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Archive for Garden Grove

Favori Dinner

Dec09

Restaurant: Favori [1, 2]

Location: 3502 W 1st St, Santa Ana, CA 92703. (714) 531-6838

Date: June 1 & July 9, 2021

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great old school place

_

We enjoyed Favori so much on a recent crawl that we decided to book a wine dinner here.
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Favori has been a staple down here in Garden Grove/Santa Ana since the early 80s.
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The menu.

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Our big table.

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Fish sauce.
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And super fermented fish sauce.
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Chilies.

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Goi Cuon. Vietnamese fried spring rolls.
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These are served with herbs
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You wrap them up like this with the herbs and fish sauce — delicious.
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Escargots. Snails in white wine and garlic butter sauce. These are the classic French style and were quite nice. They could have had even more garlic, but they certainly had plenty.
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These are served with some garlic bread.

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Goi Bo Tai Chanh. Rare Beef Salad. Fabulous version of this dish. Very herby with lots of beef flavor.
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Beef rolls wrapped in Betel Leaves. These had a very interesting but strong flavor. I loved them, but they weren’t for everyone.
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Ngheu Xao Hung Que. Stir-fried clams + basil leaves. Awesome Thai basil flavor.
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Luon Xao Lan. Stir-fried Eel with Curry Sauce. Great curry with rice noodles that soaked up the sauce. Flavorful eel as well, but beware the little bones.
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Ech Xao Xa Ot. Stir-fried frog legs + lemongrass & chilies. Incredible chili garlic flavor from this dish. Really spectacular.
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Cua Lot Chien Bo. Deep fried soft shelled crab.
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Roasted Quails. Interesting prep. Not as good as at Oc & Lau.
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Fruits de mer au Gratin. Seafood Baked in Cream Sauce. Ugly but tasted great, although the goopy texture was reminiscent of cream of mushroom soup.
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Canard a l’orange. Duck in Grand Mariner Orange Sauce. Like it was pulled through time from 1981! This was the worst dish by far.
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Ca ri nam bo. Beef tendon curry. great curry with beef/tendon chunks and potatoes.

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Crispy whole catfish! A touch dry, but delicious. Served with rice crepes, herbs, vermicelli, fish sauce etc.
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Herbs for the catfish.
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Vermicelli for the catfish.
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Rice crepes for the catfish.

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Bun Cha Ha Noi. Charbroiled Pork with Vermicelli. Delicious pork. Great with fish sauce.
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Orange Old Fashioned Sorbetto — Cold Pressed Orange and Tangerine Juice, Knob Creek Bourbon and Angostura Bitters! Topped with cherries — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Really tastes like an Old Fashioned –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #orange #tangerine #bourbon #KnobCreek #bitters #Angostura

Almond Amaretto Truffle Gelato — Amaretto Zabaglione (egg yolk, amaretto, and sugar custard) Sicilian Almond gelato base with stacked layers of house-made Valrhona Almond Amaretti Ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #almond #amaretto #amaretti #cookie #ganache #ChocolateTruffle

Overall, Favori is a great place with a great kitchen and very solid service. They really treated us right. Sure the atmosphere is that dark 80s “old school” charm, but the food is very good. Every Vietnamese dish was fabulous. The weakest stuff is the French style dishes. The escargots were fine but the Duck L’Orange was “interesting” at best and the Fruits de Mer were goopy (even if I liked them). Oh but that lemongrass chili sauce — so good! I over-ordered of course — always do :-).

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Related posts:

  1. Dinner at the Borgese’s
  2. Thai Tour – Pailin Thai
  3. Szechuan Impression Tustin
  4. Not Boaring at Sáu Can Tho
  5. Shanghailander Arcadia
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Garden Grove, Gelato, hedonists, Orange County, Vietnamese cuisine, Wine

Little Saigon Crawl 2021

Sep28

Restaurant: Oc & Lau Restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 9892 Westminster Blvd Unit R, Garden Grove, CA 92844. (714) 583-8100

Date: June 1, 2021

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great

_

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This crawl returned to Oc & Lau 2, which is tucked behind the Garlic & Chives.


