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gluten-free options

The Day We Personally Welcomed Fresh Brothers Pizza to Orange County!

August 4, 2014 / Food, OC Events, Restaurant Reviews, SoCal Life

Disclosure: We were invited to Fresh Brothers to sample menu items in exchange for a review. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

When I heard that Fresh Brothers was coming to Orange County, I immediately did a Happy Dance and couldn’t wait for the grand opening celebration!

Our family enjoyed a sampling of some of their most popular menu items. I think it should be mandatory for every guest to start out with an order of Fresh Knots! Their menu describes Fresh Knots as “garlic bread tied in tasty knots, dusted with parmesan and served with a side of pizza sauce“. These were so amazing. Seriously!

We tried The Greek Town Special Salad next which is made with romaine, feta cheese, Kalamata olives, cucumber, pepperoncini, red onions and tomatoes.

I can never get enough feta cheese. I loved the light dressing on this salad too. All of the salads on their menu are handmade, hand chopped and hand tossed. They offer a ton of different ones on the menu and also give guests the option of creating their own salad.

An order of the Meatball Sliders arrived at our table next. They’re served on King’s Hawaiian rolls and topped with mozzarella cheese and pizza sauce. Emi especially LOVED these. If a kid likes something, you know it’s great!

Did I mention that all of the appetizers on their menu are baked and never fried? I like that. I especially liked knowing that the entire order of buffalo wings I devoured, weren’t fried. The sauce was Roasted Garlic BBQ and SO tasty! They have 6 different kinds of sauces to choose from for their buffalo wings, including traditional hot sauce.

I couldn’t stop dipping mine in the blue cheese dressing.

The grand finale of our meal was our delicious pizza! It was a delicious thin crust cheese and pepperoni pizza and it was beautiful. I say WAS because we ate the entire thing! By the way, they have gluten-free and vegan options!

The grand opening celebration of Fresh Brothers’ first Orange County location in Newport Beach had a bunch of fun activities for kids to do. There was face painting, temporary tattoos, pizza dough and cookie cutters to play with, and kids could even make their own pizzas!

It’s also fun just to play with pizza dough and cookie cutters!

Emi was so excited to make her own pizza. Being the artist that she is, she chose to make a perfectly symmetrical pizza with cheese, olives, and pineapple! She was so excited to see her pizza when it came out of the oven!

What a fun thing for kids to do!

Not only is the food at Fresh Brothers delicious, but I love the feeling you get when you’re there. It’s a family run business and you can chat with any of the family members that happen to be at the location and hear about the story of how Fresh Brothers came to be. I think the entire family was present at the grand opening celebration and just watching the way they worked together and reached out to every guest was heartwarming.

I’m so happy we have a Fresh Brothers Pizza near us now! If you haven’t checked them out yet, you need to.

To find a Fresh Brothers location, click here.

Connect with them on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram too!

Blaze Pizza is Now Open in The Shops at Mission Viejo!

August 1, 2014 / Food, Let's Eat!

I think I’ll start off this post with the dessert first! I like to do that!

This is the s’more pie at Blaze Pizza! It’s the perfect beginning (or ending if you’re traditional) to any meal! We have been waiting months for Blaze Pizza to open in our mall and had already previewed their menu online. That’s when I knew I was destined for this dessert. It’s quite a yummy s’more pie and they stick it next to the pizza oven so that it warms up just right, to where the marshmallow melts.

Blaze Pizza is a great addition to The Shops at Mission Viejo food court area. They label themselves as “Fast Fire’d” pizza but by no means are they a “traditional” fast food, food court option! So fresh and so yum!

Check out the crowd that came out to celebrate their grand opening!

Did I also mention that all of these people were waiting in line for their free pizza to celebrate the grand opening?

Their menu has quite a few salads and numerous options for pizzas. Each pizza is made-to-order as you let them know what you’d like. I like that they offer options for people with dietary restrictions. It’s sometimes difficult for families to find a restaurant to dine at together, when they have one or more family members with special dietary needs and/or food allergies. Check out their menu allergen Info here. No matter what your dietary needs, they’ve got your covered.

