When a restaurant has been around so long, putting out consistently great food the entire time, it's easy for us food writers to forget as we're off searching for the next best thing.More >>

Edwin Goei

You should already be quite familiar with California Fish Grill, the largely local seafood chain that has spawned a lot of copy cats trying desperately to replicate its formula of reasonably-priced fish meals with rice or French fries. That many of its imitators have failed is a testament that the original still produces one of the best-prepared seafood deals in the county. The food has been dependably consistent over the years, even as their salsa and coleslaw remained inexplicably bitter and odd-tasting, respectively.More >>

Edwin Goei

The first thing I do when I walk into Cafe Hiro is wave a salute to the man himself, Chef Hiro Ohiwa. The second thing I do is look at the blackboard. Sure, there's the regular menu, where the uni spaghetti resides, but with chefs like Ohiwa, I pay close attention to what's been scribbled on this temporary list, for there are bites offered here that's often reflective of not just the season, but what Ohiwa thinks I should eat. It's the closest thing to "omakase" at OC's preeminent modern Japanese restaurant that's a little bit French and a touch Italian. The blackboard lists usually no more than a few appetizers, a handful of entrees and two desserts. Some things are routinely rotated out, never to be seen again for months, if ever. An octopus sashimi salad showed up one night several weeks ago, slices planed as thin as tissue, and just as light, each piece laid onto the sides of a towering salad of fruity-dressed daikon. By the time you read this, it's unlikely that Ohiwa is still offering it.

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ProfessorSalt.com

Sabatino's sizzling sausage

Locating Sabatino's is your first challenge. The best Italian sausage-maker in Orange County hides hermit-like among wharf-front boathouses. Once you get there, the classic checkered-tablecloth Italian-American restaurant offers a massive Italian sausage appetizer big enough to make a meal for two. Whatever else you order, get this sizzling semi-circle of meat brought sputtering on a cast iron platter.
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Anne Marie Panoringan

After a particularly filling Sunday brunch, we found room in our dessert stomach and proceeded to stroll along Downtown Brea's Birch Street toward Merely Sweets for our usual. Ever since we interviewed baker Diane Yoon in October, our snack of choice has been her signature walflours. Yet on this visit, we were encouraged to try another delight.

Unassuming in a plain white carton, we remove the lid to find an equally stark top layer of whipped cream. Our curiosity got the best of us, and we dug in with a fork. Bite after creamy bite, we realize just how smitten we are with Merely's banana pudding.
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Michelle Woo/OC Weekly

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A couple of weeks ago, I did a segment for the NPR show, Latino USA, highlighting the luxe lonchera scene in Irvine in support of my new book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. Taco María served as my laboratory to interview office drones and ask them why they preferred the wonderful eatery as opposed to, say, Taco Bell, and head chef Carlos Salgado was kind enough to let me interview him in my rambling, on-point ways.More >>

Yasmin Nouh/OC Weekly

San Giovanni's barbecue chicken pizza with halal pepperoni.

The magic of San Giovanni's barbecue chicken pizza is the palimpsest of ingredients, each distinct yet meshing into each other so that traces of what's above and below seep through. The owner freshly tosses and bakes every pizza at this halal restaurant upon order--no pizza under hot lamps and thrown into the oven for a quick reheating here.

After rolling a slab of soft, thick dough into a perfect circle, he slathers it in barbecue sauce and tops that with a hefty layer of mozzarella cheese, marinated barbecue chicken, all-beef pepperoni, red onions and cilantro. The halal pie gets placed inside a stone oven until the cheese oozes over the crust, and the layers fuse into a mess of cilantro-kissed, sweet barbecue, meaty, cheesy goodness with a crust that's crunchy yet moist. The original owner was an Egyptian man who's spoke of in almost-mythological tones here; some say he learned how to make pizza in Italy and others claim he's married to an Italian lady who taught him the tricks of the trade.
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Ratso Rizzo was full of crap. The two basic items necessary to sustain life are not sunshine and friggin' coconut milk. We lived in South Florida and the mantra there is the same as anywhere--pizza and beer. San Juan Capistrano's groovy NYC Cafe has you covered splendidly in both areas: good ol' Newcastle Brown Ale and their truly awesome ghormeh sabzi pizza. 
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