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Diners Globe-Trot at Golden Truffle Each Wednesday

Mark your calendars right now for another Newport Beach Restaurant Week.

The foodie celebration returns on Jan. 20-29. A majority of Newport’s finest eateries will have specially priced menus, mostly in the $20 to $25 range for two- or three-course lunches and $30 to $40 for multi-course dinners.

You can call your favorite restaurants and start making reservations now, or simply Google Newport Beach Restaurant Week to find all the information available on the restaurants that have already signed up to participate. It’s one of the great bargain dining deals of the year.

Global Tour

Another way to make your dining week interesting is to experience Golden Truffle’s Wednesday Night Soul Food Dinners. Chef/owner Alan Greeley, one of OC’s most talented chefs, has a unique take on global food in general, which is emphasized every Wednesday evening.

There’s a theme each week that takes us to a different country. The menu is prix-fixe; $25 for three courses is the maximum fee. Be aware: It is the only food available for the evening, strictly authentic, and there can be no substitutions for burgers, kids’ meals or the like.

We’ve been to Greece, China, Japan, France, Italy, Morocco and many other countries on these wonderful evenings. It’s hard to believe that for $25 we can actually be transported to the real flavors and culture of some faraway place and that it’s served in Golden Truffle’s cozy atmosphere where good food and fine service always reign. Call and ask them to put you on their email list, so that you’ll always have a notice of what’s on the Wednesday agendas and beyond.

I also would encourage all to discover the a la carte menu on all other evenings. Greeley has set the bar high for refined, fun global gourmet food.

Golden Truffle: 1767 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa, (949) 645-9970. Lunch, Tuesday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m; dinner, Thursday-Saturday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m.; reservations recommended.

Fifi Chao

Dining Central

Irvine Spectrum has become dining central it seems. Capital Seafood (amazing array of dim sum and authentic Chinese food) is packed with foodies, P.F. Chang’s has reopened after a grand remodel, Wood Ranch BBQ is dishing out award-winning meats and seafood, and Paul Martin’s American Bistro is keeping us happy with their brand of hospitality and quality food. And, these are only the newer restaurants that percolate in that energetic center.

I reported last month on Paul Martin’s, housed in part of the old—and huge—Fox Sports Grill building. Now, cuddled between that and the ever popular Javier’s, Cucina Enoteca occupies yet another portion of the former Fox Sports Grill space. This restaurant is a sister to San Diego’s award winning Cucina Urbana and is serving modern Italian food made from the freshest local produce and organic and sustainable products, with most entrees under $20. It also brings back to Orange County chef “Lulu” de Rouen who commanded the kitchen at Leatherby’s Café Rouge for a while and then spent a couple of years as chef at Pinot Provence.

They also operate as a wine sales location, so we pick our wine as a retail purchase—prices are amazingly friendly—and then pay a nominal corkage for it to be opened and served at our table. You will love the interesting selection of wines, on which they pride themselves.

Friendly vibes emote from the sense of a country farmhouse meeting modern bar with generous use of reclaimed materials being paramount. There’s also a tad of bohemia via artifacts adding a bit of whimsy. Comfort intensive couches on the patio provide a favorite place for me to have a signature cocktail made from their house-infused liquors or an artisanal beer.

The food might have an Italian backbone, but it is definitely presented in modern terms. Fried stuffed squash blossoms, salad of burrata and speck, polenta with ragù of the day, cavatelli (small pastas with ricotta cheese incorporated into the dough) with duck, mussels in a flashy broth, wide pappardelle noodles with braised short ribs, braised black cod, veal piccata and pear and gorgonzola pizza offer nice variations and fine tastes. Themed dining days—Meatball Monday, Take-Out Tuesday, Wild Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, Fromaggi Friday, Social Saturday and Sinful Sunday (no corkage)—provide yet another alternative in discount dining.

Cucina Enoteca: 31 Fortune Drive, Irvine Spectrum, (949) 861-2222.

Beautiful Setting

Come along with me and envision a vast expanse of gorgeous landscaping, architecturally fantastic buildings, a meandering Tom Fazio-designed golf course, resort lodging and a restaurant that have scooped up almost every hospitality and food accolade available and a generally dreamy atmosphere overall. You have arrived at San Diego’s Grand Del Mar, which boasts among all the other honors the Addison restaurant, a Relais & Châteaux dining mecca featuring celebrity chef William Bradley’s artisanal approach to cooking.

Bradley offers contemporary French cuisine with an emphasis on seasonal California ingredients. With that thirst for farm-to-table products, the chef gets at least half of the produce served at Addison from Crow’s Pass Farms in Temecula.

The restaurant is San Diego’s first and only restaurant to win the coveted Five-Star Award from Forbes Travel Guide for multiple years, it earned Five Diamonds from Automobile Association of America for the last few years, it has been honored as one of the 100 Best Wine Restaurants, one of the Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S, one of America’s 10 Best Hotel Restaurants and it has a Grand Chef Designation (for chef William Bradley) from the international Relais & Châteaux group.

