Food Advice - SoCal SPECIFIC food.

Xenorye · Apr 18, 2015

Hey all, the wife was wondering what type of food is the type of food we need to eat while we're there. The example she gave is that when you go to Memphis or North Carolina, you eat BBQ. When you go to Chicago, you get a deep dish pizza.

(We're already eating at In-N-Out, that's not really what this is about.)

Would it be Mexican food? We're in Oklahoma so we have our share of Tex-Mex (we also have a really good "Cal-Mex" place run by a family who came from San Diego). Any suggestions would be appreciated.

tarheelalum · Apr 18, 2015

Gets some street tacos or a California Burrito from a food truck. Fish Tacos if you go to San Diego.

SMD · Apr 18, 2015

Are you asking about in the parks or just in the whole So Cal area? I'd say we're more chef driven/experience driven. So you'd go to a certain restaurant because of who owns it or the chef who made the menu, regardless of the actual cuisine. There are also a lot of chains that started here, so people tend to go to those, even if they're elsewhere now (like In n Out.) If you want some classic LA places, Pink's Hot Dogs, Farmer's Market (some classic places, some new), Langer's Deli for Pastrami, Bob's Big Boy in Burbank, Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles (there's one in Anaheim now). Some more upscale places are Lawry's, Yamishiro, Taix. Check out Eater, LAist or Zagat if you're looking for something newer.

VandVsmama · Apr 18, 2015

Ok I lived in California for ages before moving to Arizona. A few CA type style eateries that come to mind are:

1. Sushi boat restaurants - where you sit at a bar and little boats with small rectangular plates of sushi float by. You take the plates that you want and you are charged by the type of plate it is. Arizona doesn't have these.
2. A Mexican restaurant with fish tacos. Fried fish tacos.
3. In N Out Burger
4. Tommy Burger
5. If you're in Santa Barbara or Goleta, Hamburger Habit. It's a chain now called The Habit but the original is in Goleta.
6. Eating outside. Often. Even in February but only in southern CA in February.

VandVsmama · Apr 18, 2015

I forgot a couple.

Chinese restaurants that all have chow mien like the kind that Panda Express has...only better. The sort of small family run Chinese restaurants that have plate lunches where you pick your type of rice and a side dish for $7-$8.

Small counter service Mexican restaurants that serve massive burritos with Mexican rice, pollo asada or carne asada, salsa, and beans. Southern CA had these way before Chipotle existed.

sheetz · Apr 19, 2015

Real Mexican food. Real Asian food. Not necessarily hole-in-the-wall places, but also more upscale restaurants catering those ethnic communities. Most of the best places are in LA, however.

bcla · Apr 19, 2015

I don't know if there's anything distinctively "Southern Californian". It's a place of immigrants and people (or their parents) who came from somewhere else. A lot of names were mentioned as places to go, but perhaps the quality and/or iconic status are really what makes them worth going to and not because it's regionally distinctive like Memphis-style BBQ.

I don't know how to explain it other than when an English friend of mine joked that the national food of England is now Indian-style cuisine. Southern California is kind of like that. Good dim sum. Excellent Vietnamese. Possibly really authentic regional Mexican.

About the only thing I can think of is maybe the fish tacos at Rubios. They're really good, and even better after they switched back to freshly battered fish on-site rather than the frozen/battered ones that used to be processed at a central location. Those frozen ones just didn't develop that nice, light and crispy feel from frying wet batter. And Tuesdays are $1.50 each after 2:30 PM.

http://www.rubios.com

RichP1269 · Apr 19, 2015

Santa Maria Style BBQ'd Tri Tip. Not true BBQ as it is cooked over a bed of hot coals, but oh so good!

sheetz · Apr 19, 2015

Lots of foods originate in LA and then spread like wildfire across the country, so it's hard to find foods that remain unique to the region. A relatively recent invention was the Korean taco, but those have popped up everywhere over the last few years.

Xenorye · Apr 19, 2015

Thank you all, these are exactly the types of suggestions we were looking for.

msdaisy · Apr 19, 2015

I'm going to declare at the beginning of this post that I'm a Texan! I always visualize eating a Cobb salad outside on a patio near the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. For all I know the Cobb salad could have came from Ohio! But doesn't it sound nice???

We are so excited about our upcoming trip to Southern California. So far we are kicking around Mom's Tamales (just because I saw that on diners, drive inns, and dives), street tacos from a food truck, and Cortinas Italian Deli. I still have some planning to go! Of course we will have some meals inside of the parks, too. At first I was looking for a German restaurant, French restaurant, etc. I discovered I was subconsciously planning this weird version of eating around Epcot while in California, so I stopped that!

I need to find a place that has a really good Cobb salad.....

With a really pretty view.......

