Lazy Dog Cafe in Irvine Opens Tonight 3/4/2010

13290 Jamboree Rd
Irvine CA 92602
Ph. (714) 731-9700

Alternate OC locations:
1623 West Katella Ave.
Orange CA 92867
Ph. (714) 769-7020

16310 Beach Blvd
Westminster CA 92683
Ph. (714) 500-1140

www.lazydogcafe.com

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY OTHER REVIEWS OF LAZY DOG CAFE

The new Lazy Dog Cafe in the Irvine Marketplace will open at 5:00 PM tonight. They are taking over the spot that has been vacated by the failed restaurants French 75, Wilhelm's Chophouse and Martin Yan's restaurant that I can not recall the name of. Lazy Dog Cafe already operates restaurants in both Westminster and Orange. You can also find locations outside Orange County in Torrance, Valencia, Thousand Oaks and coming soon, in Temecula.

The Lazy Dog Cafe is a full service casual dining restaurant that was started by the founder of the Mimi's Cafe chain. It is often described as a cheaper version of Claim Jumper. The restaurant serves a large variety of comfort food, pizza, sandwiches, burgers, seafood, pasta and even Chinese food.

I was lucky enough to be invited down to a Pre-Grand Opening party this past Tuesday. The restaurant was generous enough to let me bring three guests. V, T and IG accompanied me to the party.

Here is an overview of what we ordered.


Boston Tea Party Fishbowl ($16.95*)


Hand Muddled Citrus Margarita


Trio of Hummus Dips ($7.95)


Wok-Fired Calamari ($9.95)


Angry Achiote Rocky Mountain Wings ($9.25)


Small Chicken Tortilla Soup ($3.75)


Small Caesar Salad ($5.95)


Bleu Cheese New York ($23.95)


BBQ Baby Back Pork Ribs ($17.95)


Garlic-Butter Glazed Flatiron Steak ($17.45)


Fig and Prosciutto Pizza ($11.95)


Cinnamon and Sugar Pizza ($4.95)


Sweet Tooth Sundae ($2.95)

With the exception of a few tough ribs (some were tough, some were not) everything was really good. V really likes Keri's Mediterranean veggie pizza from this restaurant and used to think it was the best pizza she had ever had. She now thinks that the Fig and Prosciutto pizza is better. The Tortilla Soup is an item that Lazy Dog is known for. They do an incredible job with it. The Cinnamon Sugar pizza is a perfect dessert to share when you are dining with a group.

The portions here are generous and the prices are very reasonable. I have always enjoyed going to Lazy Dog Cafe in the past, but hated driving to Orange or Westminster. Now that they are open in Irvine, I can see myself going there any time I want a quick, casual, delicious meal. The service here is also top notch. Whenever I have dined at a Lazy Dog, the service has rivaled some of the finest restaurants I have been to. I highly recommend The Lazy Dog Cafe to anyone looking for a delicious upscale dining experience, without the upscale price.

*Prices are for reference only. My meal was comped.

Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ and Authentic Chinese Cuisine- Lake Forest

23615 El Toro Road
Suite P
Lake Forest, CA 92630
949-951-8296

Hidden in the back of a strip mall off El Toro Road, next to Office Depot, is one of my absolute favorite places to eat. Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ. This particular restaurant is in no way related to any other Genghis Khan that you may have seen in a mall or someplace else. The restaurant is a small family run business and serves both Mongolian BBQ and Chinese food. I have tried their Chinese food before and it's pretty good, but the reason I return again and again is the Mongolian BBQ.

I usually go to Genghis Khan for lunch and get the "All-You-Can-Eat" special ($10.95 during lunch). The meal comes with soup or salad and all you can eat bbq, rice and pocket bread. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Mongolian BBQ, it is basically a stir fried dish of meat and vegetables. The unique thing though, is that you get to customize your dish any way you like it.

