Philly's Best - Santa Ana

Hi! I’m new here. The name is DanGarion and I run Eat in OC. I just joined up with Orange County Food Blogs and for me there was no better place to do my first review of than my favorite place to eat on Saturdays as I waste them away alone, while my wife is at work. That’s why I bring you my review of the Philly’s Best, located in Santa Ana on Tustin. Now I know the first thing you are going to do is groan and say, "This guy is going to review a run of the mill fast food chain!" But hear me out, this place has good food. I’d never eaten at Philly’s Best until I moved to Santa Ana, two years ago. I’d had cheesesteaks throughout the years and always enjoyed them, but I didn’t fall in love with them till I ordered my first one here almost 2 year ago. Today I ordered a cheesesteak along with an order of onion rings. The wait was about 10 minutes, which isn’t that bad since they do make your food to order. The cheesesteak was piping hot when it got to my table; I actually had to wait a minute to let it cool off. One thing I’ve been happy with is the consistency from visit to visit with the taste and freshness of my food. Another thing I like is that the meat isn’t too juicy so it doesn’t drain all out into the bread; I’ve had issues with the bread becoming soggy from other places I’d ordered cheesesteaks from. The onion rings are good, but only in small quantities. They have a very different flavor than most people are used to because of the beer batter. My only problem with them (which is why I usually only ingest small quantities) is that they tend to give me indigestion, but it’s usually worth it. Normally they only have ranch dressing for the rings, but they actually had BBQ sauce as well today. Overall my meal didn’t disappoint and let me more than satisfied. Other items on the menu include chicken cheesesteak, hamburgers, and various toppings for your cheesesteak. They also have some various Philadelphia famous drinks, chips, and pastries. Now on to a couple other observations I’ve made throughout the two years I’ve been patronizing this specific Philly’s Best. There is a note for their employees that any uniformed police and fire employees get half off their meal, I thought that’s pretty cool that a business has that type of policy. They also have specials during USC Football, Philadelphia Eagles Football, and Angels Baseball games. For the USC games they have $5.00 cheesesteaks and $1.00 Bud and Bud Light. During Angels games they have $1.00 Bud and Bud Light. I’m not a fan of Budweiser so it doesn’t bring me in, but I’m sure that it attracts some business. Lastly I’ve only gone to one other Philly’s Best, it was located in West Garden Grove, and it just didn’t seem the same while I ate my sandwich, there was just a different vibe compared to the Santa Ana location, so your miles may vary at other locations. Philly's Best 1804 N Tustin Ave Santa Ana, CA 92705 (714) 543-3311

Waba Grill Teriyaki House - Lake Forest

24354 Muirlands Blvd. Lake Forest, CA 92630 949-768-8123 www.wabagrill.com I recently visited the Waba Grill in Lake Forest for lunch. This is the restaurant that took over the spot of my beloved China Express. (Now New Panda in Coasta Mesa, but they're not the same.) Everything looks sleek and new inside the Waba Grill. The environment looks modern with a plasma screen tv on the wall showing CNN or something. I looked at their menu board. Even though this is still a fairly new place, it looks like they recently raised their prices. Little pieces of paper with prices on them were taped over what I am assuming were their old prices up on the menu board. Their menu basically looked just like Flame Broiler. They even boasted that their food was super healthy. I wanted to try both their chicken and their steak, so I ordered the Chicken-Steak Plate ($7.09). It came with white rice, salad and some orange slices. If I had wanted all white meat chicken, it would have been an extra $1.25. Brown rice, and extra $1.00 and I could add avocado for $1.50. It didn't take them long to make my meal and I took it to go. I grabbed a couple little cups of teriyaki sauce and hot sauce on my way out. I got back to my desk and opened the box. It looked exactly like Flame Broiler. I took a bite. It tasted exactly like Flame Broiler. I tried the sauces and they too tasted exactly like Flame Broiler. The meats were tender and juicy and the sauces tasted perfectly sweet. I devoured the entire plate. I've been eating at Flame Broiler a long time now so it's what I'm familiar with. Looking at the back of the Waba Grill menu, I see that they have plenty of locations. I'm not really sure which restaurant came first, but in my mind they are exactly the same restaurant. The only difference is I think that Waba is more expensive.

