Chaak Kitchen

chicharrón en salsa verde. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) Chaak Kitchen (64) At her sleek Old Town Tustin restaurant, chef Gabbi Patrick pays homage to her family’s Yucatecan heritage with time-intensive interpretations of the region’s revered dishes

your palate for days. — P.I.E. 215 El Camino Real, Tustin, (657) 699-3019, chaakkitchen.com The Yucatán Peninsula’s famed pork dish, achiote-rubbed cochinita pibil, is smoked for 11 hours over red oak at Chaak Kitchen in Tustin. (Mariah Tauger / Los

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Photo by Todd Barnes Chef Gabbi Patrick of the popular Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen in Old Towne Orange has opened Chaak Kitchen in Old Town Tustin. According the website, the menu features Yucatecan and Mayan “staples of pibil, recados, seafood, smoke

“Here, try some of this,” my partner says, handing me a jar of charred habanero salsa. “Maybe this will help.” I take the blackened salsa and dab it onto the flatbread. I chase it with a swig of mezcal. The flatbread at Chaak Kitchen doesn’t really

with what feels like a vengeance. I wish I had worn cashmere instead of cotton. Chaak Kitchen is a beautiful, somewhat minimalist indoor/outdoor restaurant in Old Town Tustin. The entire front wall of the dining room is opened to reveal a tree-covered

The charred habanero salsa at Chaak Kitchen, a Yucatecan restaurant in Tustin, is a fairly alarming thing to behold as far as condiments go — a thick, darkly mysterious sludge that resembles, more or less, a small vat of spent motor oil. The salsa

from tradition: a serious Yucatecan kitchen rooted in the ways of the old Mayan Riviera and thriving in Orange County, of all places. Chaak Kitchen Start your meal at Chaak with sikil p’ak, a traditional Yucatecan pumpkin seed dip. (Mariah Tauger / Los

should’ve expected nothing less of a kitchen led by Gabbi Patrick, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Chaak Kitchen is the follow-up to her original restaurant, Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen in Orange, which she and her husband, Ed

Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen, which is wedged between two antique stores, Chaak stands alone—and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Chaak Kitchen, 215 El Camino Real, Tustin, (657) 699-3019; chaakkitchen.com. Open Sun.-Thurs., 5-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5

Maybe it’s because everyone grows weary of turkey this time of year. But whatever the reason, it appears that the turkey salbutes have been scrubbed from the menu at Chaak Kitchen in Tustin. I hope they are not gone forever. These were one of my

incredible combination, this tender, fragrant pork and these puffy, slightly crispy tortillas. There’s nothing else like it in Orange County. Salbute with cochinita pibil at Chaak Kitchen in Tustin (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG) Chaak

Oliver’s Osteria in Laguna Beach. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG) 3. Chaak Kitchen. This long-awaited next act from Ed and Gabbi Patrick of Gabbi’s in Orange is one of the most original Mexican kitchens to open in years. The wood

, 657-699-3019, chaakkitchen.com. The bar, right, is below the open-air ceiling at Chaak Kitchen, a Mayan Mexican restaurant in Tustin.. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) 2. Playa Mesa. Forgo the chips and salsa and ask instead for

, thaiavenuegardengrove.com Beef tartare with charred garlic salsa and smoked black pepper aioli at Chaak in Tustin (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG) Beef tartare at Chaak The kitchen had just put this new item on the menu when I dined recently at chef

Forest Ave., Laguna Beach, 949-715-0801, centrallagunabeach.com Yellowtail ceviche with lime and coconut milk at Central Laguna Beach. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG) 8. Makkum branzino at Chaak Kitchen. Fire and smoke pulse

, Tustin, 657-699-3019, chaakkitchen.com. Whole branzino rubbed with achiote paste and roasted in the wood-fired oven at Chaak Kitchen in Tustin. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG) 7. Cacio e pepe at Oliver’s Osteria. This cacio e pepe

geometric light fixtures that wash the room in a clubby, electric-blue glow. Review: Chaak Kitchen is a culinary trip to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, via Tustin » Kasih, like other Indonesian restaurants, serves dishes from across the archipelago; the menu