Brea Archives • McLarenblog.com

Take Out From Buca di Beppo On Valentines Day 2014.

February 14, 2014 Score Card

Buca di Beppo Brea on Valentine’s Day take out
1609 East Imperial Highway
Brea, CA 92821

Not recommended for take out on Valentines Day.

Traffic: I found traffic atrocious at about 5:15 on Valentine’s Day around this restaurant. I used side streets to avoid traffic around Imperial Highway and Associated road.
Parking: This shopping center had a lack of adequate parking near this restaurant. I drove around and around trying to find a parking spot but could not. I had to park illegally behind the restaurant parallel to where they dump their trash.
Service: The restaurant take out line was so long it reached the front door and it moved very, very, slowly.
Our pick up time was 5:30. Our food was already prepared by the kitchen staff, bagged and the paid receipt was hung on the wall inside the take out closet just waiting for me to pick it up. I did not reach the take out person until about 20 minutes after I arrived.
Our order was made using the Internet using Buca di Beppo web site so the items were preselected and paid for. Quite a few people in the take out line did not pre-order but decided what to buy when they reached the take out booth. The only menu was at this counter which was a big mistake.
A waitress came up to the people that were close to the take out window to see if they had pre-ordered or not. I was able to get my food just before reaching the cashier but had to wait quite a long time to pay and get out of the place. The person in front of me took his time deciding what to buy and the cashier typing in the order did so with a computer screen instead of a keyboard. I could see her fingers slowly traversing the screen typing out the fellow’s order.
The food comes in very good aluminum containers. You can not microwave using these containers so you must put the containers in an oven which requires more wait time or you can dish what you want on to a plate and then microwave.
We ordered a salad which came in a very large bowl and the salad dressing was adequate and in side containers.
The spaghetti marinara dish had very little tomato sauce, a telling deficiency. My wife took some extra tomato sauce from the (wrong) chicken dish and poured it on to the spaghetti which helped a little. I doused the dish with Parmesan cheese which helped.
The main meat dish should have been chicken Limone but we received chicken parmigiana instead.
They did get the desert correctly, large chocolate chip cannolis.

The pre-order process did ensure that our food was ready to be picked up but that is the only advantage. I surmise that if we had table reservations, instead of take out, we could have had a much better and quicker meal.

The total bill for 4 people was $59.80.

Summary: Take out for me is this. You arrive, pay; they hand you your food and you leave in quick time. Take out at this restaurant on Valentines Day for me was the opposite, a dreadful slow painful process. I will never do this again. I totally understand that the restaurant had no control over traffic and parking. The lesson for me is to celebrate Valentines Day some other day when the automobiles and restaurant are more relaxed to perform better. The restaurant made a large number of mistakes probably due to the speed at which they had to push out product and being swamped with customers all wanting attention.

They should have had a person going down the take out line seeing if anyone had a pre-order. That person could call using a FRS radio or go and get the completed order and holding a mobile credit card device complete the transaction. They also could have had two people side by side dealing with take out. Both those improvements would have sped up the line. Even better yet, they should have directed all take out orders to a separate entrance next to the freeway.
The kitchen staff could have shown more professionalism in their preparation and delivery.
Almost every other take out establishment that I have used in the past, I find my food hot enough upon arriving home to sit down and eat right away but not with this meal.

CustomerCare@BajaFresh.com

May 14, 2012 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Dear Baja Fresh,

One of your franchise restaurants just closed in Brea, California at 2445 East Imperial Highway, Suite H. Our family has been going there for years. It was a shock to find they had closed. I asked a nearby restaurant owner what happened and I was told that the Baja Fresh restaurant owners could not pay their franchise fees. I also discovered that this location required very high rent. I realize that a well performing corporation needs to maximize profits. I would like to make the point that these times are stressful for most of our society. In a perfect world the people that rent the restaurant space might have lowered their cost a bit to help this family stay in business. In a perfect world the franchise company might have lowered their cost a bit. In a perfect world the company that rents the store space will not receive any rent. In a near perfect world the franchise company will not get any franchise payment from one more restaurant owner and will see their area of coverage diminish.

Have a great day,
Score Card

CSUF NCAA Title Game Allegedly Ignored By Local Restaurant(s).

March 21, 2008 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

My daughter’s soccer practice ended at 7:30 pm Thursday, March 20th, the same night that Cal State Fullerton was to play in the NCAA tournament. The last time the CSUF basketball team played in the NCAA tournament was 30 years ago. I had graduated from that school and worked as a staff member for over 30 years and thus tied to that campus. I wanted to see that game. It was televised by KDOC. Just days previous I received the following e-mail:

Calling All Titans!

