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Canton Restaurant Likes it Hot
[Hole In the Wall] This Little Saigon classic specializes in scalding porridges and sizzling fish
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June 21, 2012
Everything at Canton Restaurant is hot in one way or another, literally or figuratively—and both in almost all cases. One of the dac biets (house... More >>
Slapfish Truck Stops Here The former luxe lonchera goes brick-and-mortar but is just as great
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June 14, 2012
Have you had an oyster from Carlsbad Aquafarms yet? Grown not more than an hour's drive from OC, in the briny Pacific coastal waters of the town... More >>
Ole Spain Delishop Is Beyond Spanish Rice
[Hole In the Wall] This Santa Ana strip-mall delight offers Spanish dishes and sausages—and the cheese!
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June 14, 2012
Santa Ana is rightfully known as one of the most Latino big cities in the United States, the type of place where a simple request for Mexican... More >>
Simmzy's Is Breaking Down the Wall The Manhattan Beach icon has replaced Shore House Café, and all is now right in Belmont Shore
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June 07, 2012
There are no walls at Simmzy's. No, really, there aren't any outside walls. Every seat along the border of this street-corner bar-cum-restaurant... More >>
Jasmine Offers Syrian Specials
[Hole In the Wall] This Anaheim Middle Eastern restaurant is worthy of a Malcolm Gladwell presentation
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June 07, 2012
Jasmine Mediterranean Restaurant in Anaheim is far from the confines of Little Arabia, in a section of the city I remember more for the K-Mart... More >>
Bistro Bleu Comes Out of the Bleu David Kesler offers inexpensive French cuisine out of an Anaheim strip mall
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May 31, 2012
If you opened a French restaurant, you, too, would have the songs of Edith Piaf playing so that her rich-as-foie-gras voice could float through... More >>
Renata's Caffe Italiano Offers a Roman Holiday
[Hole In the Wall] This Old Towne Orange eatery has great specials—but stay away from the regular food
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May 31, 2012
More than a decade ago, I had dinner at Renata's Caffe Italiano in Old Towne Orange while a student at Chapman University. I don't remember the... More >>
The Hidden Dinner Eat-Easys [Summer Guide 2012] Anahita Naderi and her crew wows foodies monthly with a shroud of secrecy and great courses
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May 24, 2012
Hidden Dinner is perhaps best defined by its name: It's hidden, and it's a dinner. There is no set location or menu. Find a password that allows... More >>
Brasserie Pascal Bids a Foie Farewell Get Pascal Olhats' legendary foie gras dinner (but skip the dessert) before it's banned
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May 24, 2012
I had my first real piece of foie gras as everyone usually does: at a French restaurant, seared and served with fruit to cut through the inherent... More >>
Ochoa's Chorizo With Amnesty [Hole In the Wall] This Santa Ana foodmaker hints at the potential of OC's cottage-food industry
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May 24, 2012
Every couple of weeks, I get an urge to try the best damn tamales in Southern California, moist, fluffy masa bricks wrapped in banana leaves,... More >>
Pho Bo Vang, Ann's Pho & Teriyaki and Maison de Pho and the Closing of the Pho Frontier A pho proliferation in South OC bodes well for the assimilation of Vietnamese food
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May 17, 2012
If Little Saigon is to Vietnamese restaurants as LA's seminal Chinatown is to Chinese food, then Lake Forest might be OC's San Gabriel Valley.... More >>
Rubalcava's and the Rise of Primo-Mex
[Hole In the Wall] This Placentia meat market is launching an audacious experiment with Mexican food
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May 17, 2012
An interesting trend is rising in Orange County: the emergence of second-generation Mexican food entrepreneurs continuing their family tradition,... More >>
Anepalco's Cafe Has Le Mexique Danny Godinez's second restaurant serves Mexican meals in the French style
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May 10, 2012
Like Break of Dawn's Dee Nguyen and the Playground's Jason Quinn, Danny Godinez cut his teeth and proved his chops during stints at the most... More >>
Bahay Kawayan Is Long in the Plate
[Hole In the Wall] Los Alamitos' first Filipino restaurant is small but delicious
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May 10, 2012
I literally ran into Bahay Kawayan, starving after a day driving across Southern California, needing a starch-filled pick-me-up before I could... More >>
Umami Burger Brings Something Savory This Way Adam Fleischman's phenomenon finally opens in OC
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May 03, 2012
You have Adam Fleischman to thank for bringing the Japanese word "umami" into the mainstream consciousness. Before he came along and started the... More >>
