Orange County Bound - Is There "Drive-Worthy" Food There?

Yes it is…

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To add to bad news though, Theorem is permanently closed as it was losing too much money and they needed the senior baristas to train more people for all of their expansions.

To add to the thread.

Little Saigon.

So much different regional and specialty dishes. Also drinks that you can’t find anywhere else in hole-in-wall fruit stands or on a side cart. Offal cuts with your pho that if you don’t come early, you are out of luck.
Besides beaches and Disneyland, the one thing that Orange County has that is better than LA, Vietnamese food. Yeah I know there is Vietnamese in the 626 but they can’t compare to the offerings of Little Saigon, both size and depth.

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Irenia

Both the dinuguan and the kaldereta (with beef not goat) are drive-worthy.

Chef Hung

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Went here on Tuesday night. The place was barely half full. We took out our 4 friends who are Filipino and they had their reservations about Irenia.

The food was outstanding. One of the best meals we’ve had this entire year. We ordered the entire menu except for the mackerel.
The Dilis was addicting. Flash fried, crunchy, salty and great with the vinegar spicy sauce. J Gold said its the best thing he’s eaten in the last 2 weeks on his LA Times blog. Our table of 6 had 3 orders.
Kare Kare with cauliflower was another great appetizer. Not as peanut buttery and made with cauliflower. A lighter version that was a table favorite.
The Kaldereta was delicious. That brown sauce would be good on a shoe. Meat was fall off the bone tender.
The Adobo was far from the traditional style that we’ve had. Much less vinegary but man that pork belly was out of this world.
Bibingka dessert was like a dulche de leche type cake. I’ve never had this before. Great crunch from the peanuts and the cake itself was moist with a lovely coconut/caramel like flavor.

Lastly the rice was the best rice I’ve eaten at any Asian place in a long time. It was perfectly made, fluffy, perfect for all of the sauces and had that perfect white rice flavor. We pounded a few large bowls of rice.

I would highly recommend this place and hope more people start coming because the food here is very good.

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I’ll have to check this out. I had Capital Noodle Bar’s version of this last week in Brea, and it was great, with the exception of one piece of beef that needed another couple of hours to cook.

I wonder how that errant piece got in there.

I have no idea. My guess was that maybe the add to the pot throughout the day, but I really have no clue. I just set it aside and enjoyed the rest. Everything else (tripe, tendon, and other pieces of meat) were great.

Usually in that area it is J Zhou or Chef Hung. I really enjoy the refined broth at Chef Hung, it is slightly spicy and not too oily. The flat noodles give a nice bite, but not ideal if sharing the bowl. Also the green onion pancake and shredded soft fried pork and egg wrap are good.

I like to get OC poultry before I head over the Bruery for some delicious craft beer!

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My Dad lives behind the orange curtain, as I did growing up, so I love getting Vietnamese when I go down. Pho 79 is a place we both love and Bihn Dan at 10040 McFadden, right off the 405, though only half the menu is in english - they have a delicious blood dish. Also Garlic and Chives is awesome and you can get a salted coffee next door! Yum!!

Another Pho 79 fan!

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Highly recommend Bottle Logic in Anaheim. Delicious!

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Have to try that place! I think my little sister and her boyfriend really like it.

Only wish it was closer!!

Pho 79 is great - if I remember, that place has fantastic tendon. I went on a pho crawl a few months back and liked Pho 79’s beef the best, though we could not find Pho Thanh Lich (which kept closing and moving around).

Pho 45 in Garden Grove is also great - about 40 minutes from West LA on a weekend morning (the only time I’ll go). Better noodles, in my opinion, and a very complex broth (more anise and spices are discernible), but their beef isn’t as good as Pho 79’s.

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sonic

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Pho 79 is King imo

The thing to get is the side oxtail!!
That runs out if you come to late. It is only $2 I think.

Pho 45 is great if you want a thicker noodle and I think they close at midnight on the weekend, so you can get your pho on post-Disney or post-HB bonfire.

Across from 79 another pho joint offers the beef bones

Very interesting!

I’m guessing this Pho 79 in OC is not related to the Pho 79 in the SGV / Alhambra?

Because Pho 79 in Alhambra was always mediocre the 3 or so times we went a while back.