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Interior of location 2 — much bigger than 1.

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Big menu.
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And the denser “covid” menu.1A4A7171
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Sauces on the table.
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Mien Xao Cua Oc. Stir Fried Glass Noodles with Escargot and Crab.
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Fried quail (Chim Cut Rotti). Much like the Chinese style quail. Great!
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So Diep Thai Thuong. Grilled King Scallop with fish eggs (and other stuff).
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Some garlicky goodness here.
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The check.

_
_

Restaurant: Garlic and Chives [1, 2]

Location: 9892 Westminster Blvd #311, Garden Grove, CA 92844.: (714) 591-5196

Date: June 1, 2021

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great

_

Then we moved next door to Garlic and Chives, which oddly, was very empty (even though historically — aka before the pandemic — it was mobbed).
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The minimalist interior.

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Salmon Belly Chien Gion. Very fried!
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Oc Len Xao Dua. Coconut Seasnails. One of our favorites.
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House Special Lobster with garlic noodles. Sautéed in house special sauce with garlic, onion, jalapeños, on a bed of noodles. This was AWESOME. Tons and tons of flavor, particularly over the noodles. Way better than the Crustacean and probably 1/4 of the price.
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The check again.

_
_

Restaurant: La Xanh Green Leaf Restaurant.

Location: 5425 W 1st St, Santa Ana, CA 92703. (714) 714-0442

Date: June 1, 2021

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Small menu, but good

_

Moving on to stop 3.
1A4A7219La Xanh is a small specialty lunch place.

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Tiny little interior.
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Even more tiny menu.
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Herbs for various dishes.
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Bun Rieu Oc. Special shrimp soup served with small rice vermicelli, fried tofu, pork blood, and shrimp cake. Very flavorful (and reasonably priced) soup.
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Banh xeo dac biet. Crispy crepe with pork, shrimp, and squid. Fabulous “omelet” eaten with the herbs and sauce.
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Fish sauce.
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Sweet tapioca or corn and coconut milk dessert.
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Bank breaker!

_
_

Restaurant: Favori [1, 2]

Location: 3502 W 1st St, Santa Ana, CA 92703. (714) 531-6838

Date: June 1, 2021

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great old school place

_

Today we finish up at a new classic, Favori.
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Favori has been a staple down here in Garden Grove/Santa Ana since the early 80s.
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1A4A7265
1A4A7266
The menu.
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Fish sauce.
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And super fermented fish sauce.
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Chilies.
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Goi Bo Tai Chanh. Rare Beef Salad. Fabulous version of this dish. Very herby with lots of beef flavor.
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Beef rolls wrapped in Betel Leaves. These had a very interesting but strong flavor. I loved them, but they weren’t for everyone.
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Crispy whole catfish! A touch dry, but delicious. Served with rice crepes, herbs, vermicelli, fish sauce etc.
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Herbs.
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Vietnamese coffee to go.
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The check.

Overall, even with “only” 4 stops this was a gluttonous and delicious crawl. The lobster and some of the favori dishes were very large and so some people tapped out. Favori was so good, and had such a good menu, that we resolved to come back later in the summer for a full wine dinner. More on that soon!

Related posts:

  1. Little Saigon Mini Crawl
  2. Little Saigon Mega Crawl
  3. OC Viet Crawl – The Sequel
  4. Eating Saigon – Hoa Tuc
  5. Food as Art: Little Saigon
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Favori, Garden Grove, hedonists, Oc & Lau, Orange County, Vietnamese Food

Oc and Lau

Apr03

Restaurant: Oc & Lau Restaurant [1, 2, 3]

Location: 10130 Garden Grove Blvd, Garden Grove, CA 92843. (714) 636-2000 and 9892 Westminster Blvd Unit R, Garden Grove, CA 92844. (714) 583-8100

Date: July 31 & September 29, 2019 & February 19, 2020 & July 20, 2021 & February 15, 2022

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great

_

I had high expectations for Oc & Lau too, as it was purported to be in the league of Garlic and Chives. I’ve visited 3 times now, twice during a various Oc Viet crawls, here and here. Then again for a pre-Birthday Dinner “snack lunch“. This post combines all the dishes.
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The exterior of location 1, just down the block from Garlic and Chives — there are two locations — the other is right behind G&C in the same minimall.
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Interior of location 1.

