Off-site restaurant recommendations for dinner?

[smiles33]

We will do Ariel's Grotto for the princess lunch, but we plan to bring our young girls back to nap each day so I figure it is cheaper and maybe less crowded to eat dinner OUTSIDE of the park.

I know I can surf chowhound for recommendations, but I thought I would also ask here. We don't need fancy food and we prefer non-chains over chains, so a good "hole-in-the-wall" Vietnamese or Mexican restaurant would be preferable over McDonalds or California Pizza Kitchen. I know Orange County has a large Vietnamese American community so I'm hoping to find good recs for Vietnamese food in particular (my girls love noodles and rice).

Anyone?

 

[skiingfast]

How far are you willing to go? Drive to dinner ok?

 

[kik050]

L&L Hawaiian Bar-B-Cue on Ball road. Good Bar-B-Cue meats. Rice and Saimin available. I can eat mainland food for my entire stay but my kids need their rice and noodles, so we go there every once in awhile.

 

[candygirlIRE]

I was going to ask this same question... We love random off the path places! And noodles and rice are a win-win in our family Hoping for great mexican too as we are lacking that here in our region of the great white north


Keep the suggestions coming!

 

[smiles33]

Totally willing to drive. I just don't want to drive back to LA or some place more than 30 minutes away unless it is a can't-miss restaurant. My girls are pretty adventurous eaters (Fijian/Indian, Korean, Greek, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Afghan & Vietnamese are in regular rotation in our area).

We have L&L up here in Nor Cal and I always love getting some spam musubi and chicken katsu!

 

[LavenderPeach]

I don't know if this is too far but there is a Persian restaurant (they have rice!) in Irvine that we liked going to when we lived over there. It's called the Caspian. We haven't been there in several years but I'm assuming it's still good.

 

[jlmarr]

Los Sanchez on Garden Grove Blvd - it's a counter service Mexican restaurant that's always hopping. Go south on Disneyland Drive (aka West Street) till it dead ends at GG Blvd, then turn right and make an immediate left into Los Sanchez. It's about 3 miles - here's a Google Map.

(Some of you might remember Los Sanchez from it's "hole-in-the-wall" days when it was on Harbor Blvd about where the Sheraton is now. With the redevelopment of that area the GG city fathers gave them the boot and now they've built a brand new building on GG Blvd. It's still counter service and still as good as it always was.)

 

[cpster]

Los Sanchez on Garden Grove Blvd - it's a counter service Mexican restaurant that's always hopping. Go south on Disneyland Drive (aka West Street) till it dead ends at GG Blvd, then turn right and make an immediate left into Los Sanchez. It's about 3 miles - here's a Google Map.

(Some of you might remember Los Sanchez from it's "hole-in-the-wall" days when it was on Harbor Blvd about where the Sheraton is now. With the redevelopment of that area the GG city fathers gave them the boot and now they've built a brand new building on GG Blvd. It's still counter service and still as good as it always was.)

Is this the place? http://www.lossanchez.com/index.htm
Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

I don't know but I always see people on Harbor walking with Red Robin bags and I want to jump them. Where is it?

 

[tlovesdis]

I don't know but I always see people on Harbor walking with Red Robin bags and I want to jump them. Where is it?

Red Robin is about a mile to a mile and a half down on Harbor, near the Hyatt.

 

[jlmarr]

Is this the place? http://www.lossanchez.com/index.htm
Thanks for the recommendation!

Yes, that's it.

I don't know but I always see people on Harbor walking with Red Robin bags and I want to jump them. Where is it?

Red Robin is about a mile to a mile and a half down on Harbor, near the Hyatt.

Yes, on the corner of Harbor and Chapman, next to Outback Steak House.

 

[Nanseev]

I'm going to recommend my hole-in-the-wall favorite italian place. It was featured on diners, drive-ins and dives. Food is YUMMY!

Mama Cozza's

It's at 2170 W. Ball Rd....about 5-10 minutes down from Disneyland.

 

[bluegrizzlies1]

we like this mexican place acapulco its on katella past the honda center for some reason this one isnt on the location page

http://www.acapulcorestaurants.com/Default.aspx
1701 W. Katella Ave., Orange, CA

 

[Saskiwi]

We love BBQ and are looking forward to revisiting this spot in October:
http://www.blakesplacebbq.com/ They are in an out of the way spot so you'd need a car: 2905 E. Miraloma. Very casual but goooood. Kids loved it.

We also enjoyed great garlicky Middle Eastern chicken here:http://www.zankouchicken.com/ They have lots of branches but closest to DL is 2424 W. Ball Rd.

And of course, who could resist In n Out burgers??! 600 S. Brookhurst

Would love to hear about good Vietnamese near DL...anyone??

 

[HarryMoose]

I really like my iphone app urban spoon (I think yelp is another one) for things like this. I don't know how easy it is to search for an area before you are there, but it is great for finding places close to you. It gives directions from where you are to the place you want to find too.

We really liked it when we were in NYC this spring.

Now if you don't have a smart phone, this isn't very helpful. Sorry.

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

I'm going to recommend my hole-in-the-wall favorite italian place. It was featured on diners, drive-ins and dives. Food is YUMMY!

Mama Cozza's

It's at 2170 W. Ball Rd....about 5-10 minutes down from Disneyland.

Just watched the video of tripleD on the website. YUM!

 

[Saskiwi]

What's the saying about the Lord loves those who help themselves....?
Just checked out Yelp and it seems DL is on the doorstep of Little Saigon - who knew? (not me anyway...)
Plenty of good eating listed here...mmmmm....
http://www.yelp.com/c/anaheim-ca/vietnamese

 

[Saskiwi]

Just watched the video of tripleD on the website. YUM!

That place looks great! Ok this thread is making me seriously hungry - and i just had breakfast....

 

[mytripsandraces]

If you're driving, my siblings love King's Hawaiian: http://www.kingshawaiian.com/restaurants/

 

[smiles33]

Thanks all. I found some great Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean recommendations from chowhound.