When you order the Mongolian BBQ, you will be asked for your meat selection. You have the choice of Beef, Pork, Turkey or Lamb. You are able get one meat or a combination of any of the meats. I usually choose a combination of turkey, pork and beef. The waiter will then bring you a bowl with your meat selections in the form of thinly sliced, frozen meat. If you're mean like me, you can bring new people to this restaurant and then tell them to dig in when the frozen meat is delivered. I've gotten a lot of horrified looks from people when I do this...it's hilarious....but I digress....

(Frozen Meat)
Take your bowl of meat up to the buffet of raw vegetables, spices and sauces and customize it however you'd like. My standard is LOTS of cliantro, a little bit of celery and onion and a few slices of fresh tomato. I then top it off with three ladles of "spicy" sauce (not really spicy, just a soy based stir fry sauce) and a generous sprinkling of garlic powder. Hand your bowl to the cook behind the giant circular grill and watch in awe as the chef quickly turns your bowl of raw ingredients into a delicious bowl of Mongolian BBQ.


(The finished product)
When you get back to your table, there will be some rice and a basket of piping hot, freshly baked pocket bread. While V loves Mongolian BBQ, what she really goes for is the pocket bread. I've tried to bribe the owner into giving me the recipe, but he won't. The way that many people eat their Mongolian BBQ is by ripping off the top of a pocket bread and then stuffing the pocket full of meaty goodness from their bowl. This is how I eat it and it is fantastic. If you've ordered the "all you can eat", you can ask for bowl after bowl of meat and go through the process over and over again. My record is 3 1/2 bowls. Think you can beat me?

Genghis Khan is the place to go when you want to have a big lunch, but don't want to spend a lot of money. All you can eat meat for $10.95? You can't beat that!

Hokkaido Seafood Buffet-Newport Beach

4200 Scott Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Near John Wayne Airport
(949) 851-5888


I recently visited Hokkaido Seafood Buffet in Newport Beach. This restaurant is located across the street from the Benihana's that appears to be under construction, in the building that I think used to be Marie Callendar’s. We went around 7:00 PM on a Saturday night and there wasn’t a wait. They have a lot of tables here so there actually seemed to be a lot of open seating.

Hokkaido advertises themselves as a seafood buffet with sushi, Chinese food and Mongolian BBQ. I was really excited to try this buffet because I really love all of these foods. They have a really great price for an all you can eat place like this too. Only $15.95 for dinner!

As soon as I was seated, I jumped up in eager anticipation and ran to go look over the buffet. This is what I saw…



Salad Bar


Cold Seafood


Hot Seafood


Sushi


Chinese Food


More Chinese Food


Mongolian BBQ Bar


Some Kind of Raw Fish and Jalapenos


The Mongolian BBQ Cook


Fried Foods


Dessert Bar

I decided to start of my meal with some of their sushi. I sampled their Philadelphia Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll, Inari Sushi, Tamago and the Super Spicy Roll. All of the sushi tasted pretty bland and generic. It’s something I would expect to get from a grocery store. The best of the bunch though was probably the Super Spicy Roll that was filled with spicy tuna and fresh jalapeno and then topped with more spicy tuna and diced fresh jalapenos. It was pretty spicy.

Next, I decided to get some Mongolian BBQ. They had some toppings that I don’t get at my regular Mongolian BBQ place like jalapenos and udon noodles. However, they didn’t have some of the toppings I’m used to like celery and tomatoes. I ended up getting a simple dish with beef, pork, udon noodles, onions and green onions. The cook stir-fried it up on the grill and added some brown sauce that I am assuming was soy sauce based. The Mongolian BBQ left something to be desired. It was very bland.

I decided to move on to the seafood and Chinese food. I got myself some steamed crab legs, salt and pepper frog legs, BBQ pork ribs and fried rice. Everything was disappointing. The crab legs were a waterlogged mess and they barely contained any meat. The frog legs were chewy and sticky. The fried rice was extremely bland and the BBQ pork was tough.

