Greggman.com Category (restaurants_o.c.)

Prehistoric Pets

This is a really cool pet store that's near Ebisu Ramen and Genghis Kahn Mongolian BBQ. They specialize in reptiles but my favorite thing there is to feed the "Man Eating Catfish." At least that's what I like to call them. Near the entrance to the store they have a small indoor pond with several kinds of fish including catfish big enough to swallow your arm. For a few bucks you can feed them live night crawlers (large worms). Cool! This is definitely a must see place. Check it out!

Directions: Follow the directions for Ebisu Ramen but after making a u-turn, instead of turning into the 1st shopping center on the right (the one with the McDonald's) turn right in the next strip mall.

Genghis Kahn Mongolian BBQ

If you've never had Mongolian BBQ this is not a bad place to try it. Basically they have a salad bar type arrangement. They give you an empty bowl and you fill it as full as you can with stuff from the bar. They have different shaved meats (i.e. thinly sliced) like turkey, beef, pork etc. Then they have some veggies like sprouts and cabbage and water chestnuts. Then they have sauces. There are instructions for how to mix the sauces above the bar. You need to put like 5 ladles full plus some BBQ oil.

When you're finished you take your bowl to the cook. He stands by a big round grill. He takes your bowl and dumps the contents on the grill then with long chopsticks he pushes your stuff around the edge of the round grill. He walks around the grill twice pushing your food along and then sweeps it back into your bowl with one quick move and it's done!

They also give you some steamed rice and a few optional extras. If you go for dinner they have an all you can eat option.

Note: You should consider pushing your meats flat into the bowl so you can fit more in and then pilling the veggies heaping high on your bowl. When it's cooked it will quickly reduce in size.

Directions: This place is in the same shopping center as Ebisu Ramen. It's easy to miss because there are no windows. It usually looks like it's closed but check the door. It's not. See Ebisu Ramen

LaSalsa

Why this place has done was well has it has it beyond me. The place sucks! There are like 50 of them too. I don't get it. I've tried it like 5 times at like 3 different locations and every time I've hated it. Bland tasteless dry food. Complete crap. Blech! Avoid this place and maybe it will go away.

Imperial Dragon

This is a small Vietnamese restaurant in Costa Mesa. It's definitely not bad. I've only been for lunch. They don't have the catfish that the other place has but their soups are great as is their Charbroiled Pork with Rice and their Vietnamese eggrolls.

Directions: Take Bristol south. It's on the right just past Paularino in the same shopping center as Video Tokyo

Todai

Todai is an all you can eat Japanese buffet. Lunch is something like $10. Not a bad price for all you can eat including sushi. It's not bad for an all you can eat place.

Directions: There is more than one of these too. The one I've been to is here. Take Beach Blvd south from the 405 about 6 lights. Todai is on the right just past Warner. I'm not sure there is a sign but there is a Fitness Center and Edward's Charter Center Theaters. Also Todai is right next to the tallest building within miles.

Claim Jumper

Claim Jumper's claim to fame is their huge portions. I seriously doubt most people could finish a meal there or even just dessert. The food's usually not bad though it's definitely not great either. There is almost always a wait for dinner though.

Directions: There are quite a few of these around. Here's one. Take Culver north from the 405 to Alton. Turn left at Alton then right into the Lucky's shopping center. Claim Jumper is in that shopping center back toward Culver.

Hof's Hut

Hof's Hut is a small chain of umm, Coffee shops? It's actually pretty good and they have really good dessert selections courtesy of their bakery. My friend Willis loves this place. He always gets the Rotisserie Chicken.

Directions:The one in Irvine is in the same shopping center as Sagami.

Angelo's and Vinci's

This place used to be more cool. It used to be located in the X backstage of the Fox Theater in Fullerton. The Fox theater used to be a stage theater. At some point it was converted into a movie theater and so the backstage was no longer needed. A few years ago they moved to a new building next door. It still has a lot of character inside but the food is really not that good. Still it's worth going just to see the place once.

Directions: Take Harbor north of the 91 about 3 blocks past Commonwealth. It's on the right. (see directions for Rutorbegors)

Harbor House

Harbor House is also open 24 hours. There is one in Dana Point and one in Huntington Harbor both on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). They specialize in omelets which are actually not bad. They have a wide range of other foods too. They're pretty good especially for a 24 hour place.