SMD · Apr 19, 2015

msdaisy said:
I'm going to declare at the beginning of this post that I'm a Texan! I always visualize eating a Cobb salad outside on a patio near the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. For all I know the Cobb salad could have came from Ohio! But doesn't it sound nice???

We are so excited about our upcoming trip to Southern California. So far we are kicking around Mom's Tamales (just because I saw that on diners, drive inns, and dives), street tacos from a food truck, and Cortinas Italian Deli. I still have some planning to go! Of course we will have some meals inside of the parks, too. At first I was looking for a German restaurant, French restaurant, etc. I discovered I was subconsciously planning this weird version of eating around Epcot while in California, so I stopped that!

I need to find a place that has a really good Cobb salad.....

With a really pretty view.......

That is actually from here. The owner of the Brown Derby chain was named Cobb. There aren't any Brown Derbies around anymore. I can't even think of anywhere that specializes in it. I'm pretty sure if you check menus for places at Huntington Beach pier that most will serve it.

beachdreamr1229 · Apr 19, 2015

In southern California in general, it'd be sushi, real Mexican food from either a food truck as mentioned above or from a hole in the wall (best Mexican food is usually from somewhere that does not have an A rating on the outside), and In N Out. If you're going to be in the area for a while and have a car to get places, I'd also recommend Porto's Bakery and Pink's Hot Dogs.

Cobb salads are great and you can get them just about anywhere, but there are so many more exciting foods than a cobb salad. Regardless, I'd look into Paradise Cove. It will be a bit of a drive from the Anaheim area, but it's a really special restaurant directly on the beach. If you ask for patio seating, you are pretty much sitting at tables and chairs right on the sand. If you go there, get reservations. It'll go a lot faster. They have a great cobb salad (and an even more amazing "sandwich in soup" which is like a crab and shrimp melt with I don't remember what kind of seafood soup, but so amazingly good).

Sherry E · Apr 19, 2015

Are you driving up to L.A., or staying in Anaheim?

If you're going up to L.A......

I'm a big proponent of the Farmers Market (not just any farmers market, but The Original Farmers Market on 3rd Street and Fairfax in L.A., right next door to The Grove), suggested by SMD above. It's a part of L.A. history and it has a fantastic array of all types of food, all sorts of cuisines, counter service and table service, from both family-run businesses that have been at the Market for decades (Magee's, for example -- great for corned beef), and newer, more contemporary restaurants such as Marmalade Café and Short Order. Du-par's has been there since 1938, and they are known for their pies. Patsy D'Amore's Pizza has been in the Market since 1949. Places like Bob's Coffee & Doughnuts and Littlejohn's, for example, may seem like just your average doughnut and candy establishments, respectively, but they have been cranking out their doughnuts and English toffee for decades and have perfected them. Charlie's Coffee Shop may look like an unremarkable counter service spot, but it was featured on the Travel Channel's show Burger Land as being one of the places in L.A. with a great hamburger.

Also, Canter's Deli -- another part of L.A. history -- is right up the street from the Farmers Market.

VandVsmama · Apr 19, 2015

Southern CA is a very diverse area so you CAN eat your way around the world. Fullerton has a large community of Koreans, so that would be a good place to eat some authentic Korean food, for example. Parts of LA have large pockets of immigrants from various middle Eastern countries, like Iran, Turkey, Syria, etc. Beverly Hills had some wonderful Jewish delis and Kosher markets, so Kosher that they close before sundown on Fridays.

bookgirl · Apr 19, 2015

Pink's

It's a hot dog place and has been on a few different food shows.

If I ever go to LA again (not going to LA this trip only Anahiem) I'm going to get a hot dog at Pink's.

MouseEXP · Apr 19, 2015

Rosco's Chicken and Waffles. and there is a location on Harbor which is 1/2 mile from Disneyland

CassieF · Apr 19, 2015

Like everyone has said, it's really a combination of all sorts of ethnic foods. We have really good regional Mexican food, really good Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean food, and in Anaheim there's actually a large Arab population too, so lots of really good Middle Eastern food!

McNs · Apr 19, 2015

My avatar is from Bob's Doughnuts at Farmers Market - their apple fritter is without a doubt the best bit of fried goodness I have ever had.

undertheseas · Apr 19, 2015

Are there any specific Vietnamese or Korean restaurants near Disneyland or somewhere easy to find, say near Harbor? We will have a rental car and plan on spending a few days at the beaches (Huntington, Newport, Laguna, etc) so anything near those would be great. We don't have anything like that here and we are mostly adventurous eaters (not the girls but the boys and I are). But I prefer to try something that comes recommended instead of taking a chance on the first place we see.

Food Advice - SoCal SPECIFIC food.

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