Lido Bottle Works

Lido Bottle Works Restaurant Review:

About the restaurant & décor: Tucked in the middle of Lido Village on Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula, this unassuming bayfront joint is the ideal antidote for some of the area’s chichi venues. With sculpted wooden tables, a friendly bar and a relaxed outdoor patio, it’s a place where locals and the blue jean crowd can settle in as long as they’d like to chill, imbibe a beer from the tap or the bottle shop, and converse over the faint waft of accessible indie music.

About the food: Executive chef Amy Lebrun has assembled a team that crafts contemporary cuisine whose studious, elevated nature provides an intriguing, if unexpected, juxtaposition to the restaurant’s vibe. Plates like the seasonal vegetables with pistachio butter and the daily-changing fish dish starring whatever was caught that morning by the nearby Dory Fleet highlight Lebrun and company's commitment to the local and sustainable. Items such as the pork belly bao buns with togarashi egg show creativity without sacrificing approachability. Iberico secreto pork with chicken liver is another option that demonstrates a willingness to expand the neighborhood's occasionally delicate culinary sensibilities. For dessert, among the treats worthy of indulgence is the Vietnamese coffee panna cotta. On the weekends for brunch, start a relaxing day with granola french toast and chorizo hash with poached egg.