BRAD A. JOHNSON’S best75 PLACES TO EAT May 2019 SUMMER IS CALLING MARGARITAS AT SUNSET, FRESH SEAFOOD, BAJA TACOS TAKE A TRIP TO SOL TONIGHT. BRAD A. JOHNSON’S 75 BEST PLACES TO EAT • 3 Hana re • Costa Mesa BRAD A. JOHNSON’S 2145 Pizza • Costa Mesa Bourbon Steak • Dana Point Chaak • Tustin Marché Moderne • Newport Mr. G’s • Newport Beach Beach PAGE 17 Taco Maria • Costa Mesa Arc • Costa Mesa Mayor’s TablevNewport Beach PAGE 6 Cdm • Corona del Mar Selanne Steak Tavern • Laguna Vaca • Costa Mesa Beach Brick • San Clemente Lido Bottle Works • Newport Mastro’s Steakhouse • Costa Beach Mesa 75 Meizhou Dongpo • Irvine Broadway • Laguna Beach PAGE 18 Water Grill • Costa Mesa PAGE 7 best Ocean at Main • Laguna Beach Chada Thai • Garden Grove Irenia • Santa Ana PLACES TO EAT Harvest • Laguna Beach The Ranch Restaurant • Javier’s at Crystal Cove • Anaheim THIS IS THE FIFTH EDITION of this guide — a Newport Beach A Restaurant • Newport Beach roadmap to Orange County’s wildly diverse dining Peking Restaurant • Solita • Huntington Beach scene. Narrowing this list to 75 recommendations Westminster gets harder each year. Vine • San Clemente PAGE 19 PAGE 8 How do I compare an intimate, 10-seat oasis like Hana re in Costa Mesa with, say, the chaotic, Tacos la Calle • Buena Park EnoSteak • Dana Point smoky, steamy, non-air-conditioned El Coyotito Garlic & Chives • Garden Grove The Capital Grille • Costa Mesa in San Juan Capistrano? When you call to make a Davio’s Northern Italian LSXO • Huntington Beach reservation at Hana re — reservations are essential Steakhouse • Irvine Pizzeria Mozza • Newport Beach and available only by phone — the soft voice on Tupelo Junction • Newport The Cannery • Newport Beach the other end will ask, “You are aware that we Beach PAGE 10 offer only a chef’s tasting menu, right?” Hana re Thai Avenue • Garden Grove takes you on an extraordinary journey through PAGE 20 Shunka Sushi • Costa Mesa the nuances of Japanese cuisine and hospitality. North Italia • Irvine If you’ve been here before, the chef/owner likely Del Frisco’s Grille • Irvine Kyung Bok Kung • Buena Park remembers exactly what you ate, even if it was two Brussels Bistro • San Clemente Craft House • Dana Point years ago. Sapori Ristorante • Newport Louie’s by the Bay • Newport At El Coyotito, you push through a squeaky Beach Beach screen door and seat yourself. The staff is too El Coyotito • San Juan Capistrano PAGE 12 busy pressing tortillas or flipping shrimp on the Manpuku • Costa Mesa grill to greet you at the door, but they see you and PAGE 21 Pho 101 • Westminster wave. The restaurants on this list represent every Olea • Newport Beach stratum of the dining spectrum, yet they all share Southern Spice • Irvine Maro Wood Grill • Laguna Beach the same goals: great food and service, on their Suski Roku • Newport Beach Din Tai Fung • Costa Mesa own terms. Zait & Zaatar • Anaheim TJ’s Woodfire Pizza • San The price of dinner is not what makes one more Eddie V’s Wildfish • Newport Clemente important than another, but when organizing this Beach PAGE 14 list it’s impossible not to consider the amount of The Dock • Newport Beach joy received for the price paid. That’s why Studio PAGE 22 Farmhouse at Roger’s fell off the list, and it’s why Pho 101 debuted so Gardens • Corona del Mar high. A luxury Korean feast at Kyung Bok Kung J Zhou Oriental Cuisine • Tustin Placentia Anepalco on Chapman • Orange might cost $200 while three blocks away at Tacos El Farolito • Brea HiroNori • Irvine la Calle a taco sells for $3. Both are places I adore. Kang Ho-Dong Baekjeong • East Borough Costa Mesa Ruth’s Chris Steak House • Yes, this list is highly personal and subjective • Ciao Pasta San Juan Capistrano Irvine but also methodical. Every year I sample hundreds • PAGE 23 Reunion Kitchen • Anaheim of restaurants in every corner of the county, PAGE 15 accumulating a wealth of dining experiences that I Who’s in, who’s out • PAGE 23 mentally compare with the countless memories of Omakase by Gino • Santa Ana meals past, both locally and around the world. Tacos • PAGE 24 Hendrix • Laguna Niguel I continue to find flashes of perfection all over Playa Mesa • Costa Mesa the place: the tom yum at Thai Avenue in Garden Oliver’s Osteria • Laguna Beach Grove, the sangrita at Solita in Huntington Beach, Juliette Kitchen + Bar • the cacio e pepe at Oliver’s Osteria in Laguna STAFF Newport Beach Beach … Brad A. Johnson • PAGE 16 Here’s where, and what, to eat right now. RESTAURANT CRITIC Vanessa Franko EDITOR Saline • Laguna Beach • Hanna’s • Rancho Santa ON THE COVER • Hana re’s steamed tilefish Pam Marshak • DESIGNER Margarita with mochi rice, cherry leaf and cherry blossom. Mark Rightmire • COVER PHOTO 4 • BRAD A. JOHNSON’S 75 