Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Gabbi's Mother's Day Brunch


(IMPORTANT NOTE: This entry was originally published on May 10 then updated on May 21 . . . and then a little bit more on May 29. Scroll down to "Part III" for the update.)

Part I

A lot of people have been searching lately for information on where to take their mom for a Mother's Day Brunch. I don't know of any Mexican restaurant in Orange County that has a specific Mother's Day Brunch deal but I'm taking my own mom to a Mother's Day Brunch one day early and we're going to Gabbi's. We're going there after she tried the food at another Mexican restaurant a while back (I won't say what place it was except to say that it's name does not start with the letter 'T') and after eating the food there she said, "I'm going to kiss the ground at Gabbi's when I go back next."

If I get some good photos I will post them here later on but when I was there a few days ago meeting up with an LA Times reporter Gabbi told us they were about to bring back some old menu items as well as introduce a couple new items based around the squash blossom which is now in season. Below is a picture of the ceviche from that visit:

Part II

Photos:
So here's the pictures taken at our one-day-early Mother's Day Brunch:

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Still no sign (picture taken May 10, 2008)

I tried out the new squash blossom quesadillas:

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Mom got the grilled shrimp salad which she said is "like heaven:"


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And then we got the flan for dessert:

DSCF3827 "flan"

Also, by popular demand Gabbi has brought her tropical quesadilla back to the menu. It's one of my favorite items there.

Part III

It might seem like I've been talking about Gabbi's a lot lately but this should be the last update in a while. I had three somewhat related visits recently, concluding about a week ago when I met up with Andrea Adleman from the Los Angeles Times and Griffin Tamura from Griffin Eats OC. The visit was largely so Andrea could get pictures for her report which will appear in The Guide, the pullout entertainment section which appears every Thursday in the Times (yes, even the Orange County edition), on May 29. Griffin's report appears here. During that visit I was able to get some better photos and here they are:

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Tropical Quesadilla


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Squash Blossom Quesadilla


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Coconut Tres Leches


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Gabbi's Flan

Click HERE or on the 'gabbi's' label below to see our complete coverage of Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen, including dozens of photos . . . and an expla­nation of why they don't have a sign.

Part IV

The Orange County Register today (June 5, 2008) has a whole article about the desserts at Gabbi's, including a couple recipes. CLICK HERE to read it.

Part V

Since Google keeps sending people to the wrong page when they search for "Mexican restaurants in the Orange Circle" I have to explicitly state here that Gabbi's is the ONLY Mexican restaurant in the Orange Circle . . . although there is another one just outside the Orange Circle.

6 comments:

  1. I've never seen Mexican Food look like that before. That is some fancy stuff.

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  2. Thanks for the links. Im going to add a link to your blog on mine.

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  3. Wait... no other Mexican restaurants in the circle? Aren't we forgetting JalapeƱo? Good stuff too, though definitely a different crowd than Gabbi's.

    (And yes, the on versus in near the circle is somewhat up for debate)

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  4. Hmm, I don't know where JalapeƱos is there, but when people searched for "mexican restaurant orange circle" I got the feeling they meant Gabbi's.

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  5. My husband and I went to Gabbi's a few months ago. The best part of my meal (everything was good, but this was the best) was the dessert. We ordered the churros. It came with four very large churros with two dipping sauces--chocolate and caramel. So good!

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  6. Glad to hear your experience went well. Hopefully you can make it back and try some more of their greta food. We have some more coverage of Gabbi's you can see if you click on the "gabbi's" label at the end of this entry (before the comments start).

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