As I was wandering the food court at Mitsuwa Marketplace in Costa Mesa this weekend, I noticed a sign across Maestro's menu. It said that they had closed their doors (counters?) for good on New Year's Eve.
The booth sold Japanese takes on Italian food and was one of the least-popular booths in the food court. It was always very confusing, because the “Italian Tomato”, which is next door, sells pastry and European-type sweets adjusted for the Japanese palate (i.e., not as cloyingly sweet and slightly drier). The Italian Tomato, incidentally, is still open for business.
Enquiries with the management of the complex indicated that Maestro, like so many other restaurants, was a casualty of the economic times. This means that you cannot get your fix of rice-stuffed chicken with eggplant, or your pasta with scallops, mentaiko and cream sauce, at Mitsuwa Costa Mesa; you will have to do with the other excellent food there, such as tonkotsu ramen from Santouka or ten zaru soba from Miyabi-Tei.
