Broadway by Amar Santana — Restaurant in Laguna Beach

Give my regards to Broadway by Amar Santana. This gem is tucked away just a couple blocks from the beach, and delivers trendy, hip vibes with top notch service and food that wows. While the price tag is on the higher end, it is comparable to most of the nicer dines in the area.

Starting with the popular Free Range Organic Egg Yolk Raviolo, a large single Raviolo sits simmered in buttery goodness with crispy sage and toasted hazelnuts. When you break into the Raviolo, you get a rich ooze of yolk mixed in with ricotta. This decadent dish is topped off with a sliced duck prosciutto, which adds a nice meaty bite.

For bone marrow lovers, the Roasted Beef Bone Marrow is otherworldly. With a thin crisp crust on top, the marrow offers a build-your-own-flavor experience with charred sourdough and an option of garlic confit, oxtail mushroom marmalade, and sea salt. It was hard to decide which combination was best, but as a purist, I was surprised by how much I kept going back to the garlic and oxtail. This gave the rich, umami explosiveness you hope for in a bone marrow dish.

Another outstanding dish was the Grilled Smoked Pork Chop. With a perfect ratio of fat to meat, the pork chop was so tender that the pieces with fat almost melted in your mouth while the meatier pieces easily gave to each bite. The sauce, farro, and mushrooms were all great supporting stars, but the white bean purée had the thick creamy goodness that really complimented the pork chop.

But the best dish of the night was the fan favorite - the Grilled Marinated Prime Skirt Steak. The meat was a perfect medium rare, easily cut with a knife. Each bite was marinated in beautiful, savory caramelized onion jus that you almost wouldn't care about anything else on the dish. But don't forget to try the chimichurri, which was a creamy green delightful accompaniment.

For dessert, the Brown Butter Banana Tart was recommended to us by the server and chefs. With thick saucy miso caramel, browned bananas, luxuriously creamy vanilla bean ice cream, nutty pecan crumble, and a cinnamon rich, buttery crust - I'll be dreaming about those bites for a while. On a minor note, I would order dessert in advance if possible as some items can take a bit longer to come out.

To top things off, non culinary highlights include:

If you're sitting at Chef's Table (bar seating), you have very comfortable bar seats, a hook for your bags under the table, but most importantly, a fantastic view of the chefs cooking your dinner. In our case, Chef Sergio and his cooking mates were incredibly hospitable, guiding us with menu selection while casually wiping off oil burns. The chefs made our dinner even more memorable.

Our server Eddie, was patient, attentive, and a fantastic guide of the menu as well. He paced the night well for us and had a calm, kind energy while being very knowledgeable about the menu.

Finally, at every turn, our waters were being refilled, dirty plates and utensils removed, and trash being wiped off without requiring request. Kudos to the entire wait staff.

Whether you're looking to impress a date, celebrating a special evening, or just looking for a delicious meal, Broadway will have you...

We came back to celebrate my birthday 2 days ago. Food was delicious in general. However a few things that either be "more honest" or some improvement. I ordered focaccia, it came out like a tall round bread loaf, no way near the iconic focaccia appearance that I normally eat and get. The focaccia is a flat leavened oven-baked Italian bread, with its signature dimples and big air pockets. This one is just a fluffy bread. It was misleading for those who really knows true focaccia and who doesn't. Secondly, the scalloped potatoes was like 2 skinny rectangular sticks like string cheese and tastes so average. It was more like cross between pave (but not crispy layers) and dauphinoise but very average. The Costco scalloped potatoes would be much more superior. I dont think the shishito peppers adding any wow factor at all to the beautiful high quality steak. The salmon was cooked perfectly, but the spinach crust added no value or factor to the experience other than a pretty color, I would rather have an almond or pistachios crusted. There are million of other choices to elevate and being creative. Hope this helps.

This is my old post. Just got back from dinner tonight. The food was out standing. The presentation for every dish is a piece of art, and the quality is spot on. My hubby got the pork chop dish, it is pretty thick, yet very juicy all the way and well seasoned. Mine was Branzino, juicy for a thin filet and so fresh. Totally enjoyed every bite. My only feedbacks were 1. we both dont even know our sommelier's name, he just showed up and opened the wine bottle we brought, and dont even know our waiter's name either, he showed up and told the special offers and took orders; 2. He picked up the tab soon after I signed, kinda tacky and somewhat ruined the experience of the night; 3. I would add more starch to be proportional with...

Great service! Food was very good. The only plate that wasn’t very good was the bone marrow. It fell flat and was something we would skip. Avocado and crab salad was very tasty. Really like the crunchy fried avocado. The dressing worked really well with the dish, brought it all together. Pork belly was fantastic. Very crispy skin and perfect juicy meat with a good combination of fat to meat. It was very close to being perfectly cooked. This was probably my 2nd favorite crispy pork belly I’ve ever had (big thing for me, because I’ve enjoyed pork belly at hundreds of restaurants throughout Asia), right after my favorite pork belly in Bangkok, which is perfect every time. The only downside of this plate, not enough of it. Brussel sprouts were the best I’ve ever had in a restaurant. They were perfectly cooked and flavor had good balance without being overly salty. Liked the fact that the Chinese sausage was in it. These are almost as good as mine in my restaurant. One thing they did that gave it some really nice freshness is with adding cilantro, an idea Im going to steal. Really good side dish. For dessert, we had the Oh Beehive. Perfect ending to a very good meal. Very light and bright. Really liked the tame lemon flavor. Highly recommend. Didn’t have any drinks, usually don’t if it’s the first time at a place. Overall a very good meal. The only complaints were the bone marrow and possibly the service got a little slow at the end, which isn’t a big issue, just really liked the pace the rest of the meal went. Lamb shank was perfectly cooked and flavor...