On February 22, 2020, we celebrated our 6th anniversary! My parents offered to take our son for the evening so we could spend a nice evening out together. We were debating where to go, and couldn’t quite make up our minds – my husband wanted Italian food, and I really wanted steak. My Google searching brought me to the Anaheim White House!
Reservations & Arrival
Securing a reservation was pretty easy – you can either call or book online. We chose to book online, and we received an email confirmation a day later. The afternoon of our reservation we received a phone call to confirm that we would be coming in. Super convenient and efficient!
Not too far from Disneyland (in fact, the same freeway exit!), it’s located in an unlikely spot. It’s in the middle of a relatively busy area, but the restaurant itself felt separate from its surroundings. One thing to note – there’s only valet parking, so come prepared with cash for this. The valet parking is probably done out of convenience, but it was an added touch that made our evening feel a bit fancier! (Side note: we never do valet parking anywhere, so it was a nice treat).
When we arrived, we were the third party in the restaurant from what I could tell. They opened up at 5pm and I booked the reservation for that time. Let’s face it, with a toddler at home, we’re early birds! Anyways, when we checked in they wished us a happy anniversary (I noted it on our reservation) and we were seated right away.
Service
Service was prompt and attentive. We had a team of 2 servers working with us. One of the servers explained each section of the menu, highlighting guest favorites. He was happy to answer any questions we had and provide personalized recommendations. There were separate servers for the bread and butter service. I was super interested in the filet mignon, but it came with a mushroom sauce. I hate mushrooms. When I requested something different, our main server was quick to make an alternate sauce suggestion. Perfect! And, when our main dishes came out, he made sure my filet was prepared to my satisfaction.
Atmosphere
The Anaheim White House is beautiful! It is actually a historic building, starting out as a private residence in the early 1900s. In the 1980s it became a restaurant. Unfortunately in 2017 it suffered severe damage from a fire, but reopened in 2018. The interior is classy and elegant, but not stiff like some upscale establishments. You know how sometimes you go to fancy places and you feel out of place? I didn’t feel like that was the case here at all. I ordered a Diet Coke with my meal and didn’t feel judged. My husband ordered a pizza and it was totally fine. It had a welcoming atmosphere. It was upscale but accessible. I wasn’t sure if there was a dress code, so I opted for leggings and a sweater dress with flats. It was rainy that day, so I wore my pea coat with it. My husband wore nice, dark jeans with a button-up t-shirt, nice shoes, and a jacket. We weren’t out of place at all.
Food & Dessert
Oh my, the food! I’ll start with my salad. My husband isn’t a big salad eater, but I was going all out for this meal with a salad, entree, and dessert. I ordered the White House Greens, which is a mixed greens salad tossed in a passion fruit & ginger vinaigrette. The vinaigrette sounded like an odd combo but it was very light and tossed to perfection. Sometimes vinaigrettes can drench the lettuce, but this was not the case. It was perfectly tossed. My husband didn’t order any appetizer or salad, so he just enjoyed the bread and butter while I chowed down on my salad.
For our entrees, my husband ordered the Italian Gourmet pizza and I ordered the 10 oz filet mignon with Italian polenta. The Italian Gourmet pizza was about a 10″ pizza. Had he not eaten so much bread he probably could have eaten the whole thing! In addition to traditional red sauce, it had burrata cheese and prosciutto on top. I got to have a couple slices as leftovers the next day and it was quite delicious. I ordered my filet to be prepared medium, and it was very, very good. I’m a sucker for polenta, and that was delicious as well. There were more things on the menu that I wanted to try, and we both agreed we would be back in the future!
For dessert, we ordered the banana tart. When this arrived at our table, other tables nearby looked over and asked what we had ordered. One of the other servers even commented that that was his favorite dessert! Man, that was amazing. Banana and chocolate is my favorite combo for dessert, and let me tell you, this did not disappoint. I will say this is a large dessert and it was a stretch for the 2 of us to split it. A party of 3 or 4 would be able to easily split this. In fact, I’m not sure how the 2 of us managed to eat the whole thing! Anyways, the banana tart comes layered with puffed pastry, caramelized bananas, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate. The whole thing comes with hand-spun sugar on top. MAJOR YUM.
In addition to our banana tart, we were presented with a trio of small desserts – a chocolate covered strawberry, a chocolate cream puff, and a small creme brulee – for our anniversary. We somehow found room to eat all that as well.
Final Thoughts & A Note on Charity
Wow. We will definitely be back here again! It was a bit more expensive than restaurants we normally go to, but it wasn’t outrageously priced. It was definitely within our budget for a nicer occasion – we didn’t get alcoholic drinks and I think our total before tip was around $120. That’s not bad for a nice evening out. I truly feel it was well worth it.
The restaurant’s owner also does a ton of charity work through Caterina’s Club, which serves approximately 25,000 meals per week to underprivileged children in the local area. They also have a hospitality academy and work to provide homes to those in need. We like going to businesses that give back locally, so this is just another reason we’ll be back to dine at this establishment.
