Two prominent OC restaurants this month are opening for limited lunch service.
Bayside Restaurant—20 years young this year—is normally open only for happy hour, dinner, late-night dining on Fridays with live jazz until midnight, and a Sunday Champagne brunch. This month only it has a lunch menu with updates as well as classics.
A sampler: tempura calamari with miso mustard dressing and roasted peanuts; Maryland-style crab cake with jumbo lump blue crab meat and old bay remoulade sauce; salmon with roasted beets and whipped goat cheese; lobster salad with lemon aioli and avocado; seared wild diver scallops with lobster mashed potatoes and asparagus.
You might need to go twice.
After December, check Bayside’s sister restaurant Bistango in Irvine, which serves weekday lunches all year.
Pub Fare
Tavern House, previously and oft-raved about in this space, has lunch service through year-end on Thursdays and Fridays. 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
The window will feature many of owner and Chef David Wilhelm’s signature dishes including French 75’s onion soup, from his old French 75 restaurant menu; prime rib dip sandwich; buttermilk fried chicken; a Maine lobster club; shrimp Louie salad; and the impressive prime Mishima Wagyu cheeseburger.
He’s made no promises my favorite dish—the voodoo shrimp, a main draw 30 years ago at his Barbacoa restaurant, not far from the current site of Tavern House——will be on offer.
If not, I’m going back for dinner.
Bayside Restaurant: 900 Bayside Drive, Newport Beach 92660, (949) 721-1222, baysiderestaurant.com
Tavern House: 333 Bayside Drive, Newport Beach 92660, (949) 673-8464, tavernhousekb.com
