China Garden changing ownership

We just ate there for dimsum lunch today, and noticed a sign in the windows indicating that the new owner will be "VIP Seafood Restaurants, Inc." Sorry to see the ownership change! Even with the splashier Capital Seafood opening up recently, China Garden was still my go-to place for dishes like geoduck and peking duck (no relation). I guess the writing was on the wall, with the smaller crowds, and the new 10% discounts to try to entice diners. And it's not like the business is out of business, yet. Hopefully VIP Seafood Restaurants is the same entity that owns VIP Harbor Seafood in West Los Angeles, a second floor eatery off Barrington and Wilshire, that was similarly serviceable, if not in the same league as the outposts throughout Monterey Park and Rowland Heights. And hopefully they try competing on quality, rather than price. Irvine's Capital is certainly more vulnerable on the quality and authenticity score.

Top 10 Sushi Restaurants in South OC [Updated]

In the interest of inciting controversy, here is the Top 10 Sushi Restaurants in South OC. We're talking strictly on the quality of the sushi. And indeed, this list is based on purely objective, scientific criteria, and the relative rankings are inviolate. ;-) However, if there is a restaurant missing, there is indeed the possibility that I haven't eaten there, although the likelier possibility is that it didn't make the cut. Sorry. [Update: And of course, thanks Zach for reminding me of a place that indeed was missing, but that I had eaten at. :-) ] Update April 1, 2009: Dropped Bluefin due to declining quality, moved Ayame up for inventive omakase. Update March 26, 2010: Dropped Ayame due to change in head chef. Added Ohshima in Orange. Sushi Wasabi, Tustin. The king of them all down here. Yes, the restaurant is inexplicably closed for weeks at a time around major holidays in an unpredictable fashion. Yes, the restaurant is inexplicably closed at lunch well before the the posted closing time. But the quality of the fish is outstanding. The best we've had by a significant margin. The blue crab hand roll is sublime, with the crunch of the nori and creamy, but not too creamy filling next to the warm and lightly vinegary sushi rice. Right now is apparently ankimo (monkfish liver) season, which makes it especially tasty. You also don't want to miss the Kumamoto oysters, tiny oysters perched on columns of salt, served with ponzu sauce. These are the only oysters I'll eat. "Tuna from Japan ... Oysters from Seattle ... Uni from Santa Barbara" I can hear their voices in my dreams, sometimes. Then I know it's time to eat. My review, Elmo's. Ikko, Costa Mesa. Funky interior, with a signature of Hideki Matsui inset in the wall with its own lighting. The menu is as long as it is incomprehensible. Let the itamae serve you until you're full or broke, whichever comes first. Imaginative sushi, and in the times we've eaten there, never a wrong note, never a stray bit of gristle, never an off taste. Sushi Murasaki, Santa Ana. Dark horse contender. A neighborhood sushi joint, almost looks like the current ownership took it over from a failed sushi restaurant before, and barely remade anything of the interior. Where they do spend time and attention is on the quality of the fish. Kind of like a Matsuhisa-lite, with a focus on special sauces for each fish, and an affinity for the blowtorch. Don't even bother filling your soy sauce plate if you order the omakase. :-) Shibucho, Costa Mesa. Value king. Amazing prices for the quality in a tiny little postage stamp sized restaurant. Maybe it seats 20. Usually less, with little "Reserved" placards on the tables often taking up two of the (three?) tables. Family business, Shibutani-san, his son, and his wife serving large slabs of fresh fish. If you sit at a table and ask for omakase, it comes on a large plate all at once. Sit at the bar for that if you can. My review, Elmo's. [Dropped from 3 to 5 on April 1] Bluefin, Newport Coast. Takashi Abe demonstrating that you just can't make the dishes without him. Namesake "Abe" didn't survive his departure Bluefin is a smaller space, furnished in a modern style with a sushi bar that literally glows from within. If only they'd spent a little more on sound baffling. The raging egos of the customers cause name-dropping, n-figure dollar conversations to crash like waves on a pier, making this not the space for intimate conversation. However, the originality of his creations, and the beauty of the presentation are a sight to behold. Would be ranked higher if not for occasional inconsistency in quality of the fish, ranging