Just wanted to point out to my friend Mike that I did a review for Koji’s as requested.

Koji’s Sushi & Shabu Shabu.

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Food Frenzy » Blog Archive » Weekly roundup: Bites around OC - OCRegister.com

I was included in the weekly food blog roundup for the OC Register’s Gluttonista Blog!  Pretty sweet to be recognized.  Recent reviews on my site include The Counter in Irvine and Beach Pit BBQ in Tustin.

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I’ve officially launched a new website.  I have decided to branch out and exclusively post my Orange County Food / Restaurant Reviews on their own website, Eat In OC.  Please check it out, and if you are interested in providing guest content to that site please contact me at daniel[AT]eatinoc.com.  I would be thrilled to have some guests posting from time to time, I can only do so many reviews a month myself!

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Ok I’m updating my Azteca review, because the last one was too short and because we went there again last night.

First thing you notice when you enter Azteca is the plethora of Elvis memorabilia that adorns the walls inside. One would wonder where the connection of Elvis comes with Mexican food, but honestly who cares, it’s the King and Mexican food; two of the greatest things ever wrapped into one! Elvis music plays throughout which an Elvis movie plays on one TV, along with sporting events on their other flat screen HDTVs. This place scores a 5 on atmosphere alone, but it’s a restaurant so let’s leave the overall score up to the food.

In my previous review I mentioned that the Carnitas plate was terrific. In fact I believe their carnitas is probably the tastiest carnitas I’ve ever ordered. It was cooked to the point that it was juicy, but also had some crisp on the edges. But I didn’t order carnitas last night, no my friends I ordered Arroz con Pollo (Rice with Chicken), which is quickly becoming my favorite Mexican meal.

Our meal started with the typical Mexican fare of Chips and Salsa. The chips were unsalted, so I had to add some salt to taste. The salsa was a little bland, it needed something added to it, but it wasn’t bad, just bland.

Now on to our main course…

I must admit the only other Arroz con Pollo I’ve ever had before was from El Faralito in Placentia, which is to die for, so I had a good litmus test to gauge Azteca’s on. I was not let down on Azteca’s version of Arroz con Pollo. It was slightly different then what I’ve had in the past; it basically was just a bed of Mexican style rice along with some of their mouth-watering chicken, that’s it, nothing else; no sour cream, no cheese, and not even tortillas to eat it with. But that’s OK! It’s only like $4.75, you can order tortillas, and you have yourself a pretty good size meal, I even had enough to eat today as leftovers! Since I wasn’t sure of the size of my main dish I also decided to try one of the Garlic Tacos with shredded beef, they are the typical shredded beef taco topped with a good helping of their special garlic sauce. It’s a hit or miss depending on how fond one is with high levels of garlic, personally I enjoyed it and was happy to know that if I encountered a vampire I would be able to fend him off just by breathing in his general direction! My wife ordered a Chicken Azteca Burrito, with lettuce, tomatoes, and beans inside. It was a good size burrito with lots of melted cheese on top (I stole some of it to use with my Arroz con Pollo). She loved the burrito, probably her favorite burrito at a restaurant. Kelly is very picky with the way chicken is prepared at Mexican Restaurants because normally the chicken has very little seasoning, it’s the same problem she runs into with ground beef tacos, she likes seasoned meat, but that isn’t always typical with Mexican food.

Along with our drinks our meal was just barely over 20 bucks, not bad considering the amount of delectable food we were able to consume. Service was good, with our waiter getting my wife’s order right (she had produce added to her burrito), and also checking on us from time to time.

[rating:5]

Azteca Mexican Restaurant
12911 Main Street
Garden Grove, CA 92840
(714) 638-3790

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My wife Kelly had been singing the praises for Maggiano’s since we first met, but unfortunately it took us just over 2 years for her to finally take me there!

We went on Saturday night, and arrived at 7:00 PM, the place was packed, fortunately for us we had a reservation at 7:45 and there was a seat open in the bar. We took a seat in the bar area and relaxed while we drank some tasty beverages (mine was a Blue Moon Hefe, her’s was a Coke). At just about 7:45 our pager went off and we were quickly seating in the middle of a huge open room that was full of couples, families, and parties chowing down on Italian food. We looked over the menu and my eyes immediately saw the appetizer of the night, Parmesan Garlic Bread, that I didn’t know at the time, was served with some of the best marinara sauce I’ve ever tasted. The bread was perfect except for the fact that we ordered a full order that was way more then the two of us could finish and still eat the rest of our meal, so we packed the rest up to eat the next day. We followed the delicious bread with a half order Caesar Salad that was big enough for 4 people to enjoy. Then came our main dish… I was a little on the fence after looking through the menu, I had my mind set on two items that sounded good, one was a normal menu item, called Rigatoni D, which was described on the menu as; Rigatoni pasta, herb roasted boneless chicken, mushrooms and onions, tossed in a light Marsala cream sauce. And the second offering I was thinking about was on the specials menu, it was a Penne Pasta with Chicken and Shrimp, along with a light asiago cheese sauce and caramelized onions. I went with the later and. Kellly went with the Chicken Parmesan, which is always a good choice as long as they make it fresh. My meal was great, the bowl came to the table piping hot with the perfect look of baked pasta on the tips of Penne. I took a bite and enjoyed the mix of flavors of large stringy chicken pieces and medium sized shrimp. Unfortunately I was already pretty full from the bread and salad, so I only ate about 1/4 of my main entree, because I didn’t want to be stuffed. Kelly’s chicken consisted of 3 chicken breast halves that were lightly breaded and just slightly dark, probably from the mixture of frying the chicken and then baking it with provolone cheese and marinara sauce. The menu said her’s was supposed to come with parmesan chips, so either Kelly was holding out or she didn’t get them, but it was more food then any human could eat in one sitting anyway, so it wasn’t an issue. Along with our main dishes Kelly also ordered us some Garlic Mashed potatoes that we took a couple bits of, but weren’t able to make a dent in due to already being stuffed! So you may ask, what did you do with all this food after you were done? We’ll we did what any smart 20-30 something couple would do with it, we have them box it up and ate it for dinner the next night; which made for a fabulous Sunday dinner that recooked up well in the oven.

