Brodard Chateau - Upscale French Vietnamese in Garden Grove

Brodard, both the Chateau (in the old Pinnacle Peak building) and the original restaurant in The Mall of Fortune (Brookhurst at Bolsa, I believe) is OK in my book. We've eaten at both several times in the past year, for both lunch and dinner, and the food is well prepared but not as inventive as one would hope. Duck salad and the spring rolls are standbys.

For a more epicurean experience with haute Vietnamese cuisine, I recommend trying Xanh Bistro at 16161 Brookhurst Street in Fountain Valley. (714) 531-2030. Chef Haley Nguyen is wonderfully inventive and subtle with her creations, in a much more personal and attentive way than you will find at Brodard.

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Informal Italian: Buon Gusto, a good experience in Huntington Beach

We recently tried the new Buon Gusto, at the corner of Warner and Bolsa Chica, and found it a positive experience. The owner, Peter, said this current incarnation was his third area restaurant of the same name, the last located somewhere in east Long Beach.

We've tried the place twice now. The first visit was early on a mid-August weeknight and it was packed. As we were seated, the early crowd was lining up at the door to wait for an available table. The service at that time was over-taxed and relatively inexperienced, but eager and good-natured. Buon Gusto serves an a la carte salad, which is becoming more common these days. The included salad at an informal Italian meal was at one time ubiquitous, but is sadly disappearing in the suburban LA area. I sorely miss this simple gesture. The house salad is a large bowl of romaine, is covered with pickled vegetables and shredded mozzarella and sports a decent if a little boring Italian dressing. With diner, it's an extra $3, or so. A la carte and it's about $5. Dinner that night was lasagna for me and a creamy tomato chicken rigatoni for my wife. Portions are huge and the entrees cost no more than $9 to $11. I would recommend sharing an entree, unless you've been out digging ditches or pouring concrete and need those calories. The gravy, a critical evaluative point for an Italian restaurant, had clear fresh tomato flavor, was not overly sweet, had a pleasant oregano tang, and had excellent body. Actually a very good sauce. The rigatoni dish was also good, in that the pasta was correctly cooked, but creamy tomato sauces are not my forte and were thus not critically evaluated. It was a very large portion, though, and saw us taking 2/3 of it home. Half the lasagna was taken home as well. The kitchen is competent and fast.

Our second visit found the place a bit less frenetic, but the service was still amateur. It seems fewer tables and less stress doesn't improve the wait staff's ability to multitask. The kitchen continued to show it could keep up with the orders and the food arrived relatively quickly, as it did on our first visit. On this evening we split a very decent pizza (thin, flexible crust, savory sauce, fresh garlic, carciofi and basil - yum), and another salad, sans the hated shredded mozzarella. I believe the bill came to $15, or so. Wow, that's a deal.

One of the best things about the new Buon Gusto is that Peter encourages BYOB (they are still waiting on their liquor license from the good, Christian folks running things at the ABC). He further stated that he will never charge a corkage to anyone who wishes to bring their own beverage. Now, that's worth a repeat visit in itself.

I think Buon Gusto is an excellent place for a quality, informal Italian meal, if you're not expecting much from the ambiance or the wait staff. The food is ample, fresh and delicious, the service is friendly, if a bit incompetant, and the price is certainly right.

Oh, don't expect them to take a reservation. The hostess still writes with crayons and I'm not sure of her ability to tell correct time.....

Buon Gusto

(714) 846-2600

Huntington Beach
5005 Warner Ave.
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
www.boungustohb.com

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Breakfast Burritos in Huntington Beach?

Try Harry's at Springdale and Bolsa. Huge bacon BB. Harry's is less expensive than Steve's and they'll custom make a BB to your specifications. Several years ago I ordered a bacon BB at Steve's with half potatoes, half beans and chopped tomatoes and they looked at e like I was crazy. Also, Steve's wife constantly supervises the cook, making sure only 2 strips of bacon go into the BB's, not 3 or 4 like Harry's.

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Paso Robles Wineries to avoid

You guys are all full of....grape skins. All the serious vineyards in and around Paso make both good and poor wines. Very few vineyards grow ALL their own grapes, for all the varietals they may produce in a single vintage. The fact is a winemaker usually specializes in one or two varietals, and depends on recipes and trial and errors for everything else. AND, this is always dependent on the quality of the annual growth production. Small quantity and boutique wineries are always subject to these variables. Only the big guys producing tens of thousands of cases annually have large enough quantities to blend out the negatives and ameliorate the entire lot. A very few wineries (Linne Calodo) produce a tiny quantity but charge high enough prices to allow them to maintain quality no matter what.

FoodyinLA in California

Paso Robles Wineries to avoid

Agreed. Geography is not to blame for enological generalizations. There are many fine wines on either side of Paso, east or west. One must understand the west side has a greater coastal influence, so they can grow a more delicate grape (pinot noir), and the east side is warmer so lends itself to growers of a hardier variety (syrah, zinfandel).

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