Burgers are everywhere these days and there are the definite tiers of burgers from fast food, to causal, to fancy/gourmet. A new burger restaurant opened up recently near the Irvine Spectrum near the 405 and 5 junctions. Burger Lounge presents burgers from grass fed cows as well as other tradition American fare including french fries and salads. I decide to check out if these burgers are worth the attention:

Location & Ambiance:
Burger Lounge is located right next to Whole Foods in the new shopping complex. The outdoor dining patio is spacious and there is plenty of seating also inside the restaurant. Their menu on the back wall is very tiny. Even the paper menus at the counter had very small print. I'm not even blind. They have three beers on tap, none that caught my interest. I went during dinnertime in the middle of the week and it was light to average crowded. It's the fast-casual setup where you order at the cash register and they bring out your food to your table.

Food and Service
After looking at the menu for a few minutes, I settled on the Lounge Burger and regular fries. I hate paying more than $10 for a burger unless it is going to blow my mind in taste. Luckily their burgers start at $8 so it's within my threshold. The regular size fries are $3.50. Just a heads up that you are likely not going to leave the restaurant for less than $12, $15+ with a drink. I figure it's worth trying once to taste the grass fed patty. Bill total $12.36

There were lots of staff cruising around the restaurant checking in one people. They were friendly and offered homemade ranch or bbq sauce when they brought out my burger and fries, I selected the homemade ranch to go with my fries.

Burger
The burger was tasty through I don't feel the flavor was enough to propel it beyond a normal good burger in Orange County. This isn't like the Umami burger taste explosion where the burger stands king. I liked the grilled onion. The organic cheese, I couldn't taste any difference. Burger size was standard.

The burger patty looked normal and tasted very standard. I should have tasted a piece of it separately, but since I couldn't taste the patty, the meat wasn't the star of the burger. Overall it was a pretty generic burger, a step above high end fast food like Five Guys and below a full restaurant burger.

Fries

For me, the fries were the star of the meal, especially paired with the homemade ranch sauce. I think I tasted ground chives in in the ranch. Excellent ranch as Orange County demands. The fries were good by themselves and were perfectly cooked. The fry texture was slightly airy and crispy.

The ketchup tasted like it's normal Heinz ketchup; at a restaurant like this, they should be making their own ketchup. I am quite disappointed with the ketchup since it's an easy fix and wouldn't break their bank. They could even upsell to a homemade aoili ketchup for an addon charge or have it already part of the fry price.

Conclusion

I'm likely to go back, though I'm not super sold on the grass fed cow angle. Not all the burgers are from grass fed cows, so it's the first two on the menu that are basically the same burger, one with 1000 island dressing, the other ketchup.

For $8, it's a decent price for the supposed quality. I'd want to try a different burger next time. I'd definitely get the fries.

by BlueZero

So you have the burning desire for tasty Thai food but don't want to pay restaurant level prices. I suggest you try out Thai and Chinese Express like I did and see if it can hit your Thai cravings at a very reasonable price:

Background:
After an earlier restaurant mixup where I told my friends a Taiwanese restaurant was a Thai restaurant, we all had a huge craving for Thai food. One of my friends found Thai and Chinese Express and we just couldn’t align our schedules to go as a group. So I decided to check it out and report back on if it passed the test.

The food court is probably one of the nicer ones though it was very empty when I went on a Saturday since not many people work on the weekend. There were a few couples and dinners eating alone. Thai and Chinese Express is one of the food stalls available in the food court. On Saturday, most of the other places were closed. They had a LCD TV that was playing Seinfeld, so the ambiance was good, for a food court.

Food and Service
I had read other Yelp reviews that had said the pad thai was restaurant quality and delicious. I of course ordered a chicken pad thai with a "spicy" level when asked about spice. I told the woman I would like to eat it here but have it in a togo box. She said they put the food in the styrofoam container by default, so that made me happy. The menu price for chicken pad thai is $6.50 so the final bill came out to $7.01. $7 is a really good price for pad thai.

Service was good and I got my food about ten to fifteen minutes later showing they actually cook their food to order. The woman taking my order was nice enough to bring my tray over, so this is really good service for a food court.

Chicken Pad Thai
I opened the white styrofoam container that read "Have a Nice Day!" and took in the large portion of noodles. My initial though was I probably wouldn't be hungry enough to finish it. Oh how I was wrong!

The pad thai quality was excellent for a food court and better than most restaurants. For once there was an excellent balance of leeks, other places love to go leek crazy. I also appreciate them holding restraint on the number of bean sprouts.They were smart to put the crushed peanuts to one side so I could decide the level of nuttiness of individual bites. The chicken quality was passable where I felt like they are usually used in their Chinese soups rather than as a main dish entree. The noodles were the hero of the dish and were light, cooked well enough to be separated and had just the right level of sauce.

