RESTAURANT REVIEW:

Sunday night I was looking forward to Mediterranean food and thought I would swing by Panini Garden Bistro.

When I walked in it was fairly quiet, not uncommon for 8 p.m. on a Sunday. My guest and I sat down, and the waiter told us they would close for a week while they made a menu change.

I was stunned. I always thought the food at Panini was good and didn’t really think a change from mostly Mediterranean to Italian was in order.

Obviously it’s not my decision to make, and I will be sad to see the old menu go, but am excited to see what the new menu entails. We decided to send off the old cuisine by ordering some of the appetizers while we looked over the new menu.

It does appear the new menu will keep some of the more popular items, which is reassuring.

We began with lentil soup, one of the dishes Panini will continue to offer. The cup is filled with a beige broth containing ample amounts of lentil. The bits of vegetable give it almost a minestrone type feel to it.

The lentil used to be the lone soup on the menu, but it will be joined by shrimp bisque, white bean and minestrone.

We moved onto the appetizers, of which Panini had many. Fortunately they are keeping some of them, including the hummus, dolma, baba ghannouj and tzatziki.

The hummus is good, and the pita bread soft and warm. The whipped garbanzo beans combined with the garlic, olive oil, herbs and lemon are a nice combination.

We ordered makdous, baby eggplant marinated in extra virgin olive oil with garlic, peppers, pine nuts and walnuts added.

Next was the arayess — seasoned ground beef topped with pine nuts and grilled in pita bread.

We got lahm bi-ajin after that. It is like a Middle Eastern version of the pizza. It is flatbread with onions, mint, pine nuts and pomegranate juice.

The fattier was a nice break from the meat dishes. It is filo dough stuffed with either spinach or cheese. We liked them, but thought a combination of the two would have made a better appetizer.

The final dish on our farewell tour was the makanek, a quesadilla-type appetizer that has a beef patty in pita bread with fine beef sausage and pine nuts and a special seasoning.

Most of these dishes will not be on the new menu, but I was encouraged that they may be brought back.

The new menu looks like a worthy substitute. The restaurant plans on focusing more on Italian food.

A new section will be antipastos of which Panini will have five, including calamari and an antipasto casereccio, that will serve two people and includes buffalo mozzarella and grilled vegetables.

The pasta selections seem to be just as generous. There will be 11 of them and the most appealing look like the linguine al pesto and gnocchi caprese.

The linguine will be tossed with basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan, pecorino cheese and extra virgin olive oil. The gnocchi will have buffalo mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce.

The restaurant also plans on having pizza with toppings such as prosciutto, artichokes, pesto and sun-dried tomatoes.

The one item the restaurant is keeping is the panini sandwiches they are known for and actually adding a few more.

The panini with oven-roasted salmon, melted brie, capers and red onions on focaccia would be my favorite of the ones I saw. The prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella is another one I look forward to trying.

My guess is Panini will thrive with the new menu, but I also hope that some of the dishes I will desperately miss will be back on the menu, making the restaurant that much stronger.

PANINI GARDEN BISTRO

ADDRESS: 4647 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach

INFO: (949) 660-1019; tenrestaurantgroup.com /panini

CUISINE: Mediterranean, but moving more toward Italian

ALCOHOL SERVED: full bar

ENTRÉE PRICE RANGE: $8 to $22

FAMILY FRIENDLY: no kids’ menu, but the chefs can create something

CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED: American Express, MasterCard, Discover and Visa

RATING: ***

JOHN REGER reviews local restaurants and may be contacted at [email protected] or P.O. Box 2984, Seal Beach, CA 90740.