I pretty much got everything on the buffet that I was interested in but I was still hungry. Even though it wasn’t that good, I finally decided to go back and get another plate of Mongolian BBQ. I got the same limited ingredients, pork, beef, noodles and onions. The grill was a lot busier now though. The Mongolian BBQ cook was extremely busy. Not only was he in charge of cooking the food, but he was also apparently in charge of replenishing the food. He took turns tossing food on the grill and running back in to the kitchen to get more meat and various toppings. He was so busy that he was trying to cook too many orders at the same time on his small grill. This resulted in it being hard for him to keep everyone’s dishes separate. One lady that was clearly a vegetarian, (No CP, it wasn’t my wife) handed the cook a plate of vegetables and asked him to cook it on the other side of the grill away from the meat. He stared at her as if he didn’t speak English and then threw her food in the middle of the grill. He then grabbed a bunch of other orders and surrounded her food with meat. He was frantically cooking and tossing food everywhere. He was trying his best to keep all the food separate, but he wasn’t doing a very good job. I could tell the vegetarian was freaking out. He handed me my plate. I was disappointed that they didn’t have pocket bread, so I grabbed something called a “biscuit” that was next to the Mongolian BBQ.

I got back to the table and looked at my food. In addition to the ingredients that I originally had in my Mongolian BBQ, I now also had pineapple, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, jalapenos, bean sprouts and cabbage. The food was still bland. I added a lot of soy sauce and it tasted a little better. The biscuit actually turned out to be a fried sugar doughnut. It was actually the best thing I had tried, so I went back and got a few more of those and filled up on them. Maybe this place wasn’t worth $15.95 after all. This definitely wasn’t the worst buffet I have ever had, but I’m not jumping up and down to return anytime soon.

Al Palace - Costa Mesa-Santa Ana Heights

270 Bristol St Ste 110,
Costa Mesa, CA
Tel: (714) 549-0653


There is already a review on this site for Al Palace, but since it is hands down my favorite Chinese place, I thought it deserved one more.

Al Palace is a small family run Chinese restaurant that shares a strip mall with a Denny’s and a Wienerschnitzel. The restaurant is fairly small with about a dozen tables, but the tables are almost always full. This is because the Chinese food that comes out of the kitchen here is some of the best you will ever have.

I recently visited Al Palace for dinner with a party of four. We are all big fans of Al Palace so there was a bit of arguing when we first sat down. Everyone seems to have their favorite dishes from here, and everyone knows that whatever we order, it will be good. “I don’t understand why you think 10 dishes is too much for 4 people!” I said to my wife. She finally convinces me that I was being unreasonable and we settled on getting five dishes.

We placed our order and got ready to feast. One of the best things about Al Palace is how lightning fast their kitchen is. Everything is made fresh and to order, but it is not uncommon for you to get all of your food 5 minutes after placing your order. They cook with such high heat though, that your food is often the temperature of the sun. Be careful.

The first dish to arrive was the Sweet and Sour Pork. This might be my favorite dish here. Big chunks of pork are battered and fried until they are perfectly crispy. The pork is then covered in a bright red sauce that is the perfect balance of sour and sweet.

The second dish to arrive was the Spicy Tofu, extra spicy. This might be my favorite dish here. Silky pieces of tofu are sautéed in a gravy-like hot sauce. Even though we ordered it extra spicy, it still wasn’t that spicy for me. You can ask for some hot sauce if you’d like to crank it up a little more. This dish is perfect over some steamed or fried rice.

The third dish that arrived was the Mandarin Chicken. To be quite honest, Isabel ordered this and I didn’t try it. I really wanted to, but I was too busy pigging out on everything else. She seemed to really enjoy it though.

The fourth dish to land on our table was the Beef Chow Fun. This might be my favorite dish here. Long flat ribbons of slightly chewy noodles are stir fried with green onion, beef and a delicious brown sauce. Once you eat these noodles, you’ll never want Chow Mein again. These noodles are fantastic with a little bit of hot mustard. Be careful though. The hot mustard here is hot enough to singe your nose hairs.

The fifth and final dish of the evening was the BBQ Pork Fried Rice. This might be my favorite dish here. The fried rice here is full of flavor, not bland like a lot of other places. This is the perfect side dish for every food item here.