from sublime to merely "good" on occasion. For the prices, fear of the occasional "good" drops Bluefin a notch. Unfortunately, inconsistency is starting to look like a pattern of diminishing returns. My review, Elmo's. [Added Feb 16] Maki-Zushi, Tustin. Indeed I forgot this restaurant, but had eaten there several times. Not recently though, and even now, I'm not ranking it as highly as the best of the fish served would otherwise indicate, and here's why: it's kind of Frankensteinian. I mean, there's the Live menu, which contains some of the best, and most far-flung sushi varieties you're likely to find anywhere, much less anywhere in OC. The razor clam and the fresh uni stand out especially in my mind. And then, there's what seems to be the menu for the rest of 'em, the plebes, including many of the bread and butter comfort food type sushi, like salmon, and tuna. These are occasionally dipping into kaiten-sushi quality, which is almost understandable, given the sushi chef's previous stint at Frying Fish, which is a long-lived restaurant in Little Tokyo. It's almost like Sakamoto-san was a bit fearful about losing any customers, and instead has a restaurant that caters to all of them, and yet not me, by extension. Because I usually want a sublime piece of salmon and yellowtail to go along with my exotic varieties. Elmo's review. [Added March 26, 2010] Ohshima, Orange. In the grand tradition of bland strip-mall exteriors leading to another world on the other side of the noren, this small sushi bar with a few tables is not much larger than Shibucho. Sit at the bar, and peruse the specials board and read about an amazing variety of fresh fish you will not often find elsewhere. Some of them you will, and some of them have interesting translations into English that will seem unfamiliar. However, the fish is wonderful, and the chef's take is a unique blend of the traditional and the modern. Angotei, Costa Mesa. In the little strip mall that fronts Mitsuwa Marketplace. Another of the neighborhood type joints that just does sushi right. I visit fairly rarely, and on occasion get the feeling that this is another of the places where you're better off having "paid your dues", so to speak. When the sushi chefs know you, your service is a bit faster, and the fish is a bit better. This is generally true, but more so in some places than others. Koi-san, Orange. Classic sushi, a bit ponzu-happy, but on the whole quite good. At #9, we're talking more "good" than great, but it's a decent restaurant at a reasonable price. Not too crowded either, which is a plus for me. Hamamori, Costa Mesa. Okay, James Hamamori puts his best foot forward for his eponymous South Coast location. His best foot forward is basically a cut above his Wasa locations. I'd guess perhaps this is what his Wasa locations were like in the very beginning, perhaps. The ishiyaki beef is fragrant and tasty, and there are a few Sushi Treasures which are unique to this location, including copious amounts of caviar. The restaurant itself is beautiful, tall windows and bright lights, clean white decor. Costs are sky high, but occasionally good deals present themselves during restaurant weeks. My Restaurant Week review. Wasa, Irvine. Maybe it's the sentimental favorite- I admit it's primarily nearby and convenient. The service is hit or miss, since they're perpetually understaffed, but during the week, the sushi can range from "good" to "pretty good". They also serve tempura ice cream, which gets them bonus points, and their shrimp tempura is also pretty good. [Dropped March 28, 2010. Moved from 8 to 7 on April 1, 2009] Ayame, Irvine. Our neighborhood place. It started off a bit rocky, being an outpost of Zipangu in the Lab at Costa Mesa, but has come into its own. Their $28 3-course omakase tends to come with a sashimi salad option, a full sized entree, and a dessert. Good value. Their $65 6-course omakase is a steal, usually costing much closer to $100 for the quality of the courses. They've expanded the kinds of fish they serve, and last time I ate there, I actually had a couple of fish I'd never heard of. Which rarely happens these days. Butterfly fish? Anyway, it tasted pretty good. Their amaebi (sweet shrimp) is often fresh, occasionally sitting in a little basket right by the sushi bar. Service at the tables is just as good as at the bar, and so it's convenient for eating with the kids. My review, Griffin's. So there you have it. Let me know if I've missed anything- I'd love more than anything to push a few entries down the list. Hopefully I've listed a few that you haven't tried (Murasaki?), that you may enjoy.

