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justin
is currently eating krispy kreme donut holes"I'm hungry"
I’m one of the Co-Founders of Menuism and I’ve been eating way too much since starting the site…but I still enjoy a good bite!
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- Cuisines:
- American, Family Fare, Asian
- Locations:
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| Reviews | 199 |
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- May 14
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My Reviews (199) rss feed
1 - 10 of 199
India Cook House
May 6, 2008
Lunch buffet - good value
I’ve eaten at a wide range of Indian buffets in my day from the few dollar ones in Berkeley that make you sick to the expensive ones in Palo Alto that make your wallet cringe. Just like the price, India Cook House’s food falls right in the middle of the pack. The price is pretty decent at $8.95 and the dishes were somewhat hit or miss, but on the whole, I thought it was a pretty good value.
- I came here for
- fun with friends
- My meal cost
- less than $10
- I tipped
- less than 15%
Z Mario
Apr 26, 2008
Great food and ambience near the airport
A relatively new addition to the business park near John Wayne airport, ZMario is a nice upscale Italian restaurant that’s worthy of a visit. The decor and ambience is real cozy and there’s tons of rooms for special events if that’s what you’re looking for.
The best part is the prix fixe special for $25 from 5:30 to 6:30. You get a starter, an entree, a dessert and a glass of wine! Awesome deal – it’s basically like 50% off. It’s good Monday through Friday. The only thing is that it’s the chef’s pick and according to the waitress, it’s typically the halibut, just prepared differently each time.
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Heart of Romaine Caesar Salad
Lots of fresh grated parmigiano cheese. Not too much dressing and the lettuce was nice and crisp. Some crab woulda made it awesome :P
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Northern Halibut
The fish tasted very fish and today’s special had it covered with tomato sauce.
The mashed potatoes were awesome. It was mashed with the skin (my fav) and it was styled real nice.
The spinach it came with really packed with garlicy flavor. Also nicely shaped into a cylinder.
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Profiteroles
A nice sized cream puff with a chocolatey cream inside and chocolate covered. Quite refreshing actually.
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Only for cioccoholics
Warm chocolate cake topped with vanilla ice cream and covered in chocolate sauce. The cocoa flavor is very strong and it’s excellent. Also comes with crumbled macadamia nuts.
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14 oz. Marbled Pork Chop
A real fat piece of pork. It looks like a double or triple cut. Amazingly, the pork wasn’t that dry which is a feat in itself.
The pumpkin ravioli was great. The pumpkin filling tasted quite fresh and the pasta tasted very homemade.
- I came here for
- a family meal
- My meal cost
- between $25 and $50
- I tipped
- more than 18%
La Sirena Grill
Apr 26, 2008
The real "green" burrito
- The ahi and salmon options are so fresh and tasty
- All the food is organic, local, sustainable, etc etc. (hence the “green”-ness)
Prices are slightly higher (like 8-9 bucks for a salmon burrito), but it’s worth it for unique taste and feel goodness. Anything with the wild salmon is good.
The inside even feels natural with dark heavy wood tables. There’s a flat screen tv that seems to show ESPN most of the time. There’s also some seating outside that’s shared with the other shops in the plaza like Golden Spoon.
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Wild Salmon Burrito
The flavor is awesome with this. The salmon tastes fresh and they cook it with a bunch of spices so the flavor really comes through over the beans and rice. Also, the burrito it perfectly wrapped so you can actually pick it up and eat it without the wrapping.
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Pollo Quesadilla
Chock full of chicken. The mushrooms and onions make it stand out.
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Wild Salmon Torta
The salmon is great and pretty good as far as tortas go, but I prefer the burrito version.
- I came here for
- a meal on the go
- My meal cost
- less than $10
- I tipped
- no comment
Tropika
Apr 21, 2008
Good malay, friendly service
If you’ve never had Malaysian food, it’s basically a fusion of thai and indian food with a dash of chinese. So that’s basically what we ordered (see below). The food was some of the better malay food I’ve had the people were really friendly. The decor is fun and what I would imagine to be authentic malay look.
There’s a couple areas that can be used for private rooms if that’s what you’re looking for. It also doesn’t get too crowded (yet at least) so that’s always good for customers (but probably bad for the restaurant). I don’t know of any other malay restaurants in the area so give this one a try if you’re curious.
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Pahd Thai 式炒麵
Above average pad thai. Decent amount of shrimp too. Pretty good portion size.
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Roti Prata 印度麵包
The roti was ok and the curry dipping sauce was way too watery. I like it thicker so that you can grab the curry w/ the roti. The sauce also needed more flavor – it was better with the satay’s peanut sauce.
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Hainan Chicken Rice
Chicken was very very tender. Came with plain brown rice. I was hoping for more flavor overall.
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Satay Chicken, Beef (add $1), or Combo (add $.50) 沙爹雞/牛/雞牛
They self proclaim to have the best satay chicken and I’ll admit it was pretty good. The chicken wasn’t dry at all and the sauce was very sweet and peanuty.
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Seafood Clay Pot 海鮮豆腐褒
Lots of squid. The shrimp was big, juicy and tasted quite fresh. Better than the shrimp that was in the pad thai.
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Tom Yum Soup 海鮮東蔭湯
I don’t get tom yum too often, but this one tasted about right. Could have used more goodies in the soup for my taste.
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Rendang Beef 乾加喱牛
Very tender beef in the curry-ish sauce. The sauce was real flavorful – definitely eat it with some rice.