Directions: Simplest Directions. Take Warner west from the 405 until you get to PCH. Like 5 or 6 miles. Turn right at PCH. Harbor House is on the left about 1 mile down PCH. If you see a tall water tower like structure (it's actually a house) you've gone about 100 feet too far.

Jerry's Famous Deli

My understanding is that Jerry's started as a deli in Studio City near many of the TV stations and movie studios. Since it was open 24 hours it quickly became a favorite if only because it was the only thing open at 3 am. I used to love this place when I lived in L.A. Since then it's gone downhill. There are like 10 or more of them now around L.A and one in O.C. They used to make great sandwiches. Now the sandwiches are just a two inch thick pile of meat on bread. No lettuce, no tomatoes, no mayo, nothing. Yuck! They are also over priced. Said sandwich will cost you about $11

They used to have an interesting dish called Cholent. It was a large plate of Roast Beef with potatoes, yams, beans and some other stuff. It was really good and more than enough for two people. They stopped selling it! If I go there now (cause it might be the only thing open) I'll usually order the lox pizza or the lox plate. It's kind of hard to screw up bagels and lox since it requires no work.

Avoid Jerry's

Rutabegors

Rutabegors is the original "health food" place. At least it was my first exposure when my parents started going there in the 70's They've opened a couple more since then but the original is the best because it's in downtown Fullerton in a neat old Mexican building. I'm not sure it's really considered health food by today's standards but it's similar.

Directions: Take the 91 west from the 57 to Harbor. Take Harbor about 2 or 3 miles to the first street past Commonwealth and turn right. Turn right at the next street and Rutabegors is on the right.

Little Saigon

I'm not sure if this is true but I've been told the Little Saigon has the most Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. It's a great place to visit. Especially check it out on Tet day one of the major celebrations.

Directions: A good place to start is the area near the Dragon Phoenix Palace Chinese Seafood Restaurant. Little Saigon runs from Beach Blvd to Euclid along Garden Grove Blvd, Westminster Blvd and Bolsa Ave.

Yaohan (now Mitsuwa)

Yaohan is a Japanese super market. They have stores all over the world. Most of the Yaohan's have other stores inside in addition to the main super market. For example the one in Costa Mesa has 4 fast food counters, a bakery, an small appliance shop, a travel agency, a gift shop, a Shiseido counter, a Auto accessories store, a toy store, a Japanese dinnerware store, a book store, a hair salon and a few other things. It's a great place to visit. The food's not great but it's usually passable.

Directions: Take the 405 to Bristol and go south to Paularino. Turn left on to Paularino and right at the next light which is a light specifically for Yaohan's parking lot. Note: the Bristol exit is also the same exit for South Coast Plaza but in this case you go south instead of north.

In LA there is one at Venice and Centinela near Venice Beach and also in Torrance at Western near Carson.

Ebisu Ramen

Ebisu Ramen is a Japanese restaurant in Fountain Valley. I don't know why this place is popular with many Japanese natives because the food is NOT that great. In fact I've been disappointed several times. Now that I'm living in Japan I can say that it doesn't taste like real Japanese food or at least not like Tokyo food. The one thing they do have I guess is variety. For example they may be the only place in Orange County where you can get Okonomiyaki which for lack of a better description many people call Japanese pizza. On the other hand I've had Okonomiyaki several times in Japan now and Ebisu Ramen's isn't nearly as good as it is in Japan. If fact it outright sucks here. Also the service is generally poor.

The one plus to Ebisu is it's near a Japanese super market, a Japanese bookstore and Prehistoric Pets (see below)

Directions: from the 405 take Brookhurst south to Garfield. At Garfield make a u-turn and then turn right into the parking lot with a McDonalds. Ebisu Ramen is in the corner of that shopping center.

Jan's Health Bar

This place used to be really hidden. It was at the corner of Main and PCH in Huntington Beach INSIDE the surf shop on the corner. If you didn't know it was there you probably would never notice. But, a few years ago they moved down the street to the 500 block on Main (5 blocks back from the beach) There's alot less foot traffic there but they say they get more business because there's accessible parking.

Anyway they have a fairly small menu. A bunch of smoothies (and they were making smoothies long before they were popular) and they make a couple of sandwiches and soups.