Restaurant Weeks!

Thanks to Sharon for reminding me of this one: Newport Beach Restaurant Week from January 18th through the 22nd, featuring $15 or $20 lunch prix fixe menus, and $20 or $35 dinners, depending on restaurant participation. Recently reviewed restaurants that are participating include: Wilma's Patio The Crow Bar & Kitchen And thanks to Jamie for letting me know about this one: Orange County Restaurant Week from February 22nd through the 28th, featuring $20, $30, or $40 prix fixe menus. There's a few overlaps, including Chart House, Bluewater Grill, The Crow Bar & Kitchen, and Zov's, in case you can't make it to all of your desired destinations during the first restaurant week! Recently reviewed restaurants participating in OC Restaurant Week include: Taps Fish House Mark your calendars!

Hamamori, South Coast Plaza 4 Courses, 40 Dollars Event

Thanks to my buddy Sharon, who let me know that South Coast Plaza is having a 4 courses for $40 (per person) event (*) from now [well, last Friday actually] through Sunday (click on the event title in the bottom right hand corner to see menus) at the following restaurants: Marché Moderne Antonello Ristorante Pinot Provence Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's Quattro Caffé Hamamori Restaurant-Lounge Royal Khyber Fine Indian Cuisine Scott's Seafood Grill & Bar SAVANNAH Supper Club & Lounge We ate at Hamamori, which has been occasionally criticized as overly expensive. This, however, was refreshingly not (at least in my opinion). The four courses were a Kobe carpaccio, an appetizer trio, a selection of sushi, and then a black cod. The carpaccio was very lightly flavored, so the taste of the meat was very apparent. It's a little different from the ones I'm used to, which tend to be drizzled in an oil, like sesame oil. The presentation was pretty typical, with thin slices arranged in a circular overlapping pattern on a round plate (much like those plates of raw shabu shabu meat you get in the supermarket, except with a salad in the middle instead of a strange yellow plastic flower). Taste was, well, let's go with different. Sometimes different is good, and I was okay with a more meaty version of the dish. The appetizer trio was a couple pieces of wrapped asparagus, a breaded and fried meatball made with kobe beef, allegedly, but was basically ground and then fried, so it was hard to tell, and a little Japanese eggroll with crab. The meatball was ehh, the asparagus had a fresh crunch to it that was light and good, and the eggroll with crab was nicely done. However, the dish itself was a bit heavily weighted to the fried side, so I'd recommend making sure you have something like an iced tea to counteract. The sushi set was a small platter with single pieces of basically new versions of Wasa Treasures. We had a tuna, an albacore, a scallop which was drizzled with sea salt and yuzu, and a salmon. A couple slices of shrimp-infused egg provided the garnish. The sauces are much like you'd expect from Wasa, except that they don't have these particular combinations there, and the fish itself was a bit fresher. Basically Hamamori is kind of what you'd expect from a "Wasa Plus". The decor's a bit nicer, the food's a bit fresher, and the service is superior by far. The cooked fish, however, was the star of the four courses. This was cooked just right, so it was barely done, soft and juicy, but not at all translucent in the middle. I wish I knew how to do this, but I do know it's not easy to get both the heat and the timing just so, so the whole fish cooks this way. The sauce was a nice accompaniment, but I found myself using as little of it as possible, so well was the fish itself prepared. It needed no disguise. Much like sushi- it's hard to improve on the natural taste of a well-selected and fresh fish. I contend in some ways that cooking fish is harder than making sushi, because the act of cooking fish at all confers a disadvantage over sushi that has to be overcome by effort and skill. They just about did that here. Dessert was not included in Hamamori's set, although they seem to be in most others. We chose to share a granité, flavored with melon. It would've made a nice amuse, but as a standalone, it was almost too much iciness. The Hamamoritini though was nicely executed, clean tasting, and warming to the stomach. A nice accompaniment to sushi. *Does not include beverages, tax or gratuity. Not valid with other offers, promotions or private dining groups. Dine-in and dinner only, please.

Wasa Sushi, Irvine, open again!

