Orange County began a love affair with the hotel that first appeared at the corner of Birch Street and MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach way back in the ’80s,the very French Meridien.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is the latest owner, renaming it Fairmont Newport Beach, and giving the hotel the finesse and glamour of San Francisco via a $32 million renovation.
Gone are the casual tile floors, now replaced by striking marble. The furnishings that spoke of country manor comfort have been swapped for more elegant, and lushly upholstered, custom wood furniture.
The hotel’s decor is quite upscale with amenities throughout. It’s San Francisco stylishness that is undeniable.
The old Accents restaurant has gone bamb & #250;, bamb & #250; Restaurant that is.
The entry to the dining room features a chic, separate lounge area with a sit-down bar and several cocktail tables. A stand of willowy bamboo separates the lounge from the dining room, and forms the backdrop for a row of inviting booths that grace the eating area.
|
|
Bamb & #250;: upscale San Francisco feel |
The rest of the room is a mingling of tables napped in rich, chocolate brown, with seating overlooking gardens and a reflection pool through a glass wall.
It’s a fine place for a romantic or business meal, and for just an evening out. It surely should be on your “to do” list.
The chef de cuisine for bamb & #250; is Joseph Mahon, who presents a menu driven by the freshness of ingredients he gets from personally selected purveyors and farmers.
He’s an Orange County native, trained at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Joseph honed his skills and gained his own personal cooking style under the guidance of several famed chefs in France and New York.
A bit of Asian influence adds inspiration to Joseph’s creative California-style dishes. The main ingredient in each dish is easily known, but his ideas compel a unique presentation of the dishes.
Small plates or full-size portions are on the a la carte menu. The smaller portions are nice as lighter lunch entrees and perhaps for sharing as appetizers at dinner.
This is the season when soups and chowders make good beginnings. I like the extra creaminess of the clam chowder and there is always a soup of the day inspired by some fresh ingredient of the moment.
Thai satay and Chinese-style dim sum dumplings are worthy tastes. Also on the smaller plates menu for this season are crab cakes that are almost all chunk crab meat and the Asian cabbage slaw with peanut and lemongrass sauce that comes on the side. It brings smiles with each forkful. Another small plate holds a portion of chubby shrimp dotted with drops of cilantro-infused oil, along with some sections of pink and sweet grapefruit and a little bundle of green papaya slaw.
In a definite California version of lobster roll, forget the ubiquitous sandwich of New England and savor this sweet lobster meat swaddled in an Asian rice paper wrap with a snappy sweet chile-style sauce for dipping. Architecture meets food in the stacked ahi tuna plate and it’s a winner in both looks and taste.
For lunch, entrees include sandwiches that have gone uptown. Grilled chicken and prosciutto with tomato jam registers as delightful, while a triple-decker with a Waldorf-style spread on soft challah bread is cool and chic.
It’s also easy to choose the refreshing take on Cobb salad that comes wrapped in romaine lettuce leaves. Another nice salad segue is the chopped garden vegetable salad with orange segments, lentils and toasted pumpkin seeds.
Main lunch dishes include everything from a very Italian pizza to flatiron steak, roasted chicken to pasta choices and some fresh fish presentations.
At dinner, requisite red meats have their place including various cuts of steak. I happen to love the moistness and flavor of specially-raised white meat Kurobuta pork, done here as a hefty pork chop with a creamy puree of squash and seasonal vegetables.
Duck is another of my favorites. Here it’s roasted to a crisp skin with a moist interior, and splashed with a sauce that manages to coax the best of orange essence and ginger tea. Add some crunchy green beans and fragrant Thai rice and you have a fine duck m & #233;lange indeed.
If you enjoy fish, an entree that should not be missed is the striped sea bass, which is superb on its own but gains additional charm from the aromatic nature of jasmine rice, grilled bok choy and the Manila clams that come with it.
Sweet and spicy ahi tuna is stir-fried with vegetables, served atop linguine pasta. Both salmon and hamachi are simply grilled but then go high-end with adornments such as grilled plums and exotic mushrooms.
Many of us appreciate that there are three-course and five-course tasting menus at dinner that are regularly changed to accommodate seasonal food. The chef also said that tasting menus with even more courses can be arranged.
The wine list won’t shatter your budget, even though it’s well endowed with wines by the glass and labels from around the world. Tucked in with the names that have driven the international wine crusade are boutique wines that are some of the biggest bargains and best food matches. The staff is well informed and helpful with choosing.
I should mention,just in case you need to have a breakfast meeting,that bamb & #250; does serve breakfast as well as lunch and dinner. Sunday brunch is a fine affair with meandering food stations that feature a vast variety of tasting options.
AT A GLANCE: Bamb & #250; Restaurant in the Fairmont Newport Beach
Address: 4500 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach
Phone: (949) 476-2001
Prices: Lunch: $7 to $17; dinner: $9 to $36; prix fixe dinners: 3-course $45 ($75 with wine pairings), 5-course $70 ($110 with wines); Sunday brunch $59.95 adults, $29.95 children 5 to 12, kids under 5 free
