OC Restaurant Week 2013 - Tommy Bahama's (Newport Beach)

Cheated a little bit! One OC Restaurant Week menu at Tommy Bahama's Island Grille but two people making completely different choices. What's this yield? Just about a little bit of everything. I promise I didn't eat ALL of this by myself...just tasted all of it. Oh the woes of being a foodie, right? This is for their $15 lunch menu.


In the choices of starting off from the prix fixe menu with coconut shrimp, chicken tortilla soup, or heirloom tomato soup, we picked the first two of the three. The World Famous Coconut Shrimp came with a bright and colorful papaya-mango chutney and a smidgeon of their Asian slaw. Fabulously battered and fried, the shrimp was cooked perfectly through and sat on top of the great citrus sauce. There was also the Chicken Tortilla Soup made in Tommy Bahama's case with puréed torillas and vegetables and topped with a bit of corn salsa. I personally found it a little too salty for my taste but the texture was pretty good and creamy.


Three choices - two decisions: from the sliders, salad, and tacos, we opted for the sliders and tacos (go healthy choices!). Alongside our American Kobe Beef and Scallop Sliders, we had crunchy fries seasoned lightly with some cracked pepper and salt. The beef patty was medium rare and a little forgettable despite being Wagyu beef (perhaps the way it was prepared?) but it did come as a total package with aged Jack cheese, tomato jam, and guacamole. Those added nice touches. What stood out from that dish was actually the large Maine Sea Scallop with touches of their chiptole aioli - delish! Then our Blackened Fish Tacos made me create a mess as my portion dripped out the one side as I took huge bites out of the other. You know that happens to you too! The tomato relish paired with more chipotle aioli was fantastic but could not have been complete without some lime sour cream. Good taco!


At this point, we were already getting fairly stuffed despite sharing. Also, being seated outside meant that the sun and shadow play from the greenery was fickle so my pictures weren't as clean as they were in the beginning. That can't take away from our desserts however. A slice of Key Lime Pie topped with white chocolate mousse is just about the perfect way to end a meal - you have your creaminess from the body of it and the tartness from the lime. Talk about zings! We also had a hefty slice of their Piña Colada Cake, a layered and toasted coconut-covered beast with the same white chocolate mousse but also made with Tahitian vanilla bean. Yum and yum. Unfortunately for that cake, I'm more of a pie person myself, haha.

UPDATE: Talk about excellent service - I had made a reservation with them through OpenTable so my phone number was under the reservation. I received a phone call the day after my visit to just see if everything went well. How nice is that? Thumbs up Tommy Bahama's! 

Photography by Minerva Thai.

Looking for other bloggers chowing down during OC Restaurant Week 2013? See who's writing at http://www.orangecountyrestaurantweek.com/OC_Food_Blogs_That_Rock.html!