Cal State Fullerton Men’s Basketball team is a No. 14 seed and will face No. 3-seeded Wisconsin on Thursday night at approximately 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time from the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The contest will be televised locally on KDOC-TV (please check your local listings for channel information).
For Titans in Omaha
The CSUF Alumni Association is hosting a pre-game reception at inPlay from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. Titan fans can enjoy complimentary food and non-alcoholic beverages. There will also be a non-hosted bar. inPlay is located a few blocks from the Qwest Center at 1502 Cuming Street, Omaha, NE, 68102, 402-991-7400. www.inplayusa.com <http://www.inplayusa.com/>
For Titans on Campus
Titans living near campus are invited back for a game watch gathering at the Titan Student Union. Four big screens, comfortable seating, snacks and soft drinks will help make this game one to remember! http://asi.fullerton.edu/tsu/ <http://asi.fullerton.edu/tsu/>
For Local Titans
A game watch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Brian’s Beer and Billiards located in the Albertson’s shopping center on the corner of Yorba Linda Blvd and Placentia. Brian’s Beer and Billiards is an official Titan Athletic corporate sponsor and will be airing the game on their five plasma screen TV’s. Patrons must be 21 years of age or older with proper identification.
For more information, please contact the Alumni Relations office at (714) 278-2586.

My daughter was all tuckered out from practicing soccer and wanted to stay home. My son, 18 years old, wanted to go to Claim Jumper for dinner. We could not go to Brians because of the age restriction. I called Claim Jumper and was assured that the CSUF basketball game was showing on two TV sets in the bar. I was told that there were empty tables in the bar. We arrived and took a table with clear view of a TV showing the CSUF game. Within 5 minutes the someone behind the bar changed the channels to the TV we were watching. I walked over and asked that that the CSUF game be put up. He said he was looking for the game. I told him that it was showing on the TV set, to go back to the channel that was up before. When I got back to my table, we found that both TV sets were switched to UCLA basketball. I asked a buss boy to have a TV set put to the CSUF game but my request was ignored. For the rest of the evening I did a slow burn.

Why is it that any restaurant, just a few miles from a local school campus, allegedly fail to support the local team?
Why is it that that any restaurant would fail to be sensitive to local sport fan interests?
Why is NOT Claim Jumper in Brea “an official Titan Athletic corporate sponsor”?

Maybe school and college alumni should favor businesses that support their schools. My next visit to a restaurant will be to Brians’ Beer and Billards.

_____

I was called by a Shannon Powers, Assistant Director of Guest Services. She was a lot of fun to talk to and she sincerely apologized for our experience at the Claim Jumper in Brea. She recommend to management that their restaurant, in Brea, form a partnership with CSUF. She said she would send a written letter to me. I was pleased with her call and her apology.

_____

I received a very nice letter, dated April 14, 2008, from Shannon Powers, Assistant Director of Guest Services. In the letter, she again apologized for our experience. She went on to add the following:

“I also want you to know that I appreciate your suggestion for a partnership between CSUF and our restaurant. I spoke to Steve Rezner, our director of Marketing, and Larry Bill, our director of Community Relations, about your idea. (Both) were enthusiastic about partnering with CSUF and will be contacting Mel Franks to start talks about exploring the possibilities.”

Cheese Cake Factory, Brea, California for Sunday brunch.

November 4, 2007 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Cheese Cake Factory
120 Brea Mall Way
Brea, California, 92821
Phone 714.255.0115
Date: 11-4-07, Sunday.
Brunch at 10 am when the restaurant opened.
This restaurant also offers curbside to-go service.

My wife and I had Sunday brunch right after the restaurant opened. If you have never entered a Cheese Cake Factory Restaurant before, it is a visual treat. I was mildly shocked when I first entered. I did not know if I had entered Disneyland or some other fantasy theme restaurant. I asked our server to tell me to define the interior but he could not. I asked him to check around. He came back a short while later to tell me that the manager defined it as Mediterranean. That definition is a good start but does not convey that much for you so let me come up with some other words:
• Pseudo-Mediterranean fantasy
• Mediterranean hodgepodge
• Mildly opulent modern Mediterranean.
The ceiling is anything but bland. Looking up one sees straight and curved beams, large light wells decorated with drawings that mean nothing and red toned tiles.

Image above shows part of the interior ceiling. (Image taken with BlackBerry cell phone.)

