OCJuiceBoyz

It was 13 days before Valentines. What should do I contemplated? I scoured Google and came upon a website mentioning Ambrosia restaurant in Santa Ana, CA. In 2008, they had offered a 6 course dinner along with live music. Dinner and Jazz is always a great mix I thought. “Let’s do it,” I told myself. I called Ambrosia restaurant and they told me Sunday February 14th was all booked. The only available day was the 13th at 8:30pm or 9pm. “Excellent, 8:30pm wound be great” I replied that’s what I wanted. I wanted to avoid the long lines and the crowd. That night was supposed to be about my significant other and I, no one else!

Ambrosia at the OC Pavilion Theater located at 801 N. Main St. Santa Ana California 92701. World class 5 star restaurant. I had a very high expectations when I first arrived. I wanted everything to be perfect, being valentines in all.

We found parking on the street, it was metered parking, but the hours of operations is 8 AM through 8 PM, Monday through Saturday. So parking was essentially free for us. We walked up to the building and a receptionist instructed us to take the elevator to the top floor. Once we reach the top floor we immediately noticed the ambiance. It is very French, very calm, dimly lit, and very romantic. Our reservation was scheduled at 8:30 PM, we arrived five minutes early, and it took about five minutes to seat us. We were seated near the back of the room next to the stage. It was an awesome view of the jazz band, up close and personal. Our waiter named Andrew was excellent. He would visit us regularly through out the night. We had a six course meal. We had regular tap water and a bottle of Stonestreet Merlot 2005.

The Stonestreet Merlot was decanted in a decanter to allow the wine to breathe. I’ve never seen a decanter before today.

Our first enjoyment was the bread – there was an assortment of breads but I selected a cranberry bread. It had nuts mixed in, the cranberries tasted fresh, the bread was warm, and the butter very creamy. The butter laid hidden in a jar that when you flipped it upwards sat on top of the jar, like stacking cups, ready to serve.

Our first dish was champagne and caviar – the champagne was a gel type and the caviar sat on the gel. We ate it all in one bite. It was a very interesting taste. I’ve never had caviar before and this was an excellent experience. The champagne provided a sweetness. The caviar provided saltiness. The mixtures were perfect. It just melted in my mouth like cotton candy.

Our second course was Japanese Hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi over an avocado puree with orange gelatin – it was tangy, sweet, salty, gelatinous, and had a hint of champagne. By far my best dish.

Our third course was chicken, “Roulade de Poulet Jidori” – it has sweetness, some mushrooms, some nuts, some sugar crystals. The chicken was a little dry in my opinion but none the less, excited.
According to the website: jidori chicken, butternut squash, savoy cabbage, chanterelles, hazelnut brittle, dijon emulsion

Our fourth course was something like mango sorbet: it is very creamy, had shaved ice. It wasn’t runny or mushy.

Our fifth course which was our main course, “Surf & Turf” Moderne, which was filet mignon – 5 inches in diameter, 2 inches in height, and consisted of a medium rare filet mignon on top of a spinach type. This was all topped off with (what I thought was) cold liver cake and surrounded by tater tots. The steak was hot and had a crunchy exterior and soft interior. On the bottom a spinach type, it was very soggy. So you can imagine going from cold to hot in mushy to crunchy to mushy. It was a very interesting taste I enjoyed it, but was not my favorite.
According to the website: culotte steak, bone marrow custard, celeriac creamed spinach, truffled ‘tater tots’.

Our sixth course, which was our desert, chocolate mousse – on top of the platter was a red spicy sauce, later revealed as having Cayenne peppers. On the bottom of the platter was a passion fruit sauce. In between was a chocolate mousse with bits of white chocolate and dark chocolate on top and it was littered with perhaps crushed white chocolate and dark chocolate. The chocolate mousse was excellent.

At the end of our night, we bought a CD from the band and our waiter gave us a tour of the restaurant. I got to see the cigar lounge, the wine cellar, and some private rooms.

Overall it was a great experience, service was wonderful, music was awesome, atmosphere was excellent, and parking plenty. I would definately go back. Scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest. Definitely 10.

Is the juice worth the squeeze? What are you waiting for? Squeeze it already!

Check out their website Ambrosia.