Newly open in Mission Viejo @ The Union Market, located inside the Kaleidoscope is Anchor Hitch. A contemporary restaurant specializing in seafood. The dishes are tapas style which allows diners to interact and share bites with one another. Upon arrival, my guest and I were fortunate to be given a tour of the kitchen, the staff was very eager & proud to display their products and what they were cooking up. They also asked us two pick two out of three dishes and they would have it immediately sent to our table. We decided to go with the Tom Yum Agnoletti & their Uni Pasta.
Once seated our dishes immediately came out within a matter of minutes. The Uni Pasta is actually made with egg ramen style noodles, in an uni cream sauce and topped with a perfectly poached egg. The texture of the egg noodles played very well with the sauce. The uni cream itself was nice, a little too subtle in my opinion for the egg noodles which have a more prominent flavor compared to pasta. The rice puffs and seaweed gave a nice crisp texture to the dish.
The Tom Yum Agnoletti was cooked to perfection as the pasta was still delicate with an al dente texture, and a delicious filling of shrimp. The tom yum cream was frothy and flavorful, yet it did not dominate the pasta but enhanced the flavors. This was also paired with Maitake mushrooms which is one of my personal favorite mushrooms. I would most definitely order this dish again.
They also offer specialty oysters and highly recommended their Cilantro Lime oyster. This dish was slightly broiled and topped with a garlic butter scallion oil, & their cilantro and jalapeno vinaigrette. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t care for cooked oysters, raw is pretty much the way to go, however this was very delicious. The oyster itself was cooked very well to a medium point, and the sauces paired with the oyster were just fantastic.
Abalone Panna Cotta, I’ve only ever had dessert Panna Cotta’s and never a savory dish so this was a must on my list to try. The colors on this dish were amazingly vibrant and as each component was placed meticulously. The creamy, light and cold panna cotta paired very well with the very well poached abalone as the uni gave a hint of sweetness. The ikura was the salty bite you needed to balance this dish. I would have to say this dish was very creative and original.
I kept hearing great things about their Cajun Seared Albacore so we gave this a go. Once again another beautifully presented dish. The albacore was placed on top of a garlic cream sauce, perfectly seared and not overcooked at all. Micro greens, massago, and roasted asparagus complimented the dish. The Cajun seasoning was not overwhelming and gave that hint of spice needed to light up the albacore. Asparagus was very tender and their uni cream sauce was amazing, if I had bread I would’ve scraped up every bit of that sauce.
The last dish we ordered was their Charred Tako, Tako in Japanese is Octopus. Their octopus is braised, balanced with pork chorizo, chili verde, and a sweet yam puree. This dish was probably my least favorite, although the octopus was well braised and then charred, the flavors were very one noted and a bit heavy. The pork chorizo completely masked the flavor of the octopus and their purees that paired with the dish.
The night we arrived they were not expecting much traffic considering how new they are so I did notice the managers/owners being very hands on. Service was a bit slow and we had to flag down several people for water refills, however it was really nice to see the owners/managers helping out. They were very apologetic and apologized profusely.
Overall I had a good experience here at Anchor Hitch, the restaurant is very fresh, clean, and modern. I would definitely recommend Anchor Hitch to seafood lovers. Now if you don’t like seafood they also do offer a house made burger, as well as their ribeye steaks. Give Anchor Hitch a try and let me know your personal experience☺.
Anchor Hitch – 27741 Crown Valley Pkwy, Mission Viejo, CA 92691 – Contact – 949.226.8949