Many multi-course prix-fixe menus are offered at Addison, starting at $90. There’s an extensive a la carte menu as well that is studded with French-inspired but contemporarily envisioned cuisine. Wine steward Jesse Rodriguez is a delight to converse with about wines and has an easy-going approach that delivers behind-the-scenes information about the wines and how any attributes will match up with the food one is ordering.

I should mention that there are five additional restaurants on the premises to accommodate all of your everyday dining.

The luxurious resort opened in 2007 and we were both happy and surprised to learn that former OC hotelier/food and beverage aficionado Tom Voss is its president. He is one of those guys who is always smiling, always covering all bases with staff so that the best service and amenities are always at the forefront and he relishes meeting and greeting resort guests. He was a treasure that we lost to San Diego even before he took over the helm at the Grand Del Mar, but he’s close enough to see occasionally on our treks southward. Be sure when in the resort to ask if he’s available and say hello. He loves chatting with OC residents.

The lodging is comprised of large, elegantly appointed guestrooms and suites that feature gilded gold and wrought iron accents, a deep blue, pale yellow and gold color palette and intricately hand-stenciled ceilings. The rooms are so utterly refined that I just want to extend and extend again my down time in this genteel place.

There is a collection of shops and stylized boutiques, a truly grand spa, fitness arena and more that accentuates what a great resort is all about. I am always encouraging my readers to enjoy the fine resorts that we have here in OC, but if you have a craving for a vacation and are loathe to travel afar, this would be a good choice. Just driving down to dine at Addison is a possible one-evening treat.

Grand Del Mar: 5300 Grand Del Mar Court, San Diego, (858) 314-2000; Addison: (858) 314-1900 or toll free (877) 814-8472.

Boho Dining

We’ve been on a merry-go-round of dining—trying many of the new restaurants popping up—and had a longing for a place that was great fun but without a lot of din and clatter and certainly with easy but tasty food. It took about 15 seconds for Patrick to mention Café Tu Tu Tango. We hadn’t been there for a while, and it was a good opportunity to see changes at The Outlets at Orange (formerly The Block), as well as tuck into some interesting food at the restaurant.

This center has seen expanded shopping and a redo of courtyards under General Manager Blake Windal, who was formerly with Irvine Spectrum. It’s looking really refreshed and with so many outlet type stores coming in—Nordstrom Rack will be the newest—it’s good for everyone. Tu Tu Tango resides at the heart of the center, directly across from the AMC Theaters. It’s called location, location, location.

For those of you who have managed to live the last decade without experiencing the Bohemian, starving artist scenario for the array of dishes (most of them small plates) from around the world that defines Tu Tu Tango, I can’t imagine it. This is the best kind of casual, affordable dining because the food is quality and of high interest on the multi-cultural realm and you just plain feel good after the meal.

A mere sampling of the food includes freshly made everything: Spanish and American tapas, brick oven thin pizza, fresh seafood, including their splendid blackened Maine lobster on skewers that is served over chilled sesame noodles ($13.95). How about shrimp or fresh fish tacos just as they are in Baja or a bowl of their silky lobster bisque with sherry for only $4.20 a bowl? Mango duck quesadillas, Cajun chicken egg rolls, plum-glazed ribs, Valencia style paella and a dessert called Crazy Bananas are items I seem to order over and over.

Their recipe for Spanish Sangria dates back seven generations. Naturally, it’s wildly popular and we always defer to it.

Café Tu Tu Tango is one of the few restaurants that can boast nearly 10% increase in year over year revenue, no small feat in these economic times. This is undoubtedly the result of a commitment to high quality food—served by the friendliest staff you’re likely to encounter—and all at such affordable prices. In addition, TTT enjoys a good catering reputation for offsite corporate and social events of all sizes throughout Orange County. I can vouch for the popularity of the Tapas Wedding Receptions.

Happy Hours are 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 p.m. to closing Sunday-Thursday. That includes half-price mixed drinks, wines by the glass, beer and sangria. A dozen tapas items are also featured at reduced in prices, making them mainstay bargains.

On Wednesday, bottles of wine are half-price all day. Good place, too, for Saturday and Sunday midday noshing with $4 Bloody Mary and Mimosa specials from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Part of the fun is encountering the spontaneous entertainment. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed salsa, tango and belly dancers. There are balloon artists and magicians sometimes wandering around. Psychics sit at a table and do their thing for interested parties at various times. Haven’t seen the face painters or stilt walkers, but have heard about them. Are you getting the idea that this is also a good place for the family with things that fascinate the children as well as the adults? Local artists are, on occasion, working on their paintings.

Owner Jim Hall and his general manager brother, Kevin Hall, have substantial upscale restaurant experience and are known for supporting local charities as part of their everyday endeavors.

Café Tu Tu Tango: 20 City Blvd. West, Orange, (714) 769-2222; lunch, dinner and one of OC’s best Happy Hours.

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