Song Long Bakery Is the Elder of Euclid
[Hole In the Wall] This Garden Grove Vietnamese restaurant makes great pastries
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May 03, 2012
Song Long Bakery is the Little Saigon version of Jax Donuts or Norms: a standard, one that has stood for so long people take it for granted,... More >>
The Hobbit Is Orange County's Precious From the wine-cellar hors d'oeuvres to the seventh course, this homage to Bilbo Baggins is the Disneyland of dining
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April 26, 2012
The Hobbit is from a dying breed, a group of the proud and expensive that once included La Vie en Rose, the Arches, and the Riviera at the... More >>
Game Day Fire-Grilled Hot Dogs Gets Their Game On
[Hole In the Wall] The Orange restaurant, with its wondrous wieners, is well-suited to a college town
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April 26, 2012
Next to spotting orange groves and tracking the return of the swallows to Capistrano, one of the best geographic parlor games in Orange County is... More >>
Mil Jugos Is One in a Thousand The Santa Ana eatery moved into bigger digs, but its Venezuelan food is still wonderful
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April 19, 2012
Despite the name, there aren't a thousand juices on offer at Mil Jugos—only 24, but that's plenty because you're in the presence of fruits... More >>
Mission Ranch Market Keeps Growing
[Hole In the Wall] The best little Persian supermarket in OC makes Mission Viejo sumptuous for the first time
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April 19, 2012
God bless the entrepreneurial wile of immigrants, those hardy souls who repurposed cookie-cutter strip malls, shopping plazas and office parks... More >>
North Shore Poke Co. Has a Poke-Man Shawn Gole's Huntington Beach restaurant finally gives the Hawaiian standard its full, undivided attention
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April 12, 2012
We Mainlanders like to stereotype Hawaiians as obsessed with heavy meals such as plate lunches or loco moco, but the true religion is poke. A... More >>
Mick's Karma Bar Is Burger Heaven In Hell
[Hole In the Wall] This Irvine gem makes amazing hamburgers from a corporate Irvine office tower
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April 12, 2012
No restaurant in Orange County deserves an upgrade in location more than Mick's Karma Bar. From this former juice stand come some of the best... More >>
CUCINA enoteca Is the San Diego Treat Irvine's version of a San Diego restaurant that flies against Donald Bren's beige boringness
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April 05, 2012
We sat under a leafy olive tree. If not for butcher-paper placemats, the cold, metal surface of our table would've sapped the warmth from the... More >>
Taqueria Two Guys Cheeses It
[Hole In the Wall] This Santa Ana Mexican restaurant loves its cheese, damn the authenticity
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April 05, 2012
First things first: if you haven't already read it 80 times in this issue, read it again: My long-promised book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food... More >>
Class 302: A Course to Audit The Irvine restaurant teaches you well with its grade-school theme and Taiwanese food
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March 29, 2012
You're sitting at an actual wooden school desk. There's a cubbyhole for stowing your books and an indentation carved at the top so your pencil... More >>
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From the Print Edition
Bistrot Massilia: Butter Up!
You realize the futility of having a reservation for Bistrot Massilia on the Thursday night before Mother's Day weekend when you get there. There's not a soul except for the… More >>
How Undercover Animal Rights Activists are Winning the Ag-Gag War
Cody Carlson had no way of preparing for this moment. He was a Manhattan kid, days removed from working as an analyst for a business-intelligence firm, where he scrutinized corporations… More >>
Little Sparrow: An Auspicious Egg
Some food critics are of the opinion that you can't judge a restaurant in its opening weeks, that you need to give them time to work out any kinks. Some… More >>
At Inka Mama's, Mami Knows Best
There used to be a different Peruvian restaurant at the very spot Inka Mama's has recently claimed as its fourth Orange County location. By all accounts, it did a very… More >>
Pho Quyen: Absolutely Sweet Little Saigon
We're now reaching a point in Little Saigon's history where the old-school places are slowly but surely changing. Some are closing shop; others are moving to richer environs in South… More >>
For a Hot Time In Old Huntington, Go to the Black Trumpet Bistro
The eateries you'll see on the 5-mile stretch of Beach Boulevard as it extends from the 405 down to Pacific Coast Highway can have the randomness of what sticks on… More >>
Chixy Natural: Twirl-a-Bird
"Hey, man, you still going to use that?" the surfer-ish type guy asked as I scarfed down my meal at Chixy Natural. Oh, my lack of manners! This Costa Mesa… More >>
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