Eat. Travel. Eat!

We heard about Santa Monica Seafood as a reputable place to not just buy fish, but also to eat, and thus visited Santa Monica Seafood during a trip to Orange County. During our first visit, the cafe had just opened (11 AM), and being one of the first customers, they were very attentive, immediately requesting drink orders and introducing us to their daily specials. Bread and butter were available on request after ordering, and it was quite delicious-- fresh, crusty sourdough bread with a tender interior coupled with soft, unsalted butter! We had plenty of this. We wanted a smaller lunch, and so we went for soup and oysters. First, we ordered the large New England Clam Chowder (8 USD), a highly recommended item according to our waitress.

Recently, we were looking for another restaurant to try out near South Coast Plaza, and stumbled upon Bella Cuba. It happened to receive positive reviews from social media as well as from Gustavo Arellano from the OC Weekly , so we decided to check it out. Conveniently, it was just across the street, and housed in the same plaza as Inka Mama's, a restaurant we had just recently visited. What a coincidence! Inside, we were met with a festive interior and plenty of hungry lunchgoers, even though it was already approaching 2 in the afternoon. Though we were first immersed in the large-printed lunch menu , a specials board was also boasted on a nearby wall. I found the addition of lomo saltado to be interesting; besides it, however, Bella Cuba does have some other Peruvian influenced items.

Originally I had planned to visit California Fish Grill or Bear Flag Fish Company , but a friend's recommendation for Sushi Imari swayed my initial decision. Complimentary surprises plus a closer location to UC Irvine made this place more attractive to the other restaurants, and it also happened to be that Sushi Imari was positively reviewed on Monster Munching . Plus one indeed! Inside, waiters friendly greeted us and brought us to a table. We sat in an atmosphere heavily decorated with Japanese (and some Korean) ornaments, with elements of light and dark woods. A fusion menu was also in sight; besides the fresh fish, there was a whiteboard with various fusion rolls, of which some were already on the regular menu while others were new creations. Sushi Imari's complimentary miso soup, provided to us after ordering, was different compared to some other miso soups as there were a few enoki mushroom pieces in the soup along with the usual tofu and seaweed pieces. The ...

The lone Chinese outlet in the Costa Mesa Mitsuwa Marketplace food court, Sky Express holds a special position in the primarily Japanese food court (the only other option that is not Japanese in the food court is The Loft Hawaiian). Selling boba, dim sum, and Cantonese cuisine, Sky Express offers a vast menu. What one will see though coming out of Sky Express are boba and regular entrees; dim sum is not as popular.

Three new vendors have joined Costa Mesa's Mitsuwa Marketplace food court: Sanukiseimen Mugimaru, Don Don Tei, and The Loft Hawaiian Restaurant. On my last visit, one companion and I tried out Sanukiseimen Mugimaru while my other companion went to Miyabi-Tei. Sanukiseimen Mugimaru has a cafeteria style layout; first, line up at their udon pictures, and then tell the employee what you would like to order from the menu. With udon, the freshly made noodles will be heated/boiled up at that time and the noodle bowl will be heated up in the same cooking water, with the employee moving the bowl around. I find that unsanitary, but they did pass certification! For onigiri or tempura, continue to the counter where you can select as many items as you would like. The next stop is the cashier, where you can get utensils as well as condiments including sauces, ginger, green onions, and fried tempura batter bits for extra crunch on your udon. During our visit, the menu was quite limited, b...

We were shopping around one day at Costa Mesa's South Coast Plaza and Metro Pointe and wanted to eat somewhere. However, Metro Pointe had barely interesting to us, and so my Irvine friend recommended us to visit Mitsuwa Marketplace's food court for a meal. No, it was no Charlie Palmer , but I had heard quite a lot of positive comments on Mitsuwa's food courts, so along we went.  (Santouka- with food displays and water/seasonings to the side) This was certainly the largest Mitsuwa I had ever seen- there was a food court section, a full market, and a smaller area with lots of small vendors selling various foods (like mochi and cookies) as well as other items. At the food court, there were also plenty of options- traditional Japanese food was served by three vendors, there was one vendor selling Chinese food, and lastly Italian Tomato who sold cakes and desserts. Although we were enticed with all these options, we stuck to what we knew. I remembered reading ab...

I would have left this restaurant off the list of places to visit in the OC at first, but after seeing the South Coast Plaza Blogger Event from the eyes of the bloggers (ex. Gourmet Pigs , Pleasure Palate ) that went there, it was definitely on the list. What made it sweeter? A great big thank you to Gourmet Pigs for sharing her 25 dollar Charlie Palmer Gift Certificate . Arriving at the scene after checking out from Pelican Hill, we gave them our names and they started to prepare our table. Thus, I took the photos above of the interior. Quite dark, it first seemed. But it was quite nice with quirky chandeliers, a view of the wine cellars, white leather chairs, and paintings. Black and gold interior for the most part with hints of blue, white, and floral accents. We were sat down after a 5 minute preparation for the table. The lady was going to push out the chairs to help sit us in but I was taking photos... she did help my other two dining companions who later came in after finding pa...