Grub Guide
Tasty morsels from the county's best damn dining guide
Visit the rest of Orange County's best damn dining guide at ocweekly.com/food, where it says "Where to Eat Now" on the right side of the screen. If there are any bugs with it, e-mail Gustavo at garellano@ocweekly.com with your complaints!
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Merhaba Restaurant
2801 W. Ball Road
Anaheim, CA 92804
Category: Restaurant > African
Region: Anaheim
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BOUTIQUE SAMOA
1217 S. Western Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92804
Category: Restaurant > Polynesian
Region: Anaheim
Sarkis Pastry
2424 W. Ball Road
Anaheim, CA 92804
Category: Restaurant > Middle Eastern
Region: Anaheim
Thai Laos Market
1721 W. La Palma Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92801
Category: Restaurant > Grocery
Region: Anaheim
Trabuco Oaks Steak House
20782 Trabuco Oaks Drive
Coto De Caza, CA 92679
Category: Restaurant > Steakhouse
Region: Coto de Caza
Cafe Jardin at Sherman Gardens
2647 E. Coast Highway
Corona Del Mar, CA 92625
Category: Restaurant > French
Region: Corona Del Mar
Hi-Time Wine Cellars
250 Ogle St.
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
Category: Restaurant > Wine Bar
Region: Costa Mesa
Super Corokke
675 Paularino Ave., Ste. C
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Category: Restaurant > Japanese
Region: Costa Mesa
Scott's Seafood Grill & Bar
3300 Bristol St.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Category: Restaurant > American
Region: Costa Mesa
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DINNER FOR TWO:
¢ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Less than $10!
$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10-$20
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20-$40
$$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ¡Eres muy rico!
CEDAR BAKERY
Cedar Bakery differentiates itself from the other Middle Eastern restaurants in Anaheim's crowded Little Gaza district by specializing in such small meals as sambouseks, cinnamon-dusted ground beef turnovers. Mornings begin with a bowl of kishek, a sort of Lebanese oatmeal of yogurt, bulgur wheat and salt that doesn't do much for the sweet tooth but bulks you up for the day like a one-hour free-weights session. Pair the kishek with a croissant, although these are salty and as svelte as the crescent on Turkey's flag, not the chubby Gallic version Americans will expect. 930 S. Brookhurst St., Anaheim, (714) 991-5888. $
MERHABA RESTAURANT
You're probably the second non-African to visit Merhaba after me, so the owner will be extra attentive and repeatedly ask if you enjoy her East African recipes. You will. East African cuisine sticks mostly to stews: chewy cubes of tibisy beef; lamb ribs battling with furious peppers for control of your tongue; and the famous Ethiopian doro wat, spicy chicken cooked in butter, hot like the pits of hell. The vegetarians in your party will content themselves with the shiro, an Eritrean chickpea mush similar to hummus. 2801 W. Ball Rd., Ste. 5, Anaheim, (714) 826-8859. $
BOUTIQUE SAMOA
There are many options available at this Polynesian trade store's always sweltering buffet table. Mostly meats—pale, turgid beef sausages with a lean snap; finely sliced povi masima (salted beef) ruddy in color and buttery in flavor; fatty, sweet turkey tails and a couple of styles of ufi (fish) ranging from bitter to silky to sweet. Make sure to take home a couple of palusamis, baked taro leaves stuffed with onions and coconut milk that are little paragons of bite. 1217 S. Western Ave., Anaheim, (714) 220-9675. $
SARKIS PASTRY
So much joy erupts from the trays of Sarkis Pastry that it would take many root canals to try all of its Middle Eastern confections. All that needs to be said about the kol-wa-shkor is that it translates from Arabic into "taste and give thanks to heaven." 2424 W. Ball Rd., Anaheim, (714) 995-6663; www.sarkispastry.com. ¢
THAI-LAO MARKET
Every ingredient you need for a Thai life is here, from fish sauce in foot-tall bottles to seasonings for at least eight curries. At the front of the store are Thai pastries and desserts—and videos. Look for the fresh fish, meats and veggies in the back freezer. But bachelors will rejoice at the more than 40 varieties of Thai instant noodles, four for a buck. 1721 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim, (714) 535-2656. $
BREA
HOT DOG ON A STICK
While these lemonade-churning chicks and guys do serve the dead stuff, they also peddle awesome veggie corn dogs. And to ensure that you are not ingesting a real wienie, the jockey-hatted crew marks the veggie versions with a green dot on the end of each stick. 2153 Brea Mall Way, Brea, (800) 321-8400. ¢
POFOLKS
PoFolks is a rustically eccentric restaurant—tin and wooden agricultural-company signs on the walls, a working train that chugs the perimeter—specializing in Norms-style home cooking with a Southern bent, the kind of place where fried chicken livers with red beans and rice is a daily special and peach cobbler isn't some ironic/iconic treat but what's for dessert. 7701 Beach Blvd., Buena Park, (714) 521-8955. $$
CANYON CITIES
TRABUCO OAKS STEAK HOUSE
Cruise this ramshackle roadhouse with a creek purling behind it, where inside you'll find the best dry-aged, corn-fed, hand-trimmed, mesquite-grilled beef in OC. It's all served with fried or baked potatoes, beans, garlic bread and a house salad. 20782 Trabuco Oaks Dr., Trabuco Canyon, (949) 586-0722. $$
CAFÉ JARDIN
Located at the tranquil Sherman Library and Gardens, the café's menu is well-thought-out. The mushroom soup is the color of a spa mudpack with an earthy mushroom flavor, and all of the desserts are made on the premises. 2647 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Corona del Mar, (949) 673-0033. $$
HI-TIME WINE CELLAR
Not sure if there's a restaurant in OC that sells it, but the best wine since the days of Dionysus is Commandaria St. John, an elixir from Cyprus that's reputed to be the oldest vintage in the world. Hi-Time Wine Cellar also stocks nearly every other hooch on the planet. 250 Ogle St., Costa Mesa, (800) 331-3005; www.hitimewine.com. $$
SUPER COROKKE
Super Corokke offers nine different versions of the corokke, a Japanese take on the resolutely down-home croquette: a shot put-sized cream corokke oozing with a puree of corn, squid and fish that tastes like marine-tinged mashed potatoes; or the evocatively named Popeye, filled with spinach strands and bacon bits, simultaneously bitter and crispy. Better is the curry corokke, a mash-up that fuses the light, almost imperceptible burn of Japanese curry with some good-ol'-boy crunchiness. 675 Paularino Ave., Ste. C, Costa Mesa, (714) 444-3418. $
SCOTT'S SEAFOOD
The dictionary describes scallops as the puffy, powerful adductor muscles of free-swimming mollusks. Scott's Seafood describes the scallop sauté as flown in fresh from Maine and served over caramelized leeks with seared tomatoes, herb corn polenta and Chardonnay sauce. 3300 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, (714) 979-2400.$$$
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