As I was reaching the point where it wouldn't make sense to take it home, I was getting quite full. As the only full meal I had that day after exercising earlier in the morning, the chicken pad thai hit the spot and filled me up well.

Conclusion
I'll add Thai and Chinese Express to my list of places I'd be willing to go to on a weekly or monthly frequency. My friends will be glad to hear there is another good Thai place in Irvine to check out and the next time I go, I'll try out the chicken pad-see-ew. You really can't go wrong with restaurant quality food at from a food court for around $7.

by BlueZero

I visited Alhambra earlier this month as part of my trip to the Irwindale Renaissance Faire with a group of friends from the area. We had stayed up late the night before and we were craving some good American breakfast food. After lazily searching for a place to eat online, one of my friends stumbled upon the Dog Haus website. Could a brand-new hot dog restaurant capture our hearts?

Hot Dog Background:
I still haven't been to Pinks in LA or been to the mystical hot dog carts of New York . The last few times I've had hot dogs have been from Costco's food court. I really don't make or order hot dogs very often anymore. I used to eat a ton of them when I was younger. So it's rare for me to order a hot dog since I'll usually choose a cheeseburger or similar option when available.

We entered the restaurant and I noticed the dark wood, raised seating. The best way to describe them is imagine high class picnic benches. The walls have slogans and a cool word cloud of hotdog toppings above their hot dog topping bar. The wall paint and interior was brand new without any scuff marks or wear-and-tear.

I looked over the menu closely and choose to order the $6.50 Abe Froman premium hot dog (BEST OF THE WÜRST) on a Hawaiian roll. The Abe Froman has a tri-pepper kielbasa (Polish sausage) covered with white American cheese, a fried egg, grilled jalapeños and onions.

The Abe Froman Hot Dog:
The Abe Froman dog arrived with outstanding presentation. The egg was sitting gracefully over the sausage like a bed cover. There were so many onions and jalapeños on top of the Hawaiian roll that initially it was difficult to find the sausage with my eyes.

One of my first challenges was deciding if I should use a knife/fork or go with my hands as is traditional. I chose utensils because the egg yolk would be too runny and the hot dog is too big to easily eat.

Spicy Flare (not for wimps)
Upon taking the first bite, I got a good kick of spice from the jalapeños/onion mix. As you can see in the photos, the seeds have been left in the jalapeños. This brings the spice factor up so it will be too spicy for some people, though not for me since I love spice. The egg mixed into my bites helped cool down the spice factor a little bit. The tri-pepper sausage had its own spicy kick. As a package, there were definitely some moments where I had to slow down and savor the flavor.

I'm making special note here to praise Dog Haus' choice of using high-quality, fresh ingredients. The jalapeños and the seeds were delicious; so much flavor would have been lost if they just used the industry standard jalapeños found in their topping bar. The onions had a good crunch without being too overpowering. The sunnyside egg alone would have made my day; I could easily detect the egg flavor amongst the ensemble.

Conclusion:
I was completely satisfied with the Abe Froman dog. I got the perfect mix of breakfast eggs and sausage, a high level of spice and chopped tomatoes. The meal was surprisingly filling, so I can easily justify the ~$7 meal. I could tell every single ingredient was prepared with care and this is one of the main reasons why the Dog Haus is extremely successful in creating a hot dog powerhouse. I'll be going back, it was worth it.

by BlueZero

When your stomach is rumbling after a fast paced week, what can satiate your appetite? For me, I had eaten a lot of greasy and fatty (delicious) Mexican food back-to-back and I craved something lighter with low saturated fat. My answer was to pickup some sushi from Sushi Box in Costa Mesa for my dinner:

I need to preface this review by stating I created my own sushi combinations by choosing up to two meat options and three additional fillings. This means the review is even more subjective than usual since I decided to "choose my own sushi destiny" with ingredient choices.

My Sushi Background:
I have enjoyed sushi and will often eat it once a week. I've never been to Japan to sample their sushi which is supposed to be so fresh and amazing that people who return refuse to eat the "lessor quality" sushi here in America. I judge a sushi place on the quality of their fish, that is if the fish is flavorful enough to stand on its own.

My usual go-to rolls of choice include the crunchy, rainbow, dynamite and once in a while the Philadelphia. I enjoy most of the fish fillings including salmon, unagi (eel), tuna, yellowtail, shrimp, etc.