The reason I go is for one thing and one thing only. That's their Turkey Avo sandwich specifically with fake soy turkey. A friend of mine introduced me to them and since then I often get a craving that only Jan's and fulfill. The sandwich will have a THICK chunk of turkey, like a almost a centimeter thick and it will have practically an entire avocado on it. There is also a special mix of spices you can sprinkle on the sandwich. They used to put this spice on the tables but you'll have to ask for it as they said it would get stolen.

And yes Jan does work there.

Zankou Chicken

This is a small chain and originally from LA. There are about 7 of them so far. They are Armenian and they make some super delicious chicken (and other stuff). My favorite item there is the Chicken Shawarma (sp?). If you've ever been to a Greek fast food place and seen the big cone of lamb or beef rotating on a machine and cooking slowly from which they cut off the edges to make gyro sandwiches out of, well Chicken Shawarma is made on the same kind of machine. Stacks and stacks of chicken are piled on the machine along with some stuff at the top that melts and drips all over it as it cooks.

If you order the dinner you'll get hummus, salad, pita, some other sauce, and some garlic sauce. The garlic sauce it awesome.

Go try this place. You will NOT regret it. Just FYI, it's a fast food kind of place. That it's to say, cheap, no reservations, you order at the counter. Yuuuuumy!

The two I've been to are:

O.C.: Anaheim, On Ball Road between Magnolia and Gilbert (just 10 minutes West of Disneyland). There's lots of parking at this one.

L.A: Hollywood, On Sunset and Normandie. There's almost no parking at this one though so far I've been lucky and always gotten a space. There is often a line at this one.

Doria's Haus of Pizza

This is a great place for cheap Italian food. I've never had pizza there. I usually have Lasagna or Cannelloni or Manicotti. It's all good and pretty cheap. This is really a local type of place and there is often a wait to get in.

Directions: Take the 405 south to Adams. Turn right and then right into the parking lot for the large Edward's Theater. It's in that shopping center.

Super Mex and Great Mex

Some of my Japanese friends claim they don't like Mexican food. I have to assume they've only tried Taco Bell and Del Taco. I suppose they could actually not like it but if I had to eat only one type of food for the rest of my life I wouldn't be at all unhappy if it was Mexican food.

Super Mex is a chain of pretty good Mexican food. Great Mex used to be a Super Mex but the owner probably got tired of paying franchise fees so he changed the name. Their food is pretty similar. The advantage to Great Mex is it's usually not as crowded. I usually order a Carnitas Junior Mex Burrito with everything on it, especially guacamole. If you don't think you like Mexican food please give this a try before you completely give up on it.

Directions: Super Mex is on Brookhurst, south of the 405, just north of Ellis in the Ralph's shopping center on the west side of the street. Great Mex is on Harbor, north of the 405, just a little ways past McFadden on the east side of the street.

Sagami

Sagami is a good place for quick Japanese food. They've got various types of rice bowls and sushi. It's only takeout but there are tables outside if it's a nice day. It gets pretty crowed at lunch. There's also about 6 other takeout places there if you've got a hunger for Japanese food and your friends don't

Directions: Take the 405 south to Culver. Turn left from the exit on to Culver. Left at Barranca. Then left at the next light into the shopping center with a Target and a Mervin's. It's in the middle.

Rubio's

Rubio's is actually a fairly large chain in So.Cal. It's specialty is fish tacos. Yes you read correctly, Fish Tacos. When I first heard about fish tacos it sounded kind of gross. I don't know why when you think about it. Tuna sandwiches are one of my favorites as were Fillet-O-Fish sandwiches at McDonalds when I was a kid. My mom told me I had to give them a try so I did. They are awesome. The one to order is the Fish Taco Especial.

Note: They use a white fish that is light. There is another smaller chain called Wahoo's. They also specialize in fish tacos. Unfortunately they use a more tuna like fish and they don't put any kind if sauce on the taco except that dry chunky tomatoey salsa. I don't like them. They do have some pretty good carnitas at though.

Directions: They are all over the place. There's one at Main and Harvard in Irvine, one across from Triangle-Square in Costa Mesa, One at the Tustin Marketplace in guess where, Tustin. One at the Irvine Spectrum. Those are just a few that I can remember. To get to the Tustin one take the 55 north and then the 5 south and get off at Jamboree. Turn left and then left again into the shopping center with the Ikea. Rubio's is in the center island along with the Tower Records and BookStar.