overidon.com Central Database for Overidon Omnimedia

Inka Grill – Costa Mesa

260 Bristol Street

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

(714) 444-4652

HOURS:Mon-Thur 11AM – 9PM / Fri 11AM – 10PM

Sat 11:30AM – 10PM / Sun 11:30AM – 9PM

Do you like spicy food? I like spicy food but I don’t want an ulcer. So when I eat spicy food I make sure to do it every once in a while and not to over-do it. But if you are like me you like it when you get a little burned from time to time. Well, if you are willing to give your taste buds the ride of their life, come to Inka Grill in Costa Mesa!

I’ve been to Inka Grill twice now and both times I’ve loved the food. I went there for dinner yesterday and I had a blast. The meal started when I ordered some water and I was brought some french bread. Seems normal right? French bread and water…you can get that almost anywhere. NOPE! There’s a twist. I looked to the right side of my table and what did I find? Some crazy pastel green sauce called Gringo Killer! This stuff is delicious on your bread. I poured some of it on my bread plate and dipped the bread and I was in heaven. The Gringo Killer sauce is creamy and spicy and it has a perfect spicy aftertaste. It is not jalapeno style spicy. Nor is it hot chili pepper spicy. Double-nor is it wasabi  spicy. No, Gringo Killer is a special kind of spicy that at first stimulates your taste buds with a crisp spicy. Then it soothes your tongue with it’s creaminess. And finally kicks you again with spice with its aftertaste! It’s just bread but it tastes great and it is a killer way to start your dinner.

I shared 2 entrees with my friend so we could try two different things. Also he brought a coupon for buy one entree get the other one half-off that he found in some magazine or something. So we were pretty stoked that we were going to save some bucks. Especially because the dishes here cost from $11-$19 and they are worth every penny. We got one pasta entree and one rice and meat entree. The pasta dish was called Spinach Basil Spaghetti. It had slightly creamy pasta with green sauce that was mildly spicy. The basil and spinach flavor was very good. The pasta was cooked perfectly and had the right kind of tenderness. The cool part about the Spinach Basil Spaghetti is that it is topped with lightly breaded chicken breasts. You have the option of having it topped with pan seared Top round steak instead, but this time I went with the chicken, and boy was I glad I did. The chicken was thin and wide and was perfectly breaded. The flavor of the chicken mixed extremely well with the pasta spiciness. I found myself lathering the chicken in the pasta sauce. If you order this item you might want to share it with a friend or be prepared to bring some of it home, because it is a lot of pasta to have in one sitting.

Now the delicious Chimbotanos with beef and vegetables was one of the best food decisions I have ever made. The rice was well prepared and not to wet or dry, just moist enough to go well with the beef. The beef was mixed with some green beans and it was amazing. The beef was tender, but not quite as tender as the chicken in the other dish. And that was ok because the beef was cut into bite size strips that were easy to chew. The sauce for the beef and vegetables was spicy but not overpowering and when I mixed a bite with the rice it was great. A great part of the Chimbotanos was that it had Andean organic potatoes that were made into a type of potato stew-like concoction. The potatoes were brownish-white and they had a very unique flavor that were way better than mashed potatoes or a baked potato. It was like having a thick potato stew with medium sized to small chunks of potato in it. And a thin brown sauce kept it all together.

Inka Grill was amazing and I am going to definitely visit this restaurant again. I had such a good meal that I am probably going to venture into other dishes and find out what they taste like. Their lamb stew sounds interesting. Just take note that there are a lot of spicy seasoning s and flavors in their dishes. So if you have allergies or ulcers you might want to pick a different place to eat. But if you are in good health and like a little spice in your life, then Inka Grill is the way to go!

Bluefin Fine Japanese Cuisine

Blue Fin Fine Japanese Cuisine

7952 East Pacific Coast Highway

Crystal Cove Promenade

Newport Beach, CA 92657

OPEN: 7 days a week

HOURS … LUNCH: 11:30AM – 2PM  / DINNER: 5:30PM – 10:PM

Japanese food is something that is abundant in Southern California. It seems that almost everywhere you go, you see a Japanese Sushi Bar or restaurant. But finding one with fresh fish, excellent service, and an interesting and excellent menu is hard to come by. That’s why I love Blue Fin, they do Sushi and Japanese Cuisine with skill and style. One appetizer that you need to try if you are ever in the area is their Miso Cod. This Miso Cod is cooked and it is slightly sweet and a little buttery. The piece of fish isn’t huge because it’s only an appetizer. Each bite is tender and the fish flakes in your mouth and melts a bit before you chew it. The Miso Cod is so good it’s like having a perfectly cooked piece of fish that tastes exactly how your taste buds desired.

Another great item for lunch at Blue Fin would be their Assorted Sushi Lunch Special. It costs about $20 and you get Nigiri Sushi. (Nigiri Sushi is hand formed sushi with rice and topped with usually fish or eel or shrimp) The Lunch Special also comes with 1 roll of Maki Sushi which is your choice of Spicy Tuna Roll or else California Roll. Their Assorted Lunch Special is usually very fresh and it tastes good. I have never had a bad Lunch Special there. It comes with a small House Salad which is delicious. The salad is mostly mixed greens that are not the usual run of the mill salad greens that you get at restaurants. They taste great and fresh. But the best part of the salad is the superb salad dressing. It is made of onions and soy sauce and some other ingredients and it tastes very distinct and fresh and clean. The dressing is so good I always ask for extra dressing. The Assorted Sushi Lunch Special also comes  with their smooth flavored Miso Soup. The Miso Soup comes the perfect temperature and it also is served in a fun bowl with lid. It’s always fun to open the Miso Soup bowl and getting the warm soup. There is the traditional small tofu pieces in the soup as well as tender pieces of seaweed. The consistency of the soup is textured with small pieces of miso and the broth is slightly watery so the flavor is not overwhelming. The order in which you get the 3 items are: First the Miso Soup, then the Small House Salad, and finally the Assorted Sushi.

I always top off my meal at Blue Fin with some green tea ice cream. They give a scoop of ice cream with a strawberry slice and they top the scoop and strawberry with sprinkles of powdered sugar.

The overall price of lunch at Blue Fin get get pretty expensive, especially if you get the Miso Cod and a large house salad and an iced tea and ice cream for desert. Expect to spend at least $25-$35 per person for lunch. But if you have the money and you want some tasty Japanese Food then I truly recommend Blue Fin!

-Tyler