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Interior of location 2 — much bigger than 1.
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Big menu.
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Ruinart never sucks.
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Pineapple Smoothie (2/15/22).
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Tiny oysters on the half-shell with fish eggs and Vietnamese cocktail sauce (2/20). Very bright and tasty. Tiny bites though.

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Raw Beef Salad (2/15/22).

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Crispy Spring Rolls (2/15/22).
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Frog legs (Ech Chien Bo) (7/19). Fried frog legs. Excellent!

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Fried quail (Chim Cut Rotti) (7/19 & 9/19 & 2/20). Much like the Chinese style quail. Great!
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Garlic butter queen clams (Nghieu Hoang Hau Chay Toi) (7/19 & 2/20). Super delicious hot, buttery clam bits.
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Gratuitous zoom!
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Scallop with Roe.

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Creamy coconut periwinkle escargot (Oc Gao Dua) (7/19). This sauce was a 10, rich with curry coconut flavor, but I messed up and got the tiny winkle snails which are impossible to eat. About 1 in 3 times you can pry one out (with some challenge) using the toothpick. Bummer. I just sucked the sauce.

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Coconut Swirly Escargot (Oc Len Xao Dua) (9/19). After ordering the wrong snails last time I got it right this time — with the conical Vietnamese kind and the slightly sweet curry sauce. This sauce is amazing.

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You have to suck the meat out of these little cones.
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Empty shells.
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Tamarind Lobster (Tom Hum Range Me) (7/19). The sauce was too sweet — tangy sweet — but very sweet. Nice lobster though. We would have ordered with a different sauce.
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Shrimp. Sauce was kinda rich.
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Fried Soft-shell Crab with Tamarind Sauce. A bit too goopy and sweet.

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Singapore Chili Crab (7/20/21). Not 100% Singapore in style, but this was still one of the best Chili crabs I’ve had in LA. This is an incredible but very hard to find dish. There was a ton of crabmeat in the sauce — none left in the crab.1A4A0436

French bread to dip in the crab sauce.7U1A4871
Filet Mignon with udon (Bo Filet Xao Udon) (7/19). Very tasty beef with onions and great thick udon noodles.

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Shaking Beef (2/15/22).

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Rice for the Beef.

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Weird purple yam and sticky milk free dessert. Oddly addictive.
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The check on the 9/20 visit.

Overall, I’ve been to Oc & Lau three times and it’s always been great. They seem to really rock the fresh seafood with “seasonings” like the clams and oysters above. The coconut snails were great and the quail is amazing. It’s totally worthy of a dedicated dinner but so far I’ve only been there for crawl mini-visits.

In 2021 I tried to arrange a dinner here but they have certain issues which make it impossible. They REFUSE to take any kind of reservation, so the wait required to get a large party at dinner time would be unacceptable, they don’t reliably allow corkage, and they also refuse to reserve crabs etc and frequently run out. It’s just not practical to wing a dinner down to Orange County.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Little Saigon Mini Crawl
  2. Little Saigon Mega Crawl
  3. Orange Afternoon — Garlic & Chives
  4. OC Viet Crawl – The Sequel
  5. Quick Eats – Little Sister
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: crawl, Garden Grove, hedonists, Oc & Lau, Orange County, Vietnamese cuisine

Little Saigon Mini Crawl

Nov06

Restaurant: Brodard Restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 16105 Brookhurst St. Fountain Valley, CA 92708. Phone number (657) 247-4401

Date: September 26, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Solid

_

Crawls are usually a lot of fun, and after the super extensive Garden Grove / Westminster Vietnamese Food crawl we did a few months ago, my brother, parents, and went down south for a smaller (3 stop) version.

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We started furthest south at Brodard.
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Their interior is fairly modern.

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Vietnamese menus can be very long, and this is no exception.

