice was a bit gummy. 

When we finished our meals, we went next door to the La Ranchita Tortilleria and bought some corn and flour tortillas. Such a deal! $1.50 for 36 corn tortillas, just made! So tonite I think I am making tacos! :)

[Show as slideshow]

Lindo Michoacan
4412 W 5th Street
Santa Ana 92703-3224 
714-265-1343

We got there just past 1:00pm and the place was fairly empty. We were seated promptly and offered a menu that surprisingly was quite limited. I didn’t inquire if this was just their lunch menu or if this was their entire offering.

I was bored with the food selection. I ordered the Pad Thai (I know…why the Pad Thai?) Honestly there wasn’t anything else on the menu that intrigued me. So I decided to order a dish that is quite common and see if they could WOW me with it. Tim ordered the Pad see ew with Pork.

Before our meals came we were each given a bowl of Hot & Sour soup. As you can see in the photo’s below, this is not the same as Chinese Hot & Sour. This soup felt and tasted like it was made the day before. The vegetables were soggy and the taste lacked any depth. I have a feeling if I had it the day before I may have liked it.

My Pad Thai was gummy. I think the noodles were cooked too long and if I had let it sit there for much longer it would have turned into one solid glob. The freshest items on the plate were the bean sprouts.

I’m sorry, but maybe this was an off day for them. I did not enjoy my meal. I will go back in a few weeks and try again and see if they can redeem themselves.

Thai Cafe
14715 Jeffrey Rd
Irvine, CA 92618
(949) 559-5382

Today, I drove us to Quail Hill in Irvine. We decided we were going to the Chinese place next to Lucca’s Cafe and Market, Crystal Jade. During our meals at Lucca’s I always noticed the amount of people walking into Crystal Jade. Now it was our turn.

The interior was nice decorated. Dark greens, light color woods. Not over the top. They also had a nice outdoor seating area. When we were seated we were handed lunch menus and a clip board with a form on it. Much to my surprise, they serve Dim Sum for lunch! I may be back here often.  Tim and I ordered a few dishes and one dish. We ordered BBQ Pork Steamed Buns, Fried Shrimp Dumpling, Beef in Rice Noodle, Shiu Mai with Pork and Crab and a dish of Sauteed String Beans. They offered White and Brown Rice so we opted for 50/50.

Our meal started with Hot & Sour soup. Good taste, but just warm to the tongue. I wish it was hotter. Nice pieces of tofu and bamboo. Then the Dim Sum started to arrive. First up the Shiu Mai with Pork and Crab. These definitely weren’t like the ones I made earlier this week. These were juicy, full of flavor and that mix of crab with the pork was awesome. Tim and I actually got two orders or it and we both went thru it pretty fast. 

The BBQ Pork Steamed Buns, Fried Shrimp Dumplings and the Beef with Rice Noodle were next. The buns were perfectly steamed. The bun part was moist but the filling was the best. The BBQ Pork was minced and the sauce was sweet – just the way I like it. Oh..don’t forget to take the paper off the bottom before you bite into it! :) The shrimp dumplings were crispy, but average. Tim ordered the Beef with Rice Noodle, but I didn’t get a taste. We also ordered this dish that was crab/shrimp stuffed into a red and green pepper wedge. It was pretty good, but it looked like it was “warmed” up and not fresh. The Sauteed String Beans came and that was the highlight of my lunch. Served with fresh rice it was perfect. The brown rice never showed up, but shame on me for not mentioning it. The green beans were cooked thru and still had a crunch with each bite.

All in all it was a good lunch. I’ll have to come back for dinner to try out some of their menu items.

Crystal Jade
6511 Quail Hill Pkwy
Irvine, CA 92603
(949) 725-3368

The onion rings, surprisingly, weren’t greasy. The taste however, was nothing to get excited about. The outer breading of the ring was crispy, but the onion lacked any flavor and was very soggy. Maybe I should have had the fries, who knows.

In addition to the Warsaw, they have the Cajun (Bayou style), Salzburg (Bockwrust style), New York (pure beef hot dog) as well as some speciality ones with chicken and turkey blends. If I return, I would be most interested in trying the Greek (Chicken and turkey blended with sun dried tomatoes, olives and Feta cheese.

Overall it was ok. They are only onen from 9 AM to 3 PM. They serve breakfast as well.

Haute Links
24531 Trabuco Road, Suite E
Lake Forest, CA 92630
949-472-8088 

The rest of the team got the traditional burgers which come with pickles, onions, tomatoes, cheese and chili. The fries come plain or with chili and or chili/cheese. I actually opted for a burger without chili and tomato. I was having acid reflux issues and didn’t have my pills with me. Without the chili, the burger was rather flat and most of the flavor came from the pickles and not the meat. The pattie was rather thin compared to the amount of bread in the bun.

My friends brought their cameras with them and they took a couple of picture. They are still trying to convince me to go with a high end “instamatic” digital rather than going with a digital SLR.  THe following sets were taken with a Canon SD200 (first three) and a Sony DSC170 (last three). 

Tommy’s World Famous Hamburgers
Locations throughout California/Nevada

www.originaltommys.com 

Today my friend Tara came with me as we were also testing cameras. We took three sets of pictures. I was going to post the pics, but clearly there was one winner and it the one that I feel has “depth”.  I’ll go ahead and post the iPhone pics as well. Our third camera was a Nikon L3, what I call my digital instamatic. All the pics I took with that camera were blurry. 