Living in West Irvine, my choices for neighborhood sushi within a five minute drive are pretty much limited to Wasa in the Irvine MarketPlace and newcomer Ayame. When Wasa closed temporarily several weeks back, that put a severe cramp in my fresh fish diet, but, I'm happy to report that Wasa Sushi is again open! Their website described their hiatus as a remodeling, and indeed, they did remodel during their down time. They were always modern themed, and have undergone an update that keeps them fresh. If anything, the mood seems darker, with darker shaded wood panelings on the walls, and darker paint colors. The wait area has been improved, with more seating near the hostess' podium. The really tall bamboo wall is still there, along with the gray smooth rocks that my son likes to grab while waiting for a table. Also still there is the friendly Hispanic staffer who clears tables, seemingly handling the entire restaurant by himself efficiently, and still having time to high-five all the kids who come in. Less efficient is the chronic shortage of waiters and waitresses, who have difficulty keeping up, leading to longish waits for orders, and table service a little more infrequent than is my preference. I'd love it if they hired another one or two waitstaff, and I'm guessing those who are working now wouldn't much mind it either. Food-wise, the tempura ice cream is as good as ever, as are the Wasa Treasures. Unfortunately, they seem to have cut my favorite (and my son's favorite)- the salmon with terakobu seaweed topped with caviar. I do like their new'ish rock shrimp tempura, kind of a mini walnut shrimp (the Chinese dish with fresh shrimps fried in mayonnaise, yum!) with a kick of sriracha. My wife has been eating the beef negimayaki almost every time we go in these days as well. It's several rolls of thinly sliced beef wrapped around green onions and asparagus, atop a plate of steamed vegetables with teryaki sauce. I'm less pleased with the sushi than the cooked dishes and desserts there these days. I'm finicky, I admit it, but after eating uni at Sushi Wasabi and Makizushi in Tustin, it's tough to eat uni at Wasa. I don't eat the toro at all anymore. I think I'm happiest with the hamachi, hirame, bluefin tuna, and other fairly standard sushi selections outside the Treasures. I'm thinking maybe the clientele makes it harder to stray from the more popular selections and stay fresh.

Ayame, Irvine

Newly opened in the Orchard Hills Shopping Center off Portola Pkwy and Culver Drive, Ayame is a Japanese sushi bar and restaurant by the folks that brought us Zipangu. We ended up there in our neverending search for a decent neighborhood sushi joint, which gained new urgency now that Wasa in the Irvine Marketplace is temporarily closed. A small, bright, almost bubbly kind of decor appears to be as close to the opposite of dark, wooden, Zipangu (the restaurant names also occupy opposite ends of the alphabet), with its polished glass sushi bar and brightly lit soffit. The itamae we sat with spoke fluent Japanese with his mates, but told us he'd previously done time in Nashville. Nashville! After we talked about how much nicer the weather is here, I asked him how fresh the fish could possibly be in Nashville, and he shook his head sadly. The sushi is fresh, nicely prepared, and the wait staff is friendly. However, selection is a bit limited if you're only into raw fish: they have the usual standards of tunas, salmon, halibut, etc., but less in the way of more exotic fresh fish and shellfish. I tend to rate the regular kinds of sushi by the maguro, on a scale of color, translucence, and heft. Basically 0 is your variants of inedible, from lack of freshness to overabundance of gristle. 1 is your Todai brand of almost FD&C Red #40, with such airy lack of substance that if you squint, you can almost see the rice through the tuna. 10 is your deep ruby red exterior with almost a purple-red interior, and a marbled sparkly sheen, that so often seems restricted to Bluefin Tuna, and when you bite it, it's almost like there's the barest hint of carbonation in a texture that is simultaneously spongy, melty, and hefty. On that scale, Sushi Wasabi is an 8, and Ayame a 5, which puts it squarely in the corner sushi place realm, not in the aspiration to greatness realm. They did have, interestingly, a basket of fresh (live?) shrimp sitting atop the bar from which they quickly shelled, cooked, and made shrimp sushi and deep fried shrimp heads for us. Very flavorful. Their uni was passable, and most fish was more serviceable than outstanding. This is the kind of place we'd choose if we were short on time (it's almost walkable from here), impatient (it hasn't been discovered by the massive hordes yet), and with the kids. They only have one high chair right now though- something I suspect they'd fix if we overwhelmed them with family diners.. and who are they kidding really? That whole area is primed with young children. Wasa never has less than one high chair scooted up to the bar, no less, every time I've been there. Prices are indicative of what is likely to be massive per sq.ft. rents in one of the newest centers in one of the newest developments in Irvine, which, according to the last homefinder email I received today (enough already! I live here already! I'm not moving again at least until home prices stop their freefall), is in the Irvine Unified School District and Northwood High boundaries. Unfortunately, living in a nice place, and finding an affordable sushi restaurant nearby seem to be somewhat mutually exclusive. It's not to say it's outrageously expensive, just a bit more than I'd expect: sushi prices almost all from $4 and up. However, they do have a fairly nice kitchen menu: their monkfish liver is paired with something they call a ponzu jel'ee which really brings out the flavor. Their prime tenderloin with foie gras had a well done sauce on it, some kind of jus reduction that went perfectly with the tender buttery softness of the filet. The foie gras, well, we could've stood for it being slightly less cooked. I think the menu items that sold my wife on this place, though, were the desserts. There was a nice green tea mousse type dessert, some ice cream for the kids, and a sampler plate that had a variety of them, including a rich chocolate cake. Japanese places tend not to do dessert well, and Wasa and Ayame appear to be two exceptions. (We went for years, maybe close to twenty years, to a restaurant called Noshi Sushi in Los Angeles, maybe a couple, few times a month, and every time, my dad insisted on asking for "green tea ice cream" for dessert at the end of the meal, knowing they didn't have it, hoping one day they'd get the hint: they never did.) Ayame Orchard Hills Village Center 3923 Portola Pkwy Irvine, CA 92602 714-544-2800

