Andrei’s Restaurant’s 10th Anniversary Featuring 10 Items for $10

July 3, 2019Fia La Rose Leave a comment

Coming into a restaurant that serves fabulously delicious cuisines, and gives all of its net profits to charitable organizations is one of the most awesome feats I’ve ever attended.

It’s been 10 years since Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine and Cocktails has opened, located in Irvine surrounded by business centers and situated near the 405 freeway and the John Wayne Airport. This venerable restaurant is and always will be dedicated to the Olenicoff family’s late member Andrei and his love for the culinary stage.

To bolster his legacy and the restaurant’s mission of serving customers local, organic, and delicious foods — as well as contributing to those with disabilities — the whole month of July will put in 20% of total sales from all of Andrei’s menu items to Miracles for Kids.

This includes the alluring libations, such as the powerful Mother of Dragons vodka mix, the mellow Bee’s Knees gin concoction, and the bubbly and rosy Bastille Day champagne.

Also participating with the organization is their amazing (and convincing to revisit asap) California Ceviche, which is presented during Happy Hour on Monday to Friday from 3pm to 6:30pm. If fancy and friendship-gathering are calling, the Charcuterie and Cheese platter will do the trick — and this is served for both lunch and dinner.

Additionally, between July 1st to July 13th there are 10 tasty and substantial items that cost $10 dedicating to a full, loyal decade of the restaurant. I became enthralled with the $10 Calamari skewers that I didn’t think they needed creamy sauce at all. Other sensational platters were the deceitfully simple-looking $10 Black Angus Spring Rolls and the Market Fish Tacos. When it comes to the dessert item, the best morsel from the Andrei’s Dessert Tasting was the warm and luscious Andrei’s beignets.

Definitely dine in to this worthy, benevolent OC restaurant. Andrei would certainly be utterly content to watch his guests enjoy their meals. Regardless of the July deal, or the fact that it’s a nonprofit and charitable ordeal, I would love to return especially for little or big celebrations.

Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine & Cocktails, 2607 Main St, Irvine, CA 92614

andreisrestaurant.com

#irvine #foodblogger #mediaevent #nonprofit

Birthday Brunch at Newport Beach’s Malibu Farm Lido Village

April 10, 2019Fia La Rose 1 Comment

Saturday brunch at one of my favorite OC cities became one of my unforgettable birthday celebrations for this 5-Footer. Many favorable descriptions in this restaurant — named 1 of 2019’s Best New Restaurants of the OC from Orange Coast Magazine — popped into my mind: simple, relaxing, mellow, joyful, and subliminally unpretentious.

Sitting outdoors with a great Lido Bay view of the iconic boats, yachts, and cruises for weddings/events with a satisfying heater slightly above where I sat I enjoyed this seemingly little feast with my fiance, his brother/future bro in-law and his S.O.

For the sake of my birthday I blissfully quenched on their seasonal yet wonderfully vibrant F’Rose Cocktail. I relished every sip so slowly, and the mixture was beautifully done that my tongue detected subtle softness of the alcohol itself.

The girlfriend of my fiance’s brother happily shared the Avocado Huarache, consisted of heat flatbread jalapeño, ricotta spread, and Malibu honey lemon vinaigrette. It sounded quite fancy, but once I bit into a piece, this dish didn’t play games with my tongue. Instead, all ingredients harmonized throughout the bite.

Because I had another birthday gathering coming up within hours, I chose to eat their Fried Egg “Pytti Panna” Hash, embedding the potatoes, beets, squash, zucchini, onion, arugula, horseradish cream, and tender smoked salmon. It’s one of the most zesty and lightly feeling dishes I’ve ever consumed, and this entire dish indeed left my tummy in satisfactory level — neither feeling stuffed nor inadequate.

But the creme de la creme of all the foods from Malibu Farm Lido was their phenomenally delicious Fried Egg Sandwich. I admittedly rolled my eyes initially at the price tag of this $16 sandwich, but my careful bite on the fried egg, crispy bacon, arugula, havarti, perfectly soft country wheat toast, and notable lemon aioli slapped my mind unabashedly. My fiance and I were simply dumbfounded on this deceptively delicious handful.

The overall pricing may be personally higher than what I typically pay for restaurant breakfast/brunch, but the no-nonsense flavor profile from every item we ate and drank was worth every cent. This also reminded me of my wonderful foodie experience in Portland, Oregon, where I felt that practically every food I ate there had that farm-to-table concept. Malibu Farm Lido, I revisit you very soon regardless of occasion.

Malibu Farm Lido, 3420 Via Oporto #101, Newport Beach, CA 92663

#malibufarmlido #fiathe5footer #brunch #newportbeach #orangecoastmag

Christmas Time at Patty’s Cakes and Desserts

December 26, 2018Fia La Rose Leave a comment

At this Fullerton small business shop I was cordially invited to indulge on Patty’s Cakes, a pink-smothering dessert spot filled with a plethora of sweets and other adorable delights emblazoned with holiday decor and cheer all-around.

This dessert shop wasn’t solely offering their cakes in various shapes and sizes. Present were irresistible cookies –such as my personal faves, the snickerdoodle and chocolate chip — classic ice creams from Thrifty, sophisticated coffee from Illy, and make-your-own hot chocolate at the hot cocoa station featuring marshmallow-looking snowman housing this brewed chocolaty comfort.

