RAYA, a restaurant concept by Richard Sandoval, showcases Pan-Latin Coastal Cuisine prepared with sustainable seafood, local produce, natural and organic meats, and Chef Sandoval’s signature Latin flavors. RAYA was named named “Restaurant of the Year” by Riviera Orange County in 2011.
RAYA is located in Ritz Carlton hotel in South Orange County. The room is beautiful, luxurious and unique. In good weather, the terrace is a better choice but inside the restaurant still offers a panoramic view of the ocean.
The menu is divided into three sections: shared, small plates, salads & soup, and specialties. We didn’t brother with the soup or salads because the offerings didn’t look that interesting. Instead, we focused on the restaurant specialties, starting with the wagyu beef tartare.
Wagyu stands for Japanese cow, but I highly doubt the beef come from Japan. It was still very tender, just not A5 level. The dish is prepared tableside using black garlic aioli, coinichon, cured egg yolk, pickled mustard seeds, green olive tapenade and grilled focaccia bread.
I’m not sure why the dish was done tableside. It wasn’t much of a show. They could have just as easily prepared it in the kitchen and brought it to the table, and you wouldn’t miss anything.
Roasted cauliflower with peanut guajillo sauce and smoked grape chimichurri. This is one strange dish. Take a whole cauliflower head, but don’t cut it up. Instead, roast the entire thing in the oven until you create a crust on the outside, then hide it in sauce. Strange but good.
Seafood enchiladas made with shrimp, Dungeness crab and lobster. Covered with a creamy guajillo sauce and served with heirloom cherry tomatoes. One of the best tasting enchiladas I’ve ever tried. It’s also the most expensive enchilada I’ve ever tried.
The above dish is call Mariscos A Lo Macho, which is a traditional Peruvian seafood sauce that’s savory, hearty, fragrant, and slightly spicy. It can be pair with pretty much any seafood. In this case, RAYA paired the sauce with sea bass, tiger prawn and little neck calm mussels. Yucaa, tomato and salsa criolla complete the dish.
Scallops and pork belly on a cream corn sauce. The ingredients were all place on one side of the plate, making me wondered if something was suppose to be on the other side. Both scallops and pork belly were extremely tender.
RAYA had four desserts on the menu, and we decided to sample two of them: a peaches and cream parfait and a lemon cake. Both were really good and great way to end the meal.
Dinner for four came to a little over $100 per person, which is quite reasonable for a fine dinning restaurant. If you find yourself staying at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel (it’s really in Dana Point), dinner at RAYA should be part of your itinerary.