Wasa Sushi, Irvine closed temporarily

Our family went to eat there a few nights ago, and found it dark and shuttered, with a sign on the door. The sign indicated that they were closed for six weeks for remodeling, and recommended we visit one of their other locations. However, a quick OCRegister search turned up this: http://www.ocregister.com/news/feb-permit-suspended-1981329-infestation-reinstated Wasa Sushi, 13124 Jamboree Rd., Irvine; fire or other disaster damage; permit suspended Feb. 9.

Newport Beach Restaurant Week 2008

It's time! January 20th to the 24th is Newport Beach Restaurant Week 2008, with restaurants such as Abe Newport Beach, Chart House, The Cannery, Roy's, French 75, Five Crowns, Zov's, The Bungalow, Tommy Bahama's, just to name the restaurants I've eaten at (although admittedly not all in their Newport Beach locations). This lineup looks pretty star-studded to me! :-) p.s. Thanks to my wife who let me know about this! <3

Kobe Teppan &Sushi

Before I start, I should probably say that I'm one of those guys who thinks that teppanyaki is comfort food. I wouldn't say I exactly grew up on Benihana, but I'll say that I started young there, and enjoyed every dinner over the years. Yeah, the food isn't the absolute best I've had, it's not the best tenderloin, not the best shrimp, not even the best chicken fried rice, but it's consistently the same: pretty good, easy on the digestion, and it seems to hit a spot that other restaurants just don't. Yeah, I'm a closet teppanyaki fan. And I'm also a fan of consistency- every meal the way I expect it to be, whether the locations or the years change. But if I'm a closet teppan guy, I'm proud to advertise my love of Kobe beef. I ate, in Kobe, during the whole prion scare, because I figured my odds are good, and, how often does one find oneself in Kobe anyway? So I wanted to like Kobe Teppan & Sushi. I really did. I even dredged up my 'ol dad's tale about teppanyaki is not a 200-year old tradition of Japanese cooking, in fact it's not really Japanese at all. It was fusion before there was fusion- a combination of American diner'esque grillmastery, seafood and meat, and an Asian flair and flavor. The way my dad put it, he said, "the Japanese were impressed with the American style grills, and brought them back to Japan. After they developed teppanyaki, they brought it back here." Combining Kobe beef (even if it's really just the Snake River Wagyu stuff, rather than meat imported from the source), should've made for one fine meal. But maybe here's where the whole Benihana exposure runs to their detriment. Every detail appeared calculated to be Benihana-esque, without hitting exactly the right note. Like they were a drug company working to hit the same receptor, but having to change the formula just enough to avoid a patent dispute. Now, under most circumstances, I'd jump to combine these two. And then I'd look to see where I was gonna land. But the price for "Kobe" over tenderloin was pretty much a doubling of the price. Combine that with a bit of spidey-sense tingling, and I went tenderloin for the evening. Which turned out to be a good bet (just because it would have been unwise to double-down on my 10 with an Ace showing, on what turned out to ultimately be a losing hand anyway). The soup wasn't piping hot, and it wasn't particularly flavorful. The salad, mainly icebergs and a nondescript thousand island type dressing, was lackluster. The "chicken fried rice" was so fried-rice and non-chicken that the couple next to me actually asked for a refund of the chicken fried rice on their receipt, seeing as how they were totally unaware that they'd actually eaten any. For the record, there were indeed tiny portions of chicken that I detected because I was really, really looking for them, and so I paid that part of the bill, even though I was really tempted to just jump in and say, "yeah, us too!" As for the main course- As Randy might say, "that was only okay for me." The spectacle was reasonably done, with the knives, and the big wooden salt shakers and the catching of the shrimp tails. The kids probably couldn't tell the difference. But for me, and here's how I sum up the place: I went to Benihana not long thereafter, to remind myself what the "real thing" was like. 13741 Newport Ave Tustin, CA 92780 (714) 544-4055

Bluefin, Newport Coast