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Roasted Duck Spring Rolls (Goi Cuon Vit). Tender roasted duck wrapped in rice paper with asparagus, scallions, cucumber, and cilantro served with plum sauce. Hoison (plum) sauce makes everything taste great.

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Eggplant Tempura Rolls. Tempura eggplant, asparagus, cucumber, avocado, and cilantro wrapped in rice paper and served with soy vinaigrette. Not as good as the duck (or the pork we had last time).
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Spicy Beef Salad (Goi Bo). Tender marinated beef wokked with Asian spices over lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions in spicy lemongrass vinaigrette. Delicious.
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The check for reference.

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_

Restaurant: Oc & Lau Restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 9892 Westminster Blvd Unit R, Garden Grove, CA 92844. (714) 583-8100

Date: September 29, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great

_

This crawl returned to Oc & Lau as well, but this time to location 2, which is tucked behind the Garlic & Chives.
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The exterior of location 1, but today we went to 2.
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Interior of location 2 — much bigger than 1.
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Big menu.

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Coconut Swirly Escargot (Oc Len Xao Dua). After ordering the wrong snails last time I got it right this time — with the conical Vietnamese kind and the slightly sweet curry sauce. This sauce is amazing.
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You have to suck the meat out of these little cones.
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Empty shells.
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Fried quail (Chim Cut Rotti). Much like the Chinese style quail. Great!
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Weird purple yam and sticky milk free dessert. Oddly addictive.
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The check again.

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_

Restaurant: Garlic and Chives [1, 2]

Location: 9892 Westminster Blvd #311, Garden Grove, CA 92844.: (714) 591-5196

Date: September 29, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great

_

Today we finish up at my favorite down here, Garlic and Chives.
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The minimalist interior.
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Slightly spicy edamame.

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Grilled Turmeric Fish with Dill served on the skillet w/ vermicelli.

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Vermicelli noodles and herbs served with turmeric fish. You wrap these up with the fish. Delicious and very much like we had a couple of times in Vietnam.
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Baked Clams with Garlic & Chives. Or maybe Chili Garlic. Nice actually. Lots of flavor.
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House Special Lobster. Sautéed in house special sauce with garlic, onion, jalapeños, on a bed of noodles. This was AWESOME. Tons and tons of flavor, particularly over the noodles. Way better than the Crustacean and probably 1/4 of the price.

Overall, a fun and very filling little adventure!

Related posts:

  1. Little Saigon Mega Crawl
  2. Eating Saigon – Hoa Tuc
  3. Food as Art: Little Saigon
  4. Taking back Little Saigon
  5. Orange Afternoon — Garlic & Chives
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Brodard, Garden Grove, Garlic and Chives, Oc & Lau, Orange County, Vietnamese cuisine, Westminster

Little Saigon Mega Crawl

Sep16

Restaurant: Brodard Restaurant

Location: 16105 Brookhurst St. Fountain Valley, CA 92708. Phone number (657) 247-4401

Date: July 31, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Solid

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Crawls are usually a lot of fun, and this super far, super extensive Garden Grove / Westminster Vietnamese Food crawl has been months in the planning. I collated several online lists of the best Vietnamese in Little Saigon and narrowed it down to 5 places (plus one coffee shop) and a list of their best dishes. I love Vietnamese food and have written up my full 2014 trip to Vietnam here. Bear in mind that 4 of us completed the entire crawl. Two joined for the 4 middle places.

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We started furthest south at Brodard.
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Their interior is fairly modern.
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And they have a bunch of takeaway and bakery products. French influence in Vietnam I guess.

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Vietnamese menus can be very long, and this is no exception.
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Grilled Pork Spring Rolls (Nem Nuong Cuon). Heritage Berkshire grilled pork wrapped in rice paper with lettuce, cucumber, carrots, cilantro, chives, daikon and mint served with their house special sauce. These were a great spring roll, pretty much your typical “fresh” (soft, not fried) Vietnamese roll, except for the thick slab of amazing grilled pork. Really made the roll.
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Jackfruit Salad (Goi Mit). Young jackfruit and steamed pork tossed with asian herbs, peanuts, shallots, and roasted sesame seeds, accompanied with rice crackers and mom tom (fermented shrimp sauce) dressing on the side. I was interested to get this because I hadn’t had it — can’t say I loved the weird sour and fish taste. It was edible certainly, but a bit odd.

