Greenleaf Kitchen & Cocktails — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

Maybe it's just me, the GPS, or my lack of direction but Greenleaf isn't exactly easy to find. It's set further off the street on 17th and all you've got to guide you is their green and purple leaf logo. You can't park immediately up front or they'll tow but there is plenty of parking out back near their take out window.

Upon entering I was immediately impressed. It's like stepping into a part of wine country. I could feel a part of northern California tugging at my heart strings. We had a reserved seat at the community table and chef was there to immediately cater to our needs and bring us a sangria mimosa topped with fresh fruit. This drink was light and refreshing and a perfect start to our "cheat day" brunch which isn't exactly a part of their healthy menu but it's got enough guilt to keep you calorie conscious.

I think Chef read my mind because our cheat day breakfast brunch was a nice mix of everything I love and the way I love to eat it. We started off with the breakfast pizza topped with turkey sausage, potatoes, goat cheese, baby arugula, and a sunny side up egg. If you know me, my favorite part of breakfast is the eggs and not just any eggs - I like them runny therefore sunny side up or poached are always my pick for breakfast. The sunny side up sits like a beautiful work of art on top of this pizza and I couldn't wait to cut in and let it ooze. Eggs can be finicky however this egg spread beautifully atop our pizza and if we didn't have to try other brunch items I probably would have devoured the whole thing.

While the breakfast pizza is definitely a win, it doesn't exactly compare to what Chef brought out next. How did she know I love a good eggs benedict? Seriously? It's like my favorite breakfast dish. I told you I like eggs right? And that I like them runny? This eggs benedict is served on a soft pretzel bread. The salty sweet doughy texture is what got me. The bread is topped with turkey, spinach, onions, gruyere, cheddar, and a mustard hollandaise. Sadly, I could only get through one part of my eggs benedict while I longingly stared at the other. The poached egg on top was cooked perfectly. I soaked it up with the pretzel bread while enjoying the perfectly lovely winter's day outside from my seat at the table. It truly was majestic.

After a savory brunch, chef surprised up with a baked pancake. I'm not much of a pancake person unless it's a Swedish pancake or something my grandma makes which is similar but this baked pancake was quite a surprise. It's more like a cake vs a pancake and it was filled with fresh cinnamon caramel apples, vanilla lemon creme fraiche, and agave roasted walnuts. It was hard to believe that everything about this pancake was healthy. It tasted absolutely sinful. In fact the entire meal did however it was relatively low on calories.

I'm so fortunate that this dream brunch is just up the street. I think it might just be my new...

The format and concept of the restaurant (kitchen) is great - refreshing - order at counter is quick and service starts right away.

Servers are not trained well...friendly and helpful but don't have good restaurant experience...I acknowledge that finding people to hire now is tough and offering low wages for services makes it even harder. Ours mainly grouped up with the others (who is watching them?) and talked ignoring the guests....we had to call several times to get their attention.

This restaurant reminds me of the place where the chef says "this place can run itself" ... the menus are set and everything is going like clockwork....except....the food is tasteless...a steak chimi-churry is cold and the chimi has no churry...it's only parsley and not spices. The carnitas taco appetizer is tasteless. The spaghetti squash is tasteless. There are no spices in anything! The dishes are bland and tasteless but flawlessly executed and arranged on the plate like a pro. The kitchen is executing the menu flawlessly but apparently isn't tasting what they make.

We appreciated the friendly service and the complimentary parking - great touch much appreciated. But this place is far from running itself. The chef needs to sit down before opening, have the chefs prepare everything for tasting, and critique the menu items. Otherwise this is not worth...

I am not a regular of Greenleaf and my visit tonight confirmed that I never will be. I went with my fiancé who ordered the avocado toast as a dinner with “local eggs.” We received the avocado toast over 10 minutes before I received my meal. The avocado toast came with one sliced Hard Boiled egg instead of what we assumed would be fried eggs. My fiancé doesn’t like hard boiled eggs so we asked if they could put a fried egg on it. They came back and put the toast back on the table WITH THE HARD BOILED EGG saying they “sold out” of fried eggs. The server left the table so my fiancé took the food to the counter and ordered the seasonal special, a caprese salad. This was delivered WITHOUT the parmesan crisps. The salad also featured a total of only 4 sliced small tomatoes. My fiancé didn’t notice the absence of crisps until after eating the salad. This entire encounter was entirely without any apology from the staff. My food got cold waiting for my fiancé’s food and even though I spent over $15 barely filled me up. My grilled chicken “larger plate” consisted of 4 tiny slices of chicken plus sides. Clearly Greenleaf wants to cater to rich Newport Beach moms and is not interested in expanding outside of that target market. Will never return and...