SW Seafood serves Dim Sum from a menu rather than a cart, which is the traditional method. The nice thing about ordering by the menu is that you get what you want, when you want it. With the cart method, you are left to waiting until what you want come strolling by.

Tara and I ordered six items: Pan Fried Turnip Rice Cake, Scallop w/ Shrimp Dumplings, Steamed BBQ Pork Buns, Juicy Pork Dumplings, Crispy Dumplings and Shrimp Balls. In addition, we were also served tea and egg drop soup.

The egg drop soup basically tasted like water with corn starch in it. There was no flavor whatsoever. Even with some soy sauce, it was very bland.

Next up was the Pan Fried Turnip Rice Cakes. These are fried in pork fat, so there is some taste to it. Other than that, you will need some soy sauce to liven it up. It’s sticky and gooey and hard to eat with chopsticks.

The Scallop with Shrimp (more like Shrimp and just a little Scallop) was the next dish. Very tasty. The shrimp was in a rice wrapper which, when steamed, becomes slightly transluscent. On top of each shrimp was a quarter of a scallop with an unidentified yellow substance on top (the picture had something red). I luv shrimp, so my two pieces were gone in a flash! Tara had hers too.

Then the BBQ Pork steamed buns and Juicy Pork Dumplings came up. The Steamed Buns were hot and fluffy. This has a mixture of BBQ pork in the center of a rice flour based bun. The Juicy Dumplings lived up to their name as we bit into our dumplings and had “juice” go flying! But oh so tasty!

The Crispy Dumplings came up. These are your regular variety dumpling with pork. Greasy as you can see from the photos. 

Last but not least were the Shrimp Balls. I’ve never had these before so it was interesting. I was expecting something akin to Fish balls like I’ve seen in the markets. However, these were balls formed with minced shrimp which is then covered with strips of rice based wonton wrapper strips (think paper maché).  These balls hold their heat. I bit into mine and almost  burned the top of my mouth with them. The outer part was nice and crispy and the inside firm.

We took pictures using each camera as the food came to the table. I know several of the other patrons around us were probably wondering what the heck we were doing – but I didn’t care..I was enjoying my mean, having lunch with Tara and furthering my research on cameras.

The first set of pictures is from a Canon Powershot G2. Its an older camera, but has way more bells and whistles than my Nikon L3. The second set of photos is from the iPhone.

Canon Powershot G3: 

[Show as slideshow]

iPhone: 

[Show as slideshow]

S & W Seafood
5406 Walnut Ave
Irvine, CA 92604
949-262-0688
Hours: 11:00am to 10:00pm 

The Counter is (from their website): Anti-Established in 2003, The Counter® is the 21st century’s bold answer to the classic burger joint. Ushering in a fresh era of industrial decor, today’s music, cold beer, unique wines, cocktails, and burger options that are only limited by your imagination.

We left for lunch pretty late, so we had missed the lunch crowd entirely. It’s pretty roomy inside and they also offer outdoor seating. It’s slightly industrial, yet soft with light blue walls contrasted by dark wood and brushed steel. We were greeted by a kewl lookin dude who sat us and handed us our clipboards. Clipboards you say? Yes, each burger is custom built and your choices are on the pad. Your choices? 

• 3 different Buns
• 4 types of meat: Beef, Chicken, Turkey or Veggie
• 10 cheeses 
• 28 toppings
• 18 sauces

Build it up as much or as little as you like. Don’t have a hankerin’ for ordering one to your liking? They have about 5 signature burgers that you can choose from as well.

My burger was a 1/3 lb. burger with Gruyere cheese, alpha sprouts, dried cranberries and a honey mustard sauce. My lunch partner, Tim, had a 1/3 lb Turkey burger with bleu cheese, mushrooms, mixed greens and tomato for his. We decided to split a generous order of Sweet Potato fries. The fries were crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. There was a scant amount of salt, the way I like it, and a honey mustard sauce for dipping. I have to say that I really enjoyed the fries. They have regular fries too, with your choice of plain, cheese or chili.

So you’re probably still reading the last paragraph and questioning my choice of dried cranberries on my burger. It actually worked. The slight saltiness of the meat was a nice contrast of the somewhat sweet, somewhat tart taste of the cranberries. You should try it! :)

Overall the experience was good. My burger was moist and cooked to a level just slightly above medium-rare, although they advertise that everything is cooked medium. I didn’t mind, medium-rare is how I order my steaks. The bun was soft and fresh, just the right amount of bread for the 1/3 lb of meat. The meat itself had a good flavor, not too salty, definitely not spicy. My burger wasn’t sloppy by any means, however, my lunch parter had a different story. 

Tim had the turkey burger which looked moist. He had sauteed mushrooms and bleu cheese and that seems to ooze everywhere. I was a bad foodie and forgot to ask him how it was. Based on his empty plate, I have to assume it was good!

[Show as slideshow]

The Counter is a bit higher in price than a regular burger joint, but their goal isn’t to be your regular burger place. Its about $8.50 for a 1/3 lb burger. Fries are extra, but only order one order if there are two of you. They also have a good offering of other foods there like a three-cheese trifecta grilled sandwich, a BLT, floats, shakes and malts, a full bar and a decent selection of desserts. 

The Counter: Custom Built Burgers
Woodbury Town Center
6416 Irvine Boulevard
Irvine CA 92620
949 336 7272 Directions

Mon-Thu 11am to 10pm
Fri-Sat 11am to 11pm
Sun 11am to 9pm