Ultimate OC Restaurants, 2008

Over $25:
Maki Zushi, Tustin (Omakase)
Black Sheep Bistro

Under $25:
Gabbi's, Orange
Ajisen Ramen, Irvine (in Diamond Jamboree, I'm addicted to the pork ribs ramen)
Zov's
Sushi 5, Tustin (I know it's on a conveyer belt, but I like it!)
Da Bianca Trattoria, Orange (in the hills, at the corner of Newport and Chapman)

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Operation: Best Chocolate Chip Pancakes OR Waffles

I agree with the Original Pancake House, and there's one in Orange (in OC) now, too! The choc chip pancakes (and all the other pancakes, too) are excellent!!!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Soup for when you're sick?

I second the Nate N'Al's recommendation for Matzah Ball Soup, I think it's very tasty and a great curative. Also, I love pho when I'm sick, but I'm not sure where to go for it near you.

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Looking for shower locale in Palo Alto or Menlo Park

Thank you all so much for your good ideas! We have a new wrinkle, however. My cousin, who the shower is honoring, also had some suggestions. My mom would like to look at these first. So here's her list:

Zibibbo Restaurant (Palo Alto) - they have private rooms

Stanford Park Hotel (Palo Alto) and/or The Duck Club Restaurant (inside the hotel)

Tamarine Restaurant (Palo Alto) - they have a private room, I believe

Il Fornaio (Palo Alto) - they have a private room

Straits (Menlo Park) have a private room

So, any comments on these specifically? The guest list is now down to 20-25. We are still looking for a private room (and it looks like most or all of these have one based on my cousin's list). We are also hoping for really good food, and a place that is nice and pretty for a baby shower. Thanks again, everyone!

chazar in San Francisco Bay Area

Looking for shower locale in Palo Alto or Menlo Park

Hello N. Cal hounds,

I could really use your help! I've been scouring your boards (I'm down in the L.A. area), and I've found a lot of useful information, but I'm still not sure if I'm on the right track. My mother, sister and I are throwing a baby shower lunch for my cousin. There will be about 25-30 women attending. We need a restaurant in either Palo Alto or Menlo Park. It should be a nice place, nothing too casual or chain-ish.

The places I've been thinking about are :

Evvia, Tamarine, St. Michael's Abbey, Osteria and Carpaccio.

We'd really like somewhere that has a private room, too.

So, what do you all think?

Thanks so much!

chazar in San Francisco Bay Area

Where to buy beignet mix in the OC?

Hi,
When I was a kid, we used to order it from the address on the back of the box. I bet you could find a way to order it directly from them. Did you check if Cafe Du Monde has a website?

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Westside Moms' Night out Ideas (year 2)?

If you are really thinking of coming down to OC let me know what you're looking for and I'm happy to make suggestions. Thanks for the comments!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Westside Moms' Night out Ideas (year 2)?

Thanks for the good suggestions, Phurstluv! Wilshire looks like it might be perfect! How long (roughly) has it been around?

Anyone else have comments on Wilshire, or any other ideas?

Thanks everyone!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Westside Moms' Night out Ideas (year 2)?

Hey Everybody,

My friends and I (8 of us) live down in Orange County, but we are coming up up to Santa Monica for a getaway weekend (yay!). We are looking for a fancy, tasty, and exciting restaurant that will help us really feel like we're on vacation. We're looking for something around $20-$30 a plate (with extra for drinks, appetizers, tip, etc.). We want to get dressed up and feel (for a night at least) like we are young(er) and even a little hip. It doesn't need to be a crazy scene or anything, but something we'll talk about for awhile afterward.

We need a place we can make reservations. We don't want to go more than 30 minutes from, say, the Santa Monica pier, and it would be better if is was closer to 20 minutes.

This is actually our second year for this Mom Weekend, and last year some very helpful hounds sent us to Abode. We really liked it and had a great time, even thought the servings were really small and pretty expensive.

