{"id":1431,"date":"2012-01-14T01:43:12","date_gmt":"2012-01-14T09:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/?p=1431"},"modified":"2017-05-23T11:51:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T18:51:29","slug":"sol-mexican-cocina-newport-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/?p=1431","title":{"rendered":"Sol Mexican Cocina @ Newport Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am not a Mexican food enthusiast.\u00a0 For the most part, my familiarity to Mexican food is limited to tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and chimichanga; or whatever is sold at Taco Bell and Del Taco.\u00a0 I’ve had people told me those were not real Mexican food.\u00a0 A lot like the Chinese restaurants here serving Americanized Chinese food.<\/p>\n

When I saw Tavelzoo having a deal for Sol Mexican Cocina, I was really curious.\u00a0 What kind of Mexican food does it offer and how different will they be from what I’ve had.\u00a0 I bought it after checking some reviews on Yelp<\/a>.\u00a0 I was just hoping it served semi-decent food so my $59 dinner for two would not be a total waste (the value of the dinner was about $125 according to Tavelzoo).<\/p>\n

I made the reservation through Open Table<\/a> which I earn dining points for dinning cheque.\u00a0 Arriving at the restaurant, I was surprise to find free valet parking offered.\u00a0 I don’t know if it’s because it’s located in Newport Beach and it wants to create an upscale restaurant atmosphere or what, the parking lot is quite convenient and close, so I didn’t find it necessary at all.\u00a0 Maybe if I was wearing 4-inch heels, I would have appreciated it more.<\/p>\n

\"\"Checking in was easy and friendly but it still took about 10 minutes to get us seated even though the restaurants was not busy.\u00a0 We sat right next to the open kitchen.\u00a0 Kind of wish we had a booth next to the window with the view of the marina, but they were all taken.\u00a0 Our voucher was for a prix-fixe menu for 2, so we were a little limited in choices.\u00a0 Our server was very friendly made suggestions when he could.<\/p>\n

We each got a Cadillac Margarita.\u00a0 Well, you know, I can only drink those free cheap extremely diluted drinks, so these were just way too strong for me.\u00a0 Allen drank both.\u00a0 I just had a couple of sips.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead of the usual chips & salsa, they served deep fried tortilla, bean dip, and salsa.\u00a0 It was also accompanied by sea salt, hot sauce, and slice of lime.\u00a0 Our server explained to us how to use them to enhance the taste.\u00a0 I loved the bean dip!\u00a0 But I wish I had chips and not the tortilla which I found too hard and too thick.\u00a0 I just didn’t care for the texture.<\/p>\n

\"\"Our pre-appetizer was the Guacamole Sol (naked guacamole, mango, tequila, goat cheese, toasted pepitas & cilantro).\u00a0 It looked really pretty and tasted wonderfully.\u00a0 Again I thought the fried tortilla was just too thick and too hard!\u00a0 I ended up eating the Guacamole Sol with a fork.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"Next appetizer was Peel & Eat Shrimp ‘Cucarachas’ (12 whole shrimp, pan-roasted in the shell with garlic, cotixa cheese, lemon & chile).\u00a0 These reminded me of the Chinese Salt & Pepper Shrimp.\u00a0 The shrimps were sweet and the seasoning were just perfectly balanced.\u00a0 I was worried Allen wouldn’t eat them because he doesn’t normally eat shelled shrimp.\u00a0 These were prepared pre-cut in the center so they peeled off really easily.\u00a0 Don’t be afraid to eat with your hands, they give you wet hand wipes to clean your hands afterward.<\/p>\n

\"\"Our second appetizer was Coconut Calamari (panko-breaded calamari steak deep-fried, with dried orange peel & sesame seeds, with spicy lime dipping sauce).\u00a0 My goodness!\u00a0 These were so tender and light with just a hint of coconut.\u00a0 Probably the best calamari I’ve had in a long time!<\/p>\n

\"\"My entree was Shrimp Chille Relleno (grilled poblano chiles stuffed with arroz verde, shrimp & oaxacan cheese, fresh tomato salsa diabla).\u00a0 It was bold in flavor with the right amount of spiciness.\u00a0 I was only able to finish one and packed the other home and ate it for lunch the next day.\u00a0 The Quinoa Cranberry Salad and Spicy\u00a0Coleslaw (not at all spicy) were prettier to look at than taste.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Allen’s entree was Shortribs Barbacoa En Cazuela (cazuelita of tender angus shortribs braised with guajillos, avocado leaf,nopales & tomatoes, with diced onion & corn tortillas).\u00a0 These were so tender and juicy and portion was huge!\u00a0 Meat lovers will definitely appreciate it.\u00a0 Again, they did the beans right.\u00a0 Rice was plain as were the corn totillas.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"By now we were pretty full but we still had desserts to try.\u00a0 The Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream was very good, rich but not heavy.\u00a0 \"\"The Flan, on the other hand, tasted really thick and heavy.\u00a0 We barely finished 1\/3 of it.\u00a0 But frankly we were stuffed anyway.\u00a0 \"\"This was quite an educational dining experience for me to get to know what Baja California cuisine was all about.\u00a0 And I have to say I enjoyed it (especially at 50% off).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sol Mexican Cocina
\n251 E Coast Hwy
\nNewport Beach, CA 92660
\n(949) 675-9800<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am not a Mexican food enthusiast.\u00a0 For the most part, my familiarity to Mexican food is limited to tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and chimichanga; or whatever is sold at Taco Bell and Del Taco.\u00a0 I’ve had people told me those were not real Mexican food.\u00a0 A lot like the Chinese restaurants here serving Americanized Chinese...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"pp_embeds":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[345,192,268,346,128,347,351,350,190,348,316,349,92,127,140,107],"class_list":["post-1431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-restaurants","tag-baja-california-cuisine","tag-bread-pudding","tag-calamari","tag-chille-relleno","tag-chips","tag-chips-and-salsa","tag-chocolate-bread-pudding","tag-cranberry","tag-flan","tag-guacamole","tag-mexican-restaurant","tag-quinoa","tag-salad","tag-salsa","tag-short-rib","tag-shrimp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/SolCocina-31.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3lTx3-n5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1431"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9666,"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions\/9666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendyfulworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}