The sandwich shop Sessions West Coast Deli, which has stores in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, has opened a restaurant in Irvine, its third to offer sandwiches such as the Meddock Melee and Summer Zephyr. 4500-4820 Barranca Pkwy., Irvine, CA 92604
Chengdu Lao Zao Hotpot, the popular Chegdu-style restaurant featuring a spicy and numbing oily hot pot in San Gabriel, has opened a new restaurant in the space that used to be Round Table Pizza in Irvine. 4230 Barranca Pkwy., Irvine, CA 92604
Huntington Beach’s Da Hawaiian Kitchen has opened another restaurant in Newport Beach on the Balboa peninsula. Traditional lunch plates with kalua pig, lau lau, lomi salmon, and poi is served. 2201 W Balboa Blvd., Newport Beach, CA 92663
A restaurant called Yummy House that serves a “Tokyo Ramen” with pork as well as a “Taiwan Ramen” with beef has opened in Brea. Also on the mnu , Taiwanese sausage, sushi, sashimi, and rolls. 120 S Brea Blvd., Brea, CA 92821
A Japanese bento specialist called Bento-Geko has opened in Buena Park. Signature bentos includes one with salt-grilled mackerel, chicken karaage, chicken nanban, and hamburger steak. 10488 Valley View St. Ste 5, Buena Park, CA 90620
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.