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Hue Style Beef Noodle Soup (Bun Bo Hue). A spicy and richly flavorful soup with rice vermicelli, tender beef shank, pork hock, and roasted shallots accompanied by asian herbs and bean sprouts. This was supposed to have liver, can’t say if it did. What it did have was PIG SNOUT. Really obvious snouty snouts. Pretty sketchy. Broth and noodles were great though.
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Mixed up a bit to show off the noodles.

Overall, while I anticipated Brodard would be one of my favorites, it just turned out fine. Nice, modern, but I wasn’t blown away. Hard to tell though based on three dishes.

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Restaurant: Quan Hop Restaurant

Location: 15640 Brookhurst St. Westminster, CA 92683. (714) 689-0555

Date: July 31, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Good

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On to stop two, just down the street.
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Clearly this wasn’t built as a Vietnamese restaurant originally.
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The interior made me think it was once a sushi bar or something.
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Another big menu.
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Some riesling — they even charged us a little corkage!
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Rice pancakes (banh beo). These were amazing. You put a little fish sauce on them and slurp ’em like an oyster. Really light, delicate, and exciting flavor.
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Shaved filet mignon, stir-fried and tossed with finely shredded banana blossoms (goi bo). Very nice beef salad. Tangy with great textures.
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Fried rice cakes topped with pork and shrimp dumplings (banh it ram). Extremely interesting carb on carb dish. Greasy (in a good way) rice cakes with, yeah, a dumpling on them. Kinda a bit breaded, but tasty.

Overall, All three of our dishes were great.

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Restaurant: Song Long Restaurant

Location: 9361 Bolsa Ave, Ste 108. Westminster, CA 92683. (714) 775-3724

Date: July 31, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Old school, but amazing fish

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I was wary of place number three, it felt too old school — but it turned out to be great.
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Old school.
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And not the most updated minimall.
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Yeah baby, look at those curtains! This place has much more French influence.
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Huge menu.
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Rice crackers.
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French bread.
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Vietnamese style Chicken Wings (Canh Ga Chien Nuoc Mam). The wings were fine, very crispy, but that garlic butter sauce was to die for!
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Sizzling fish (Cha Ca Thang Long). Catfish garnished with dill, onions, peanuts, served with pickles and greens and rice vermicelli.
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The herbs and noodles. You pile it all together with the fish and add fish sauce. Absolutely amazing. 10/10 dish. Really really great fish with a lovely turmeric/dill flavor. Super addictive.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by Song Long. Really by the fish dish — which as I had been told was worth the price of admission. Really fabulous. Garlic butter was crazy good too.

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_

Restaurant: Banh Cuon Tay Ho 4

Location: 9822 Bolsa Ave Ste 101H. Westminster, CA 92683. (714) 531-5171

Date: July 31, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Very casual

_

Fourth place.
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This has more the look of a lunch chain spot.
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Interior is new, but bland.
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Ice Tea?  No, it’s a giant pitcher of fish sauce on the table!
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Combo with wide rice noodles (banh cuon) and sweet potato and shrimp fritters (banh tom) and some liverwurst like meat. Interesting, and tasty enough with fish sauce. Almost the entire menu is various combos like this mostly including the same set of rotating items.
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Beef noodles. You douse it in fish sauce and…
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Mix it up. Surprisingly delicious.

Overall, this was my least favorite of the 5 places as it’s menu was so small (mostly version of the first dish). It would be okay for a quite cheap and tasty lunch by oneself.

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_

Restaurant: Oc & Lau Restaurant

Location: 10130 Garden Grove Blvd, Garden Grove, CA 92843. (714) 636-2000

Date: July 31, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great

_

I had high expectations for Oc & Lau too, as it was purported to be in the league of Garlic and Chives which we didn’t visit today, but I love.
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The exterior, just down the block from Garlic and Chives — there are two locations.
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Interior is.
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Big menu.
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Ruinart never sucks.
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Frog legs (Ech Chien Bo). Fried frog legs. Excellent!