I had the appreciative opportunity to take home 4 cupcakes as their Christmas gift. With over 20 flavors of cupcakes to choose from I picked the ones not only for myself, but something my best friends could indulge when I visited them the next day. I don’t have a solid picture of the eventual 4 morsels, but I meticulously picked the scrumptious red velvet, the delightful butter pecan, the sensual chocolate salted caramel, and the intensely tart lemon drop.

Another considerate feature about this dessert shop is the gluten-free option of some flavors of cupcakes, which would accommodate greatly when, say, I can order ahead of time online for party guests with slightly different diets from one another.

This fun-filled holiday event may be short and sweet, but my time spent there was unforgettable, all thanks to hostess Connie @occomestibles, and the hospitable owner and staff members of Patty’s Cakes and Desserts.

Patty’s Cakes and Desserts, 825 W Commonwealth Ave, Fullerton, CA 92832, (714) 525-8350, https://pattys-cakes.com/

Lazy Dog Cafe’s Spring 2018 Menu

March 29, 2018Fia La Rose Leave a comment

I had the greatest pleasure of eating and photo-shooting the newest Lazy Dog Cafe dishes for Spring 2018, which has 25 locations throughout the USA. These courses are available to order starting March 28, 2018.

More than sampling or most likely gorging on the featured foods, Co-Founder Gabriel Caliendo spent valuable time chatting and describing to us guests how these foods came into fruition and eventually be set for this season.

The items I’ve consumed (hugely or minutely) included:

The instantly addicting Onion Dip

The exciting Street Corn Wheels

The mellow Burrata + Heirloom Tomato Crisp flatbread

The invigorating Burrata + Roasted Beet Salad

The unexpectedly wholesome and delicious BBQ Veggie Burger, in which the patty is meshed with black beans and ancient grains

The deconstructed yet filling Veggie Burger Bowl (the chopped patty containing the same ingredients as the previous)

The delightful Grilled Lemon Chicken, hiding underneath this scrumptious cauliflower mash and tahini sauce on the side along with the sauteed green beans topped with unassuming almond-walnut crumble

The sinful Peach Raspberry Hand Pie, which was consumed the quickest out of all of the presented dishes

And the gluten-sensitive yet proudly tasty Lemon Cake, with almond flour as one of the main ingredients and surrounded by a velvety huckleberry moat

I could not forget mentioning some of the cocktails introduced to the menu, such as this virgin Watermelon Margarita. If I didn’t head straight to my day job right after, the virginity would have disappeared. The adult version has a punch of Azul Reposada Tequila.

But I took a small, curious sip of the Honey Thyme Old Fashioned, with this quality-oriented and smooth Buffalo Trace Bourbon which I became quite infatuated — since bourbon or its “father” whiskey normally does not fall under Fia’s favorite alcoholic drinks.

Yet when I sipped into something like a certain favorite cocktail of Fia’s, such as the Huckleberry Mule, the more temptation pinched me harder. Don’t worry, folks: I kicked it away.

Though temptation followed me back with this Pineapple Mojito, and yet again I kicked it further into the kitchen.

Frankly these foods and drinks satisfied my taste buds that I’m anticipating a revisit and happily introducing my good friends to these colorfully enticing items. Of course their fluffy fur children are welcome to join us.

*Huge thank you to C-Squared PR for this amazing #mediatasting at Lazy Dog Cafe

Lazy Dog Cafe

Various locations

Media tasting at the Brea location: 240 S State College Blvd, Brea, CA 92821

OC Restaurant Week’s 10-Year Anniversary

March 8, 2018Fia La Rose Leave a comment

For a solid decade Orange County Restaurant Week unleashed on Sunday, March 4. Over 100 restaurants dared to showcase their pre-fixe course menu items as their way to commemorate this 7-day eating spectacle.

The day before Sunday brought in OC Restaurant Week’s Launch Party inside the Marriott Irvine Spectrum. My boyfriend and I appreciatively attended the VIP 1st hour, which we savored minute by minute for just that 1 hour right before leaving for a family member’s baby shower.

That seemingly short visitation resulted in feeling physiologically full and gluttonously satisfied from the myriad bites and samples from 20 (of about 25) different vendors, including these personal favorites of mine:

The Veggie Puff Pastry from Skyloft in Laguna Beach

The Esquite from Puesto in Irvine

The fantastic Artichoke Beignets, Seared Salmon Filet, and Salted Caramel Pudding from Del Frisco’s Grille (also) in Irvine

The Jalapeno Mac & Cheese from JT Schmidt’s in Tustin

The consistently delicious Buffalo Cauliflower from Tackle Box in Corona Del Mar

And the scrumptious Fresh Atlantic Salmon Filet from Sundried Tomato (that, like last year’s event, have seemed to consistently wowed my palate) in southern San Juan Capistrano

Other vendors not necessarily presenting their food items strictly for OCRW but contently participating for the event included Blackmarket Bakery, Melissa’s Produce (which by the way has supplied their fresh produce to several restaurants representing OCRW), and San Pellegrino.

These morsels certainly left such a lasting fullness in my tummy that I felt guilty of barely consuming the foods served at that family member’s baby shower. Most of those samples indeed brought out the flavors needed to wow guests when ordering from the OCRW menu in these participating eateries.

In spite of munching indulgently from various vendors within one hour I am eager to dine particularly at this Costa Mesa restaurant before catching the new Cirque Du Soleil show. Thank you, OC Restaurant Week, for the incredibly fun and super eventful VIP launch party to celebrate your 10 years! And special thank you to my boyfriend, Simon, for assisting me to photograph some of the items posted in this entry.