Mother India- Costa Mesa

GameBoy likes Indian food, so we tried Mother India for lunch today. Like most Indian places, it had a lunch buffet for a reasonable prince- $7.95 per person. Eagerly, we headed to the buffet. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a particularly good buffet, even for an Indian lunch joint. There were two meat options: a mediocre chicken korma and tandoori chicken. While both were not bad, neither were they that great. This would have been fine if I could have supplemented them with the other dishes. However, the samosas were lukewarm and bland, the saag burnt, and the garbanzo bean dish unappetizing. I’m not sure if it’s our taste buds or what, but I normally enjoy Indian buffet more than this, even if it’s not my favorite cuisine. There was no lentil dish, surprisingly, and only the squash dish proved to be relatively okay. In addition, I got saag on my sleeve from where someone had smeared it on the glass protective cover. Since there aren’t too many other Indian options in the area, I guess this is okay if you have a real craving. But I’m not going back.

Date of Visit: 4/10/07

Mother India Restaurant

688 Baker St # 8
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 668-9661

Santouka- Costa Mesa

We tried to go to an Indian place we had seen along that strip of restaurants along Bristol, but the parking lot was set up for it in such a way that, despite two attempts, we were still unable to navigate through traffic to get there. Time was running short, so instead we headed to Santouka once again.

Based on GameBoy’s previous visit, in which, he gave me all the fat from his special Kurobata pork, I recommended that he get the regular pork, which was less fatty. I, having tried the regular pork a few days before, stuck to the special pork. This time, however, I branched off from my usual miso broth to the much-recommended shi (salt) broth. GameBoy tried the spicy miso broth.

The shio broth turned out to be a great idea. Though I like the miso broth, the shio broth was so amazing I found myself picking the bowl up to drink the last drop of broth. And anyone that’s ever seen Tampopo, that classic Japanese ramen movie, knows that this sort of broth is the pinnacle of perfection in terms of ramen broth.

GameBoy thought the shio was a bit too salty, but to me it was all juicy pork slurpiness. In contrast, the spicy miso ramen was not bad, but reminded me too much of my college days of instant ramen to be too enjoyable. The noodles, of course, were perfectly chewy, and the pork was delicious. The regular pork isn’t bad, either, but definitely go for the special pork if you can spare an extra buck or two- it’s well worth it. GameBoy, notoriously picky, still ended up trading me some of his regular pork with fat for a no-fat part of the special pork, which he agreed is fantastic.

Santouka is still the best quick lunch in Costa Mesa, hands down. Too bad you have to go through parking hell to get to it.

Date of Visit: 4/5/07

Santouka

Mitsuwa Marketplace Food Court

665 Paularino Ave.,
Costa Mesa CA 92626
(714) 557-6699

Wahoo's FIsh Taco- Costa Mesa

Today, I continued to explore the strip of restaurants along Bristol just west of the 405. I had been to a Wahoo’s before in Aliso Viejo, but wanted to try the one on the corner of Bristol and Baker to see how it compared. Unlike the Aliso Viejo location, which was located in a nice strip mall, the Costa Mesa II branch was an old free-standing ramshackle building with low ceilings. Since it was lunch time, it was very crowded, and all the tables appeared to be full. Luckily, it’s a sunny day today, so I ordered my two taco combo platter to go. The food came out quickly, and I got back into my car and parked on the roof of our office parking structure to better enjoy the weather.

My blackened fish tacos were hot and spicy. Topped with a little pico de gallo salsa, the corn tortilla tacos were pretty yummy, and I gobbled them right up. Unfortunately, the ahi rice was too buttery, and I don’t like black beans. As far as beans go, they were fine, but nothing special. Next time, I’ll just order more of their tacos.

Date of Visit: 4/9/07

Wahoo’s Fish Taco

3000 Bristol Ave.

Costa Mesa, CA

714-435-0130

Bay Cities Italian Deli- Santa Monica

It was a beautiful and sunny day, so GameBoy and I decided to skip our usual Sunday morning brunch spot, Café Marly in Beverly Hills, in favor of Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica. I first heard about this place from one of GameBoy’s friends, PonytailedGuy, whose tastes sometimes coincide with my own, so I was curious to try this “landmark” eatery down near the beach.

Unfortunately, the rest of LA decided to take advantage of the sunshine, and our ride down Santa Monica Boulevard was slow and frustrating. Bay Cities also turned out to be incredibly crowded, with families and 20-somethings fighting for parking, and then jockeying for a place to stand and wait. The small lot was full, so we found parking about a block down on the street and made our way inside. Pushing past the people milling about, we found the deli counter, took a number, and located a menu to study.

The neon green menus were laminated, and taped thoughtfully to the glass displaying the meats at the counter, at the perfect height for leisurely perusal. With my knowledge of Italian deli meats limited to a few charcuterie plates, I quickly narrowed it down to either GameBoy’s choice, the Godmother sandwich, which was a standard mix of proscuitto and capricola, or a soppressatta sandwich. I decided on a large Godmother, and communicated this to GameBoy. However, it turned out later that he had misunderstood me, and I ended up with the soppressatta. Luckily, we agreed to split our sandwiches, so we could both try the large Godmother ($7.65) and the regular soppressatta ($5.90).

The reason the wait for Bay Cities is so long on weekends is that they make each sandwich to order. Oddly, GameBoy noticed that the option of “The Works” actually wasn’t cheaper than getting each condiment individually. We thus determined that he would order each of our preferred condiments separately.