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Fried quail (Chim Cut Rotti). Much like the Chinese style quail. Great!
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Garlic butter queen clams (Nghieu Hoang Hau Chay Toi). Really tasty.
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Creamy coconut periwinkle escargot (Oc Gao Dua). This sauce was a 10, rich with curry coconut flavor, but I messed up and got the tiny winkle snails which are impossible to eat. About 1 in 3 times you can pry one out (with some challenge) using the toothpick. Bummer. I just sucked the sauce.
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Tamarind Lobster (Tom Hum Range Me). The sauce was too sweet — tangy sweet — but very sweet. Nice lobster though. We would have ordered with a different sauce.
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Filet Mignon with udon (Bo Filet Xao Udon). Very tasty beef with onions and great thick udon noodles.
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Weird purple yam and sticky milk free dessert.

_
_

Restaurant: Cafe Lu

Location: 636 S Harbor Blvd, Santa Ana, CA 92704. (714) 604-6347

Date: July 31, 2019

Cuisine: Coffee

Rating: Super weird

_

With just four of us left — and being very full — someone suggested we sample this oddity of the Orange County Vietnamese cultural scene:
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Cafe Lu, a kind of bikini coffee bar.
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Imagine a super divey bar where women in bathing suits and stripper heels serve you extremely over-priced Vietnamese coffee (or chicken wings). Very weird. Even weirder clientele. A certain hedonist managed to pound a giant coconut smoothy-shake (after our 5 restaurants) and THEN go to a huge Cantonese banquet in the SGV only 2 hours later. Woah!

In total summary, an amazing 4-5 hour journey through a California landscape not so often explored by the typical white-bread Los Angeles resident. One of the great things about our city (and I include the extended area we visited today) is the incredible wealth of culinary (and cultural) variety brought in by our vast immigrant populations. Keep ’em coming!

In terms of restaurant quality, none of these places blew me away quite as much as Garlic & Chives, but Oc & Lau is close and seems worthy of its own full meal visit.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Saigon – Hoa Tuc
  2. Taking back Little Saigon
  3. Food as Art: Little Saigon
  4. Quick Eats – Le Saigon
  5. Chicken Crawl – Dong Nguyen
By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Banh Cuon Tay Ho 4, Brodard, Champagne, Garden Grove, hedonists, OC, Oc & Lau, Quan Hop Restaurant, snails, Song Long, Vietnamese cuisine, Westminster, Wine

Orange Afternoon — Garlic & Chives

Aug08

Restaurant: Garlic & Chives

Location: 9892 Westminster Blvd #311, Garden Grove, CA 92844. (714) 591-5196

Date: June 23 & September 13, 2018 and October 3, 2021

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Old School Vietnamese

_

In June of 2018, Fred C and Andrew T convinced me to head down on a Saturday afternoon to Garden Grove for some serious Vietnamese. Now, despite the horrific traffic, they didn’t have to twist my arm too hard because I love Vietnamese food, as evidenced by my eating around that lovely country. Since then Garlic and Chives has become a favorite and this post includes multiple lunches and one wine dinner.


In June of 2018, after a “snack” (aka full lunch) at Tai Buu we secured our late afternoon reservation at the insanely popular Garlic & Chives — apparently by Kristin!

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Inside is cute and more modern.
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Interest ice tea with an exotic flavor.

Wines we just popped and jammed on.

1998 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. BH 94. An elegant but austere wine that is almost as reticent as the ’96 with pure citrus and floral aromas that continue onto the crisp and still very tight medium-bodied flavors that are beautifully precise and impressively delineated on the gorgeously long finish. This is a long way from being ready and I wouldn’t touch a bottle for another 5 to 7 years.

From my cellar: 2006 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Rosé Brut. VM 95. Taittinger’s 2006 Comtes de Champagne Rosé has come along nicely over the last six months. Intensely perfumed, Pinot-inflected aromatics carry through the mid-palate and finish as the 2006 shows off its depth and pure energy. Veins of chalky minerality give the red berry and cranberry flavors an extra kick of energy. The 2006 is both powerful and delicate at the same, with crystalline precision and fabulous depth. Hints of orange peel, mint, cinnamon and cranberry add further shades of nuance on the complete, beautifully articulated finish.

