Orange County Register

The plan for last night was to meet at the bar of Houston’s in Irvine for a burger. But the place was packed, wall to wall with suits talking about buying this, selling that. So back in the car and after a few wrong turns we ended up at the wonderful Taco Rosa, which you must know about by now. It’s a full-bar, table-service version of the Taco Mesa chain sitting in the corner of a strip mall in Newport Beach.

They still bring super-tiny sopas (chewy corn cakes no bigger than a 50-cent piece) topped with black beans, tomatoes and cheese to your table gratis, something they’ve offered from day one.

We toasted with a house margarita and a Gran margarita, in essence a Cadillac margarita that gets a kick from Gran Marnier. The orange liqueur comes to the table in a separate shot glass that you pour over the margarita. A little unnecessary effort, granted, but Taco Rosa is fantastic for margaritas because they make their own sweet and sour mix from limes, lemons and oranges.

The soup that night was artichoke and this was unlike anything Julia Child would ever have expected. Instead of sipping a creamy, pureed liquid, we spent much of the evening scraping meat off of a whole artichoke, which sits like a crown, steamed and regal, in the middle of a large bowl surrounded by golden chicken broth and diced vegetables floating like fallen jewels.

Next came a carne asada taco on a hand-made, slightly misshapen tortilla, covered with slivered, crisp red onion and screaming jalapeno.

I rarely leave without an order of sopapillas or churros, both dunkable in honey or chocolate sauce. But that satisfying soup was the size of a small colony that left little room for much else.

Taco Rosa, 2632 San Miguel Drive, Newport Beach. (949) 720-0980.

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