Curry Hut (very close to Mr BBQ). A 2/3 item plate with naan is a lot of food. Our family of 4 usually splits a 2 item and 3 item plate.
El Farolito (on the other side of the 57). A carnitas plate with tortillas and a basket of chips is a ton of food.
MDK Noddles on Euclid. If you order a kalgooksu at the restaurant they give you a free refill of noodles. The kimchi there is excellent. Good for the winter months.
Tony’s Little Italy in Placentia. The best deep dish pizza around. A few slices will put you in a coma. Reheats well the next day too.
First American meal in three months, The Remington at Remington’s. Great wine list if you want a 15.5%-alcohol red that tastes like oak chips. Very Chicago-ish place to me in that the menu makes you expect a classic steakhouse but it’s actually more of a sports bar. Would have gone somewhere else but it was a five-minute (FUCKING FREEZING) walk from our hotel and we’d been traveling for 15 hours. Hit the spot regardless.
Han Yang is my personal fav. Everything hit hard on the menu. The kimchi is my favorite too.
Check out the Little Saigon thread! Off the top of my head……Pho 79/Pho 101, Ngu Binh, Mai Phung, Ba Le, Trieu Chau, Khoi Hung, Quan Mii, Brodards, Banh Khot Lady, are some of the heavy hitters in Little Saigon.
A little north on Garden Grove Blvd also has some good Korean. Gaenali Bon Ga is one of my favs. Mo Ran Gak for by the plate KBBQ but make sure you try the cold noodles. Kaju, Gamja Tang, Hangari Kalguksoo, Jang Mo Gip are some other good places.
In Little Arabia I like Sababa and Kareem’s. I don’t know much about Middle Eastern food though.
Cortinas in Anaheim makes some of the best sandwiches around….the meatball, Philly roast pork, Cortinas special.
Mos 2, Tikiyaki, and Matiki have the best teriyaki plates and bowls in So Cal.
Tacos Los Cholos is probably the biggest name for Mexican in OC atm. The high end asada cuts are tasty but they don’t got a tia making handmade tortillas to order. Kinda bs that they beat Villas Tacos at some competition.
The best Sidecar Donuts location is Costa Mesa. Oliboli is even better. I also like M&M Donuts in Anaheim for piping hot blueberry donuts ran by a single man who never writes down the orders. Donuttery in HB is also good and I think is 24 hours.
I got MDK noodles like two years ago or so and I wasn’t impressed. I remember the noddles being fresh for once, but I was not a fan of the soup. I honestly did I ordered the wrong soup since I hate any Korean soups that are made to feel like instant ramen soup. I know that’s a thing Koreans love and it was a trend a long time ago, but I hate this type of soup. I can buy cup ramen if I wanted instant soup.
There are so many good restaurants, but few are my favorite. OC is great at having good chain restaurants, but there are far and few “great” mom/pop shops. Lot of good ones though. Usually, the small restaurants become big and become a chain if they good big enough.
The ones below stick out as unusual finds for one reason or another.
Good town donuts - I love the different type of donuts they have.
Sabor Mi Tierra - a seafood restaurant (or so google says), but I order their caldo de pollo (chicken soup) I have been searching for a specific chicken soup - tried many and hate most of them until I went to this place. Some restaurants use Gallo vs pollo, the chicken varies and ingredients vary too. From a basic search, Gallo does mean rooster, however, in my family gallo vs pollo just means a different style of soup eg Mexican vs other styles.
Mario’s Butcher shop has a nice selection of subs and I am always distracted by the selection of other food items they have.
Neighborhood bento - when Mitsuwa is far or when I just want a simple gyudon.
Sgt pizza is good. Expensive, but good.
Meiji seimen is good. No frills, I actually prefer their noodles vs tanakaya, but I need to try Tanakaya again to confirm this lol
HiroNori - good old stable, I wish that there was a ramen shop that had Marafuku’s chashu’s but with Hironori’s noodles.
Marafuku is good. (Note: I have high standards of ramen, like sky high. Even in Tokyo, I became really picky with the type of ramen I enjoy. This is why I loved going to Hakata in little Tokyo because I was able to modify the noodles, soup and ingredients to my preferences). To this day, Hironori is maybe tied as my top #2 ramen place with ramen from Japan always being #1.
Vientiane Lao Thai is good. I randomly tried it out before the new article came about the two sisters. I love their jerky and and lao sausage.
The original taco factory by old town Tustin. I get their wet burrito each time. I found my taco place, but so far this place will do for burritos. I am currently trying to find a good quesadilla spot.
I love kaju, especially that they give you purple rice, but the banchan is hit or miss so I prefer BCD since overall their setup passes for me when I want Korean soup.
I’m pretty sure the base for the original is chicken broth based and doesn’t taste anything like ramen to me. It’s mild and you add the soy sauce green onion sesame seed condiment to your liking.
What good chains are in OC? Which small restaurants became big?
