Not too hot, not too cold: Spring is just right in our book. It’s also the time of year when restaurants flaunt seasonal menus. Grab a fork and join us! Montage, Laguna Beach In a recent partnership with nutrition expert and best-selling author Kelly LeVeque, Montage dining outlets the Loft and Mosaic Bar & Grille […]
Fountain Valley
Eat This Now: Döner Fries at Ikram Bakery & Grill
We could never spill enough ink singing the praises of the Turkish restaurants that flourish in Fountain Valley—more than anywhere else in the county. One definite stop on your tummy’s tour of the city’s de facto “Little Istanbul” is Ikram Bakery & Grill. Known best for its breads—from the yielding pide to the salted twirls […]
Legendary Vietnamese Restaurant Brodard Moves to Fountain Valley
In the ebb and flow of Little Saigon, Brodard was the Rock of Gibraltar. Since Diane Dang and her daughters opened this restaurant in 1996 at the Mall of Fortune—behind a 99-Cent-Only store in an alleyway past the dumpsters—it has arguably become one of the most influential landmarks for Vietnamese cuisine in the county, if […]
OC Grub Guide 2/15-2/21: DTSA, Dessert and Dana Point
We try to find balance this week. From farm fresh produce to lazy eggs and customized treats, there’s a combo that’ll work with your dining habits. And if you have a pooch at home, you’ll definitely want to make the trek to Long Beach together. AVEO Table + Bar Happy Hour Offered from Sunday to […]
Cambalache Does a Great Steak-and-Potatoes Dish, Argentine-Style
Is there anything better than a properly done steak? The answer to that is: Yes, when it’s paired with perfectly crisp potatoes. I had such a meal at the new Cambalache in Fountain Valley. It was utterly transcendent—one of the best steak dinners I’ve had in years. First, there was the steak itself; it wasn’t […]
On the Line: Shawn Cao of Glee Donuts & Burgers
After launching their second location last year, we stopped by Glee Donuts & Burgers at the corner of Ball and Beach in Anaheim. The quality, price and service were so memorable, it made our Top 5 in December. So for a month in which we celebrate love, we present our love for Glee’s delicious […]
Orange County Cop Shops Have Helped ICE for Years: EFF
Long before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) got a tool to access license plate reader information, the police departments of Orange, Tustin, Anaheim and Fountain Valley were already supplying that data to the federal agency. The revelation comes from an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) report that included the four Orange County cop shops among […]
Chinese Bride: OC Partner Wanted Rough Sex, Obedience and No Nagging
China’s Juxia “Angel” Qin and Orange County’s Thomas Burton met through Qpid Network’s “Chnlove” website, sent each other emails, chatted on Skype and visited several times before making a monumental 2010 decision. Believing they’d found everlasting love, they married in a state ceremony in her native Wuhan, an historic city on the Yangtze River. “It […]
Federal Judge Poised to Punish Innocent Vietnamese for Somebody Else’s Crime
With more than $700,000 at stake, Vietnam War refugee Hung Ngo this month entered a courtroom inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse breathing heavily and looking confused. Three corporate lawyers and a Department of Justice attorney faced U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna while discussing mind-numbing intricacies of a legal quarrel over scrapped plans […]
Little Saigon Ecstasy Heist Left One Woman Dead And A Young Man Complaining About Prison
Three years short of the ability to legally buy booze in March 2010, Fountain Valley's Christopher Dai-Ichi Yu hatched a lamebrain plan involving the party drug ecstasy, ended up with the possibility of spending the next five decades confined to a California prison and has been desperately seeking punishment relief. From Yu's perspective his 2011 […]
Vegan Cuisine's Faux Pho
Vegan Cuisine isn't found by accident. It's in a strip mall that has a Laundromat, a palm reader and an outpost of the infamous $1.99 Restaurant, located in the hinterlands of Fountain Valley on the stretch of Edinger I usually take to get to somewhere else. Since the restaurant isn't on the street-facing part of […]
FOUNTAIN VALLEY
You can tell a lot about a city by its slogan. That Fountain Valley calls itself “A Nice Place to Live” says it didn't try very hard. But locals are well-aware of the treasures that belie this tiny gem. One of the most obvious is Mile Square Park (10401 Warner Ave., 714-962-5541; www.ocparks.com/milesquarepark), a recreational […]
Idiot Wind
You were the old man in the Bob Dylan shirt eating with two women and a child at a Fountain Valley restaurant on a recent Saturday afternoon. I was sitting with my boyfriend across from you, enjoying a turkey burger, chatting and browsing the newspaper. As you guys were wrapping up your meal and getting […]
Afters Ice Cream: With Doughnuts!
In many ways, Orange County is still the rube-filled paradise it's always been. This is the place, after all, that gets mesmerized every night when the Disneyland fireworks go boom, never mind the inconvenient smoke that drifts around Anaheim's barrios afterward. Orange County is where The Orange County Register's fast-food coverage gets more accolades than […]
Gentlemen's Dub
For nearly 20 years, Dr. Freelcoud's Record Shoppe has been a sanctuary for those seeking purely EDM refuge—the record store remains a mecca for all dance, trance, techno, house and dub-step on vinyl. Run by veteran vinyl DJ Ron D. Core and his lovely wife, Helen, Dr. Freelcoud's steadfastly supports the electronic music community, and […]
Istanbul Grill's Turn of the Turnip
Remember that episode of The Simpsons in which Bart and his pals meet their Shelbyville doppelgangers after the latter steal Springfield's hallowed lemon tree? Remember how the episode ended, with Springfield kids quenching their thirst with sweet lemonade, while Shelbyville's youngsters chugged turnip juice in disgust? And remember how your palate recoiled at the thought […]
Long Hai: Beyond Little Saigon
If you're going to go to a Vietnamese restaurant outside Little Saigon, you better have a goddamn great explanation. Don't give me the excuse of convenience, whine about Little Saigon being too far away from you. Simply put, 99 percent of Vietnamese restaurants in Orange County outside Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Westminster and […]
Ikram Bakery Has Your Daily Turkish Bread
Maybe one or two labels exist to mark the goodies at Ikram Bakery in Fountain Valley, OC's only Turkish bakery, but there's no need for them. Nearly everyone who comes into the dive knows what they want, will rifle off requests to the people behind the cash register until to-go bags spill over with savory […]
Hue Oi: Boiling Down to the Basics
During my third visit to Hue Oi, the block around Fountain Valley's Mile Square Park experienced a blackout. Stoplights weren't functioning. The traffic on Brookhurst was a snarled mess even by Little Saigon standards. But Hue Oi forged on without electricity. Customers kept arriving, the noodle soups still came out steaming, the two-toned glasses of […]
The Originalites
Since coming together as teenagers (and later recruiting saxophonist Mike Belk after an impromptu jam session at a local gig), The Originalites have risen high in the ranks of Orange County's local music scene in the span of only five years. The Fountain Valley four-piece may remind you of mid-'90s ska groups like Sublime, however […]
Fu Wing Low: Young At Heart
“I'll have what I always get,” said the middle-aged man upon entering Fu Wing Low, sounding as satisfied as Mike Trout flying across the outfield to make a catch by the tip of his glove. “The veggie moo shu. I don't need anything else, ever.” The lunch rush had just ended; no other customer was […]
