Bangkok 4 is my favorite Thai restaurant.  It’s in the South Coast Plaza Crystal Court behind South Coast Plaza.  It’s on the 3rd floor.

I’m not sure if this is real Thai food or upscale Californiaized Thai food but I think is delicious.  It’s a little expensive.  The kind of place you’d go on a relatively nice dinner with your girlfriend.  If you just want to pig out go to the Thai BBQ next to Tommy Sushi.

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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.

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This is a Korean Style BBQ and it’s all you can eat.  At lunch time on a weekday it’s only 8$ and that includes soft drinks.  At a Korean BBQ you cook the food on a grill at your table.  Since this is all you can eat they’ve got bars (similar to salad bars) except they have lots of raw and seasoned meats.  There are sauces in the back as well as ready to eat foods like eggrolls and fries.

One tip: Wait for the grill to get good and hot.  If you put the cold meat on it before it’s hot the grill will never get hot.

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Sam Woo has been called the best Chinese in O.C.  One indication is that the clientele is about 95 percent Chinese.  Another is that the service can be rude.   Some people say if the service isn’t rude it’s not real Chinese.  There are several Sam Woo restaurants in So.Cal.  I think there’s one in San Francisco too.

There are three restaurants there.  One is take out only.  One is called Sam Woo Seafood Restaurant and looks a little expensive.  I’ve never been in there.   The 3rd is between the first 2 and that’s were I eat.  It’s usually cheap too.

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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

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Houston’s is a national chain.  The have a very small menu.  Their two specialties are (1) Their Spinach Dip which they claim was named one of the 10 best things to eat in L.A.  I agree. (2) Their ribs which they call knife and fork ribs.   These ribs are so tender you usually don’t even need the knife.  The meat falls right off the bones with just a light push from your fork.  Yes!

Directions: They are in the same center as FatBurger above.  In LA there is one at the Century City Shopping Center and another in Manhattan Beach on Rosecrans a mile or two west of the 405.

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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.

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There is a little hole in the wall Peruvian restaurant at the corner of Western and Cerritos.  If you’ve never tried Peruvian food (as in from Peru) I suggest you try it.  It’s pretty good and somewhat different.  One of the dishes I had there is this potato dish with this thick yellow gravy/sauce poured all over it.  Very good!   Also I had some squid salad and the squid was as tender as chicken.  Not rubbery at all.  Yum!  They also have chicken dishes.

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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.

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