Bluefin is Chef Takashi Abe's restaurant in Newport Coast. I remember when I moved to Irvine, I had read raves about his former restaurant in Newport Beach, the eponymous Abe. But by the time I finally managed to get there, he had recently sold out to a kindly, but less capable restauranteur. The decor on the outside was little bit run-down. I could see cracks in the concrete steps, and rust in the lamps. The dishes there looked like the pictures adorning the walls, carefully prepared and presented dishes, blown up to 11x14. But they tasted like a little something was missing- almost bland. The temperatures were off- sometimes you can guess that a dish should have had hot and cold components, and if they're left just a bit too close together, a bit too long, they become uniformly warm. Not so good. And really, all this did for me was to put a question in my mind about whether the food had been better before or not. Maybe this Abe guy had seen better days. Those questions were answered the first time I ate at Bluefin. Bluefin was the new restaurant- a bit smaller than the old one, no longer free-standing, but instead a member of the Crystal Cove Promenade. It is a long rectangular space, carved on one side into tables, and on the other into a lengthy sushi bar with a translucent illuminated stone ledge, and a ridged water sculpture behind the chefs. The effect is dark (so much so that I had a bit of difficulty seeing what I was eating, and actually swallowed gold flakes on a dish without being able to appreciate them visually first), modern, and sleek, not at all aged or worn. The food was sublime. I rate Bluefin at the very top of the contemporary, fusion Japanese cuisine in Orange County (Sushi Wasabi gets that nod for more traditional sushi). We've been there three times now, over the years, the most recent time just this week. Each time we have the omakase, which at Bluefin is a 6-course menu including an appetizer sampler, sashimi salad, two cooked dishes, sushi, and dessert. They differ quite a bit each time, but my wife and I agreed that last night's was the best we've had. For me, the highlights were the sliced duck breast, held into place by a dollop of mashed potatoes, topped with a rich, soft, perfectly cooked (read: not overcooked) serving of foie gras. I had to deconstruct its tower of greens to eat it, but Miss Manners has my back on that one. Also excellent was the lobster appetizer, which was in a sauce that I still cannot quite describe, other than to say that it was a light cream sauce that accentuated that crisp snap you feel when jawing into a freshly cooked piece of lobster tail. Yum. My only complaint, if you can call it that, was that the dressing in the sashimi salad, while good, masked a bit the very freshness of the fish included. Several thin slices of hamachi and It almost seems a shame to mask the very high quality of the fish at all, so you can imagine the inner horror I experienced when my neighbor, a very kindly older gentleman, asked Chef Daisuke to chop up "live scallop" (bought live, shucked that very morning, returned to its shell for serving) into little bits, and mix it with lots of green onions, masago, and a spritz of lemon. Any other place, and this would be a great way to enjoy scallop- but it was live, that morning! In the sushi platter, the stars were the ruby red maguro (tuna), and the smooth uni. This maguro was so richly dense and completely lacking in any kind of fiber, that it almost seemed like it wasn't a fish at all. The uni was clearly uni, but without the fishiness and liquidity that make it unpalatable at lesser places. I traded my piece of mirugai for a second piece of the albacore, which instead of being drenched in ponzu, was topped with almost like a light tartar sauce. It was intriguing, and I wouldn't mind having that again. Dessert: this was a dollop of vanilla ice cream, served in a tiny fish shaped bowl atop a much larger plate that had berry reductions around its rim. Sharing the plate was a martini glass filled with ever so light clear gelatin that was so soft that it practically melted in my mouth. It was lightly sweetened, had more than a hint of yuzu and alcohol, and was topped with fruit. Like an amuse bouche, but at the end of the meal. A refreshing way to end the meal. And just so I don't leave my poor neighbor, who actually was very entertaining company, and spoke a few phrases in Japanese surprisingly well ("mou chotto gari kudasai", although I might have chosen "sukoshi"), coming off seeming like a rube, he left us with a parting piece of advice on finding out we were young parents: "If you can teach your kids two things, they'll be fine: one, 'life isn't fair', and two, 'I don't deserve'." I'm still kicking that one around in my head three days later. Elmomonster's yummy review.

