Lido Bottle Works located in the recently refurbished Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach, faces the marina and 3-story yacht that could probably hold a 300-guest wedding reception. It’s quite a sight but not the reason for our visit. This is the first on my 2018 list of restaurants to blog.

Julie and I chose the Street Tacos for our lunch – combination of grilled shrimp, shredded cabbage and a special sauce on house-made tortillas. They looked small but they were very filling. That didn’t mean we were going to skip dessert though. We enjoyed the caramel apple cake topped with sweet soy ice cream and fresh blackberries.

This was such a pleasant experience that  I brought my family back on Saturday night to taste their dinner menu. The dinner consisted of shared plates. I like this idea because it gives everyone a chance to taste several dishes. Four of us sampled the following, much to the delight of our taste buds:

Goat Cheese Fritters with ancho cajeta and red pepper aioli                                                        Tuna Tartare with avocado and chili pop rocks                                                                              Cheese and Charcuterie Board with house mustard, pickles and honey comb                         Burrata with roasted squash, pomegranate and candied pistachio                                            Cauliflower with maitake mushroom and golden raisins                                                             LBW Burger with bacon jam, black garlic aioli on a wasabi brioche bun                                 Steak Frites prime hanger fries with smoky blue cheese

It makes me hungry just writing about it.  We were also introduced to a new chardonnay from Frank Family Vineyards in Northern California.  Between oaky and fruity, it was quite nice.

Several of the dishes were consumed before I could get out my camera.  The cauliflower was especially beautiful in its plating.  Sorry!

Birthday dessert for my son was a small pyramid of their house-made ice creams. Some flavors we recognized, some not so much but they were all tasty.

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The Other Thing – The menu changes monthly so there will probably be no end to the lovely flavor combinations at work at Lido Bottle Works. They serve beer and wine only so their cocktail menu is very interesting, being concocted with special wine varieties.