Orange County Bound - Is There "Drive-Worthy" Food There?

Good to know. I’ve only been there a couple of times. How are are you willing to drive off the 5?

4th St market is not far off the 5 in Santa Ana. I like Dos Chinos there but haven’t tried many of the new stalls.

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May not need this after all, but if I do Tanakaya fits the bill. Bookmarked; Thanks!

Pro tip: skip the long line and enter the enchanted tiki room “ride” turn right and order from the behind.

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Neat trick, thanks.

Cortina’s for the Rocky Balboa sandwich (roast pork).

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Ended up going down the 405 and stopped by ST Pattisserie.

Wanted to try Portola but they were too sophisticated for my tastes. I just want some iced coffee to go with my almond croissant :frowning:

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How was the croissant?
They don’t have iced coffee but they have a Kyoto cold drip. Not the same thing but its very good. And I imagine you’d get a lifetime ban if you put milk in it.

They used to have a cold brew and a kyoto offered. Did they cut it down?

I did not see either on the menu. For ST Patisserie; almond croissant was great, madelines just okay.

Its okay; we took the 5 going back and ended up at BAMBU in Irvine and had quite possibly the best Vietnamese iced coffee in recent memory. Seriously great VN drink shop.

J Zhou

Is that a chain? I’ve seen something like BAMBU in Cerritos.

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The Playground is not drive-worthy unless maybe someone means 2.0.

I am tempted to say Vaca, but it may depend upon how much one likes 50±day aged beef and how generally satisfied with Spanish tapas one is by Racion.

I’d drive from most anywhere to eat schnitzel, bratwurst, sauerkraut, and spaetzle at Jagerhaus. Never had better versions of any anywhere in LA.

Pozole den Cano for pozole.

A wealth of Vietnamese…house special noodles at Trieu Chau, or Mi Quang at Ngu Binh…more than I even know about.

Portola does, in fact, have iced coffee. I go to Portola almost every day and drink iced coffee there. Some really weird false information being spread here… I’ll take photos tomorrow to prove it I guess. Unless you people are seriously going to complain about cold brewed coffee being absolutely distinct from “iced coffee”, which is brewed hot and then put on ice, as opposed to brewed cold and put over ice. In which case, I think you all are the ones who are too snobbish for Portola.

Also, as I do work at Portola for hours at a time frequently, I can assure you that tons and tons of people buy the Kyoto and dump milk and sugar into it for whatever godforsaken reason.

Kyoto drip is absolutely incredible at removing acid from coffee if you want some robustly smooth and not tart, with a concentrated dominant flavor note. The 24-hour cold brews are typically bright and more dynamic on the palate…oddly enough, if one were to toss milk into either of them, the Kyoto probably makes more sense since it is more concentrated and typically brings up earthier notes. But really, why not just get a latte? One of these days I should really ask some of these people I guess…

They certainly have not.

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Yes. Please take a picture.

And to be clear I would definitely say cold brew is not the same as iced coffee. That said I saw neither cold brew or Kyoto on the menu that day. FWIW the attached coffee bar Theorem was also closed.

INTERESTING. I saw noticed place as I passed by en route to OC Rotisserie. Thanks for the tip.

The best thing there is the plum jam. I would eat it by the gallon.

A menu that never changes at Portola:

The daily menu at Portola:

Cold Brew from Portola:

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Oh, I didn’t even see those. Thanks.