Handpicked Restaurants in Costa Mesa For A Tasteful Night Out

Earlier, I wrote a piece on the best breakfast and brunch spots in Costa Mesa that really blew my mind. I don’t think I ever can get enough of the food scene in Costa Mesa – it’s quite like being in Singapore where every corner is just screaming with food.

Whatever you’re partaking in in Costa Mesa, you know you’re in the good hands of these award-winning chefs.

If you’re clueless about Costa Mesa, my first post talked about how Costa Mesa’s prime location in Orange County makes it the perfect home base for a weekend or weeklong vacation. In my 4 days there, I scouted some of the most unique and fun things to do in Costa Mesa, including food, shopping, the beaches and the arts.

This post will focus primarily on all the food you can eat in Costa Mesa – particularly for dining at night.

If you’re looking for breakfast and brunch options, this post will satisfy your hunger.

Where to stay in Costa Mesa, California, USA

We stayed at Avenue of the Arts Hotel, known to be one of the more Instagrammable hotels in the area. Check out this earlier post to read my whole review.

Here are other hotel options in Costa Mesa:

• For central location – Ayers Hotel, Best Western Plus Newport Mesa Inn
• For beach-lovers – Ramada by Wyndham Costa Mesa
• For food and shopping – Crowne Plaza Costa Mesa Orange County

Hop on HotelsCombined to compare the best hotel prices!

Getting to Costa Mesa, California, USA

By Flight

The closest airport to Costa Mesa is John Wayne. It is an international airport serving the Orange County area.

By Car

From LA: 45min drive, 41 miles
From San Diego: 1h 20min drive, 87 miles

Award-Winning Restaurants in Costa Mesa, California, USA

VACA

Owned and operated by Chef Amar Santana (Bravo TV’s Top Chef Season 13) and partner Ahmed Labbate, Vaca’s menu is inspired by the diverse regions of Spain along with Amar’s own culinary creations. The team also operates Broadway by Amar in Laguna Beach and will be opening The Global Food Hall at South Coast Plaza on January

While we didn’t see any of them, Chef Louis was behind the kitchen, hard at work.

It is hard to benchmark this Spanish restaurant against most other Spanish restaurants in the region. Many of the elements in the restaurant try to emulate the authentic Spanish style of eating. You’ll find a meat cooler with prime selections, and a charcuterie bar with the freshest of cheeses and meats displayed proudly in the restaurant.

In such a tight amount of space, they’d managed to fit in a bar, high table seating and to the back, normal seating. The high table seating reminded me of the Spanish style of standing around these tables to eat their cold cuts. You can then imagine how boisterous the whole restaurant was – it was hard to hear each other talking, and the whole time we were almost always inadvertently listening to our neighbour’s table conversations.

Special mention must be made to the service staff, who was explaining every dish we ordered in detail, including all the ingredients that go into it. I surmise he must be used to patrons questioning the menu daily, especially since the menu is in Spanish!

The menu was quite intimidating at first glance, with an endless choice of tapas, beef and ham. That, and the watchful staff constantly trying to arrange our dishes to make space, refill our water, serving our dishes made our dining experience somewhat intrusive.

It was made better when our waiter gave us some of the restaurant’s top recommendation, which included The Vaca Tonic ($13), their signature cocktail and a few other tapas we never heard of.

The cocktail is made of gin, frozen gimlet, fever tree Mediterranean tonic and basil blossom. There is also a smorgasbord of different wine selections.

Paleta Ibérica, manchego (cheese), truffle, panini ($13) – This dish sends the truffle smell right up your nose. I loved how the cheese melted in the panini, and the Ibérica ham completed the dish with its strong taste.

Spanish octopus with fingerling potatoes, pimentón (paprika), olive oil ($16) – This dish looks and sounds so simple, yet when served, it was tasteful that you can’t help but get another bite! Potatoes and octopus on its own don’t taste much, yet with the spices, this dish becomes exquisite. Definitely one dish I would take home to try making on my own.

Seared foie gras ($28) – It was Cade’s first time trying this exquisite dish and I’m glad that foie gras never disappoints anyone! I haven’t tasted bad foie gras before – this one melts right in my mouth.

Roasted lamb meatballs with lemon yoghurt and cucumber ($12) – Not quite a fan as I don’t see how sour yoghurt goes with a sweet, savoury dish like roasted meatballs.

…and a couple others that for the life of me, I can’t remember, because no hablo espanol!

True to tapas-style, the tapas we ordered were bite-sized, which is why I might have ordered one too many that by the time the main dish comes along, I’m almost stuffed.

Seafood paella

What’s a Spanish meal without paella aye? I couldn’t stop myself from ordering a seafood paella ($45). The portion is good for sharing, and the huge, generous chunks of seafood (prawns, clams, mussels, octopus) made it all the more appetising. Paella is one of my favourite European dishes, and I’m delighted to have met the same taste expectations as when I had it in Spain.

TIP: If you haven’t ordered a paella before, always order early as it takes at least 20 minutes for it to be prepared!

