Anaheim: Mimi’s Cafe

Mimi’s Cafe is a casual sit down restaurant that is French inspired, but serves up American comfort food as well. Over the years, they’ve changed their menu… and after being acquired by a new company, they changed their menu, yet again.  They lured me with a BOGO coupon in the mail, a free entree with a purchase of another plus 2 drinks.  I had a gift card that someone gave me, and so Stephen and I decided to check out their new menu.

Mimi’s Cafe really pushed their “Brick Chicken”, which is a cooking a butterflied whole chicken “under a brick” that gives you that crispy skin, succulent meat, and takes half the time as roasting. They had the “Brick Chicken” when you walked in, on the cover of the menu, and even as an insert in their menu.  When I went to their web site, the first thing I saw was, you guessed it, “Brick Chicken”.

Mimi’s Cafe had 2 versions of their “Brick Chicken”: the Cowboy Rub Brick Chicken and a Provencal-Garlic Brick Chicken. Mimi’s description was: A fire-grilled half chicken cooked “under a brick” for crisp, crackling golden brown skin with juicy breast, wing, and leg meat. The Cowboy was served with roasted Western potatoes and spicy hand-made ranch salad, while the Provencal-Garlic was served with baked cheesy gratin potatoes and red vinaigrette salad.

I succumbed to their fantastic marketing and chose the Provencal-Garlic version, while Stephen chose the Grilled Atlantic Salmon, with a light Chardonnay Dijon sauce, sautéed garlic spinach and choice of baked cheesy gratin or roasted potatoes (he went with the gratin).

The chicken lived up to its hype.  It was delicious!  There was a nice lemony flavor, with just the right amount of herbs rubbed in.  It wasn’t overly salty, and the meat was juicy, moist, tender, and well, perfectly cooked.  Was it worth the $16 price tag?  Maybe not.  I would expect this kind of price at a high end restaurant, not a casual family one like Mimi’s.  

Stephen enjoyed his salmon, and said it looked small on the plate, but it was more than adequate when he finished his meal.  He felt his meal was worth the price of $14.

Fortunately for us, we had a BOGO and a $25 gift card. With the coupon and gift card, we just had to pay the gratuity, which made this an exceptional evening for us.