Ambiance:
The Sushi Box is a very tiny eatery with only a few tables seating a max of two. There are also a few more tables outside that seem to be shared with the nearby Subway and Hawaiian eateries. I'm guessing most of the orders are to go with lunch being their busiest time for take-out.

There was no line when I entered Sushi Box and the woman at the counter was helpful in answering my questions about the menu. I ordered my food to go and the kitchen was able to get my order prepared in about 7 minutes.

The Sushi:
Since I had the options to customize my sushi, I decided to create a more unique roll and then go for a more traditional offering with my second choice. The sushi size was larger than the standard 8 pieces and you can see the larger size in my photos.

First Custom Roll:

• shrimp tempura
• salmon
• crunchy chip
• cucumber
• cream cheese

I've created a monster! The tempura and the crunchy chips are too similarly fried, I really couldn't taste the salmon and I really should not have added cream cheese to this roll. From what I could taste, I would say there were only two pieces of shrimp tempura at the roll ends. Yet I could tell this wasn't true when I examined the inner rolls and saw a small wedge of shrimp tempura.

The taste of the roll overall was muted. I could mostly taste the cucumber, rice and the crunchy chips. The experimental roll was a decent warmup for the much tastier second roll.

Second Custom Roll:

• yellow tail
• spicy tuna
• crunchy chip
• cucumber
• avocado

Now we are talking! I always enjoy a fresh avocado and here the avocado succeeds again. The spicy tuna at the Sushi Box was incredibly flavorful. It was delightfully much spicier than I had anticipated and I did savor each bite. The portion of spicy tuna was excellent for the price. My taste buds craved even more since it was so tasty!

The yellow tail fish added some flavor and texture to the roll. Most the time when I've had yellow tail in sushi, it doesn't have a specific taste where I could easy identify it. At least to me, I haven't had yellow tail enough to successfully describe what it is like in sushi.

We have a winner!

by BlueZero

I had been planning my first trip to Knott's Berry farm in Buena Park for a while. An associate told me about how he visited the theme park with his family and would always got to the restaurant since it's a better value than theme park food. Little did I know that a few weeks later, I was going to be celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner.

Personal Background:

With my limited Orange County knowledge, I had always wanted to go to Knott's Berry Farm for the theme park, but never found the chance when I was younger. I had never heard about Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner until February of 2012. This is coming from someone who knows more about theme park dinning attractions than the average fellow. Until this review, I hadn't had fried chicken in a long time. The closest chicken I eat is rotisserie and buffalo wings. I decided to visit Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner for a Sunday lunch/brunch before I headed into the theme park on a full stomach.

Food I Ordered: All-Day Menu Meal included the following:

Appetizer Course
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

The chicken noodle soup was acceptable for being homemade. Most other chicken noodle soups I have had are extremely greasy with large flat noodles floating around and very tiny pieces of chicken. The Mrs. Knott's chicken noodle soup was luckily less salty than I was expecting and had real pieces of their chicken in it. As you can see from my photo, the top soup layer almost had the consistency of a chowder.

Hot Buttermilk Biscuits
The biscuits were definitely homemade since I could taste a little bit of the flour and the texture was airy. They were very filling and I could barely finish two before I knew I had to save room for the main course.

After traveling all this way to Knott's Berry Farm, it would have been blastphemy if I hadn't put the Knott's Berry jam on the biscuits. Trust me when I say the jams taste better when they are eaten in their home restaurant even though they are the same packages you could eat at any restaurant they are served. The strawberry and boysenberry jams are just as good as I've had in the past.

Fried Chicken (default all dark meat)

Mrs. Knott's Famous Fried Chicken
The Traditional Favorite**
Served with mashed potatoes and Knott's country gravy

I started tasting the fried chicken leg first since it's always my favorite chicken area with lots of dark meat. The fried outer skin had the correct balance, not too little time in the fryer and not too much time time where the skin would have dried out. I'm guessing the kitchen staff are still frying the chicken the same way Mrs. Knott's did when she opened the restaurant. The fried skin exterior didn't look like most fried chicken I've seen come out of a deep fryer. The kitchen chefs probably hand-fry each piece for a shorter time to maximize the moisture and flavor of the chicken.

As I worked my way though each piece of chicken, I was having more and more trouble finding room in my stomach. By the time I reached the final piece of chicken, the breast piece, I couldn't finish it. If I had been eating the same chicken dinner later that day, I'm sure I would have worked up and appetite to finish it.

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
The mashed potatoes were excellent with a light and fluffy texture. They managed to stay very moist even the sections not covered in gravy.