Thanks ahead, for the help!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Lunch halfway between Santa Monica and Tustin

Wow, JE33, I owe you a huge thank you! My mom and I went to Depot today, and it was excellent!!! IT was off the freeway, about halfway for each of us, and without your suggestion, I would have never, never found it! We both had the grilled vegetables with potato samosas and curried lentils. It was incredibly tasty. We also both had yummy lattes. Excellent, excellent suggestion, thanks again!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Lunch halfway between Santa Monica and Tustin

Hey Hounds,

I need your help! My Mom lives in Santa Monica (actually on PCH a few blocks from the Pier) and I live in Tustin in Orange County. We often get together in each other's cities, but we want to meet for lunch somewhere that is kinda/sorta equidistant for both of us (give or take a little). We usually take the 405, the 22 and the 55.

O.K., now for what we're looking for! My Mom is somewhat particular. No fast food, probably no chains. She doesn't love much Asian food (I know, bummer), although she does like Indian, Italian, Mexican and definitely Californian. She likes organic (although not a requirement, just to give you an idea of her likes, etc.), and local, excellent ingredients. In OC, she likes Zov's and surprisingly, Champagne Bakery.

I'm easy, I'll eat anything she'll eat (and much more, of course).

I know it's a tough order, but does anyone have ideas for me?

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Appetizing?

I know you can get some of these things at Benjie's.

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Thai Nakorn tonight

Hey Everyone,

Well, after all of your rave reviews for so long, I've convinced my husband to take me to Thai Nakorn for my birthday and we're going tonight! Yay!

I have a few questions, though-

1) Is the Garden Grove location back open? If so, would I be better off going there ot to the Stanton location? (If it's not open, I'll go to Stanton, of course.)

2) What should I order? What's not to be missed?

Thanks hounds!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Long Beach Crawfish Festival

Has anyone been? It's coming up Aug. 4 and 5, and I was thinking of going, but I was wondering how the good the food is. Is it just standard fair/festival stuff, or are the crawfish (and sides) really something special?

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Hamptons for the foodie?

Hi there,

I just came back from Montauk (I know it's a little far for you, but this is worth it!) and we went to a new restaurant called Backyard. It's inside the (new?) very modern hotel called Sole East. The restaurant is very hard to find, just go in through the hotel and keep going back (into the backyard!). The food was excellent!!! I think it might become a scene sort of place, but it was pretty quiet when we were there about a week ago.

The food is eclectic, and is the type of food you might find in the city (or in CA for that matter). I had an excellent micro greens salad with a goat cheese crostini. The dressing was superb, and the waiter told me the herbs for the dressing came from the garden on site. Then I had a wonderful noodle dish with artichokes and mushrooms, The sauce was miso-based, and delicious. My less adventurous husband had a burger, which he said was really good. He had an appetizer that I coveted! Once I tasted it, I wished I had ordered it myself. It was shrimp, and I believe it had curry, but the taste was very layered and scrumptious. We were too full for desserts, but they sounded good, too. The service was very friendly and attentive (but not overly so). It was excellent, go, go, go!!!

chazar in New York State (exc. New York City)

Visiting Central LI-need recs

Hello Everybody,

I'm a CA chowhound, and my husband, preschool-age son and I will be visiting my in-laws in Mt. Sinai for a few weeks. I'm looking for 2 different kinds of help.

1) My husband and I will be celebrating our anniversary on the trip. We are looking for a restaurant that is within about 20 mins of Mt. Sinai. We would love something fancy/exciting/yummy (yummy being the most important). I'm pretty adventurous, but my hubby is less so. We'd like a place that we can go early (5:30 or 6), and we need to be able to make a reservation. We have a time window (including drive time) of about 2 or hours until we need to go back (where the in-laws will be babysitting) and get the little one to sleep.

2) Chowish restaurants for eating (with our son) while we are there. Within 30 or so minutes of Mt. Sinai is preferable. If there are any that are healthy-ish, that would be nice, but not essential.

Thanks so much (ahead of time!) for any help you can give!

