Hello all, as somebody from the hinterlands south of LA, I am often looking for spots to go in the OC. Somehow, we don’t seem to have a dedicated thread to said county. Anyways, maybe this can be one.
To start it off: has anybody done Knife Pleat or the tasting menu at Marché Moderne recently? Specifically curious about the MM one. I used to love that spot!
Little Saigon
https://www.foodtalkcentral.com/t/little-saigon-adventures/
Little Arabia
I think my point is to get something all-inclusive like the South Bay staples that is bumped to the top constantly. Because it’s at the top of my feed, I check it out often, even though I get to the South Bay twice a year.
But you have been doing the lord’s work on Little Arabia and Little Saigon. At the same time, Little Saigon has seen two posts since March!
Looking forward to your OC adventures!
I’ll do my best to update. Really though, this is more so the incredible chow hounding of people like @JeetKuneBao and @avantbored gets the viewership it deserves!
Macrhe Moderne is still excellent (though it now charges for the bread and the mountain of butter is gone)–I recently went for the Dover Sole special it was running.
This is good to know. Prices seem decent enough, too! I loved it when it was in south coast
I like the intention of this new thread. Interested in the rise of Korean bagels in the OC. We recently enjoyed London Bagel Museum in Seoul.
Deli Seoul in Costa Mesa
Rise Bagels in Irvine
Bagelier online order and pickup
Has anybody tried?
Woah, what are the Korean bagels like?
I’ve been to Deli Seoul. The bagels are fine, but it’s the fillings like spicy pork that make it interesting.
I think the bagels at Rise Bagels are better, and they have interesting flavors like furikake. Their Japanese egg salad bagel sandwich is good. Their One Fish bagel was a little too citrus-toward for my tastes (I prefer the think the bagels with lox at Boil and Bake). They also have pastries. Their chocolate mousse cake was delicious and not too sweet.
Korean bagels are more chewy with a lot of different flavor combos. Basically I think of Korean style bagels as bread in bagel form. Here is an example of what you can expect. I think Rise and Deli Seoul are more traditional flavors with Korean fillings and ingredients like bulgogi and kimchi. The London Bagel museum had a dozen or so flavors of cream cheese with Korean influences.
Smoke Queen (Garden Grove)
Y’all, I’m in the minority. I did not love it here.
We picked the family meal to try an assortment of their items. Chef Winnie was in the house, so we can’t say Sergio was missing.
Wagyu tri tip, brisket, char siu burnt ends, and ribs were okay. Nothing extraordinary unless you dipped the tri tip in the fish sauce chimichurri. The sauces were a little basic…a regular sweet and a tangy gochujang that built in heat the more you ate it, but not extraordinary.
The mac & cheese was bland. The mapo chili was bland and it was more meat and some bell peppers…it barely looked like a white chili. There was no color to it. The dirty rice was only made better if you added sauce to it. The sides were bland.
The only winner was the cornbread with honey butter and the crispy pork belly, but I could roll into a Chinese BBQ for that.
We were just not impressed.
I’m with you @attran99. We went once early on and it was fine but not overly impressed. We’ve never been back since. The only reason I would go back is to get coffee at Phin Smith first.
Man sorry to hear was really hoping to check this place out but now I’ll pass
Random, but have you tried Harper Barbecue in Costa Mesa? Opened by an old elementary school classmate of mine who apparently spent years building pit smokers before opening his own spot. Pretty impressive buildout. I tried one of their specialty sandwiches once and it was fine.
Had a really impressive dinner at the Ecology Center in San Juan this Saturday. (Side note, the Ecology Center is one of the most impressive sustainable food initiatives I’ve ever seen, and it’s worth a stop for just about anybody. At this event, I spoke briefly with the food critic Jeff Gordinier. He more or less said that the Ecology Center almost has a different energy to it. I don’t disagree. There is an intentionality and beauty to this space that’s pretty remarkable.) Also, for some thoughts, I’ll link you to Jeff’s instagram on the experience. https://www.instagram.com/p/DYc4sRNAZEv/?img_index=1
This was Korean temple food in the middle of a farm, and something crazy like 90 percent of the ingredients were from said farm. Before the meal, there was tea and a rice-washing ceremony, then the farmer spoke about the importance of sustainable agriculture and whatnot.
All that matters, but what also matters is the food. It was tremendous. The spring vegetable juk was a highlight, as was a tasting of three different kinds of jangs, including a 100-year-old sis-ganjang from Chef Tony Yoo’s grandmother. The main was rice and beans with what was described as temple-style banchan. Of note, the temple cuisine meant no garlic, chives, onions, etc. Finally, the desserts, all more or less petit-fours, but served in front of fire pits, were tremendous. Particularly notable was a strawberry sweet bean tteok situation (fresh strawberries from the farm in mochi) and a blue corn rice cake that was almost reminiscent of the old atole that Carlos Salgado at Taco Maria would occasionally serve.
This was a one off, but visit the Ecology Center if you haven’t yet, and do try to go to one of their various dinners eventually.
FYI for those that don’t know they also have a stand at the Santa Monica Farmers market
If anyone was thinking about visiting Truly Pizza’s new location in Laguna Beach, you may want to wait. I love Truly Pizza in Dana Point. While the restaurant in Laguna Beach has a nicer setting, the food was very disappointing. The Our Cheese pizza was burnt on the bottom and the Umami Mushroom pizza was greasy (a shame, as that’s my favorite).
Serves me right for not giving it a couple of months to find its footing.
That’s disappointing thanks for the heads up, I figured it’d be seamless
Get the fries it’s the reason I come back.
