Chong Qing Szechuan Mei Wei Restaurant

The temperature reader registered 100 degrees in my car, the sun was scorching hot, yet I was craving something spicy. It was a choice between our trusty Korean tofu pot place or this Szechuan restaurant I've been wanting to try. Decided to go for the latter.

It was around 530pm on a Friday evening, the restaurant was relatively quiet, but people kept coming in for their takeaway orders. We settled for the famed water boiled fish and the wanton in spicy sauce.

The food came out pretty fast and we happily doused the white rice with the spicy sauces. The wantons were huge and there were about 12 of them in one serving for $6.99. The sauce was spicy, sourish and hit the right spots. Our fave wanton with spicy sauce is from A&J restaurant across the street and we've not been able to find a strong competitor until now. While this sauce was not as tasty as A&J's, it was still v good and the value for money should not be overlooked. You get 12 big wantons whereas A&J's are on the smaller side and you probably get about 6 per serving.

The water boiled fish was a great choice as well. While the sauce looks pretty intimidating, it was not as spicy as I expected, though definitely not for those not accustomed to such fiery dishes. The sauce was made with hot bean paste, spicy oil, dried chillies and many other aromatic ingredients. I couldn't stop ladling the sauce over the rice. I would be contented eating just those 2 things :). The fish is most likely catfish. It was smooth and tender and complemented the sauce very well. The napa cabbage which soaked in the sauce's goodness helped eased the guilt of gulping down such a delicious albeit sinful dish. For $10.99 this was a huge portion and we had enough leftover for lunch the next day.

All in all, so happy to have found this place. It will definitely be on our list the next time we crave for spicy comfort food.

Chong Qing Mei Wei Szechuan Restaurant

5406 Walnut Ave
Irvine, CA 92604

(949) 651-8886

Mon - Sun 11am - 9:30pm

Amazing Pasta at Cucina Alessa

Hubs and I found Cucina Alessa about 2 years back when we were looking for an Italian restaurant to spend our Christmas eve.  I'm a carbaholic, so I'm naturally drawn to pasta dishes.  Also, I was hooked on Giada's cooking shows many moons ago and she made pasta look so delectable.  

I remember having a very satisfying meal that Christmas Eve even though we were seating in the cramp patio area with not much decor to speak of. I don't know why it took us so long to go back, but hopefully it won't be 2 years until our next visit.

Cucina Alessa has 2 locations, 1 in Newport Beach and the other in Huntington Beach.  We opted for the Newport one since there were more post dinner activities nearby.  Do note that if you go to the Newport location, you have to go about 20 minutes ahead of your reservations time to ensure you have sufficient time to find parking.  Cucina Alessa has only a few parking spots outside the restaurant and chances that they get filled up when you are there are very high.  It being a beach city also means you're competing with many other people for the scarce roadside parking.

Dinner at Cucina Alessa started with warm bread and a flavorful pesto.  I like that they serve pesto instead of the olive oil + balsamic vinegar combination you usually get at other Italian joints.  Don't get me wrong, I love olive oil + balsamic vinegar, but the fact that Cucina Alessa went the extra mile to churn out the pesto just made it extra special.  The bread was warm and pillowy with a hint of herbs (I'm guessing it is thyme). 

I was pretty bent on getting burrata as a starter as it was something we don't get to eat very often.  I had wanted to get burrata and prosciutto, but when our waitress was telling us about the specials for that night, both hubs and I decided that the fried burrata in marinara sauce was the way to go.  I mean, how can you go wrong with fried cheese?  This appetizer definitely did not disappoint.  The fried burrata had a thin coating of breadcrumbs on the outside.  Cutting into it yielded a soft stringy burrata that oozed out slightly.  And the sauce, oh, the sauce.  I was afraid it might be tart like most marinara sauces are, but this one was sweet and after we finished the burrata, I was sopping it up with the bread.  So so good.

For our main dish, hubs and I both ordered pasta and I must say we made very good choices although I think it may be hard not to at Cucina Alessa.  I chose the Pappardelle Bolognese which had homemade pasta with traditional bolognese sauce.  Hubs went for the Livornese which consisted of fresh fish, shrimp and scallop with white wine oregano tomato sauce and linguini pasta.  I apologize for the bad pictures, we were sitting outside where lighting was bad and I didn't want to keep taking pictures with flash and annoy other customers.  My pappardelle bolognese was a simple dish but hit the right spot. The pasta was rolled out thin and held the bolognese sauce well.  The livornese was chock-full of seafood.  The scallop was huge, with radius of around 2 inches.  The fish was very fresh as were the shrimps.  The sauce had a hint of spiciness to complement the freshness.  I wish I had a better picture for this!  The portions were pretty big, or perhaps we ate too much of the bread, so we doggy bagged around a pretty substantial amount for lunch the next day.

We enjoyed our meal thoroughly and I'm glad we are near this unpretentious Italian restaurant that serves such delicious food.

Cucina Alessa (Newport Beach)

6700 W. Coast Highway

Newport Beach, CA 92663

(949) 645 2148