Say it isn't so.. (Thai Nakorn, Stanton)

So my wife and I found ourselves in Stanton, after a late night at the office last night. Well, we didn't find ourselves there, we intentionally drove near the length of the 22 freeway from her office to a particular Thai restaurant institution, which had relocated a few miles further from us. A particular institution that I had talked about eating at, two days before it burned down. Their digs in Stanton are a little bit smaller, a little bit less raucous. Although after 9pm on a Wednesday, the restaurant was still maybe half full. They've got their Thai Nakorn sign up now, and their printed menus list both the former as well as the current addresses. Perhaps they're thinking of reopening there in addition to this location. They're down to one fuzzy CRT TV, which that night was showing the demise of the Lakers 2006-07 season at the hands of the Suns, but in a way that made the score difficult to read (you just know when there's three digits to the Suns' score, and two to the Lakers, that things are not going well). Maybe the dismal Lakers showing unsettled my mood. But we were there to eat. So we ordered our usual dishes: a Pad Thai, the Green Curry with Chicken, Mint Leaf Chicken (which is actually Basil Chicken?), and a new one: the spicy clams. A lot of food for two, but we've been waiting a long while! Now, I think maybe I'd blown up its memory in my mind to mythical proportions. I recall the pad thai was not quite at the level of Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas, missing somewhat the tamarind taste that sets that dish apart. But this rendition actually failed even to evoke the memory of the former Thai Nakorn Pad Thai in my mind. I was kind of shocked back into a reality that wasn't what I had been building up to. The mint leaf chicken and the green curry were also unsubtly different. Different enough that it was almost like eating them at a new restaurant. I hope this is simply adjusting to being back in business, but it almost tastes like the chefs have changed. Maybe they were just off that night. Really, the only standout dish was the spicy clams, which my wife noted as a dish she wasn't able to compare with the prior Nakorn equivalent. I think the sticky rice and mangos were alright too, but I was too stuffed to try them. Okay, so this sounds mostly like a downer review: but even this Thai Nakorn is still among the better Thai places I've ever eaten at. And it's nice to have them back. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, revisit in a month or so. And for the rest of you, don't go expecting Thai food on a pedestal. Not yet. Thai Nakorn 11951 Beach Blvd. Stanton, CA 90680 714-799-2031 Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Fridays through Sundays.

Thai Nakorn OPEN!

