The Blind Pig Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in Rancho Santa Margarita

The Blind Pig is one of our favorite restaurants to go to. My husband loves the steak for 2 even though he eats it all by himself. I absolutely love the chicken adobo, a Filipino inspired dish. I always end up getting it even though I tell myself I should try something else on the menu next time. I really love the chef's take on this traditional dish. It has all the Filipino ingredients and all of the familiar and comforting tastes of adobo, but it's masterfully re-done and makes me happy to know that the chef has Filipino roots.

I also love their creative drink menu. A lot of the drinks I've tried are not for the weak lightweight drinkers, including myself, but I still enjoyed everything I've tried. Very tasty cocktails and very delicious menu. My husband also enjoys the beer he's tried from here.

It's a good spot to talk with friends when there's no live music playing. But otherwise, still a good spot. Very hippie and trendy. Service has been great every time we go, even when they're busy on the weekends. But we can see how busy they are and we usually give them some slack. But overall, the service is good. Our server usually gets to us in reasonable time as soon as we're sat and gets our orders. We also didn't have to wait for our food or drinks for unreasonable amount of time. Our experience here has always been pleasant and we've never been disappointed. This is definitely a place we take our friends and family to too. No complaints from them and everything always looks so delicious.

They have outside seating including a lounge area with a fireplace and an outside patio that also seems to be dog friendly. It's a cool spot, but they also have amazing food and drinks. Highly...

Went for dinner and cocktails with wife. We started with the brussels sprouts and a cocktail (a mezcal old fashioned called "the jolly roger".

Cocktail was great and the sprouts were great. Everything came out fast.

Dinner was a house salad + pastrami melt for me and chicken risotto for wife. The risotto was good. The house salad was very good - beets, nuts, feta, arugula, much more interesting than typical house salads. But I could only finish the first half because the bottom was soaked in balsamic vinegar.

The chicken was a little dry according to my wife.

The pastrami dip sandwich had the bones of a really excellent sandwich - the meat was tender and the cheese kind of melded with it like a really good smash burger. The roll it was served on was great. However, pastrami is very salty, and the dip that was served with it was like a really salty sour mustard. It was good, but I didn't know any better and did a big first dip. I think the dip might have been more successful as a more traditional au jus, or much less salty with more of a horseradish kick. But the sour salty mustard totally overwhelmed the umami and fresh onion on the sandwich - I could have done without it.

Anyway, service was quick, the cocktail and starter were pretty good, and the mains were a mix of okay and not really to my liking, though nothing was like executed badly.

I'll probably try it again, maybe just stick to starters and cocktails...

This place is absolutely amazing! I went on a hot day, the staff did an amazing job at making sure everyone always had a good drink! Not just my table but everyone. My first impression wasn't too great as it seemed small. Most of the business seating was outdoor. This allowed for a great view of the lake! The owner kept walking around and checking up on people. Making it feel as if they actually cared about the people whom stepped into the restaurant. Now for the food. I went out on a limb and we ordered things we don't normally eat out due to being traumatized, as most restaurants I've gone to tend to mess it up. First: the scallops... they were absolutely perfect! Half of the 5 and/or 5 places over cook scallops. The sear gave them a nice golden, crunch to them (see photo) Second: the lamb. Perfect medium cooked! Juicy and well seasoned (not pictured) Third: short rib tacos. The only negative thing I can say is, the cilantro avocado salsa wasn't spicy at all. It had an amazing flavor though! Good enough to make you forget it wasn't spicy! Fourth: firecracker shrimp. It's shrimp, fried with sweet and spicy. Everything I ate that was, not only met my foodie expectations, but absolutely blew them away! Can't wait to go back for round 2! Awesome work...