The gravy was also good though I think the gravy portion was a little too small for the mashed potatoes. My mash potatoes to gravy ratio was quickly pointing to danger as I was running out of gravy. Luckily this obstacle did not hinder me from finishing all the mash potatoes and gravy. I had to redeem myself from not finishing that last piece of chicken.

Sweet Kernel Corn
I reluctantly tasted the corn because no one likes letting the fried chicken get colder. The corn was acceptable. It was better than corn out of a can, though I really don't like kernel corn. I would have preferred corn on the cob since it is more "American" and fits better with fried chicken.

Boysenberry Pie

After a much needed break, the waitress came back to remove my finished plates and take our dessert orders. While I was tempted to go with the "plain as apple pie" choice, I knew I would be failing in this review if I didn't choose the boysenberry pie since the boysenberry was created at Knott's Berry Farm (or so their menu told me).

The boysenberry pie filling was thick enough to not escape the pie shell as I cut out a piece with my fork. It really is as dark as it appears in my pictures; the one where I took a flash reveals the hidden flavor zones inside the fruit. The boysenberry filling was lovely, a true taste I savored as I dug in for more.

The pie crust was perfectly light and flaky. I'm not a big fan of pie crust in general since it serves a higher purpose of containing the inner filling. The Mrs. Knott's pie crust was above-average. It earned extra points for being homemade and not being too dense where I would need ice cream to finish it off.

The service slowed down about the time we were ready to order dessert. This wasn't a big deal since I needed some time to digest some chicken and make room for my pie. It's difficult for me to eat a lot of food early in the morning (*cough 11:30 AM*) and we were well served up to the point we left at around 1:00 PM.

Overview

The fried chicken was delicious even though it had been over-hyped by my colleagues. The meal portions were excellent for the $15.90 pricetag and I left the restaurant extremely full. The star of the meal for me was the boysenberry pie hands down; the fruit filling had outstanding flavor with the pie crust being flaky just I way I like it. While I would not likely drive to Buena Park just for Mrs. Knott's fried chicken, I am tempted to make a return trip to get some more delicious boysenberry pie.

by BlueZero

Does seafood make for an exciting birthday celebration? I ended up joining a family member to celebrate his birthday in Orange County. He had a hard time choosing the birthday restaurant and had originally chosen an upscale steak restaurant. After walking inside and talking with the hostess, we were told it would be more than an hour four our party of 7. So he turned to his super-awesome backup plan which ended up being Clemente Seafood in Santa Ana. Here is our seafood adventure:

Ambiance:
The first thing I noticed as we parked our car was the restaurant was a little smaller than I expected. Clemente Seafood has seven tables around the perimeter which can seat four and had tables pushed together in the center to seat about 6 to 8.

As you can see from the picture, the interior was decorated with a giant swordfish on one side of the wall. On the other wall was a drawn outdoor paradise, the same one as pictured on the menu.

Drink: Horchata
I ordered horchata, my drink of choice in Mexican restaurants to set a baseline. For people who haven't tasted horchata, it is a sweet, milk-cinnamon flavored beverage with a tan-ish color. I usually prefer my horchata to be more milky and sweet than having the cinnamon too strong. The horchata at Clemente Seafood was good, maybe slightly too sweet. I could not detect any cinnamon flavor so either they put in a tiny amount or chose not to add it.

Main Course: Swordfish
I ordered the 10 oz. buttered swordfish with capers off the daily specials menu located at the front of the restaurant. It came with rice and a choice between beans or salad; I chose salad. I also chose corn tortillas.

For $10.99, this is a real bargain compared with other seafood restaurants I've seen. Most charge a minimum of $17 or $18 dollars for just the swordfish with most high-end restaurants charging at least ~$25, ~$30 in California.

Since I have never had swordfish before partly because I hear it contains a lot of mercury, I don't have anything to compare it with except other fish I've had in the past. I will say the filet portions were excellent, 10 oz was more than enough to fill me up after chips and salsa. The fish was moist, flavorful even when removed from the butter sauce and was not too flakey. Of course I ended up making some swordfish tacos with some lettuce, salsa, fish and butter sauce.

The side salad was decent, the salad dressing was really tasty. The lettuce was average. The rice unexpectedly looked like and tasted almost like rice pilaff. Very strange! I would have preferred Spanish rice and it would have complemented the fish much better.

I sampled my friend's whole fried bass with garlic-butter. I will probably get that the next time I return since it was good without tasting like it was drenched in garlic and butter. The presentation on the fried fish was excellent. I didn't ask to sample the same fish without the garlic-butter sauce, though I did snap a picture of it since it has better presentation.