Huge pillars rise from floor to ceiling and at the top are images of a women’s face. We were told that the image is modeled after the owner’s mother’s face. The floor is tile colored in a dark sand color with dark small squares. Walls that have booths might have dark wood paneling. The wall separating the kitchen has low wall to ceiling glass so the kitchen shouting is not that loud. The colors are earthy colors from pastel walls to darker tone woods. Muzak of piano music started our dining experience but it did not take long to loose track of the piped in music as the restaurant filled in quickly and the background chatter masked the music. The seating at booths, and chairs are comfortable. The table edges are curved. Cloth napkins and complete table setting including spoons is included. Bread may or may not appear on you table depending upon your server so if you do not see any and want some, you might have to ask. Both dark and white bread come in a basket. I just love the dark bread. It has a slight sweetness. Our dark bread today, I believe, was yesterday’s bread, not soft. I have noticed that restaurants flush out day old bread the next day, a penalty for arriving soon after the restaurant opens.

My wife ordered Joes Special ($9.95). Because the restaurant just opened for the day, I thought it might be safe to order the eggs benedict with Canadian bacon ($10.95). If this last comment does not make sense to you then read the book Kitchen Confidential. In that book, the author describes the problem with ordering eggs benedict. For beverage, my wife and I ordered coffee but also requested a dish of whipped cream. The coffee is Prebica from Superior Coffee, a Sara Lee Company. I thought the coffee had a very good flavor and came in glass mugs. The drinks cost $2.95 each. The meal before tip cost $28.88.

Both meal dishes were very good. The service was quiet good. I did pick up some shouting from the kitchen, but I liked that. I took it to mean the cooks had passion for what they were doing. On a busy day there can be twelve to fifteen cooks and two expediters. We were told that the cooks stay until about one thirty in the morning cleaning the kitchen to a spotless condition and then another crew comes in to clean it again.

My son liked their omelets. They come to the table looking so smooth it is a wonder how they can make omelets look that way.

Tip: If you roll out of bed late on a Sunday you should know that most restaurants start to have a wait by ten in the morning. Just remember that Cheese Cake Factory opens on Sunday at ten. I have noticed that there is little to no wait up to ten forty five.

Tip: If your order takes a long time on a busy day there is the possibility that the cooks counted an order twice. This means that instead of making two of some dish they made one and the one they failed to make was your dish. If the manager comes out and tells you that the cooks burned your dish, the reality is fifty, fifty that that is true. There is also a good chance that they forgot. They will NOT admit to that as that conveys to the customer that they are not paying attention, which is not true either. It just means that cooks got slammed with orders and lost count.

Summary: Quite enjoyable place with good food, good service and really good coffee.

Claim Jumper and cooking ribs.

September 30, 2007 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Restaurant review Claim Jumper, 9/30/07

Sunday evening I asked my son and daughter if they wanted to go out to eat. My daughter was not hungry but my son wanted to go to the Brea Claim Jumper. He loves the nachos, a dish of French fries with a couple of cheeses melted into them with bacon bits I believe. I had fallen in love with their baby back ribs. I called the restaurant before leaving the house and was told they had a 20-minute wait. When we arrived we were seated right away. A large number of people were leaving when we arrived. We got a booth and my son and I broke out our lap top computers to do some web site learning. I did order the baby back ribs with a sweet potato. When the dish arrived I got asparagus and had the dish returned. In a few minutes I got what I ordered but the ribs were dry, tough and way off flavor. My son was happy with his usual dish. The waitress came over to find out if I liked the meal and I confessed that I was disappointed. She said she would call the manager over but I declined her offer. She did not listen to me and the manager did come over in a while to talk about the ribs. He immediately spotted that the ribs I had looked dry. I showed him how tough they were by trying to cut into them with a knife and I had a struggle. He offered to give me another rack and he would personally pick it out himself. He came back to tell me how they cook the rib. They slow cook them with seasoning only applied in an oven at 225 degrees for 6 hours. During this slow cooking process the fat drips off the ribs. They then put the ribs into cold storage until they are needed. The ribs are pulled out and cooked again but now with barbecue sauce and brought up to serving temperature. I am not sure I got this process accurate but I was very interested in the temperature they used and how long they cooked the ribs. The manager told me that some places raise the temperature up above 300 degrees and do not cook the ribs as long but they found that the lower temperature and longer cooking time worked out very well. I have the Big Green Egg at home and I think I will slow cook some ribs for 6 hours to see if I can duplicate Claim Jumper’s results of the meat practically falling off the bone. The Big Green Egg can easily be lowered to this temperature.

There are about 8 managers at this Claim Jumper.

