What to Eat OC 2014: #58 Arc-Wedge Salad

After a weekend at the cabin with my dad and some hard core gardening, the hubbs and I decided to do a double header. First, we decided to get dinner at ARC at SOCO, which is a very Orange County minimall. We walked into ARC and it was, at first, kind of creepy. Everything is black! But as I got my bearings, I was able to really take it all in, and I really liked it. The blackness makes the candle light a subtle glow and it is really nice. There is a huge stone fire oven in the middle of the restaurant, which the waitress informed us is where they cook everything! That's right, no frying or baking in an oven, just cooked by fire.

I read on Yelp about the drinks, so I wanted to try one. The bartender was so excited about his job, that it was fun to watch him. I've never seen someone shake a drink like he did...very intense. But the drink was so smooth and very yummy. Hubbs got a beer as always.

Okay, so now for the food....the menu is very simplistic so you don't really know what you are getting...but we started out with toast from the oven. The toast was perfectly toasted with the yummiest cheese on it...hot out of the oven. My recommendation- ALWAYS GET TOAST. ALWAYS. Then came the wedge salad. I think both our mouths dropped open!! It is huge with beautiful lettuce wedges, huge chunks of blue cheese, beautiful tomatoes, and pickled red onions. Great salad there, but there's more! Two slices of wood fired 1/2 inch bacon cooked perfectly...my mouth waters just thinking about it! The toast and salad was a meal in itself for two, but since the menu was so simplistic, we didnt know that we were getting so much food!!!

So, we also ordered the meatballs, which came with a flavorful red sauce and more bread. The meatballs were so tender and garlicky...if I wasnt so full I would have had all 3. Last but not least, we had the skirt steak with potes. This was not my favorite dish, but my hubbs said that it was pretty impressive. And he knows meat and potes. He said that it is hard to make a cheap skirt steak taste so well with so much flavor! He also seemed to like the potes even though they seemed dry and half were charred :(

Very good though...the salad and toast were THE BEST!! Dessert to follow...

Inside of ARC. The chef cooking with the fire oven.