Service: Good to Excellent

The food took a little too long to be served with my swordfish being the second last dish and we ended up waiting an extra 10 minutes for the last fish tacos to arrive. Perhaps the restaurant wasn't expecting a party of 7 to sit-down for dinner.

At least the chips and salsa kept coming as the kitchen worked away to complete our orders so this mitigates this complaint. The chips and salsa were outstanding and they kept refilling them and our water at frequent intervals. I was content socializing and watching a basketball game on their TV.

Conclusion

I enjoyed the swordfish and the horchata immensely. The value at Clemente Seafood is exceptional; I've never seen this kind of quality seafood so reasonably priced in a restaurant, Mexican or otherwise. The service was excellent, with our orders taking a while to be completed the only downside. I'm going to try and return in the future for a lunch break as their lunch specials are only around ~$7.50 and go beyond the generic tacos, enchiladas, burritos most places have. Overall Clemente Seafood is an excellent value with some superb seafood plates.

by BlueZero

Tonight was my first time ever going to the Five Guys Burgers and Fries chain. There has been extensive debate whether In-N-Out or Five Guys has the best food. My roommate had kept mentioning the chain had opened up nearby South Coast Plaza. I decided to go to the Irvine District shopping center location since it was closer coming from Spectrum. Let us see how this new West Coast contender fares against our beloved In-N-Out:

Ambiance:
The District Five Guys interior did not see much different from the prior burger joint which occupied their location. I enjoyed being greeted by the peanut box at the front door though since it was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, there wasn't a line that evening. The tables and floor were clean, with just small amount of peanut shells on the floor which is to be expected.

Here's what I had:

Regular Fries
The fries were very tasty, it was probably the peanut oil which made them stand out. They give you a large portion of fries, so much so that sharing between two people, we still had some to take back with us. Plus for $3.09 for the regular size, it beats the pants off other fast food prices and fry quantity where a medium is like $2.50 and they are gone in seconds.

The Five Guys' fries are equivalent to the tastiness of In-N-Out's. There each have their distinct taste and texture, so I'm happy with eating either. I usually get two fries at In-N-Out, so the portions are probably chose with Five Guys giving you a little more in quantity for your money.

Burger

Five Guys does not have any "pre-defined" burgers, so I choose all the black text ingredients (mayo, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, grilled mushrooms, ketchup, mustard) plus A.1 Steak Sauce from the red text ingredients. Next time I go, I'll choose to add on jalapeno peppers.
When I picked up the burger, I noticed there was a lot of grease, more-so than found in traditional California fast food restaurants. The grease is very transparent and stealthy. I was very satisfied with the first few bites on my burger; I could taste the homemade patty which always adds a lot to a burger. As I continued, the onion taste came through a little too much over the other toppings, so next time I'll probably order the burger without onions. The A.1 Steak Sauce really shined and complemented the burger nicely. I couldn't taste the grilled mushrooms on my burger, which is disappointing since I love sautéed/grill mushrooms on meat.

The orange cheese is probably standard fare for any burger joint in the midwest, though I would have appreciated a more natural flavor. Perhaps the option for pepperjack? Yeah, I've been spoiled with nice cheese options on my burger and Five Guys could offer more choices since it has to compete with custom-burger places. From a cheese standpoint, In-N-Out wins the cheese topping battle.
The size of the burger was much larger than the In-N-Out cheeseburger. The portion was just spot-on for me today since I had a huge Mexican lunch four hours before I eat here. Overall Five Guys has a delicious burger. My nitpicking above does not diminish that they have developed a higher quality burger with a mid-fast food price ($6.09 + tax in California).

Peanuts
Free peanuts in a fast food restaurant would normally seem out of place. With enough people mentioning this prior to me actually seeing it, I gladly welcomed the peanuts. I started eating them near the end of my meal to keep the peanuts from influencing the burger and fry taste testing. Peanuts are always tasty and helped push my fullness over the top. Now after experiencing the free peanuts, makes me want to say In-N-Out should do something similar.

Overall
At the end of the meal, I was completely satisfied. I was more impressed with the burger taste than the fries. Both were tasty. Since my roommate paid for the meal, I'm not going to be as concerned about the cost. For a $6 burger, I'd be more tempted to get two cheeseburgers at In-N-Out since it's more food. For fries, I'd choose the huge portions of Five Guys.

