Burritos Las Palmas—our pick for Best Food Truck, Best Burrito, and our Mexican-in-Chief’s favorite restaurant of 2016—has now opened its first brick-and-mortar in Orange County. The restaurant is the second for owner Albert Bañuelos, who also has one in South El Monte.
410 N. Bristol St., Santa Ana, CA 92703
J’s Cuisine has now opened where Seoulmate Fullerton used to be. J’s serves a similar kind of Korean burrito that made the original Seoulmate a hit, but also fried chicken and beer. The new owners are former airline industry workers.
114 W Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton, CA 92832
The shuttered Hometown Buffet in Santa Ana has now been transformed into Santa Buffet & Grill, which, as of this writing, offers $8.99 and $13.99 AYCE meals for lunch and dinner, respectively. The restaurant features sushi, Mongolian BBQ and Chinese food.
2321 S Bristol St., Santa Ana, CA 92704
A new restaurant called Ding’s Garden has taken over what was formerly Pig Haus, which was itself formerly MJ’s Cafe in Irvine’s Campus Plaza. Menu items include green onion pancakes and xialongbaos.
4535 Campus Dr., Irvine, CA 92612
Myung In Dumplings, winner of Best Steamed Buns 2011, has opened a spot in Irvine’s Zion Market, next to Furai Chicken, which is also new.
4800 Irvine Blvd., Irvine, CA 92620
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.