Weekdays: 11am - 2:30pm, 5pm - 9/10/10:30pm
Weekends: 5pm - 9:30/10:30pm

Playa Mesa

Voted “Best New Mexican Restaurant in 2019” by the OC Register and recently voted “Best Margarita in Orange County” by the Golden Foodie Awards, Playa Mesa’s menu is inspired by authentic Mexican foods and flavours found in the regions of Baja and mainland Mexico.

The restaurant set up is really pretty and in theme – they have a bar dominating the middle, an alfresco dining area with fairy lights hanging on top of it (I can only imagine how cosy it’ll look come night) and diner-type seating. The whole colour scheme complemented the space very well.

We were absolutely blown away by how authentic this Mexican establishment is. While I didn’t have my Mexican friend here to vouch for the originality of it, I am pretty sure this is as close as it gets.

Not that the menu being in Spanish can fool me, I had a very eye-opening experience ordering food here that it blew my mind about Mexican food.

To start off, they served a very special coffee concoction that I’ve never heard before. Sweetened by star anise and with churros to dip the coffee in, this was one coffee I’ve never had in my life.

Who knew star anise could add such a sweet taste to black coffee?

I really  liked how the Oaxaca cheese in the Grilled Shrimp Tacos ($16) made the taco so chewy . Their baked enchiladas ($17) come with a green tomato, sour cream sauce that deserves extra praise too!

Because of how carb-heavy the sides are, each of the dish is sufficient on its own.

Seriously the best homemade tortillas!

Regardless of what you order, their homemade salsa and chips are the best! It comes complimentary and I seriously considered buying a packet to take them home, if only they do takeouts for this!

If you’re here later in the day, don’t leave without trying their cocktails. They have over a hundred different versions of cocktails, so much so that they have a Cocktail Bible to browse from!

We were surprised this place is not crowded all day long.

Weekdays: 11am - 11pm
Weekends: 9am - 11pm

Water Grill

If you’re craving seafood, Water Grill is your restaurant in Costa Mesa. They are known for its fresh seafood, and boy, when I entered, my heart was skipping when I saw a dedicated Oyster bar and a row of tanks with fresh seafood.

A very classy establishment, upon entering the dimly-lit restaurant, I was surprised to find how much seating capacity it allows.

Looking at their menu, they sure have an epic seafood selection – scallops, fish, shellfish and 16 different kinds of oysters!

What we went for without a second glance was an oyster platter of half dozen ($19.40) to satisfy our temptation for oysters.

We also got a House-made Tortellini ($17) made of Kabocha squash and maitake mushroom. I loved the finely shredded cheese on top, and we concluded tortellinis are never going to taste the same if it’s not homemade.

Entrees are mostly various types of fish and seafood, but they do serve a limited selection of meats.

I’m a sucker for scallops so I ordered a Wild Eastern Sea Scallops ($37) entree with cauliflower puree, roasted cauliflower, pickled golden raisins and soy brown butter.

The portion size turned out to be less than satisfactory – more of an appetiser portion than an entree. There was only 4 scallops and 4 cauliflowers…

While they serve small servings for the amount you pay, it remains highly popular with locals. Reservations are highly recommended especially for dinners.

If you’re driving here, you’ll have little choice but to pay for valet parking. A cheap hack would be to park opposite at West Coast Plaza and cross the road over.

11am - 11pm/12mn

Old Vine Kitchen & Bar @ The CAMP

Old Vine has been a mainstay of The CAMP for more than 10 years. Executive Chef and owner Mark McDonald focuses on using seasonal ingredients for his menu inspired by southern Italy.

He also works with winemakers to present innovative wine pairings with his seasonal menu. If you’re into wine, he also conducts annual food and wine tours of Italy for his customers.

In early 2019, Old Vine expanded from a Café to a larger space adding a full bar.

I have an appreciation for how the chef puts an eye to detail towards plating and colours.

Porcini Mushroom Mac & Cheese ($15.50) – Nothing compared to any regular Mac & Cheeses I’ve tasted, it was a pity we were really filled by our mains, otherwise we would have enjoyed this dish so much more as it would have filled us up nicely.

The smell and taste of mushrooms were really brought out in the cheese, together with bits of mushroom chunks.

Baby Spinach ($14.50) – This salad consists of almonds, dried fruit, goat cheese, strawberries and balsamic vinaigrette.

Why, Cade was surprised by how the simplicity of these tossed greens can turn out to be a one hit wonder! He renamed it to “Happy Salad” because of how colourful and flavourful it looks and tastes. Definitely deserving of every star it can get for a dish!

Rabbit Mole ($26) – Braised rabbit, cashew-pasilla mole, Queso Fresco and fresh-baked corn bread.

A very light taste which has a smooth tangy texture, the rabbit meat is gamey and falls apart easy. The cornbread was moist and paired well with the mole sauce.

Fried Cod ($26) – Panko-crusted Icelandic cod, cold Orzo salad and Kalamata yoghurt.

It was the first time I’ve seen a cod being fried. I enjoy cod very much, but the way it was fried made the cod too dry for my liking. I really liked how light the sauce and rice was though, even though I’d still prefer my rice warm than as a cold salad.

When it comes to wine, we were really pleased with how well our wine was paired according to our dishes.

9am - 12mn/1am/1:30am

Special thanks to Travel Costa Mesa for this experience! All opinions remain my own.

26 – 30 December 2019, Thu – Sun