Mix Mix Kitchen - Santa Ana

Amazing food and drinks. Great fusion of French and Philippino food. I would highly recommend and can't wait to go back.

I was not expecting a restaurant like this to survive in Santa Ana. The dishes are interesting, the ingredients are fresh, the drinks are fun, and the staff is actually helpful. Five stars.

I recently visited a friend in this area of town and she was super excited to check out this place so we went for it! We came early and had reservations, the place does get pretty busy about an hour after opening. We both love a tapas style restaurant because we can never decide on what to order. We basically ordered one of everything (not really but it felt like it). The seared albacore toastada was probably my favorite. We even ordered an additional order of it because it was so good we also loved the soft egg ravioli and of course the pork cheek adobo, literally melted in your mouth. Definitely interested in trying out there other location in south coast plaza as well!

My experience at Mix Mix was, well, mixed, but overall not bad. The food was fine, the service was good (but slowed significantly as tables filled up) and the environment was well kempt. The restaurant really began to fill up after 7:30 and service slowed way down after being initially very prompt. As a side note, they are located very close to a parking garage where there 's ample parking. It is pay to park, but it only cost me about $3 for a couple hours, so very affordable. There is limited parking on the street if your fortunate enough to nab a spot. When my girlfriend and I first arrived at Mix Mix, it was not too crowded. That was pretty surprising for a Friday night 7, but that soon changed and the place got busier over the next half hour. The host and our waitress were very friendly and attentive. They answered all our questions about the menu. The menu, it is pretty limited. It is two pages one side is beverages, the other is appetizers, entrees that come from the land, entrees that come from the sea and a sole dessert. There 's roughly a dozen food options to select from. Not too much variety. For beverages, my girlfriend ordered a margarita to drink and I stuck with boring ol ' water. For the meal, we ended up going with the brussel sprouts, the shishito peppers (I 'm a HUGE fan of shishito peppers in general) and the burger. I requested the burger as a lettuce wrap and the waitress said they could put the burger components on a bed of lettuce but they could not do a wrap. I consented to this and our orders were locked in. First up was the margarita. My girlfriend took a sip and said it tasted like pure margarita mix with no alcohol. I then took a sip and did taste an ever so faint after taste of tequila. We let our waitress know the margarita was a bit weak and they brought us a shot of tequila, on the house, which definitely improved the bland cocktail. Next up were the brussel sprouts. YES, to these brussel sprouts. This is how you do brussel sprouts. Well done, Mix Mix. If you 're struggling to decide from the limited options on the menu, let me be your guide and get the brussel sprouts. The were very flavorful and had what tasted like a slightly spicy aioli sauce on them that complimented them exceedingly well. FANTASTIC dish. Next up, the shishito peppers. This is difficult for me to type, being such a huge shishito pepper fan, but...the shishito peppers were pretty bland and average at best. There really was no flavor to them. They were basically cooked in an oil, had some bread crumbs a top and a dab of plain yogurt that they sat on. The yogurt did nothing to add any flavor. We asked for a side of sriracha, which helped some, but I was disappointed by the potential these peppers had. The peppers were high quality, just bland. They really could use the treatment the brussel sprouts received to bring out some flavor. Lastly, my burger arrived. My initial thought after my first bite was Hey...this tastes exactly like In N Out! Now, that 's not necessarily a bad thing. Anthony Bourdain was once asked what his favorite meal was and out of the vast array of foods he had eaten he replied In N Out burgers. There 's a reason you always see a line at their drive thrus. So I did enjoy the burger. But it just tasted so familiar. The patty, the cheese, the sauce, I couldn 't perish the thought that I was eating an In N Out burger. It all tasted uncannily similar. But, at $18, the price was not similar at all. After finishing all of the aforementioned, my girlfriend was still hungry and, seeing as how she is vegetarian and the menu is already slim enough as it is if you aren 't vegetarian, she decided to order some more of the bland shishito peppers and another margarita. The restaurant had gotten busier at this time, though, there were still a fair amount of open tables. But we lost track of time for how long we waited for those two items to arrive. We ended up telling our waitress just to cancel them. A few minutes later, she brought out the peppers and the margarita and said they would be comped, which was a very nice gesture considering the very long wait time we endures. All in all, not a bad establishment. I think it 's a good spot to try. I wouldn 't say I see myself becoming a regular, though. The menu is very limited. Out of the 3 items I had, one was excellent, one was fine and one was meh. I wouldn 't recommend coming on the weekends late into the evening lest you risk the very long wait times we experienced for our last additions to our order.

Mix Mix Kitchen Bar is a quaint restaurant located in the heart of the art district in downtown Santa Ana. The aesthetic has equal touches of minimalism and modern features that set the tone for any type of evening. When we arrived, the hostess took us to a seat in the back. The seat was located near the kitchen and gave us a good view of the seasoned chefs performing their craft. (No complaints from me because I enjoy the view of an open kitchen To start off, we ordered a margarita, brussels sprouts and shishito peppers. Starting with the drink, the margarita was sadly disappointing. It was bland and tasted like a margarita mix that you would buy at a supermarket. I mentioned my dissatisfaction to the waitress and she kindly brought out a shot of tequila for me to add to the existing drink. The shot definitely helped, but I wasn't over the moon about it either. The Brussels sprouts were good. I did feel that they were over saturated in sauce, but they still had a pleasant flavor. The shishito peppers were a bit bland for my taste. I did find it odd that the menu paired the peppers with yogurt tahini sauce. The yogurt tahini was flavorless and did nothing to enhance or compliment the taste of the shishito peppers. For the main dish, we ordered the one and only hamburger on the menu. The hamburger was comparable to an in-n-out burger. That's not to say that it wasn't good, but we probably could have paid for the same burger from in-n-out for much less. My main issue with this restaurant was the kitchen/bar service. It was ridiculously slow. I understand that many restaurants are understaffed and that most establishments are in difficult times, but at what point does my patience wear thin? I started to get frustrated after 30 minutes when our second order of shishito peppers and our 2nd cocktail didn't come out. Keep in mind that this was just an appetizer item and a drink; not an actual meal. Once the 30 minute mark approached, I flagged down our waitress and asked to cancel the order and drink. She was well aware that we waited for a long period of time, so she comped the drink and shishito peppers. Even after I asked to cancel the order, the waitress still followed through with her commitment and brought us the order. I can't recall her name, but our waitress was very sweet and helpful. It was not her fault that our food wasn't at our table within a reasonable amount of time. Either way, we appreciated her going out of her way to make the situation right. My two major complaints: 1. the long wait periods to get food; 2. the lack of vegetarian options on the menu (I had to order 2 plates of shishito peppers because the options were so limited Overall, I liked this restaurant, but I would only come back to grab some appetizers.