Battle of the Irvine Hot Wings

So I was sitting at home in Irvine the other night talking to my buddy Tim. We were hungry. We wanted something delicious, and we didn't care about the fat. "How about hot wings?" I said. "I've been watching those KFC hot wing commercials all the time so I've been meaning to go get some. I haven't had their hot wings in years". "Sounds like a plan" Tim says, and off we go. We walk into KFC and stare at the menu board. Their hot wings seem to be on sale, but still don't seem that cheap to me...$2.99 for 6 or $9.99 for 20. Now I realize that this wouldn't be expensive if you were to go to a restaurant, but this is fast food! Isn't it supposed to be cheap? I knew that Tim and I could easily finish off 20+ wings each and I didn't really feel like spending $20 at KFC if I wasn't sure we were going to love it. I hadn't had KFC hot wings in years, so I feared that maybe I remembered them wrong. I got an idea. "Let's get a small order of wings here, try them and then get some more wings at Albertsons. Then we can compare and see which ones we like better!" I said. Tim liked the idea so we ordered 6 hot wings and sat down to try them. The KFC wings seemed a lot more bland than I remember them. They still had the signature peppery seasoning that you come to expect from KFC, but they didn't seem as spicy as I remembered. The wings seemed small. They were pretty crispy though and didn't feel very greasy. I added some hot sauce, and the wing tasted better, but I'm pretty glad I didn't spend $20 for 40 of these. We headed off to Albertsons to get some more wings. We walked to the deli section and told the man there that we would like a bucket of his finest wings. "Sorry, we're all out" he said. Panic sank in. What were we going to do without more hot wings? We might have to resort to some other fast food that we weren't really in the mood for. I wouldn't hear of it! I told Tim that we were going to go to a different Albertsons to try and find wings. We walked into the second Albertsons, and there they were. A glorious mountain of meaty wings glistening in the deli case. The wings at Albertsons are $4.99/lb or a bucket for $10.00. The bucket can hold more than 2 lbs. I ordered a bucket and the nice lady in the deli section filled our bucket with almost every single wing left in the deli case. When she was done, she weighed the bucket and it came in just an ounce or two under three pounds! What a deal! We drove home and dove into the bucket. The Albertsons wings had a much stronger, saltier flavor and felt really greasy in your hands. I said to Tim, "These can't be good for your heart". We laughed and then tore into the wings. Plump, juicy and flavorful. They were fantastic. However, they weren't really spicy. Then again, KFC wasn't really spicy without the hot sauce either. KFC wings may be crispy and less greasy, but they also have less flavor. If you're going to get KFC wings, I would recommend getting lots of sauce. For the price and great taste though, I would have to say that Albertsons is the definite winner. You can't go wrong with these delicious "Zesty Wings". You don't have to just take my word for it though. Tim asked to be a "guest judge" for this little hot wing battle we had, so here are his comments on the evening. Last Friday, as we drove to KFC I learned that they had been selling hot wings for years, and were "supposedly" very good. Upon our arrival, we discovered that the pricing was not to our liking, and we knew that unless we were satisfied (really satisfied) that it would not be worth the price. We decided to buy only six just to try them out. I ate the first of my three without any condiments. The chicken was juicy, but lacked any definitive flavoring. I ate the second piece after covering it in KFC's patented hot sauce, and the flavor that was once missing returned to the chicken. However, if you dislike a vinegar taste lingering around in your mouth, I would not recommend using the sauce. I tried the third piece without the sauce, but had to give in as the wing just was not good enough on its own. We had decided to go to Albertson's, and I decided to grab some more hot sauce, just in case. Two Albertson's later, we returned home with a bucket of hot wings. The first bite was just as delicious as the last. The wings are not really spicy, but they do pack a punch of flavor, and you know the seasoning was done just right. In my opinion, if you are looking for some "finger lickin'" wings go to Albertsons. Here's the breakdown if all this reading is not to your liking 5=Mmm mmm good 1=No way in hell am I eating that! KFC Appearance 5 Flavor 3 Aftertaste 2 Albertsons Appearance 4 Flavor 4 Aftertaste 5 *I still crave some heat in my wings Best of luck in your food quest -Tim