Off the top of my head the OG Flame Broiler by Fullerton College ran by a Korean family. I was eating there in the late 90’s.
Orange County is underrated. Sure there are parts of Orange County that is pretty cookie cutter suburban but a large chunk of the county is not. Little Saigon, Little Arabia, Garden Grove Blvd, Santa Ana, parts of Buena Park/La Palma/Fullerton for Korean are not typical chain restaurant eating. While certain categories are lacking Orange County can holds its own below the LA/NYC category of cities/areas.
OC is underrated in certain cuisines for sure! For certain dishes, it doesn’t beat LA, but I’m from there so I openly embrace my bias The OC does have one of the best, Vietnamese, boba, Thai, and large drinking establishments that rivals and at times beats LA.
In terms of Mexican food, the food is here is on par to LA, but to me it doesn’t beat LA. Is it better than other states? Hell yes. But it depends on what type of Mexican food you want. You can find more versatility in LA since the market is there for it.
The OC gave us in-n-out.
To clarify, I use chains loosely because idk what kind of ownership structure restaurants have. Chains that started small and grew: Lazy dogs, bosscat - this is all I can think of off the top of my head. I’ll come back when I have more. Edit: hironori. I remember when they had one location and now there’s like so many lol
The Kei concept restaurants are unique since I’m not sure if they are a chain when each restaurant’s concept is different but I can tell it’s a corporation.
I agree. Parts of the OC are very different and not cookie cutter. However, I do get peeved that when I find a restaurant and discover they have multiple locations. Great business for the restaurant, but I am so used to a city having one establishment not multiple ones. It makes sense there’s more than one establishment since property is easier in the OC vs LA. The lesson for me was: do more research and pick the best location to eat at
Edit: in n out is not from Irvine. I was wrong. I finally found this thread to edit it. See the correct original California location below in the replies.
If you’re just looking for kalguksu Hangari in Garden Grove is the spot. MDK is good but a small notch below. At both places we generally stick to the same order. Regular kalguksu and an order of the steamed dumplings.
Hangari is closed on Sundays and has a few more items on the menu if you wanted more diversity. Kimchi at both are great and they provide plenty of refills.
I prefer the Kaju in GG over BCD any day; I don’t much care for BCD’s banchan (except that corvina) and the soup & rice at Kaju is deeper for me.
I know the people who run Kaju in GG opened in Irvine, not to be mistaken for another Kaju in Irvine that many know to steer clear of.
Is that Hangari in OC in any way related to the one in LA Ktown?
Also, you can smell Jang Mo cooking from a block away. Never been. The first Stereoscope is two doors down, and there’s a donkatsu place behind them. Anyone try that spot?
I was going to put in my vote for Young Pung in GG, but literally just googling now and finding their Yelp link, they are permanently closed. Damn! Really good jajangmyeon, and better than Peking Gourmet in my opinion. I’ll have to say that Paik’s Noodle has got my favorite jajangmyeon in OC now. Somebody please chime in with other rec’s.
100% agree the Sidecar in Costa Mesa is the best (and busiest). I like all of their donuts, but nothing can beat the butter & salt for me.
Never tried Oliboli, but I’ll be down that way on Monday.
I had a bit of a washed out experience at Meiji last time I was there, but it could have been the night. I think I was just feeling spoiled for having eaten Otafuku the week before. For soba in OC, Fukada in Irvine is my recommendation. Never hit Tanakaya, but I guess it’s in my future now!
I agree HiroNori’s noodles are good, but I care little for its atmosphere. For ramen down there, I like Kashiwa, though it can be a tad rich for me, even when selecting the lighter broth. I’ll have to try Marafuku.
Ohshima and Habuya are not to be ignored in Tustin.
Yes. Meiji can be hit or miss. I stick to their Karage, cheap beer and maybe a simple udon. But if you had otafuku it doesn’t even come close
Kashiwa is on my hit list.
I went to Fukada years ago! Glad it’s still around. I remember it being very close to what I would get in Japan.
Ok so for ohshima I heard it used to be good and then management or the owners changed and it’s been downhill when compared to its past owners/management. I went like a year ago and it was better than other OC sushi places but it does not beat LA level of sushi. I need to go again because I want to try more items, but I just remember not being impressed. But I have bias because I’ve been to Kaneyoshi, Hayato, and morihiro who honestly set the bar so damn high lol to the point where I cannot in good name compare ohshima to these three giants
I had a really great time at Ohshima and was very pleased with the quality of the sushi and hot dishes. Compared to the those heavy hitters in LA, Ohshima is not in the same genre. Even somewhere like Sushi Noguchi in Yorba Linda, which I liked more than Ohshima, is out of the league with a place like Hayato.
I don’t know if Fukada has re-opened for indoor dining; I imagine they must have by now, but even well into 2022 they were still takeout only. Very solid soba there.
The OC does have one of the best, Vietnamese, boba, Thai, and large drinking establishments that rivals and at times beats LA.