Engine Co. No. 28

oc food diva

Joined 2 years ago

Beet Salad includes baby arugala, aged manchego cheese, and cumin scented honey. This is a market-fresh salad at its best. The arugula was fresh and peppery. The beets were roasted to perfection making them sweet and tender. The cheese added a little salty and slightly creamy flavor to the mix. Pickled sliced onions were a tangy surprise. The cumin honey added a hint of sweetness yet tied all of the ingredients together. Thumbs up, way up!

Yeah Burger is topped with braised oxtail, shallot balsamic jam and a poached egg. Aptly named, you’ll be saying “Yeah” on every bit of this burger. The burger is freshly ground in house using a combination of short rib, chuck, and brisket. You’ll definitely taste the difference when you take a bite. The marbling was excellent and will just melt in your mouth like butter. It was amazingly juicy and flavorful. The braised oxtail was like the “pulled pork” of beef. The brioche bun was brushed with butter and rendered duck fat for a lovely shine and taste. The shallot jam was absolutely fabulous – sweet and tangy. The poached egg totally changed the flavor of this burger, like a loco moco LA-style. The fries were done Belgian-style, blanched and then fried again for a perfectly crispy browned outside. Don’t dare ask for any sauce like ketchup, mustard, thousand island, or mayo! It would be sacrilegious! OH YEAH, you’ll definitely have an OMG moment or two with this one! Thumbs up, way up!

Cali Bennie is an English muffin topped with smoked salmon, avocado, spinach, poached egg and sauce cherone. You definitely need to come here for brunch! The Cali Bennie is awesome! It’s an upscale eggs benedict, yet so much better. The salmon was smoked just right and not too salty. The avocado was cool and creamy. The spinach was slightly wilted with a vibrant green color and flavor. Make sure you poke the yolk and let the yolk mix in with everything. But the best thing was the sauce cherone. You could put it on anything and it would taste great. Perfectly executed dish! Thumbs up, way up!

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jenna48682

Joined 2 years ago

Love this place!. Can I just start by saying, I LOVE traditional American food "with a twist"? And that's basically exactly what Engine Co 28 is. Their garlic bread is absolutely to die for (maybe that's because I adore both olives and blue cheese...). Salads are basic but always fresh and crisp. Entree-wise, I've had the fried chicken, risotto, and the "up-skirt" burger - all were fantastic. And the ambiance is great...but again, I love that "Americana" feel!

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porkjello

Joined 7 years ago

Solid Wagyu Burger. A friend of mine was nice enough to recommend this spot that's walking distance from my work. We met for lunch and she ordered the wagyu burger and I ordered the jambalaya.

If I were to go back, I'll just stick with the wagyu burger cause it was quite tasty.

It's ok but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to drive here for dinner.

Doesn't Recommend

G4Dude

Joined 5 years ago

high hopes not met. I was disappointed in their food. Maybe I ordered the wrong food but I was looking forward to their famous meatloaf and had to send it back. The waiter was having a bad night and seemed to be so over our table. The salad was ok but nothing was memorable. The walls were dusty and it looked like the place needed a good cleaning.

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imacolatta

Joined 7 years ago

Great Service & History!. This place has a neat history and i really did enjoy going. It's a fabulous dinner lunch place, or early dinner post friday night work. We were there on a Friday night, probably not the best time to go, it was full of after work people trying to skip the traffic.

The food was decent. Friend had the veggie risotto and loved it, another the veggie chili & thought it was decent, certainly not as good as Mani's. I had the southern fried chicken with spinach & potatoes, not bad, moist and crispy & tasted very well. It's above average american fare.

Every single member of the staff is incredibly friendly, & the place is comfortable and immaculate.

I would probably not go back for a weekend dinner, but would recommend this place as a great lunch spot if you work around the area!!

Doesn't Recommend

ferishti

Joined 6 years ago

dissappointment. The menu was sort of boring... southern fried chicken, meatloaf, steak, that sort of thing... didn't seem like they specialized in anything. My rigatoni was pretty bad, dry chicken, the roasted peppers are clearly from a can, and the cream sauce is bland. To top it off the paremsean was the generic store stuff. My husband ordered the salmon which was a little better, but the corn was again, from a can... i wouldn't reccomend it.

Doesn't Recommend

wise1too

Joined 7 years ago

NOTHING TO GET FIRED UP ABOUT. Freindly hosts and service but this is another mediocre restaurant that LA specializes in.

Everything is just OK from the atmosphere to the food.

I'm actually trying to be nice as this was the worst ,meal I've had in a long time. ( I reverted to eating the so-so bread)

I had dry salmon with a sickening sauce and that was a daily special. A friend had pasta that was also just OK and another friend ha the crabcakes which the waiter raved about and they were nothing special. With so many other choices in thye hood I'm sure i won't be returning anytime soon.

Doesn't Recommend

showcat

Joined 7 years ago

Perhaps we had a bad experience??. My 76-year old father-in-law swore to us that this was THE place to go, so we went on New Years eve. My birthday is New Years Day, so this was my birthday dinner with my husband. We had no problem getting reservations or being seated on time. The bartender was great, made perfect drinks....so we thought, "so far so good". Well, it went steeply downhill after that. Our waiter appeared to be absolutely slammed, but we couldn't figure out how since it didn't appear that he had that many tables. It took us about 20 minutes to just get a drink order in, he apologized profusely, but we saw him maybe 3 times throughout the whole meal. We both ordered steaks and asked how the dinner Caesar salad portions were, he claimed they were big, so we decided to split one. What we got was maybe half a handful each of really terrible looking romaine lettuce. We would've complained to our server, but again, he was MIA. So we flagged down what appeared to be the manager....explained the situation and instead of apologizing or even offering an explanation, he very curtly asked "Well, what, do you just want another one?" Um, yes..we do. So he returns with what looks like a decent size "split salad" with really good looking romaine and asks "is this about what you had last time?" When we said, no it was much better and bigger than what we had last time he replied "oh really? Because that looks really big to me" and just stomped off. I was insulted. Mind you, this is a $9 salad...I don't expect a huge thing, but I certainly didn't expect what we got. When the waiter returned, finally, he apologized and said "yeah, the Caesar salad portions really aren't that big". If I'm not mistaken, he did say that they were big...he said he was sorry for confusing us...he was sorry a lot. Our steaks arrived and they were pretty good...nothing to write home about. I was just very upset about the incident with the manager that it made my experience all the less enjoyable. Never again!

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foodfinds

Joined 9 years ago

Cool Fire Engine Building. I don't remember what I ordered, so I guess the food wasn't that memorable. However, it wasn't bad and the waiter was really good. I do remember eating a very delicious raspberry tort of some sort. We were eating before going to the Mark Taper before a show, and we were the only young professionals in there. I think we were the only table below the age of 50, but it didn't bother us at all. The fire engine building is charming and full of history, and totally worth seeing.

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specialschnitzel

Joined 7 years ago

Great spot. Stopped in for dinner at the bar on a quiet Saturday night and had a great, simple meal. The chili and beet salad were both excellent. Beautiful space, reasonable prices, and friendly & gracious service made for a relaxed, enjoyable evening. Definitely recommended.