The Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa has undergone some serious renovations in the past couple of years, adding even more panache to an already famous oceanview hotel and dining spot.
The hotel was recently sold in a record setting sale reported at $200 million, which speaks of the value that it carries. The new owner, Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, part of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., plans to put several million more into the hotel.
When the renovations to the rooms, spa and dining room were revealed in mid-2006, I covered the impressive plans. Vue, the main dining room, emerged as a glamorous mood-setting restaurant with some fine food. In all the ensuing months, we’ve visited the restaurant on several occasions and we just want to keep going back.
And, if I thought that Vue was notable before, I’ve got proof now that it’s gotten even better and it has vaulted to my list of the very best restaurants in Orange County. We ate there one time with friends for dinner and it was like I’d led them to some sort of Nirvana.
Although I know the executive chef David Scalise casually, I sat with him one afternoon to ask about his career and how a chef finds his style and substance in the kitchen. He comes from an Italian family and we all know good food is so important in the Italian culture. David got a job dishwashing when he was 15 and then he was promoted to cook while he was still in high school. At 17, David was out of school and got a job working at the only four diamond resort in the Ozarks, just outside St. Louis. By 21, he was chef de cuisine for the resort’s Toledo dining room, and within the next five years, became the executive sous chef of the resort. He says that he knew by age 18 that he wanted to be an executive chef in a good hotel or resort and that it took him until age 30 to make it.
In working together, David and chef de cuisine Anton Cossi share a philosophy of giving the customer a good selection of foods to choose from, all prepared with the best products. They like to allow these products,many from local purveyors,to shine. For instance, we had some strawberries in a dessert at one of our meals. I asked how they managed to have such succulent berries. Turns out that they use just one purveyor for strawberries; in season, he picks and delivers them fresh the same day when their sugar and crispness are definitive.
Here’s some of the food you will experience when dining in Vue.
Breakfast itself will surely make you rethink the first meal of the day. Every day, one can order a la carte from the menu or do the buffet. Try steak Benedict or the old bay omelet. Take in the Sunday buffet that features a litany of early-in-the-day pleasures and you can forget all those hotel pans trying to keep the food warm over a few little candles. This meandering buffet uses state-of-the-art conduction units that are quite attractive on their own. Inside, foods are kept at precisely the right temperature.
An array of freshly baked breads and pastries, savory spreads and international accoutrements add to the shellfish, fish and meat dishes, fine vegetable preparations, star-studded salads and more than ordinary American breakfast items makes this a spread that truly needs to be experienced.
At lunch, roasted red onion soup and tempura shrimp are a couple of interesting appetizers. Salads, some of which can be adorned with grilled shrimp, tuna, crab or chicken keep light eaters happy. Pasta with shrimp and artichoke is good. Pizza too is represented. Sandwiches include classics but the ones I go for are the Japanese fish sandwich festooned with sweet chile slaw or the untraditional club. The latter is composed of the turkey, bacon and Swiss cheese we expect but it goes to a better level with the daikon sprouts and black pepper mayo and the sweet potato fries on the side. Wild salmon and steak entrees are also considerations.
I’ve spent most of my time at the dinner tables in Vue when the restaurant turns romantic in the dim light of the evening. I cannot help but want to reorder some dishes: The steamed mussels with a cilantro lime aioli, lobster and shrimp risotto, Kobe short ribs (braised with sugar cane) with linguini and caramelized onions and perhaps a bowl of rich lobster bisque for starters.
Some of the entrees that have kept me and my friends so happy are the wild salmon with an orange barbecue glaze, sea bass with sauteed leeks and artichoke tempura, veal chop with cipollini onion ragout and espresso dust and rack of lamb with avocado tempura and a to-die-for tomato jam.
The food is presented as designer art on a plate,all tableware is specially selected to feature each dish in the most eye catching way,and the sides that accompany each entree are quite enticing. Vue, 25135 Park Lantern, Dana Point (949) 661-5000.
