Red Cork Bistro

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Met Paul & Margie at a new restaurant called Red Cork Bistro, 5455 Lampson in Garden Grove. Located in a very small shopping center.

They have a new chef (turnover already) and he was still working off the old chefs menu. I have mixed reactions to this new place. The service is very good, the bread they serve is good. Everything else is mixed. I ordered the "Lamb Ragout" and choose risotto as my side dish. The ragout was was too sweet. The sauce had carrots in it so they automatically make it sweet and then apparently the chef added sugar to it also. The dish was OK but nothing to rave about. My risotto was "gummy". That comes from making the risotto ahead of time and letting it sit to long and then the starches in the grain become gummy. The fresh vegetable mix was nice. Carrots, broccoli and beets.

Paul had a chicken dish which he indicated that the sauce was sweet also. I'm beginning to think it was the same sauce for both dishes Margie had a beet garlic soup that she said was very good.

There was a bottle of Nickel & Nickel Zinfandel, a Curran Grenache Blanc and I brought a 2002 McKeon Phillips BPR Cabernet. All the wines were good. When we were finished eating and after talking with the chef for awhile the owner came in. Young person, first time restaurateur. They took a table from the side and butted it up against our and 3 men joined our table. The owner then proceeded to bring a couple of wines to the table and open them. for us. We sat around drinking wine and conversing so a good time was had.

The corkage charge is $15 per bottle which I feel is excessive. They did waive the corkage that night so that is a plus for them along with the extra wine.

I will give the new chef a month to get his menu in place and go back and try it again. We will see if there are improvements (which there is room for) or not. The Red Cork Bistro has potential and only time will tell if they take advantage of it.