Agio

Double Tree Hotel

2085 S. Harbor Blvd.

Anaheim, California 92802
Tel: 1-714-750-3000

When we finally arrived at our hotel near Disneyland, we were a bit pressed for time. We decided just to dine at the restaurant in our hotel to save time on our first night there. We stayed at the Double Tree hotel and inside was Agio. I actually like the name Agio, and thought it was strong with good character. Inside was clean and immaculate with a post modern twist on Italian.

I was not particularly hungry due to the fact I ate a big lunch (see our review on Willow Ranch BBQ), but I did order some clam chowder anyway. My wife order the roasted chicken with steam vegetables. We also ordered some calamari for appetizer since I wasn't ordering any entree. The waitress gave us some bread to start, and it was not bad, and there was a nice herbal flavor baked in.

Next came our appetizer which was the calamari. It was prepared nicely with a crispy outside. I particularly liked the marina sauce that came with it. There was garlic mayo sauce served with it and that was pleasantly good as well. Though I must admit I was used to getting a bigger serving size for a calamari appetizer.

Next came my bowl of clam chowder. It was okay. Though not spectacular. I can tell that it is not made fresh on the premises. It had the taste of the same can soup or the same take out soup you get at certain restaurants. If Agio wants to be seen as more of an upscale restaurant it needs to make their soup fresh in house. If it is made fresh, then they really need to alter that recipe.

My wife's roasted chicken was a bit of a let down. It lack that really crispy skin of a well made roasted chicken. There was some Au Jus, but that just made the chicken more soggy than anything else. The Au Jus did not really add anything extra to the flavor at all. The mashed potatoes was okay, and so were the steam vegetables.

The service was okay. It seems to match the quality of the food. It was adequate except you were expecting more. The restaurant was pretty barren at the time, with maybe only 2 to 3 other tables occupied. You would expect us the get more of a personalized attention, but alas we were mainly left to ourselves. Everything from the decor, menu items and the way the personnel was dressed, screamed that this restaurant was meant for something more. However, something went wrong somewhere and it just sits now on just settling for mediocrity.

Final Thoughts: The food and service does not justify the asking price.

Food: 2 1/2 stars

service: 3 stars

Price: high

Overall: 2 1/2 stars

Buca Di Beppo

925 Blossom Hill Rd #1529

San Jose, CA

95123

(408)226-1444

We went to Buca Di Beppo in Oakridge mall in San Jose, for goodbye party for our Co-worker (We'll miss you Nikki). If you never been to a Buca, its an Italian family style restaurant with large portions. They do offer smaller portions now, but it's a better deal to go with a large group of people. Inside the restaurant, the art decor is a bit overstated. There is large collections of photographs of Italians and Italian culture thrown up against the walls in no particular rhyme or reason. There were about 14 of us, so we had a pretty decent size party. We were seated promptly, though there were some stragglers arriving later. The restaurant was pretty pack with almost all tables taken.

After waiting for some time, our waiter finally came and took our order. We ordered decided to start with fried calamari, bruschetta, prosciutto stuffed mushrooms, and apple gorgonzola salad.

The fried calamari was excellent. It was crispy but not overly done. Calamari tends to get chewy if you over cook them and these were not. It had a side of tomato dipping sauce with crushed red peppers that complemented well with the calamari.

The apple gorgonzola salad was great as well. It was crisp and the sweetness of the apples balance well with the lite vinaigrette. The salad was accented with dried cranberries and gorgonzola cheese that provide both nice texture and flavor.

The bruschetta was okay, it had a nice crunchy texture and was overflowing with tomatoes. However I thought that balance between bread and tomatoes was not maintain. In the end we ended up with mainly scattered tomatoes at the bottom of our dish.

I didn't get to try the prosciutto stuffed mushrooms. I had wish our server had told us there were only 5 mushroom per single order. You would think that seeing how many people we had at our table we would've gotten a warning of the small portions. Usually Buca is pretty generous with their portions, but not this time

After the appetizers, we ordered four main entrees, baked ravioli with meat sauce, shrimp fra diavolo, chianti braised short ribs, and linguine frutti di mare.

The baked ravioli with meat sauce was okay at best. It was cheesed filled with a heavy meat sauce around it. I found the cheese to be a bit land and the meat sauce a bit overpowering. I think the ravioli was a bit oversized and that's why the balance of flavor could not be maintain.

*note: I had to delete the ravioli picture because it was not clear.

The braised short ribs was excellent. They were both soft and tender, infact you could cut it with a fork. Since it was braised in chianti, the beef had the robust flavor that you would expect. The sauce was made from the braising liquid and was both rich and flavorful. Definitely a must try if you never had it before.

The Shrimp Fra diavolo, was extremely good. The spicy rosa sauce tasted like rich creamy pizza sauce. The shrimp was well prepared and not over cooked. This dish was so popular that you can see from the picture that most of it was gone before it reached me.

Lastly, the linguine frutti di mare, my usual stand by favorite failed me this time. We had to wait extremely long for this dish. By the time it came out, I found it a bit over seasoned. The sauce was too salt and too briny. Some times Buca would have a seasonal baked linguine frutti di mare with light white wine sauce instead the tomato sauce. I like that version than the one we got that night.

The service was quite poor that night. It was no fault of our waitress, she did the best she could. Unfortunately she was overwhelmed with no help from the other staff. Too often we were left to ourselves. My friend even complained to the management but to no avail.

Final Thoughts: Good place for family style Italian meals.

Food: 3 1/2 stars

Service : 1 star

Price: Average to decent, depends on how many people dine with you.

Overall: 3 stars