Mitze's Kountry Kitchen Laguna Hills

Mitze Kountry is a classic American breakfast joint in the morning that transitions into a Colombian restaurant during lunch and dinner. If you come during lunch hours, you have to request for the Colombian menu once seated or else the server brings you the American brunch menu by default. The Colombian menu is much more adventurous than the brunch menu. Why settle for American diner food when you have an opportunity to try plates from Bogota, Colombia, the city that the Macia family emigrated from prior to opening Colombian Cuisine at Mitze? Curiosity and luck brought me to Mitze. I recently discovered Mitze's $6.95 weekday lunch specials through their Facebook page. This price is hard to beat for a sit-down lunch in the south OC. The lunch special includes a hearty Colombian chicken and vegetable soup to start, and is followed with an entree that consists of beef, chicken, or fish served with rice, fried plaintins, and beans. The soup was topped with many healthy vegetables - boiled cassava, carrots, potatoes, green onions, cilantro - and filled with spices and herbs. It also included a piece of chicken leg. One of the best tasting vegetable and chicken soups I've ever had in the OC. For the entree, I ordered the catfish (bagre en salsa criolla). Catfish fillets were tossed in a light creamy Colombian sauce that complements white rice. Black beans were standard and the plaintains were fried and sweet. I also sampled 2 pieces of Mitze's empanadas which were on sale for 99¢ on Thursdays. Each piece was freshly baked and arrived piping hot. A mild aji salsa sauce was provided, unlike the spicy Peruvian aji sauces that I had before. The combination of crispy crust, warm beef and potatoes fillings, and cold aji sauce was addicting for a bite size snack. Mitze surprised me with an affordable and tasty Colombian lunch. I am ready to try something different next time, like their Venezuelan arepas and Bogota ajiaco.

Good authentic Colombian food.