I have never been disappointed with my food here. The prices can’t be beat either. I don’t remember the exact prices of everything because I don’t even look at the menu when I go here anymore. The items are all around $7.00. These 5 dishes (including free steamed rice and hot tea) came out to around $38.00 with tax. We also had plenty of food leftover. I guess my wife was right. A delicious Chinese dinner for less than $10 a person though, you can’t beat that!

**************UPDATE********************
7/2/2008 I've never been a really big fan of egg rolls. After "peekpoke" left a comment on this article telling me that Al Palace's were especially good though, I had to try them. I went down to Al Palace last night to get some. What arrived before me was a plate with 4 freshly battered and fried egg rolls sliced into pieces (Order of four for $5.55). These looked like no egg rolls I have ever seen. I picked up a piece and put it in my mouth. It was piping hot but amazing. This might just be the best egg roll I have ever had. There was no overly dry wrapper, just a perfectly crispy fried batter shell filled with cabbage and a little bit of pork. If you normally like egg rolls, you're gonna love these! Thanks for the recommendation peekpoke!

New Panda Chinese Fast Food -Santa Ana/Costa Mesa

(Image not affiliated with New Panda, I just forgot to take a picture of their sign. This is just a random panda photo.)

3814 S Bristol St
Santa Ana, CA 92704

(714) 957-1134

Near McDonalds, next to Games For Less

I used to have this fantastic place near my office in Lake Forest called China Express. They were pretty much a fast food counter service Chinese place, except they didn’t have any steam tables. They had gorgeous pictures all over their walls of the different culinary delights that they offered. You would place your order and the guy in the back would wok up your order hot and fresh just for you. Sadly, China Express closed. They left a phone number in their window to call for more information. I called the number and it just rang and rang. I called again, and again. Over the next couple of weeks I dialed the phone number repeatedly. I was in a panic. Would I never have the joy of tasting their delicious dishes again?!??! I called again……ring…..ring……ring…..ring…..ring…. and finally “New Panda, can I help you?” I was so excited that someone picked up the phone! I stammered out, “I’m looking for info on China Express! This phone number was left on the door!” I then recognized the voice on the other end of the phone. It was the very nice girl that always took my order at China Express. She told me that they had relocated up to a place near South Coast Plaza. She said they were now called “New Panda.” “I can still get my salt and pepper shrimp though, right?!?!” I asked. She laughed and said “Of course.”

All of the above events took place a couple of years ago. After I hung up the phone that day I immediately drove down to their new location and ordered me up a big plate of salt and pepper shrimp. Every time I want good salt and pepper shrimp, I make the drive again. It now takes me 20-30 minutes to get there from my office but it’s oh so worth it.

New Panda is more of your typical Chinese fast food place. They have scoop and serve steam tables and a combo plate will cost you about five or six bucks. Their fried rice is a little bland, but oddly good. The rest of their steam table items are about the same you would expect from any other similar place. What I really go here for is their wok to order food. Most people going to New Panda don’t even notice the cook to order menu on the back wall. They’re really missing out.

I like to start my meal here with some of their fried wontons. At $1.50* for an order of 6, these are a really great deal. They are fried up perfectly crisp and contain a hidden gem of glistening pork inside. I like to dip them in a little hot mustard. If you ask the lady behind the counter, she will give you some real hot mustard instead of that fluorescent yellow crap that comes in the packets.

The item I can never seem to resist on their menu is the Salt and Pepper Shrimp ($6.99* during lunch). I have taken many people here to try the salt and pepper shrimp and they have all fallen in love with it. The chef in the back takes some juicy shrimp, lightly batters them and then woks them up with some oil, fresh jalapenos and green onions. They are then sprinkled liberally with salt and pepper. The resulting dish is an explosion of flavor that is hard to describe. I find myself eating these shrimp so fast that sometimes I make myself sick. Even so, sometimes I’ll go back and order more once I finish my first plate.

New Panda is an ok place to go and get some Chinese fast food, but if you have a few extra minutes, take the time to look over their “cook to order” menu and get something made especially for you. I of course recommend the Salt and Pepper shrimp, but I have also tried many of their other dishes and I haven’t been disappointed in any of them.

