Playground

Playground is a seasonal restaurant that changes their menu daily focusing on ingredients that are in peak season. Playground sources their meat from sustainable and humane farms ensuring high-quality. Located in the Artist Village of Santa Ana, this restaurant is always full with diners that are passionate about food and craft beers, many of them working in the restaurant industry. Playground draws the late-night industry crowd , open until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

            

Karobuta Pork B.LT. Steam Bun with shaved cabbage
Photo by Matt Barg

The restaurant focuses on small plates that are meant to share at the table. An example of the quality meat that is used is the Kurobuta pork B.L.T. Kurobuta is the holy grail of pork, similar to Kobe when pertaining to beef.

            

The octopus salad with baby potatoes, avocado mousse and red pepper puree is a refreshing movement towards spring.

The surprisingly delicious octopus salad
Photo by Matt Barg

 

The chef at Playground puts on a daily ramen dish in his quest for perfection of the dish. “I love ramen and eat it weekly,” Mina Sacramento said. “You can’t go wrong with pork belly on anything. The ramen was flavored strongly with shoyu. Shoyu is a dark, rich flavored soy sauce. 

Shoyu ramen with seared pork belly, thinly sliced pork tenderloin and  a hard boiled egg
Photo by Matt Barg