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Health & Fitness

FOOD REVIEW: L.J.'s Bistro Bonanza

L.J.'s Bistro offers fun happy hour options, and a delightful menu of interesting tapas, and dinner entrees.

There is a sparkling new answer to the question: “Where should we eat?” and it is right here in Laguna Niguel.

L.J.’s Bistro opened about a month ago in the Albertsons center on Alicia Parkway and Pacific Island Drive. Its storefront is quite plain, and I have to admit, I have put off reviewing it, because I did not think it looked very promising. However, as is so often the case, I was wrong.

The interior of L.J.’s is interesting and attractive. The focal point is the large bar, which features a high open shelf displaying glittering glass bottles. The bar is surrounded by inviting red and black bar stools, which offer plenty of seating and a great view of the three televisions that are placed in the bar area. The walls are taupe and there are accents of red throughout. The room is fairly large and there is also lots of seating for dining.

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When we arrived, we chose a comfortable table and were given several menus. Because it was the tail end of happy hour, we received the happy hour menu, plus a wine list, cocktail list, and the regular menu.

The happy hour menu has some great appetizer options. It offers crabmeat wontons, flat bread pizza, chicken quesadilla, and curry fries. Each is just $5 Happy hour drinks include a $5 “special martini” which changes daily. This night it was a blueberry lemon drop. There are $4 drinks, too, including house wine, and draft, and bottled beer.

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The cocktail menu also has lots of fun choices, including a cantaloupe martini, an adults-only root beer float, and something called the Royal Crown which is made from butterscotch schnapps, Bailey’s Irish cream, and whipped cream with a cherry on top. The wine list is a single page, but offers some nice choices, ranging from Chardonnay to champagne.

Even better than the drink menus, is the food menu. There is a section of interesting tapas, such as a sautéed lemon garlic shrimp with crispy potato stack, blue crab cakes and cilantro, pepper salsa with micro greens, and salmon ceviche with avocados and peppers with crostini.

The entrée section offers interesting takes on comfort food, including a brie and smoked bacon sandwich served with field greens, macaroni and cheese served with a farm salad, broiled beef filet served with Café de Paris salad, plus mashed potatoes and veggies, sea scallops sautéed in balsamic vinegar sauce, served with ricotta gnocchi.

It was fun looking over all of the menus, and we decided to take advantage of being there during happy hour and so we ordered the crab meat wontons along with a glass of the house Chardonnay and a bottle of Red Hook all from the happy hour menu. For our meal, I chose the Prima salad, which is made from farm lettuce tomatoes, avocado, crispy bacon, blue cheese, sundried tomatoes, grilled chicken breast and tarragon dressing. Jim chose the O.C. meatloaf with creamy wild mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes.

Our waiter was extremely helpful and very knowledgeable about the various menu items. He quickly brought our cocktails and soon after, our crab wontons arrived. They came on an attractive serving tray with ginger soy dipping sauce and greens. They were tasty and a pleasant start to the meal.

Our entrees were both nicely presented. The salad was kind of a tossed Cobb salad, with a large piece of tender grilled chicken on top and a pretty garnish made of beet. The meat loaf was spectacular with lots of fresh mushrooms in the mushroom sauce, a pretty piece of fried potato as a garnish and gorgeous vegetables along with the mashed potatoes.

We both loved the food. The grilled chicken on the salad was flavorful and very tender. The tarragon dressing was light and added just the right flavor to the salad. The meatloaf was delicious and the mushroom sauce made it much more elegant than a typical tomato sauce-y  meatloaf. The vegetables were perfection.

We really enjoyed L.J.’s Bistro ambiance, menu and food. Our waiter was delightful. We will definitely be back.

L.J.’s Bistro is open Monday-Saturday from 4-10 p.m.

I give L.J.’s Bistro 4 Patches out of 5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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