* Prices are from memory, so they may be a little off.

Wan Fu China Bistro - Rancho Santa Margarita

30642 Santa Margarita Parkway #E105
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688
(Across from City Hall)
949-589-8028

I was down in Rancho Santa Margarita the other day running an errand during lunch time. After my errand I drove around RSM looking for a place to eat. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a sign that read, "Wan Fu China Bistro - Lunch for $4.95." I slammed on my brakes, spun my wheel to the right and pulled into a waiting space right in front of the restaurant. Then I noticed that it was 20 minute parking. I decided to leave my car there anyway because a $4.95 Chinese lunch can't really take that long, right?

My buddy and I walked through the front door of the restaurant. The decor in front is a little tacky, with things like a cheap toy parrot hanging over a small koi pond. The restaurant was only about 25% full so we were greeted and seated right away. The dining area of the restaurant looked much nicer than the entrance. A waterfall over a glass pane with their name on it added a nice element to the room.

I looked over the menu and saw that lunches here range from $4.95-$5.95. There were plenty of items at the $4.95 price. The lunches here include house salad, soup, a cream cheese wonton, an egg roll and your choice of white or fried rice. Since it was so cheap, and it also happened to be payday, I decided to be bad and order myself two lunches. Yes, I know I'm supposed to try and lose weight, but come on! It's only $4.95!

After careful consideration, I decided to get the Sweet and Sour Pork ($4.95) and the Szechuan Beef ($4.95). I asked for the Szechuan Beef "extra spicy." The person I was eating with decided to get Shrimp Lo Mein ($5.95). They offer the choice of either hot and sour or egg flower soup. I chose hot and sour. They told me that since I ordered two lunches, they would just bring me one large bowl instead of two small ones. I felt like such a fatty...

We started to munch on the bowl of fried noodles that was on the table already when we were seated. I started to wonder if they kept these bowls on the table all day and just refilled them when they were getting low. I looked around the restaurant. Some of the empty tables had noodles bowls on them and some didn't. I was wondering how many people's hands had been in this bowl before mine.... Before I could come to a decision, our soup arrived. The hot and sour soup was not the best I have ever had, but it was pretty damn good. Bold flavors most notably black pepper, made this soup a good decision. My only complaint was that it could have had a little stronger "sour" flavor.

After a few minutes, our entrees arrived, fresh and piping hot. I was happy to see that the portion size looked reasonable for the low price. The salad was your standard iceberg with a too strong ginger dressing. The cream cheese wonton was pretty good and the cabbage egg roll was strangely delicious. I also received two fried vegetables on each plate. One was a piece of broccoli and the other seemed to be a slice of potato. They were ok. Next I took a bite of the fried rice. If someone blindfolded me and fed me this fried rice, I would swear I was eating plain steamed rice. How do they do that? The rice is colored, so I know they must have at least put some soy sauce in. How do they take the flavor out?

Now on to the entrees. I took a bite of Sweet and Sour pork. It was fantastic. Now I'm not saying that it was gourmet, but compared to the sweet and sour pork that you'd get at a fast food Chinese place for $4.95, this was really good. The pork was fried and crispy and the sauce was just right. I would definitely order this again.

I moved on to the Szechuan Beef "extra spicy." This dish was bland, disappointing and not spicy at all. Limp pieces of beef were covered in a tasteless brown sauce and tossed with cooked carrots and celery. Blech. I didn't like this at all.

My dining companion seemed to enjoy his Shrimp Lo Mein. He said it tasted pretty good and would definitely order it again. I thought the Lo Mein portion looked a little small, considering that it's just noodles and it's $1 more than their other items. I understand that shrimp is more expensive, but I think they could have thrown some more noodles in there.

All in all the food was pretty good. If I return to Wan Fu, I will definitely order the Sweet and Sour pork again but avoid the Szechuan beef. We paid for our meal and I looked at my watch. It had taken a little over 20 minutes (probably closer to 30) but luckily there was no ticket on my car.