As for the verdict of which burger titan reigns supreme, there is no clear winner. If I were craving more ingredients on my burger, I would go to Five Guys. If I wanted the grilled bun and thousand island style sauce, I would go to In-N-Out. Both chains do a superb job of making fresh burgers and fries. For me, location is the deciding factor so I'll go to the one which is closest to where I am. Each company is targeting a different client, at a different price-point and portion size. So in the end, Californians benefits from having to make the final decision.

by BlueZero

Welcome back, Happy New Year! This fresh year of 2012, I promise much more delicious feasting with more updates. It's been almost a year since I last posted a food review. It's not like I stopped eating and taking pictures of my food, it was entirely the opposite. I took TONS of pictures of the food I was eating with the determination to make a review at each new restaurant and stop. Here's what went wrong for me:

1. I Love Eating

This is an issue as I want to instantly dive into the plate or item as soon as I receive it. To put yourself into my mindset, just imagine basically only eating two meals a day with a large gap between lunch and dinner. My morning doesn't do much for me since I are rarely hungry when I wake up. So my voracious appetite causes me to lose a little self-restraint so many of my food photos already have my teeth marks all over them. Plus I sometimes forget to take a photo when I receive the food.

2. Photography

I take my photos with a consumer grade camera, a 10 MP Cannon camera. I don't carry this around with me at all restaurants. Why don't I just use my cell phone camera you might ask? I have a flip phone from 2006 with only 1.3 megapixels. It doesn't do the food justice. Therefore, I will hopefully soon get a new modern smartphone which will fix my lack of camera-age.

3. Time

When I am tasting the food, I can precisely pinpoint the flavor intricacies and carefully think about the textures and emotional feelings. After I leave the table, it's basically too late to reflect back on the food and to write a review a day later is not fair.

The longer the time from when I tasted the food, the more details I lose and the more useless the review I write. This is one of the main reasons why I didn't post some reviews. I had the photos, I had a nearly completed review. I just felt the review was not high enough quality to post.

I'll admit I should be taking notes as I eat; it's something I will attempt to do this year. I should be publishing the reviews the same day to reduce the time issue.

4. Being Busy

With my current full-time job, the only real chance I have to try new places is on the weekend. In the past, I had infinitely more time to goof around on weekdays and travel around Orange County, San Diego and the Bay Area. There is not much I can do, so I'll have to work food reviews into my weekend schedule.

That's all the excuses I can find for my extended absence. Please enjoy the unpublished photos from reviews that fell by the wayside.

by BlueZero

Every one or twice a year, Mitsuwa Marketplace holds their Japanese gourmet food festival called Umaimono. It’s currently being held from today Thursday May 26th to Sunday May 29th with different Mitsuwa locations offering sometimes different food products. My sole goal was to go to the Mitsuwa in Costa Mesa and indulge in some takoyaki which can best be described as octopus gilled dumpling balls:

Background:
I had gone to Mitsuwa yesterday to feed my normal ramen hunger and I found out they were going to host their festival. Therefore I planned a careful battle strategy and got there around 5pm. The last time my friend had gone he had to wait in a 45 minute line to purchase his takoyaki. Thank goodness when I got arrived there was only one person in line and I could barely call it a wait.

Last year was the first time I sampled takoyaki at the Costa Mesa Mitsuwa and it blew me away with its flavor. The second time I had it was at Little Tokyo in Los Angeles at a vender outside an Asian mall. That one was ok but paled in comparison to the quality at Mitsuwa’s festival.

Festival Ambiance: Since Mitsuwa is a collection of a supermarket, food court, bookstore and vender stalls, the ambiance is not comparable to a sit-down restaurant.

The festival stands had people shouting out greetings and specials in Japanese which is normally not present at Mitsuwa. It was mostly deserted with only a few people walking around and sitting in the food court; I guess that is expected on a Thursday afternoon. I’m sure the place will be a mad house during the three day Memorial weekend so you will want to arrive early or late in the day to avoid long lines.

They had a person preparing it fresh but the two boxes I bought had been sitting there for probably around fifteen minutes. Each box has eight pieces and costs $6.90 + tax so with two boxes my total was $15.01. Most places in Mitsuwa only accept cash so I was lucky to have a penny in my pocket to avoid getting $ 0.99 in change.

After finishing the first box of eight pieces, I was starting to feel almost full but I decided to eat the other box since I assume takoyaki will not reheat well being a mix of sauce and squid. I image me stupidly sticking the squid balls into a microwave and them exploding. Box 2 was also just as delicious and the final bite left the great aftertaste in my mouth.

Conclusion Go try takoyaki even if you are not a fan of squid or Asian delights. The experience is worth trying something entirely new. The rich flavor marked with the slightly chewy squid center is remarkable. For me, there is currently no available substitute for the Mitsuwa festival takoyaki. Since this is a limited festival food not available any other time, go try it this weekend or wait for the next Mitsuwa festival. Otherwise you will be avoiding a delicious snack that can always turn into a full meal. If you have eaten takoyaki at Mitsuwa, I look forward to your comments on how it compares with other authentic places.

