Food Advice - SoCal SPECIFIC food.

[bcla]

I forgot to mention Fatburger. I know In-N-Out gets the publicity because of its value, but Fatburger rules. Total calorie bomb, but I'll have a medium Fatburger, fat fries, and a Maui-banana shake.

 

[sheetz]

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.

Westminster and Garden Grove have huge Vietnamese communities so you can just check the Yelp reviews and pretty much any highly rated place will be decent.

 

[undertheseas]

Westminster and Garden Grove have huge Vietnamese communities so you can just check the Yelp reviews and pretty much any highly rated place will be decent.

Thanks sheetz, I'll take a look!

 

[AmericanItGirl]

If you want good salads and will already be touristing in LA, the best place is The Farm of Beverly Hills, which is one street over from Rodeo Drive. Another great place is Ruby's Diner on the Pier in Newport Beach near Balboa Island. The location is amazing (literally at the very end of a pier).

Also, there's a chain of waffle sandwich places called Bruxies (the closest one to Disneyland is in Orange, just across the street from Chapman University). Their fried chicken waffle sandwich is to die for, and if you get it to go, they'll package the slaw and honey separately so the sandwich won't get soggy before you eat it.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

If the OP will be in Huntington, the original Ruby's is on the end of the Huntington Pier. Burgers, fries, and shakes overlooking the ocean -- yes! In Laguna, there is Las Brisas. Not the best Mexican food and a bit pricey, but such a lovely view. Near DLR, try OC Rotisserie Chicken on Ball for Vietnamese sandwiches (Bahn Mi) and chicken curry. El Gaucho Argentinian market on State College has great skirt steak sandwiches (the Entrana) with delicious chimichurri sauce. Los Chilangos is about 15 minutes from the parks -- very good Mexico City style Mexican food. Thai Nakorn in Garden Grove is one of the best Thai restaurants in southern California (order off the specials menu). Garden Grove also has a Korea Town. And Little Gaza near DLR has very good Middle Eastern food and some fun markets.

 

[SMD]

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.

Slightly OT, but Short Order closed yesterday! The restaurant, not the stand. It was one of those, tried it once, intended to go back but never made it a priority places. I second Littlejohn's toffee.

 

[diznygirl]

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.......

Shutters on the Beach - hotel in Santa Monica - has a beach-sde cafe that serves Cobb Salad. So close to the Santa Monica Pier so make sure you also ride the carousel.

As for food in SoCal, anything with avocado or kale.

 

[Sherry E]

Slightly OT, but Short Order closed yesterday! The restaurant, not the stand. It was one of those, tried it once, intended to go back but never made it a priority places. I second Littlejohn's toffee.

That is very surprising! Not only did I just walk right past Short Order last week and it seemed/looked like it was business as usual, but I follow their Facebook page and didn't see the announcement on my News Feed (I see that they did make an announcement on Facebook 2 days ago -- it just didn't show up on my Feed).

That's a shame that they left, although I am more invested in the longtime mom & pop-type of vendors at Farmers Market than I am in the newer places -- even though I think it's a good idea for FM to have a mix of both old and new eateries. A lot of the family-run businesses that had/have been there for decades were hit hard when The Grove first moved in next door 13 years ago -- initially they lost a lot of revenue because everyone wanted to explore the shiny new shopping center that just opened up and not eat/shop at FM -- and some of them ended up shutting down. They either didn't want to stick it out, or they were pushed out in favor of newer businesses, or they never recovered from the loss of customers.

Of course, nowadays there is a better balance of customer traffic flowing between The Grove and Farmers Market -- The Grove ultimately ended up helping to attract more people and re-introduce them to Farmers Market. But I still haven't recovered from the loss of my favorite meatball sandwich place. There was a family-run business in the same food court where The Gumbo Pot and Charlie's are located, and they made the best meatball sandwich I've ever had. I used to dream about that sandwich. No other meatball sandwich has compared. They have now been gone for probably at least 10 years -- I can't recall when they finally left -- but they saw a big reduction in customers after The Grove moved in. Meanwhile, I am still mourning the loss of my meatball sandwich. I might need to go into sandwich therapy.

Littlejohn's makes great brittle too! Gill's Old Fashioned Ice cream is another noteworthy place. There's so much good food to be found at Farmers Market, and so many vendors there who have perfected their food and prepared it with love and care for so many years.

 

[RemainSeatedPlease]

You've gotten a lot of great suggestions, so I'll just mention two additional items that seem to be California specific (though not necessarily Southern California). Sourdough bread. More of a NorCal thing, but still California. It may be all over the place where you live, so not a big deal, but I remember having been on a few vacations around the country where it was hard to come by. I remember being in a Subway in Hawaii, ordering my usual on sourdough, when the lady looked at me strange and said "sourdough? We don't have that." I was devastated!

Also, avocado seems to be our thing (even though I can't stand it). I see things on menus like the "Cali burger" or "California salad" and they always seem to include avocado.

 

[cagirl4life]

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.

As others have said Mexican food, especially from a truck. Taco trucks are awesome. If there is a line at the truck stop, even if it is a grungy looking truck. It is probably good. Another SoCal Mexican food thing is carne asada fries. My personal favorite. If you are in the Orange area, there is a ton of my favorite restaurants. Bruxies in the circle has waffle sandwiches, Yin Chings is really good chinese food, the family who owns it is really nice and near the circle on Chapman, Slaters 50/50 in Anahiem Hills has bacon filled burgers, Ruby's on the pier (balboa) or the shake shack (also Ruby's) is fun while its normal burger it adds something being at the beach, there is also hot dogs and corn dogs at the beach, the chicken dinner at Knott's, anything fresh veggies and fruits, avocados with everything (I eat them by itself), and sushi places are really good in SoCal. Also there is something to In-and-Out in California, its great to get a single and animal style fries and sit outside eating it.

 

[Xenorye]

Thanks for all the responses. We probably won't venture up to LA but do plan on hitting HB and some of the more immediate surrounding areas.