Westend — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

Food: West end from the outside seems like a local small bar with dark exteriors and quirky interior. Yes, the main thing is drinks and their own crafted cocktails. However it’s a hidden gem for southern-inspired food. With offerings like fried pickles, chicken and andouille po’boy, and shrimp and chicken jambalaya, they offer dishes inspired in southern, Cajun and creole cuisines.

We ordered a Dauphin St Po’boy and a Duke burger. The burger was ok, with a heavy hand in pepper and salt, but beyond that expected flavors for a burger. The po’boy was flavorful and really good. Soft, yet toasted bread filled with the chicken, trinity veggies, good pieces of andouille, sauce, and cheese. The flavors complemented each other well and was well executed.

For the sides we ordered their baked beans that had maple, bourbon and bacon. Those beans were made to perfection with a thick sweet sauce where you could feel hints of maple coming through and bits of bacon.

And for desert we ordered the beignets. WOW! They were soft, perfectly golden pillows. If you go, please leave room for the beignets. It’s a must!

Price: The prices were fair for the portions and service.

Service: the service was amazing!! Our server was so nice, friendly, and attentive. They also never made us feel rushed which was great.

Atmosphere: While there was a bit of light when we arrived, we quickly realized the place is really dark and small. We were given a candle but maybe adding a tad more lighting with fairy lights or something might help.

Parking: there is no parking for this place, but there’s a supermarket across the street that has enough parking for all!

Overall great place, very unexpected but I loved it. Will...

My fiancee and I made a reservation to try this place on a Friday night, for after completion of our monthly Hi Times run. We got there right on time, and were seated promptly in the back area away from the bar (thankfully, as the bar area packed).

Heavy New Orleans influence in the food and drinks (and music), which both my fiancee and I enjoyed given our connections to New Orleans (I went to college there, and proposed to my fiancee there as well). We started with some Battle of New Orleans whiskey cocktails, which were AWESOME! They also give you some homemade corn nuts as a free appetizer, which we enjoyed--really complex, evolving seasoning on the corn nuts, which definitely were a welcome surprise. For appetizers we ordered the calamari (good, but not great), and the deviled eggs (OMG SO TASTY). For main dishes we shared the smoked BBQ platter (features smoked beef, pork, AND chicken, YUM), and the Franklin chicken sandwich (again, good but not great). For dessert we had some beignets, and this might be considered sacrilege by some, but I honestly thought the beignets at Westend are better than the world-famous Cafe du Monde beignets. They are EXCELLENT, and the strawberry dipping sauce served with them is to-die-for!

The only knock I'd give this place is that the service can be slow at times. There were a few points where it genuinely felt like we had been forgotten entirely in the back area. But other than that, I really enjoyed Westend, recommend others try it, and I absolutely intend...

Very disappointed. Visiting and found this place had pretty good reviews and was close. Went with 2 girl friends, sat at a table and was told a dj was going to start in a little bit. We were 3 of the 5 total people in this place. It was so dark we had to use our phones to see the menu. We got the Westend burger, shrimp po boy, and shredded kale salad added shrimp, and beignets. Burger was wrong (sent out a western burger) and I said no it's fine I'll eat it. She said no it's fine we will remake it. They took it back, took the onion rings and bacon off, and brought out the same burger. Meat, cheese, and bbq sauce on a bun. Fantastic -_- the shrimp po boy had 6 pieces of shrimp and not much of anything else. Friend (who has been to NOLA) was NOT happy with beignets. Hollow and crunchy. Not worth 8$. Our bill was 87$ and we left extremely unhappy. Oh, and parking is terrible. We had to call the place before we went to even find the ally to drive down. So all in all, just don't go here. Tell your friends not to go here. Maybe tell the people you don't like it was the best meal ever. Guess we really should have just...