2014 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons. VM 93. Very pale yellow. Lemon oil, flowers and a lightly lactic yeasty nuance on the nose. Tight, upright and penetrating, with brisk lemony acidity intensifying the dense flavors of white peach and almond flower. Shows terrific grain and palate presence and finishes with explosive mounting length. A very serious Vaillons. Dauvissat noted that as these vines have aged, they are yielding consistently more mineral wines.

Omg, more babykill! 2013 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Corton-Charlemagne. BH 92-94. A shy, indeed almost mute nose only grudgingly liberates its cool aromas of green apple, white fruit, spiced pear and wet stone. The intensely saline and stony big-bodied flavors are supported by a firm spine of citrus-inflected acidity that shapes the powerful finish that delivers outstanding complexity and persistence. I very much like the balance and this will need plenty of time to realize its full, and considerable, potential.

And if we thought 2013 white was young! 2015 Domaine Arlaud Charmes-Chambertin. BH 92-94. Reduction. The supple, round and strikingly refined, indeed even silky flavors possess focused power and punch while offering outstanding length on the dusty, palate coating and mildly austere finale. This is an exercise in harmony and refinement.



A REAL Vietnamese menu (gigantic).
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Lime Beef Tenderloin Salad (9/13/18). Beef tenderloin marinated in lime juice, mint, onion, chili and peanuts.
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Papaya salad with beef jerky (10/3/21). super savory and delicious.


Beef Salad (June 2018 and 10/3/21). Slices of beef, papaya, and all sorts of tangy, sweet, spicy Vietnamese salad goodness. Notable on 10/3/21 that it wasn’t quite as good as the beef jerky salad.
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Raw Ahi Tuna Spring Rolls (9/13/18). Raw ahi tuna, fresh lettuce, avocado, pickled daikon and carrots, crispy wonton wrapper rolled up in rice paper. Served with house special soy sauce and wasabi. These were a bit different, sort of Vietnamese / Japanese. Good though.

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Grilled pork sausage roll / goi con em nuong (10/3/21). Great.
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Shrimp and pork mustard green roll (10/3/21). A bit boring.

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Holy Crunchy Chicken Wings (9/13/18). Heavenly crispy fried chicken wings with sweet and spicy sauce topped with fried garlic chips.

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holy crunchy chicken wings / canh ga chien (10/3/21). Sweet and spicy and amazing. They were much saucier (and better) this time.

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Salt and pepper shrimp (10/3/21).


Stir Friend Ong Choy with Sea Snails. Yes, this is a garickly green with SNAILS. It was delicious too.


Coconut Sea Snails (many times including June 2018 and 10/3/21). Special Vietnamese Sea Snails cooked in coconut curry sauce. I LOVED this dish. I’ve had a pink version before at Phong Dinh and this green version was slightly different, spicier, and just as good. The snails are in little conical shells inside the curry. You suck out the creatures. So good. I could eat two bowls myself!
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Rice for the snails.


Baked Clams with Garlic & Chives. Or maybe Chili Garlic. Nice actually. Lots of flavor.

Razor Clams (June 2018). Baked Razor Clams topped with peanuts, chili, garlic, and bell peppers. These were dry and overcooked and our least favorite dish.

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Razor clams (10/3/21). Delicious this time.

House Special Lobster (every time I have been including 10/3/21). Sautéed in house special sauce with garlic, onion, jalapeños, on a bed of noodles. This was AWESOME. Tons and tons of flavor, particularly over the noodles. Way better than the Crustacean and probably 1/4 of the price.
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Zoom on the lobster (from 9/13/18). So much garlic!

Spicy Crab in Tamarind Sauce (June 2018 and 10/3/21). Sort of close to Singapore Chili Crab, and certainly tangy and spicy, but a bit different. Great too. Really great with a ton of flavor. The sauce was absolutely amazing. Hard to get into the shells but a lot of the meat was out. I would still love to find some exact Singapore Chili Crab, but this variant was fabulous.

