Saturday, April 11, 2009

Blue Frog Dessert House and Bakery - restaurant review




I had arranged to meet a friend today in Old Towne Orange to do some shopping at another friend's store, so afterward, we walked two businesses over to have lunch at Blue Frog Dessert House and Bakery.

I've been to Blue Frog on a couple of prior occasions. They have quite a number of baked goods, but they also have several items available for breakfast and lunch. I've never been there early enough for breakfast though.

Two of the specials of the day were chicken pot pie and macaroni & cheese. As much as I love mac and cheese, and as much as the description of the dish from the girl at the counter sounded soooooo good, I decided that it would be better for me to have at least some protein that day, so I opted for the chicken pot pie. I added the side salad to the order. My friend ended up getting the chicken pot pie as well.

One of the things that I really like about Blue Frog is that they have an upstairs loft section. The main floor has tables as well (they also have some tables out front), but the upstairs has tables as well as two sofas, and it's much cozier and quieter upstairs. There's also a restroom upstairs, which is pretty convenient. The only time the upstairs is unavailable is if there's a party and the room is rented out. And I think it would be a great place to have a private party. Good food, nice ambience, a bit more secluded from the rest of the restaurant, and a restroom handy nearby. The only thing would be that other patrons would have to walk through your party space to get to the restroom, but that just means they'd be jealous that they weren't invited to your fun and fabulous party.

Luckily, the room wasn't reserved this afternoon, though I was disappointed that the sofa area was already occupied, so we opted for a small table overlooking the restaurant.

You put your order in at the counter, and then all of your food is brought to you. The side salad ended up being much larger than I had expected, so my friend and I decided to share it. It was a nicely done, very simple salad. Then they brought our chicken pot pies, and those looked really good. There was one piece of puff pastry on the dish and then the chicken pot pie filling was poured on top, with another piece of puff pastry sitting on top. The filling was nicely flavored and a good consistency, and you got the puff pastry with the pot pie filling covering it, but you could also just have the puff pastry by itself because of the extra piece on top. It was quite delicious.

Someone came up to check on us a couple of times as well as to clear our finished dishes away. We had a good time enjoying our lunch and good conversation.

It's really hard to go to Blue Frog and not have some kind of baked goodie. For various reasons, I've been on a red velvet cupcake kick over the past couple of months, so when I saw that they had red velvet cupcakes, I couldn't resist. They had a lemon bar as well, which I usually find tempting, but I'll have to save that for another time. I got one of the red velvet cupcakes to go. It had a lot of frosting on top then crumbled cupcake bits sprinkled on top.

I ate the cupcake at home later, and it was quite tasty. I'm not generally a fan of frosting, and while it looked cute, there was entirely too much frosting for my taste. I think I had just a bit to taste and then left the rest of it. I think I tasted a little bit of cherry filling (with cherry bits) right at the top of the cupcake. Overall, it was pretty yummy.

I've enjoyed each of the meals I've had at Blue Frog, as well as their varied desserts. I've brought a couple friends to the place, and they've seemed to enjoy it as well. The service has always been pleasant, though this time, both people we dealt with were particularly friendly, so that was really nice.

Timed parking is available either on the street or in nearby city lots.


The only time I get to go to Blue Frog is certain occasions when I'm visiting the friend's shop, but I always look forward to each visit.


Here's a link to the menu for Blue Frog.




hours:
Tuesday - Saturday 7am to 5pm
Sunday 8:30am to 3pm
Monday closed

Blue Frog
Dessert House and Bakery
136 South Glassell Street
Old Towne Orange, CA 92866
(714) 538-3764

1 comment:

Perky Mommy said...

My favorite item on the menu is one that was inspired by me & the owner of that little store two doors over. We both love ham and cheese stuffed croissants and "we" were moving into the store the same time Blue Frog was moving into their store and opening. (I saw "We" because I did help with the move.) We kept hoping they'd have a ham and cheese croissant and eventually she mentioned it to them. They'd never heard of it and asked her what kind of cheese. She (wisely) suggested Gruyere. They put it on the menu and that's what I get every time I go shopping! I time my trips around lunchtime or I time lunch around whenever I'll be there so I have an excuse to get one. I love their refrigerated desserts but my kids and I also love their cookies. So yummy!