Restaurant Review: Finbar’s Italian Kitchen
Finbar’s Italian Kitchen 1041 Pacific Coast Highway Seal Beach, California 90740 562-346-2277 Open Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
by Debbi Fudge
LW contributor
My favorite Orange County Italian restaurant is Finbar’s Italian Kitchen located in Seal Beach, just minutes from Leisure World. My fondness for Finbar’s Italian Kitchen cuisine blossomed several years ago after a car accident left me without a vehicle and too terrified to drive for three months.
During those months, I utilized the City of Seal Beach free Dial-A-Ride taxi service available weekdays to go to Finbar’s Italian Kitchen for lunches. As a retired certified public accountant who spent all my life counting dollars for a living, the $15.25 lunch specials offered until 3 p.m. immediately attracted my attention.
What dining experiences these lunch specials turned out to be for me. First and before consuming any food, the very second one opens the door, the aromas tickle my sensory receptors. Just such delicious aromas. Then, hot Italian bread and butter starts every dining experience.
Next, between two soups of the day choices, my starter selection was sausage soup that happens to be my favorite Finbar’s Italian Kitchen’s soup. This sausage soup tastes pungent with Italian seasonings along with onions and chicken broth—what I call “softly spicy.” On the other hand, if you are a salad lover instead of a soup lover, your starter choices are a green or a Caesar salad.
The lunch special’s main courses are pizza or pasta, or soup and salad. If you select pizza, one may choose from three toppings and the pizza of the week. These pizzas are mounded with cheese and served especially gooey. I estimate the pizza size as larger than a small pizza served at many restaurants.
If you select pasta, you may choose from 10 macaronis with sauces and adds such as marinara, Bolognese, sausage, meatballs, aglio e olio (garlic and oil), arrabbiata (spicy Roman sauce), Marsala marinara (Marsala wine tomato sauce) and others. The serving is a mounded half order. My two dining companions choose lasagna traditional and lasagna vegetarian.
I choose fettuccini quarttro formaggi (really for me, Italian mac and cheese). Immediately after serving us our main course selections, our waiter asked each of us if he/she wanted more cheese (well, of course, we each wanted more cheese).
Our entrees were then covered with a layer of freshly-grated- at-our-table cheese. Each lasagna portion was served in a baking dish. The portion size was generous. My fettuccini, with its melted creamy cheeses making a rich velvety coating, was mounded in a medium serving bowl.
All three of us diners agreed my portion size was larger than a medium serving. As a consequence of my fettuccini serving size, half of my meal came home with me.
And the last of our three Lunch Specials’ main course offerings features soup and any half-size salad serving. The soup is served as a bottomless cup of soup of the day. The salad has eight choices, including antipasto, BBQ chicken, and spinach and strawberry.
As well as lunch specials, Finbar’s Italian Kitchen has an exceptionally extensive all-day menu. Alcohol is available along with various soft drinks and priced separately.
One of my dining companions uses a wheelchair. Finbar’s Italian Kitchen accommodated his special need. The restaurant is located in the Pavilion’s strip mall, and there is plenty of parking.
Mutual 1 resident Debbi Fudge (third from left) with staff Jack Roberts (l-r), Miguel Martinez, Terry Daniels, Kristi Underworld and General Manager Jim Delvin