According to Cynthia Furey of the OC Register, Thai Nakorn is now open!! Thai Nakorn 11951 Beach Blvd. Stanton, CA 90680 714-799-2031 Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Fridays through Sundays.

McCormick & Schmick's $25 Dining Certificate For Making an Online Reservation

Thanks to "mofomo" of slickdeals.net. 1.Visit: http://www.mccormickandschmicks.com/...splay&pageID=2 to make your reservations. 2. Print the confirmation and note your Confirmation Number. 3. Visit: http://www.fishbowl.com/clt/mccrmck/pc/200702/2/jmp/jmp.htm to print an online dinner certificate. 4. Write your confirmation number on your dinner certificate. 5. Bring your dinner certificate to the restaurant to enjoy the freshest seafood, a great steak or one of our other 80+ menu items

Chowhound Orange County?

If you're like me, you occasionally visit chowhound.com, click down on Boards, and curse a little, silently under your breath, about how Orange County has been subsumed into "Los Angeles Area". Then you type "orange county" into the search bar, read a few posts, and then wonder why you can't RSS subscribe to the search results even though can subscribe to the "Los Angeles Area" board as a whole. And then you read a bit about Yahoo Pipes, and realize you can DIY. Okay, maybe you're not like me. But maybe you'd still like to just read just Chowhound's Orange County related posts in your own newsreader or personalized homepage. Here's a link to the pipe I've made- you can see and edit the search terms if you'd like by making your own copy of the pipe and editing. Hope you enjoy it.

Newport Beach Restaurant Week

In less somber dining news, the Newport Beach Restaurant Association is having its inaugural Newport Beach Restaurant Week this week only, from Jan 21st (yesterday, I know, sorry!) to the 25th. Over 75 of Newport Beach’s best eateries are expected to participate in the citywide, culinary celebration by offering delicious three-course, prix-fixe gourmet menus at $12.95 for lunch and $26.95 for dinner. I'm going tonight!

Sprinkles, Fact or Fiction

I'd read about Sprinkles first on The Delicious Life! where she blasted the poor cupcakes as just the latest example of fad theory. Fad theory and rumor theory, with the epicenter being Beverly Hills, and the hinterlands being represented by our very own Newport Beach. So when I found myself just doors away from the store a few nights ago, I had to find out for myself! The store itself reminds me more of Chuao Chocolatier, with a fairly shallow storefront hiding what are hopefully the Oompa Loompas and assorted magick implements in the back. What storefront there is, is dedicated to row upon row of cupcake dish trays, filled with near uniform renditions of each flavor, identified by small, brightly colored sugar-wafer circles that match up with the menu board above. I'd read that the lines were out the door for this place, but I got there in the evening, on a weekday, when it was drizzling, and so what customers there were, fit inside that night. And of course, the hordes seemed to have gotten there already, as many of the cupcake trays were empty, and they were down to only a handful of the interesting flavors, like coconut and banana. They seem to operate on the same menu principle as Strickland's Ice Cream, with their subset of flavors per day, hopefully getting you to come back on multiple days to try them all. I got six that night. I figured hey, when would I be back down this way? Verdict: almost insanely sweet. Jaw throbbingly, Pavlovian saliva-gland trippin' sweet. Hard to distinguish between flavors sweet. My kids were split- one loved the frosting so much that's all he ate, the other seemed to prefer the cake portion. I ate a bit of the dark chocolate, the coconut, a bit of banana, and a bit of carrot, but really I'd be hard pressed to tell which was which, in a blind taste test. They were good cupcakes- moist and spongy in the right place, with a frosting that had both the crispy sensation when biting into it as well as the melt-on-the-tongue fluidity that I like. I just couldn't taste beyond the sugar. They say that your taste buds die off and become less sensitive as you age, which, paradoxically, makes you more finicky and prone to notice nuances in flavor. There weren't any nuances here for me- it was as sure a blood-sugar-busting pick-me-up as, well, Jolt Cola. I was fortunate that my children didn't bounce off the walls all night long. (Or maybe they did, and I was just too sugar-low'd to notice) Sprinkles Cupcakes Corona Del Mar Plaza 944 Avocade Ave Newport Beach, CA 92660 (949) 760-0003