I am so happy that Blaze Pizza has finally opened up in “my mall”!

Welcome to The Shops at Mission Viejo, Blaze!

Connect with them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter too!

Blue C Sushi in Newport Beach! Get There!

July 30, 2014 / Food, Let's Eat!, Restaurant Reviews

When my friend Melodi from Eat Drink OC called and invited me out for a night of fun at the newest location of Blue C Sushi in Newport Beach, I was quick to accept the invite! I LOVE sushi and I’d heard from a couple of other friends that I needed to check out Blue C. They offer kaiten sushi which translates as “go around sushi”. There’s a conveyor belt set up within reach of guests so they can then grab food to eatndirectly off of it at any time.

The decor of this place is so fun. The atmosphere is even more fun! When we walked in, I immediately spotted the magnetic wall. I KNEW it was somewhere I’d need to return with my daughter so she could draw pictures to put them on the magnetic wall. I’m guessing she’ll also probably end up playing with the wall magnets.

How fun do these giant magnets look ?

You can’t help but become almost instantly mesmerized by the conveyor belt and the colors of the plates! Each one has a description of what’s on the plate and its ingredients. There are even some plates with gluten-free and vegan options. The plates are color coded to tell you how each one is priced, which makes it very simple.

There’s also an extensive menu of drinks, appetizers, and other items, such as hand-rolled sushi made to order and some of the chef’s favorites. If you’re curious about the freshness of the items on the conveyor belt, Blue C Sushi actually uses an electronic sensor system on the revolving plates to monitor how long they’ve been rotating. They take pride in serving the freshest sushi, so you’ll never be served sushi that’s been on there longer than 45 minutes.

This is about as fresh as you can get for sushi! (We named him Sebastian the Shrimp!)

The chefs’ area in the center of the restaurant allows for the sushi chefs to monitor every table and interact with guests. If you’d like them to walk you through the chef’s offerings and specialty items, you can press the blue button. They’ll also address any of your ordering needs at that time.

We had the best time chatting with “Joe” that night. He’s one of Blue C’s main sushi chefs and I loved that he greeted each of us with a little gift, our own personal blue ninja. Joe likes to keep these ninjas on hand for the younger visitors, but on this particular occasion we were the exception to the rule.

He might be tiny but my ninja means business!

When we sat down at our table, I was immediately mesmerized by the conveyor belt and all of the food going by on it. Not only is there sushi on the conveyor belt, but I also spotted some fresh fruit, edamame and other appetizers, and even desserts pass by us!

Desserts passing me by on the conveyor belt! Come back, cupcake!

Our server, Matt, was so much fun! I think you HAVE TO BE fun to work at Blue C! He got each of us started with a cocktail.

Mine was a beautiful blue one in a martini glass!

Before I knew it, the eating began! All I know is we started with some Spicy Edamame and the rest was history!

We were so lucky to be able to try quite a few of Joe’s own personal creations. He took so much time to describe each one that he’d made for us and even whipped up a few of his own personal favorites. The sushi was so fresh and I felt like I couldn’t stop myself from gorging! I’m pretty sure I ate my weight in fish!

Joe came out and actually sat with us at our table for a little while. We chatted with him about his background in the food industry and he gave us a deeper insight into the history of Blue C Sushi. Not only is he great at what he does, he also seems very passionate about it. I think that’s really important.

These clams were so delicious! Chef Joe made them especially for us!

As if we weren’t already stuffed, Joe insisted we also have dessert! Good thing I have a “dessert compartment” from when I was younger that always allows me to have room for it! Dessert arrived at our table, an incredible tempura brownie with ice cream and some shaved! Whoa! We were ready to eat it but first I stopped to take a selfie with Chef Joe!

This tempura brownie was to die for! Seriously, you NEED to try one when you go there!

The shaved ice was served with fresh fruit and topped with coconut milk! It was really yummy!

We had such a great experience at Blue C Sushi! It was a lot of fun to really get to know the staff working that night and it felt like we had our own personal chef. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially families with kids.

If you end up going soon, could you please call and invite me though? I’m totally ready to go back!

To locate a Blue C Sushi near you, click here! Connect with Blue C Sushi on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.