Mother’s Day at Cedar Creek in Brea, California

May 13, 2007 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

May 13, 2007, Mother’s Day Brunch at Cedar Creek, Brea California.
20 Pointe Dr.
Brea, Calif. 92821
Phone: 714.255.5600

This restaurant is definitely up scale and one of my favorites because it is just comfortable to dine here. It is located in a quiet area of Brea, spacious surroundings, parking is easy, and access is easy. I called late and was amazed at getting in for this very important day of the year. My wife, naturally, daughter and I attended their brunch. Let me first try to describe this place. It rests along a low foothill of Brea on the East end of town. It is close to office buildings but also Outback Steak House. It shares parking with that restaurant and there seems to be plenty of parking spaces. The entrance is impressive and rather large, expansive, sort of like an entrance to an expensive home.

When this restaurant gets slammed it is quite comfortable to sit or stand outside this restaurant on its large patio type entry. It is well landscaped and opulent looking to some degree. The building is a single story but you will see when you get inside that it had huge vaulted ceilings. As you enter the reception desk is straight in front and the corridor you enter T’s either to the left, bar, or right, dinning. There is a small sitting area before you get to the reception desk. The interior is very comfortable looking as you enter.

Both the dinning area and bar look to be a bit dark. We have dinned here at night and I have been surprised at how dark the dinning room can get. The waiters, busboys, and other people working the dinning room all wear black and I would expect collisions to occur. I have though about brining a flashlight but that would obviously be crass. During the day one can more clearly make out huge vaulted ceilings, large dark wood exposed beams starting from various points in the room, typically from atop some pillar or wall and rising quickly to peaks probably another story tall than the eight foot walls.

Track lights are spread about from some of the beams. Four large hanging chandeliers hang from beams evenly spaced about the room forming a large circle of imitation flickering light candles mounted on a seemingly large iron ring. Booths ring the outside of the dinning room and the center where there is a structural support for some of the beams. There is lots of wood and stone in the room. At one end of the dining room is an exposed or open kitchen. Out from the kitchen a short distance is a series of TV tray stands upon which are large serving trays. This is where the expediter works, looking over each dish before it is sent to the tables. There are no heat lamps in this restaurant. They get you order to your table quickly. This day they had three expediters working and for good reason, the place was packed. They also have a policy that the expediter will take an order to the table if the waiters are too busy, a great idea. Here and there are large and I mean really large pots with live indoor plants. The walls along one side of the room have an interesting art mural type with a Mediterranean style of shape images. People are in the images in the foreground and behind are block-angled buildings. The murals that look to be framed are quite tall, almost towering in size, and even though quite simple in design, nice to look at and fit in very well with the rest of the decor. Along other walls are shelves of pottery and cabinets of wine. The tables have rounded edges, made of wood with cloth covering.

Booths are bench seats with Naugahyde or imitation leather, red, smooth with no dips or cuts. We sat at a booth at one end of the dinning room. We had a young women waitress, Cristina, with the clearest complexion I have ever seen, quite cute and very efficient. We ordered the following from her:

Wife: Wild Mushroom and Asparagus Omelet with Gruyere cream sauce and served with breakfast potatoes. $17.

Dad: Crab-Scallop Cake Benedict, poached eggs over crab-scallop cakes topped with hollandaise and ribbon of spicy red pepper sauce, served with breakfast potatoes. $20

Daughter: Monte Cristo, turkey, ham and Swiss cheese on egg bread, dipped in a light batter, served with a side of raspberry preserves. $17

Mom and dad had complimentary Champaign, Jacques Bonet, Celebration Selection.

Before the dishes arrived, a plate of fruit and a basket of assorted bread was placed on the table. The breadbasket held two muffins and four half sections of a Danish.

When the main dishes arrived here is what we decided as we shared. The crab cakes were small sized. The eggs were done perfectly. The crab flavor was mild and very nice.

The omelet was a winner. The Gruyere cheese put a nice mellow flavor into the omelet and not over stated one bit, just right.

The Monte Cristo was very large, enough for two people and it had apple and grapes along the side. I asked my daughter how she liked the sandwich and she gave me one of those girlie girl expressions that translated that she was in heaven.

Another plate came with three apples and grapes.

For desert we shared Triple Layer Chocolate Cake with vanilla bean ice cream, very nice.

This restaurant is one of our favorites.

The image above is the center part of the bar. The bar is to the north while the main portion of the restaurant is on the south side from the reception desk.

The image above shows a patio area, quite huge. I believe this part of the restaurant is only used when the restaurant gets slammed or for special parties.

McLarenblog.com

Review products and politics.

Browsed by
Category: Brea