Having finalized our order, I then wandered around the rest of the market, which had a promising selection of Italian foodstuff, unsurprisingly. I took special note of the burrata, which was cheaper than Bristol Farms’ price, and the fact that they carried Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, a cheesemaker I am eager to try. Unfortunately, our plan at that point was to go the beach afterwards, so I was forced to put any cheese buying off to another day. I also noticed that they have a fax and online order area, which seemed to be much faster at producing sandwiches, and made a note to order before we drive down next time.

After a fairly long wait, especially for me with my cute but somewhat painful brown heels, we got our sandwiches, grabbed some drinks (Jones root beer, $1.29, for him, Le Village sparkling pink lemonade, $1.98, for me), paid for our sandwiches at the register, and headed outside. We found seating at a table on the side of the deli. The seating is a bit unusual there. You sit on narrow concrete ledges that have been placed as benches near the tables. This, I guess, functions to prevent homeless people from sleeping there at night, and to prevent chairs from getting stolen.

Anyway, all that waiting made GameBoy and I pretty hungry, so we eagerly dug in. Unfortunately, the bread, apparently a signature item, was hard, making it diffiuclt to bite into the sandwich. GameBoy and I agreed that the bread’s hardness forced the fillings out along the sides, making it more messy and less enjoyable. The sopressatta was nice and spicy, and the Godmother proved to be fair as well. GameBoy preferred the Godmother, and I the soppressatta, so after a few test bites of each other’s sandwiches, we went back to our initial orders. They were both good sandwiches, but we left thinking that they were a bit over-hyped for what they were. I am curious, however, to try the cheeses and other charcuterie they had available. I think I’d prefer to make my own sandwiches next time, though.

On a side note, GameBoy and I both felt slightly ill a few hours later, and the possibility that Bay Cities may be responsible for my stomach cramps has definitely made a return trip less of a priority.

Date of visit: 3/11/07

Bay Cities Italian Deli and Bakery

1517 Lincoln Blvd.

Santa Monica, CA 90401

(310) 395-8279

Fax (310) 395-1575

Tues-Sat 9-7, Sun 9-5, closed Mondays

HOURS:
Tues-Sat 9-7 Sunday 9-6 CLOSED MONDAYS

Metro Cafe- Costa Mesa

I met my new friend, OCBruinLawyer, at Metro Cafe for lunch, mostly because I only have an hour for lunch, and the Metro Cafe is located at the bottom of a mid-rise near where I work. It's a surprisingly small cafeteria-type place with sandwiches and burgers. OCBruinLawyer and I both get burgers (no onions) with fries. You pay at the register, then wait for your food to be finished. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be too good at letting you know when that is, as we ended up waiting for several minutes before he went up to the counter and asked, whereupon two styrofoam containers appeared with our food.

The burger was probably the worst I've had in a while, on the level of McDonald's in taste. The soggy bun was too big for the tiny patty, which appeared to be similar to the McDonald's QuarterPounder. It was drowning in mayo and some sauce, which dripped all over. Oddly, the fries were decent, and now that I think about it I can't figure out why I finished the burger and left the fries. I must have been distracted by the conversation.

In addition to the good conversation, I also had some bottled grapefruit juice by Langers, which was a nice change. Still, though, I'm not going back if I can help it.

Date of visit: 3/14/07

Metro Cafe
575 Anton Blvd , Costa Mesa 92626
714-957-3316

Orchid- Costa Mesa

My loyal dining companion, GameBoy, and I set off at 1 pm with one goal in mind: to eat lunch and return to work by 2 pm, sharp. We drove down Bristol, passing Paularino, searching for an Indian restaurant I thought I had read about. Instead, we found Orchid, a Persian restaurant with an $8.50 lunch buffet. With the clock ticking in the back of our minds, we quickly grabbed plates and hit the buffet.

It was a bit picked-over, which was not surprising given that it was a little past prime lunch hour and only partially-full. Nonetheless, there were still 3 types of rice (yellow, green, and white), something that looked like naan, something that looked liked a samosa, a chicken stew dish, an oxtail stew dish, something that looked like tandoori chicken, ground beef kabobs, hummus, and a parsley salad. I'm not sure why the food had a lot in common with Indian food, but I'm pretty sure it was a Persian place since it had Arabic writing.

In any event, I loaded up on a little of everything, then dug in. The tandoori chicken-like item was nice and juicy- better, in fact, than many versions of tandoori chicken I've had. The kebab was decent- not bad, but not spectacular. It may be that I just don't like ground beef kebabs. The oxtail stew was a surprising find for me, having only had oxtail stew as a Chinese dish. This oxtail was also cooked until juicy, but wasn't complimented with anything else, so while it was initally yummy to eat the tender meat, it got heavy and greasy-tasting on my second course. The chicken fared much better in this preparation, especially since it was given an extra kick by some sort of spicy sauce.

I've had parsley salad before, in a Persian restaurant on Westwood Boulevard up in LA, but the one offered by this buffet tasted particularly good. Its onions, tomatoes, and couscous were refreshing, especially given the heavy meat items I selected. Finally, I had the hummus, which was an overly-chilled and average version, but still good with the naan-like flatbread. I passed up the yogurt and salad offerings, but left with a full tummy and slight food coma. Mission accomplished.

Date of visit: 3/13/07

Orchid Jewel
3033 S Bristol St, Costa Mesa, CA
(714)557-8070