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by BlueZero

I stared writing this review as I was on my flight leaving the San Francisco Bay Area. I visited my friends and family and of course went to places I love to eat. One of my friends tried to surprise me with a mystery restaurant while we were hanging out in the Sunset district of San Francisco. I surprised myself when I correctly guessed the location on my first try while getting the restaurant completely wrong.

Background:
I went to the Sloat Blvd Java Beach Cafe location as I found out there is another one on La Playa St. What you don't realize is I was looking forward to going to the Doggy Diner for the first time which had closed many many years ago. It was the famous local hot dog shop right across from the entrance of the San Francisco Zoo. I’m sure many people have fond memories of going to the zoo and getting a hotdog at the Doggy Diner. Unfortunately my family and field trips always ate inside the zoo. The only news I remember was a push to make the dog face sculpture on top of the roof historic. The sculpture has been restored and is now in the middle of the street divider.

After the Doggie Diner, there was the 49er Café & Bar before eventually becoming the Java Beach Cafe. As soon as I stepped inside I realized the place was a café with a distinct lack of hotdogs on the menu.

Food: I spent a while deciding before I decided on the large O.B. Hot Sub Sandwich: Create Your Own Sandwich ($7.50). I ordered large roast beef sandwich on French roll with almost full condiments. I opted for mayo, mustard, lecture, tomato, pickles, and red onions along with pepper jack cheese. I also added the optional jalapenos and pickles since they were included in the price. I asked for the sandwich hot since I usually eat cold roast beef. My friend ordered one of their special sandwiches and a peasant pie (spinach feta, Moroccan lentil, Basque beef, and scrambled egg).

My sandwich arrived in good time and I really liked the look and taste of the bread. The roast beefy was luckily hot without being dried out. The lettuce had a good balance of moistness without being too wet. The jalapeno spice complemented the sandwich nicely without being too spicy. The side potato chips were better than average with a thick crunch and normal amount of salt.

Drinks: Cafés are known for their delectable coffees and lattes. Unfortunately I do not regularly drink coffee or lattés and didn't order any drink. Therefore, I can’t rate their beverages. If the café had a smoothie or I was in the mood for hot chocolate, I would have gotten one. I drank only boring water with my sandwich.

Conclusion: Please understand I reviewed a sandwich I created from their menu. This review was mostly dedicated to discussing the Doggie Diner history and my surprise at there being 2+ restaurant changes since I was much younger. Java Beach Café has the feel of an intimate café with its limited seating and compact food menu. I enjoyed catching up with my friend while munching a large deli sandwich. If you are near the beach or SF Zoo, Java Beach Café is worth checking out for your own personal experience.

by BlueZero

With our stomachs growling, we decided to forgo our search of the French eatery and settle with the nearby mall food. I decided I didn't want to go to a familiar chain restaurant after driving so far and the other mall food outlets were uninteresting, so my friend choose Great Khan's Mongolian Festival. Let me breakdown this self-serve Mongolian BBQ:

Background: I unexpectedly ended up in Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego about two weeks ago. I was driving a friend down to the San Marcos area to interview with a grad school and I figured I might as well go a little more south to the city. As I looked for parking, she used her cell phone to lookup potential places to eat. We ended up walking around the area going past the local Hooters and stopped at Horton Plaza. Our hunger level was off the chart during the unsettling span between lunch and dinner. We were originally looking for a French restaurant around Horton Plaza but my friend's phone GPS kept leading us in circles. This was my first time going to Great Khan's Mongolian Festival and while I was writing this review I learned it was also a chain restaurant.

Ambiance: The first thing you will notice is the exaggerated Mongolian face on their restaurant sign. Secondly, you will notice the inside is extremely small since it's not a sit-down restaurant. The place is setup like a hexagonal food counter where you pay on the left side and work your way around the outside filling your bowl with meat and vegetables. At the end of the line, there are people cooking your bowl contents on an open circular slab with large chop-stick looking tools. Since there is no seating directly inside, we sat outside in the beautiful San Diego sun.


Food: This review is going to be even more subjective than normal due to the nature of choosing the ingredients to add to your bowl. It's just you and your ability to fill a bowl standing between you and your food. I of course wanted and always want to get the best value from my food so I made sure I packed my bowl skyhigh with everything I wanted. This means I picked things I know and I liked over trying everything.

