Blaze Pizza & Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop

Long time no restaurant review. Oh, I've been eatin', just not talking about it. Just kidding. Well, I have a two-fer today to make up for the slack. Let's get right into it. Blaze Pizza and Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop are two fairly new restaurants that recently opened up in Irvine and Costa Mesa respectively. If you're looking for some new places to fill that void in your tummy, go check out these two places and don't tell me that I never tell you where all the good places are.

Blaze Pizza is located near UCI in the University Center. I can't remember what shop use to occupy that spot but no matter because that area is now always busy. I tried to go here a week after their grand opening but the long lines made me make a hard right into Lee's Sandwiches for a quick bite instead. About a month later, I went back and this time the lines were more manageable.

So I did as I always do when I go to a new restaurant, I poured over the entire menu making sure that I get just the right thing because I do not want to have 'ordering regrets' later. You know what I'm talking about...ordering one thing and then lusting after someone else's food when it comes out.

So if you are feeling creative, you can build-your-own, if not, you can easily just pick something off their signature menu. If you've ever been to Chipotle then you'll be a pro at this build-your-own pizza thing. Same principle just with pizza.

I built this city beauty! A 'build-your-own' with veggies that I liked, which looks like mushrooms, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, pineapple, tomato slices, basil and sauce. Yeah, I basically like it all!

And the crust blazed a trail through my heart...

My boss came into work the other day raving about Greenleaf and shamed me for not knowing about it. Strange thing was, I did feel ashamed for not knowing about this amazing place. It's everything that I love about a restaurant. The decor is garden-like and what I can only describe as 'green'. There is a large community table at the center of the restaurant surrounded by regular tables. The food is very healthy and very delicious at the same time. They have a fresh juice bar and the service was lightning fast the evening I was there after work. I mean, we ordered and got our food in what seemed like 2 minutes.

Lemongrass Chicken salad - all the ingredients tasted so fresh. This salad had all the flavors of a tropical meal...grilled pineapples, sliced mangoes, shredded coconut. It went so well with the pineapple/kale juice that I also ordered. The salads are more expensive than your average salad but they are made with quality ingredients and the portions are large.

M ordered the Mexplosion! It had a wheat tortilla under the salad...so kind of like a salad burrito.

Blaze Pizza
4255 Campus Dr, Ste A120

Irvine, CA 92612

(949) 725-0012

Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop
234 East 17th Street
Costa Mesa
(949) 200-3950