Stanton, CA 90680
http://www.parkavedining.com/
We decided to make a trip out to try Orange Coast Magazine's Restaurant of the Year. Park Ave is tucked away in Stanton, the last place you would expect a restaurant with such high accolades to reside. The concept behind this restaurant is recreating classic American cuisine with exceptional taste at an affordable price.
The dining room was extremely dark, almost dingy. We really wanted to have dinner on the outside patio where the restaurant has erected their own veggie and herb garden but the outdoor area was reserved for their monthly wine-tasting dinner. During the summer months, there is even a special outdoor grill menu for al fresco dining.
1. corn chowder
We ordered the soup of the day. Nothing special and was reminiscent of the corn potage at Curry House, only with more vegetables. We prefer the Curry House version, which is creamier and better seasoned than Park Ave's.
2. lobster and roasted corn fritters
This is most definitely the worst dish of the night. How can you go wrong with lobster and roasted corn, deep-fried into a big ball of potential yumminess? Well, apparently you can. You can skimp on the lobster and thus have no lobster flavor at all. You can add so much batter that all you can taste is gooey flour. And you can fry it at the wrong temperature so that the coating soaks up all the oil, leaving an oily film in your mouth. We each had one piece and Ray attempted one more, just to make sure he didn't just get a bad fritter. We ended up sending the rest of the dish back.
3.grilled skirt steak, molasses, soy and ginger marinade cauliflower and pesto risotto
The grilled skirt steak was good and had similiar tastes to Korean galbi. The risotto was also good and had nice chunks of cauliflower. However, grilled skirt steak on top of risotto is a bad idea. The juices and marinade of the meat, as you can see in this picture, created almost a layer of sauce for the risotto (not sure if this was intended) and the Asian flavors really did not blend well with the creamy and cheesiness of the risotto. From our previous risotto dishes, we like it when chefs stick to drier accompaniments, like deep-fried soft-shell crab, grilled shrimp or fish.
4. sautéed chesapeake bay soft shell crabs, arugula aioli, blue cheese slaw and fries
This was the first time we had soft shell crab that was sauteed instead of deep-fried. Surprisingly, this sauteed version came out more oily than the fried, leaving us wishing for a crisper skin. The crab would have been more appealing had it been paired with the risotto above. Greasy crab with greasy fries is just too much grease on one plate. To top it off, the blue cheese slaw on the side was too rich and creamy to cut away at any of the oil.
We were looking forward to this meal and were thoroughly disappointed. We were so uninspired that we didn't even bother looking at the dessert menu (which is pretty bad considering I can have dessert at any time of the day). We have yet to find a restaurant in Orange County that is worthy of return and recommendation other than Anjin.