Now for a couple observations, our waiter was subpar, I was more impressed with the busboy, since he kept checking on our plates and table to make sure things were cleared or we needed our food packaged up; I’m not deducting points for the service, because overall it was good. The place gives Buca and Macaroni Grill, and probably comes out ahead in the long run, except for how busy they tend to be when you want to go just on a spur of a moment.

I highly suggest Maggiano’s if you are looking for a good, from scratch cooked Italian meal, but just be ready to make a reservation.

[rating:4]

Maggiano’s Little Italy
3333 Bristol St
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 546-9550

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I always enjoy going to Islands. In my opinion they have some of the best sit down restaurant chain hamburgers around. Heck I usually order mine a gardenburger because they have really great flavor and honestly once you get a bunch of stuff on the burger the meat is just filler that adds some consistency to the burger. And then you have to get their french fries along with some BBQ sauce to complete the meal. But today isn’t about burgers it’s about their other main item on the menu…. TACOS!

Last Friday night Kelly and I didn’t feel like cooking dinner and she suggested Islands because she wanted some of their Northshore tacos. So we got there around 7:00 PM and the hostess notified us it was bout to be about a 15 minute wait, so we went to the bar to get ourselves some refreshing beverages. Kelly ordered a strawberry daiquiri which was made to order by the bartended and she thought was good, with just enough alcohol taste to it. I ordered a Kona Brewing Company Pipeline Porter, which was a coffee infused porter that I was extremely impressed with. It was dark but wasn’t really bitter at all, it sort of tasted like an iced coffee with some beer added to it. I was so enthralled in the porter I ordered another one for my dinner.

After about 15 minutes our name was called and we were seated and we quickly ordered since we already knew what we were going to get. Northshore tacos for Kelly and Island Fish tacos for me, and we also both ordered guacamole on the side. After about 10 minutes our tacos came out, three each piled high with just the right amount of meat and the appropriate fixings for the tacos we ordered. The Northshore comes with spicy chicken topped with lettuce and cheese, served with some salsa on the side. Kelly didn’t want the salsa so I used it. My Island fish tacos had a nice sized piece of fried fish, topped with cilantro, some type of white sauce, and cabbage. The guacamole is ok, it’s not the best I’ve had, I’m not sure if it’s fresh or packaged, but it does the job. They make great fish tacos, probably one of my top five on my best fish taco list (as you will find out I love me fish tacos, it’s my go to meal when I’m in stuck on what to order). With a total of three tacos each we were stuffed once we finished out meal. But they are too good not to eat them all!

The restaurant was clean and it’s your typical Islands look, sort of dark, but nice bright lights on your table. Our waitress was nice and checked it on us a couple times to make sure everything was fine.

Lastly, is this cutting edge culinary perfection? No it isn’t. But it is a chain restaurant that does a good job at what they do.

[rating:4]
Visit 04/04/08

Islands
550 N Tustin St
Orange, CA 92867
(714) 997-4085

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Bacon Cheese with Onion Rings Please!

King’s Teriyaki Burgers & Tacos? That just about covers the whole gamut, doesn’t it? This place is around the corner from my work, so I’ve visited it more then once and I’ve tried all three types of their food fare that they have. I think the biggest compliment I can say is that they are consistently average with all three types of food. On my latest visit I had a bacon cheese burger with grilled onions and it was pretty much what I expected. They use the typical pound preformed patties that most burger joints use, and their bacon is just normal cut bacon. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this, it’s just average. One thing I don’t like as much as most places with burgers is that they use ketchup and mayonnaise instead of just a all in one sauce (thousand island), and I don’t like that as much. I also ordered a small side of onion rings, which of course was more then a normal person could finish on their own. I always feel bad when I toss so much wasted food. Sometimes I wish I could order by number of rings I want to eat. The onion rings were standard fare, but I am disappointed they don’t have BBQ Sauce, I’m all about sauces…

On previous occasions I have ordered their teriyaki chicken and beef, which are both good but not the best I’ve had. I also have got a couple different tacos, the chicken and beef sort of tasted like the same meat from the teriyaki meal, but they were alright, the tacos are stuffed to the brim with meat and toppings. One plus I will give them is with their fish tacos, they are above average and I could order those anytime and not be disappointed.

The wait staff is always courteous and always makes sure you get everything you need to enjoy you meal. The place can get really busy during the lunch crowd because of it’s proximity to numerous offices and industrial complexes, but I’ve never had to wait too long to get my order.

Overall King’s is a good bet to please a crowd because of the choices you have to fill your stomach. It’s the place you go to when everyone wants something different but you still all want to eat lunch together.

04/04/2008

[rating:3]

King’s Teriyaki Burgers & Tacos
1208 E Orangethorpe Ave
Placentia, CA 92870
(714) 993-5572

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