-Loren

chazar in General Tristate Archive

westside girls-night out suggestions

We LOVED Abode, thanks so much to everyone who suggested it!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

westside girls-night out suggestions

Wow, you are all so awesome! Thank you soooo much for all your help. Wow, all I can say is WOW! Thanks to your excellent suggestions, we have a reservation at Abode for Sat. night, and we are all very excited. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

westside girls-night out suggestions

Hey Everybody,

My friends and I (6 of us) live down in Orange County, but we are coming up up to Santa Monica for a getaway weekend (yay!). We are looking for a nice, but not too fancy restaurant that will help us really feel like we're on vaction. We're looking for something around $20 a plate (with extra for drinks, appetizers, tip, etc.). We need a place we can make reservations (and will have them this late, we're looking for THIS Sat.). We want a place where we can wear jeans, but will still be fun and exciting. Any ideas?

Thanks ahead, for the help!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

OC hound looking for East Bay lunch rec

Hey Everyone,

Well, I had my visit to your wonderful area, and actually my cousin ended up picking our lunch spot! She took us to Kirala, a great Japanese restaurant on Shattuck (I believe, or maybe near Shattuck?). It was really good. I had gyoza, edamame, hamachi sushi, and eel sushi. Everything was excellent. Thanks for all your ideas, everyone. All of your suggestions make me want to come back for a week and just EAT!

-Chazar

chazar in San Francisco Bay Area

OC hound looking for East Bay lunch rec

Wow, you guys are great! And so fast, too! We're going on Tuesday afternoon, and I like just about all cuisines. I looked at the suggestions so far, and they are making me hungry. Yum. I'm leaning toward 900 Grayson, but I'm going to wait a few days to see how many of my relatives are actually available to meet me. Thanks, and keep up the good work! I'll let you know what we choose.

chazar in San Francisco Bay Area

Garden Grove Strawberry Festival

It's in Garden Grove May 25-28. Here's a link:

http://www.strawberryfestival.org/

Thanks, KingKong5, for your info. Anyone else want to chime in on the food quality? Is there really a lot of strawberry stuff?

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Garden Grove Strawberry Festival

Has anybody been to this? How is the food?

chazar in Los Angeles Area

OC hound looking for East Bay lunch rec

I live down in Orange County, but I'm coming to the Berkeley area next week. I'm looking for a casual restaurant in or around the B area for a weekday lunch. I'm going to have a group of about 8 (?) people, and it should probably be not too expensive. I'm hoping it will be tasty, though!

Thanks!

chazar in San Francisco Bay Area

delivered food for a group (w/kids) in Santa Ana

Hey Hounds,

I have a challenge that I hope you can help with! In 3 weeks, my synagogue is having a program for toddlers and their parents. It includes dinner. I need a restaurant that will deliver (the temple is on the corner of Fairhaven and Tustin in Santa Ana). There will be about 75 (?) people. A small delivery fee is O.K. The restaurants we have already used a bunch of times are:

Benjie's
Taco Factory
Rosine's
Rubio's
Fazoli's
Panda Express (they don't deliver, but we have used them a few times anyway)

Thanks!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Mother's Day Brunch in OC

I do love Zov's, but I guess I'm looking for some place that has an event for Mother's Day. I have actually been checking the Zov's website and hoping they would do something special, but it doesn't look like they're planning on it. Maybe I'll give them a call. 5 Crowns looks yummy, too, but their brunch menu doesn't have very many breakfast-y options. Thanks everyone, any more ideas?

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Mother's Day Brunch in OC

Ramos House looks amazing, I will definitely have to five it a try! But for Mother's Day I think a place that takes reservations is going to be neccesary. My 3 year old son is not so great at waiting!

chazar in Los Angeles Area

Mother's Day Brunch in OC

Hey All,

I know this Mother's Day Brunch has been discussed in years past, but I'm looking again so I thought I'd ask that we bring it back around! I'm looking for something very tasty as the first requirement. It would also be nice to have a little ambience and/or mommy fanfare. Something special, ya know? We live in Tustin, so the closer to that area the better.

chazar in Los Angeles Area

REVIEW: Cafe Lucca, Orange

I've been to Lucca a bunch of times, and I've found the service generally very good. I really like the food, and it's such a cute place. Maybe give the food experience another try, Ubergeek. Perhaps it was just a particularly bad day/server.

chazar in Los Angeles Area