We each paid for the default Mongolian BBQ entree without the extras of rice and soup. I had to choose from chicken, pork, turkey and beef so I went with about 95% beef and 5% turkey. My mindset was chicken is very cheap to buy, the pork looked uninspired, I wanted a lot of beef and turkey was unexpected so I added it to taste. Their website and other locations seem to also use lamb instead of turkey or perhaps rotate based on availability. I flattened the meat down in the bottom of the bowl with the tongs and added more meat to my friend's bowl since she didn't get enough beef.

Moving to the veggie section, I mainly focused on adding tomatoes since I really enjoy them. Vegetables are always the minor hero of BBQ dishes and this is no different. I also added a small amount of broccoli, bell peppers and mushrooms.

When it came to the sauce area, I couldn't understand what the guy behind the counter was asking me specifically about spice since he was mumbling. So I told him to make it spicy and believe he used all the sauces. He next dumped a good serving on noodles on my heaping bowl of ingredients and added it to the cooking queue.

While my food was being cooked, I made sure to pour out some of the Asian red spice sauce (Sriracha) into a mini-cup. Sriracha always makes food taste better and I enjoy spicy food. About this time my food was ready and they put it in a white takeout container (not a stereotypical Chinese box though).

Oh yeah take a really close look at my creation

Taste: I really enjoyed the overall package. The meat was very thin uncooked and the cooked texture and flavor were muted. The beef and turkey could not stand out on its own which is disappointing for a Mongolian BBQ food joint. With my huge appetite it tasted good while if I were only peckish, I would have been more dissatisfied paying ~$8 to $9 for just the meat.

The vegetables were able to bring a lot of flavor to the dish. I had to restrain from eating all the yummy tomatoes and eat them together with the meat. The noodles were also the best part of the dish as they were not too oily and fully cooked. I could not taste any of the sauces in the dish or maybe all the sauces were absorbed into the tasty noodles.

Conclusion As I was faced with the difficult choice of choosing Great Khan's Mongolian Festival between Panda Express, I'm glad I choose Great Khan's. While a little pricier than I would like to pay, I realize this is mall food so for what it was, my stomach was satisfied for the hour-ish drive back to Orange County. If I returned to Great Khans, which I would if I had a hunger attack in Horton Plaza again, I would stuff even more food into the bowl and pay more attention to the different sauce options.

by BlueZero

Background: I was driving back from the Costa Mesa area on Harbor Blvd. and my friend and I were looking for a place to go to eat. I kept seeing the same fast food like Taco Bell and McDonalds and I didn’t feel like another chain restaurant. I was lucky when I saw Super Antojitos on the left hand side and did a U-turn to stop by. Here are my thoughts on my first ever visit:

Ambiance: Upon walking in I wasn’t sure if it was self-seating or where a host seats us. A guy behind the counter said we can sit wherever we wanted. We were there around 8pm on a Tuesday and the there were plenty of booths open. The inside walls near the kitchen had realistic looking pictures of their signature dishes. There were also numerous LCDs set to Latino stations which were convenient to watch.

Food: I ordered the Burrito a la Mexicana under the wet burrito menu. The contents of the burrito included lettuce, cheese and your choice of meat. I chose beef although I was tempted by lengua (beef tongue) which my friend ordered. I wasn’t sure if the burrito was going to be with traditional salsa or verde (green sauce). I choose this burrito since it didn’t have sour cream; I had already had sour cream on my nachos for lunch and didn’t want to be too unhealthy.

When the burrito was served, there was a generous amount of verde sauce on top and all around the burrito. On top of the burrito, there was a huge amount of lettuce with random grated cheese (maybe parmesan) on top with a few tomatoes in it. The burrito had good flavor and the beef was better in my opinion than other authentic type burritos I had because the beef could stand on its own with its taste. The best way to describe the verde sauce is “zesty” with a bite in the aftertaste. It was filling and worth the $7 or $8.

Service: The waiter was decent. He stopped by promptly and brought out the chips and salsa. The salsa was in a maple syrup like container and I poured it into the black container. The food flew out of the kitchen so quickly I was surprised it was ready. I would estimate it only took 15 to 20 minutes to prepare the food which is really fast compared to other Mexican restaurants.

Conclusion: A very good first visit and an enjoyable experience. The Burrito a la Mexicana stood out for its tasty beef and unique verde sauce. I would like to return and try the restaurant’s shrimp and seafood dishes since they seemed to be their signature dishes aside from their wet burritos. You can never eat enough Mexican food and I’ll add Super Antojitos to my mental list of Mexican restaurants I will visit in the future.

by BlueZero