The Gossiping Gourmet: A double dose of Del Frisco’s

Another new restaurant has opened in the ever-expanding Irvine Spectrum Center. It is called Del Frisco’s Grille, and it began as a steakhouse.

It is a nationwide chain, but there are only three in California. The large dining room is very attractive. Lightly colored, polished wood beams create an interesting element along with the dark orange dropped ceiling.

The walls are also a lovely shade of orange. A wall of wine bottles greets you in the entryway, and an open kitchen bustles in the rear of the room. The dining area is broken up with booths topped with black lattice wood slats. Booths are black leather and burlap, and the floors and tables are very pretty wood. There is a large, covered outdoor dining area with a very big fireplace.

Our first visit there was for brunch. The brunch menu is paired with the lunch menu and even has some of the dinner items on it as well. Our attentive waiter recommended the jumbo lump crab cake, which was excellent. It was quite large and had a brown crusty exterior, and almost all of it was chunky pieces of crabmeat, very sweet and fresh.

There was no filler except for chives and red peppers. It was served with a Cajun lobster sauce that was mildly spicy and creamy, with bits of onion and celery.

We were anxious to try the Southern fried chicken and waffles (a dish we discovered many years ago in L.A. at Roscoe’s). We were sadly disappointed. Rather than pieces of chicken, it was two thin slices of breast meat, thickly breaded.

We found the chicken to be quite dry and so salty that we couldn’t finish it. The waffles were fine, most notable for the slices of wonderful, thick bacon that came with them. The maple syrup had a bit of spiciness to it, but the small amount of heat was superfluous.

The lamb burger was rather bland. It came with two fat, juicy roasted tomato slices, arugula, lots of pepper and a tzatziki sauce that was also a bit on the bland side. The thing that was amazing was the French fries. They were perfectly cooked, tender inside with a really good crunchy exterior. They were hard to stop eating.

We returned here a week later for dinner. Once again, we followed our very pleasant waiter’s advice and ordered the rather odd-sounding cheesesteak egg rolls. They were actually really, really good. This is a great dish to nibble at the bar.

The big, fried egg rolls are stuffed with tender, well-seasoned chopped steak and cheese. The long, very crusty rolls are cut on the diagonal and served with a classic sweet hot Thai chili sauce. They could easily become a guilty pleasure.

My dining companion had the corn chowder, which was very creamy, if a bit too sweet, and accented nicely with smoked bacon bits and crab meat and topped with a few fingerling potato chips with a bit of garlic aioli and basil. It was a tasty soup.

I ordered the ahi tuna steak with a sesame-chive coating and chilled Asian noodle salad with peanuts and ponzu sauce. The tuna was almost tasteless. It didn’t have the fresh, lively flavor of really good tuna. The thin noodle salad was pleasant but needed a bit more zip.

Our other entrée was the veal meatloaf with hand-mashed potatoes, wild mushrooms and Bordelaise sauce. The meatloaf was unique in that the veal had been ground almost to a thick puree. It had the same texture as the potatoes. It was well seasoned but was not like any meatloaf I’ve ever eaten. It was mushy. The potatoes were good, as were the mushrooms and the sauce.

We finished our meal with lemon boberge. This is a six-layer cake with lemon butter cream icing. The cake itself was very nice, with a dense texture and just the right touch of lemony goodness.

TERRY MARKOWITZ was in the gourmet food and catering business for 20 years. She can be reached for comments or questions at m_markowitz@cox.net.

Del Frisco’s Grille

Where: 620 Irvine Spectrum Drive, Irvine

When: Brunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday; lunch 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday; dinner 4 to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 3 to 10 p.m. Sunday

Prices:

Appetizers: $8 to $18

Salads: $7.50 to $18.50

Entrées: $14 to $46

Desserts: $9 to $11

Wine:

Bottles: $34 to $1,500

By the glass: $9 to $19

Corkage fee: $25

Information: (949) 341-0376 or delfriscogrille.com