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Singapore Chili Crab (10/3/21). Amazing. We added noodles into the sauce too. Better than the Tamarind crab we had the same day.

Vietnamese breads (June 2018 and 10/3/21), including the fried donut-like thing which was heavy and delicious. These come with the crabs.

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Grilled Turmeric Fish with Dill served on the skillet w/ vermicelli.
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Vermicelli noodles and herbs served with turmeric fish. You wrap these up with the fish. Delicious and very much like we had a couple of times in Vietnam.

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Grilled Chili Lemongrass Pork Ribs (9/13/18). Crispy rice with pork ribs marinated in chili and lemongrass.

Spicy Garlic Toothpick Lamb (June 2018). Small pieces of lamb marinated in garlic and house seasonings deep fried. Basically the Szechuan dish, but with a few more aromatics.1A4A5337
Pork belly (10/3/21). Sweet.
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Mustard greens (10/3/21).
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More rice (10/3/21)
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Lamb chops (10/3/21). Good.
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sautéed beef vermicelli / bun bo xao (filet mignon, lemongrass etc) (10/3/21).
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Grilled pork and egg roll noodle / bun thit nuong cha gio (10/3/21).
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Goat curry (10/3/21).
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Bread for the curry.
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Oxtail hotpot (10/3/21). I was reaching painful levels of full here and not really able to try this.
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The hotpot comes with lots of herbs.
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Added in.


Made by me (June 2018), of course: Almond Boba Tea Gelato — Oolong tea steeped milk, Romano Almonds from Noto Sicily, and topped with Boba! Suffered slightly from the long transit and wait, but still good.

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Almond Amaretto Truffle Gelato (10/3/21) — Amaretto Zabaglione (egg yolk, amaretto, and sugar custard) Sicilian Almond gelato base with stacked layers of house-made Valrhona Almond Amaretti Ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #almond #amaretto #amaretti #cookie #ganache #ChocolateTruffle
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Cherry Cough Syrup Sorbetto (10/3/21) – Amareno Cherry, Morello Cherry, and Creme de Cassis Sorbet! — so intense, and so awesome for a red fruit lover — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #amareno #morello #cherry #CremediCassis #cassis

Fred brought the whole family! (except his wife, who was out of town)

Andrew and Madison who hosted us down south that first time and treated us to this amazing fare.

This was an awesome afternoon and crazy crazy good food here at Garlic & Chives. I like this bright flavor forward style of Vietnamese (with a bit of Chinese, Singapore, and Thai influences). Just tons of… well garlic, chili, and chives. Closest in some ways to some of the really good places I went in Vietnam too. More fusion yes, but really good. Apparently they always have a huge line. Sigh. And a huge drive. But I’ll be back for sure for more good stuff and more Champagne. This is really Champagne food.

I’ve been back a whole mess of times for lunch and it’s always been good. Then we were back for a wine dinner on 10/3/21. They set up a large table outside on the sidewalk, which wasn’t bad at all as it was a nice night. They allowed the wine with no problem and had allowed us a reservation and preorders. This is unusual for Garden Grove Vietnamese restaurants which often don’t take reservation — a must for large party wine dinners involving people driving for over an hour! Food was awesome that night as well. A few people complained about my overzealous ordering (if I’m going to trek to Orange County for dinner I want to try EVERYTHING!) and the price creeping up because of the lobsters and crab. It wasn’t actually expensive, it just wasn’t “dirt cheap” the way people have come to expect from a small ethnic place like this. That’s unfair, as we had a TON of food and lots of signature ingredients.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

1A0A7274Sea Salt Latte from next door.

Related posts:

  1. Orange Afternoon — Tai Buu
  2. Orange is the New Black
  3. Hop Woo is Hop New
  4. Quick Eats – Little Sister
  5. Hunan Mao
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Babykillers, BYOG, Champagne, Garden Grove, Garlic & Chives, Garlic and Chives, Gelato, Orange Afternoon, Orange County, Vietnamese cuisine
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