Restaurant Review:

Though you will have to wait until September to eat there, I am fairly certain I am giving you ample warning, though it is possible even four months lead time is not enough to secure a seat at OCC’s Captain’s Table.

The community college’s Food Service and Culinary Arts programs runs the Captain’s Table. Every Thursday, students of dining room service and dining room management, and the “Ala Minute” class, host a lunch during the fall and spring semesters.

The lunches have different themes and are open to the public, but this could be the toughest seat in town.

There are no celebrity chefs here to draw in the A-list crowd, though future superstars could be toiling away in the instructional kitchen. There is no signature entrée, because the menu changes every week and the view is of one of the parking lots and the bursar’s office. Every Thursday, though, 75 people pay $12 and await a meal that is the culinary equivalent of a game of craps.

These are students and they are learning. They aren’t perfect and if your meal is inedible you don’t get your money back.

My schedule allowed for April 16 and I figured a month out was plenty of time to get a table for two. Wrong.

I dropped my name, threw my weight around, mentioned to the gatekeeper, whose name is Rosio, how lovely her name was. That got me nothing. I was going on the waiting list just like everybody else.

Then Rosio called about two weeks before April 16 and said she had two spots at a shared table. At that point I would have sat in someone’s lap.

The dining room is a very functional, nice, airy space with comfortable chairs, though there isn’t much space for diners at the shared tables. We had two empty spots and still were looking for room to put glasses down.

The theme of this week was Japanese cuisine. When we were seated, a dish of pickled Japanese cucumbers with sesame seeds in a sweet pickle juice was waiting for us. The waiter was very attentive.

This is a three-course meal, with an appetizer or salad, entrée and dessert. Diners can make it four courses and have both an appetizer and salad for an additional $3.

My guest had the gyoza for an appetizer. There were three pork-scallion dumplings with a ground pork mixture with ginger, scallions and garlic. One of them was a little cold, but they were steamed properly and had a nice taste to them.

The shiitake mushroom salad was good, but the grilled mushrooms were smaller compared to my neighbor’s. My guest had the green salad with miso dressing; that combination of iceberg and romaine lettuce, with tomato, cucumber and thinly sliced carrots, was a much better choice.

The entrees we chose were stir-fried beef and ginger salmon. The beef was thinly sliced, stir fried with mushrooms, bean sprouts and scallions. The dish was good, but the beef was a bit chewy in spots.

The salmon portion was generous, the ginger sauce very mellow. It was served with green beans and rice.

We finished our meal with green-tea ice cream that was creamy and very good. Our meals were not without flaws, but it was an experience I would like to repeat. If for nothing else to say I was there when the next potential celebrity chef was learning their trade.

Captain’s Table

ADDRESS: 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa

PHONE: (714) 432-5876 ext. 22

WEBSITE: www.orangecoastcollege.edu

CUISINE: changes on a weekly basis

ALCOHOL SERVED: none

ENTRÉE PRICE RANGE: $12

FAMILY FRIENDLY: not really

CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED: MasterCard and Visa

RATING: ***

JOHN REGER reviews local restaurants and may be contacted at Nolimepublishing@aol.com or P.O. Box 2984, Seal Beach, CA 90740.