Dining Reviews



It helps to know that I was about to have dinner at the Chart House in Newport Beach, a place where the great majority of menu items do not walk on legs, moo, cluck or oink. It also helps to know that I had just passed on what looked to be a mouthwatering page-worth of seafood and ordered the pork chop Milanese, which appeared to brighten the waiter’s day considerably. 



The chop was, he said, one of his 2 favorite items on the menu, and he orders it often on his dinner break. So the correct answer was c).



It was nice to be back at the Chart House, which is one of a handful of OC coastal restaurants that you can put in the slam-dunk column. Coolly understated and cleanly designed, it’s the type of place where you can shake off the day while enjoying a casually elegant meal with a spectacular waterside view. 



It is a chain, but hardly institutional, snugly fitting into the Newport Harbor land – and seascape – as if planted there. 



There’s also a lot of captivating stuff to put on your plate, like the crab-stuffed mushroom appetizer. The portion consists of a good-sized gratin dish full of mushrooms, generously mounded with lightly toasted, almost sweet, crabmeat. The white wine sauce is thick and exquisitely rich; a half-order was perfect. 



The crab – slightly flakier and crunchier this time – made a second appearance as part of my friend’s entrée: the baked stuffed shrimp. There are 6 plump crustaceans, and the textures of the finely cooked shrimp and crab complemented, rather than clashed. 



Is it heresy to order a pork chop in a fish house? Let me join my waiter in saying: No! It turned out to be a lovely cut: a pounded bone-in chop coated with garlic breadcrumbs and sautéed. Topped with chopped tomatoes and a basil sauce with shallot butter, it was served with nicely browned asparagus and a dollop of garlic mashed potatoes. 



This is a chop that would have done credit to any fine Italian restaurant. I was offered a steak knife, but the meat was fork tender. I could have done with just a touch less breading, but it imparted a subtle garlicky tang, and the sauce was just as restrained. The taste of basil and shallots were present but did nothing to overwhelm the flavor of the chop itself. 



I don’t know if we had dessert, or it had us. Doesn’t matter: The house specialty hot chocolate lava cake has enough high-caliber sweetness to convert most dessert-skippers. (It takes a while to make, so order it at the top of the meal as you might a soufflé.) 



It has a molten chocolate center, goosed up with Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, served with warm chocolate sauce and Heath Bar Crunch, and topped with Dreyer’s vanilla ice cream. We dueled over it with teapoons like d’Artagnan 
and Rochefort. 



Chart House, 2801 W. Coast Hwy., Newport Beach; 
chart-house.com