BEST PLACES TO EAT SPECIALTY TACOS. CRAFT MARGARITAS. BRAD A. JOHNSON’S 75 BEST PLACES TO EAT • 5 Hana re 2018 RANKING: 5 Atsushi Yokoyama welcomes 10 to 12 diners a night to a chef’s 1counter hidden behind The Lab in Costa Mesa in what appears at first glance to be an abandoned tool shed with corrugated siding and one small window. From the moment you walk through the door, the Japanese hospitality is warm and personal, verging on clairvoyant. Loosely based on the Japanese concept of kaiseki, each menu weaves a tale of textures, temperatures, techniques and flavors that usually starts with something cold and slippery — a chilled, viscous broth made from squash, for example, or a salad of translucent baby eels. This is MARK RIGHTMIRE - STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER often followed with something even HANA RE • An assortment of delicacies from Atsushi Yokoyama’s more exotic and warm, like steamed Chef’s Omakase: baby squid, sea urchin, lobster, crab flan and salmon roe. baby conch and goose barnacles, fried hairy crab or poached cod milt. Each unique journey culminates with a Sit at the counter and watch how spectacular parade of sushi: snow Marché Modern the cooks obsess over something crab, grunt fish, wild sea bream, blue 2018 RANKING: 4 as simple as the enfrijolada. snapper, belt fish, barracuda, gizzard The best French restaurant Watch them roast fresh scallops shad … in California? This is it. Two in their shells. Feel the heat of the wood-fueled grill as the arrachera • MUST ORDER: Go for the top-tier years after moving their 3glamorous French bistro from practically catches fire. Beans are “Chef’s Omakase,” which starts never just beans. And tacos are around $180. South Coast Plaza to the Shops at Crystal Cove, Florent and Amelia never just tacos. • 2930 BRISTOL ST., COSTA MESA The smoked sturgeon 714-545-2800, HANARESUSHI.COM Marneau’s Marché Moderne is still • MUST ORDER: one of the toughest reservations in taco with salsa de chile morita is the county. The steak au poivre, the one of the greatest fish tacos ever moules frites, the stewed rabbit, conceived. the escargot… this is quintessential • 3313 HYLAND AVE., COSTA MESA French cuisine. And the desserts 714-538-8444, TACOMARIA.COM Bourbon Steak are always a special treat here. 2018 RANKING: 1 • MUST ORDER: Amelia’s Napoleon Last year, celebrity chef dessert, served on Fridays and Michael Mina flipped his Saturdays only. Also, the ever-changing 2 one-of-a-kind Stonehill house wines served by the carafe are Arc Tavern into yet another branch always an incredible bargain. 2018 RANKING: 3 of his Bourbon Steak chain, but • 7862 E. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY, don’t for a second think of this as Across America right now, NEWPORT BEACH, 714-434-7900 wood-fire kitchens are all the a chain restaurant. This branch of MARCHEMODERNE.NET Bourbon Steak is still very much its rage. Chef Noah Blom’s Arc 5in Costa Mesa was ground zero for own thing. Yes, there’s an emphasis on steak now — including a truly that trend. Arc’s kitchen is fueled massive five-pound ribeye carved 100 percent by wood. No gas. No tableside — but regulars will electric appliances. Under the recognize the same whole duck-fat- Taco Maria dim glow of crystal chandeliers, fried chicken and lobster pot pie 2018 RANKING: 10 everything on the menu here is that were Stonehill staples from touched by fire and smoke: inch- Six years into Carlos Salgado’s thick-and-foot-long slabs of bacon, the beginning. This is probably rediscovery of Mexican the only place in the region with chicken and broccoli casserole cuisine, Taco María is (seriously, try it), crab cakes, a roving martini cart. Service is 4approaching culinary parity with meatballs and whole fish. Calamari superb. So, too, the sunset views. the likes of Pujol or Quintonil in When it comes to is cooked on red-hot cast-iron, •MUST ORDER: Mexico City. Forget everything you sending flames to the ceiling1 seafood platters in steakhouses, the think you know about Mexican The sirloin steak with cast iron-broiled crab legs and lobster food and come here for the four- • MUST ORDER: duck-fat potatoes is easily the best here are in a league of their own. course prix fixe dinner and splurge steak you will find for $25. • 1 MONARCH BEACH RESORT for the wine pairings. (Tuesday DANA POINT, 949-234-3900 nights and weekday lunches are à • 3321 HYLAND AVE., COSTA MESA BOURBONSTEAK.COM la carte.) They fret the details here. 49-500-5561, ARCRESTAURANT.COM 6 • BRAD A. JOHNSON’S 75 BEST PLACES TO EAT even the small ones. The martinis seem bigger than life. Wine prices are through the roof but you won’t lack for choices from the best cult cabernets or legendary Bordeaux.