Editor's note: the following food review was written by Tony Cheong, otherwise known as No Baloney Tony.
Sports, sports, sports…
Editor's note: the following food review was written by Tony Cheong, otherwise known as No Baloney Tony.
Sports, sports, sports…
You gotta love it.
If you're looking for a sports bar for the start of football season or the pennant races in baseball, Oggi’s is the place.
Oggi's features 25 televisions, a novel-esque menu, specially-brewed beers and opens at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays.
Though it’s a sports bar, it’s not a dive so feel free to bring your parents or kids. The staff is friendly and caters to all appetites. And, Oggi’s serves everything from sandwiches to wraps, pasta, tacos, fish, soup and salad, burgers and pizza.
Oggi’s brags that what sets it apart from other restaurants is the salad dressings and sauces. All homemade or as I like to say made in-house.
What I found is this restaurant's hospitality makes it stand out. Our waitress, Celina Conant, made us feel as if we were the only table in the joint, answering my wealth of questions and making sure that I stayed on course with the best trio found in sports bars: pizza, beer and wings. Just the right mix and let’s face it, why fix a trifecta that ain't broke?
We made one alternative order to the norm with a mini-appetizer: the garlic hummus. A sure hit for hummus lovers. The hummus was grainy which accentuated the flavor of the garlic since it wasn’t puréed. The plate comes with a sampling of carrot sticks, cucumbers and flat bread and was the right portion to set our palates for what was next to come out of the kitchen.
Along with the starter we ordered the Black Magic Stout, a smooth, full-bodied beer with a coffee and chocolaty taste. A must for stout drinkers.
I figured since a local sports radio personality, Steve Hartman, with a lot of opinions that I don’t agree with but can't stop listening to, has his own pizza named the Loose Cannon, I had to try it in order to disagree with him on my turf. We ordered half a large, going with The Works for the other half.
The pie was about 21 inches in diameter and Oggi’s didn’t skimp on the fixings by any means. The Works side was stacked with mushrooms, green peppers, chopped tomatoes, pepperoni and sausage. The Hartman half was colorfully filled with fresh tomatoes, garlic and oregano with extra mozzarella.
The crust was soft, thick, pillowy. The freshness of the crisp veggies was texturized and flavorful. Both the sauce and the crust had a hint of sweetness, almost like honey was added so that you can savor the experience.
If that wasn’t enough, we of course had an order of the bone-in wings with Thai seasoning. They were meaty and about 3 inches long served with a salad helping of carrots and celery plus the house ranch.
They were the right amount of tantalizing seasoning for the taste buds to not be overwhelmed and the stout wash-down didn't hurt.
Oggi’s is that place where you will find anything to suit any craving. It's a family-fun sports bar along that short section of Harbor Boulevard that Garden Grove city officials are branding "The Grove District." Outsiders, are you coming to Disneyland for a few days? Stay in The Grove District, and after a rousing day at Disneyland, give yourself a treat at Oggi’s.