- I came here for
- a family meal
- My meal cost
- between $10 and $25
- I tipped
- more than 18%
Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt
Apr 21, 2008
non-fat goodness
I think one teenage girl summed it up best when I heard her saying “Irvine is like the land of golden spoon.” There really do seem to be lots of golden spoons in Irvine which is awesome b/c golden spoon rocks. The yogurt is way better than yogurtland – it’s got a nice creaminess too it, not icy at all. The flavors change every now and then with the highly anticipated pumpkin flavor around thanksgiving.
The service is always amusing since it seems like they only hire high school kids so there’s always a new rotation of kids that have varying levels of knowledge on how to do things, but they’re always friendly.
The yogurts are pretty big for the prices but the best deal is to buy a quart and share it. You can still get multiple flavors and is cheaper than getting 2 small ones. They also have a “Quarts Card” for frequent quart buyers.
The best part is that the yogurt is non-fat..but I’m sure the calories are going to come back and bite me in the butt (literally). I just keep remembering that seinfeld episode where they all get fat from eating non-fat yogurt…
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Cookies 'n Cream Frozen Yogurt
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Peanut Butter Cup Frozen Yogurt
This one has some chocolate (i think – it’s darker) so I think its better than normal peanut butter.
- I came here for
- a meal on the go
- My meal cost
- less than $10
- I tipped
- no comment
Mr Pizza Factory
Apr 21, 2008
Awesome korean pizza and great service
I’ve been told by Koreans, that Mr. Pizza is big in Korea so I was pretty excited to see what korean pizza was like. At first I was expecting some kind of shack selling pizza w/ kal bee on it, but I was surprised when we got to a really nice building with a very trendy interior, including nice booths, plasma tvs and what looked like a pretty full bar.
You can see the guys making the pizzas, which is neat and comforting, and the staff is super nice. Way nicer than any other asian establishment I’ve been too.
On to the pizzas. Essentially, the pizzas have all kinds of odd toppings and even odder names like “potato gold” and “shrimp nude” (which i have to try next time). The Premium pizzas also have the crusts stuffed with sweet potato mouse. Think pizza hut stuffed crust but mashed sweet potato instead of cheese. Sounds weird right? It’s way better than I thought it’d be. It’s sort of a nice sweet finish to the complex flavors of the pizza.
I’m definitely looking forward to trying the rest of the menu – shrimp nude and bulgogi are next on my list.
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BLT
Sure, there’s bacon, lettuce, and tomato…along with chicken, cheese and other assorted goodies. In fact, I couldn’t even taste the bacon since there was so much chicken. The lettuce makes it feel slightly healthier than it really is.
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Potato Gold
This one looks really nice. It’s a hodgepodge of stuff including ground beef, chips, corn, sour cream and potato wedges. It tastes better than the ingredient list sounds (which might put off some people). The potato wedge is a little weird since it’s pretty big.
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Calamari
The batter tasted like the batter you get on the fried zucchini at Carl’s Jr (which is not a bad thing). Could use more calamari. It’s a good appetizer though.
- I came here for
- a family meal
- My meal cost
- less than $10
- I tipped
- more than 18%
Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill
Apr 13, 2008
Quick and easy fish tacos
Semi-quick fish tacos (took about 10 minutes). There’s plenty of 2 seater tables and the typical salsa bar. It’s about 5-6 bucks for a taco plate which gives you 2 tacos (3 if there’s a special), chips and beans. They also have the chicken and steak tacos, but I haven’t tried those yet. Next time I need to try Wahoo’s just a few shops down on Wilshire.
- I came here for
- a meal on the go
- My meal cost
- less than $10
- I tipped
- no comment
Baja Fresh Mexican Grill
Apr 11, 2008
Good chain mexican
As far as chain mexican food, I think Baja is my favorite. It’s sorta pricey for fast food, but the food always seems to be good quality and feels healthier than others like taco bell. Plus it feels clean as a hospital inside since it’s so freakin white everywhere.
This one is in a food court with a bunch of other restaurants so it’s a good place where everyone can get what they want and eat outside.
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Tostada
It’s basically a salad in a crispy shell. I think it’s the crispy shell that keeps drawing me back. It’s both healthy and unhealthy at the same time. Get it with chicken and black beans and pour on some extra salsa. yum.
- I came here for
- a meal on the go
- My meal cost
- less than $10
- I tipped
- no comment
KFC
Apr 6, 2008
Hits the spot
This one is a combo KFC & A&W Root Beer, so you can get your fried chicken and hot dog and root boor float all in one place! It’s drive thru also.
Chicken’s good, but definitely not the best fried chicken. The meat could be moister, but it hits the spot when you have a craving.
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Macaroni & Cheese
Strangely brighter than anything in nature, the cheese has a very strong flavor. I think either you like it or you don’t. I think it’s pretty tasty :)
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Cole Slaw
Refreshing after fried chicken.
- I came here for
- a meal on the go
- My meal cost
- less than $10
- I tipped
- no comment
Ralph's Submarine Sandwich
Apr 5, 2008
awesome & huge sandwiches
Forget subway and quizno’s, if you’re in the area, you should head to Ralph’s subs. It’s a quaint little shop where you can get huge sub sandwiches and a bottle of beer at the same time. Their small is big and their large is huge – it really hits the spot for those with big appetites (like me).
The menu board is awesome – it’s a bunch of pieces of paper tacked up all over the wall with different sandwich combos and there’s a few with names like “king kong” and “holey moley”.
The bread they use is nice and soft and they used diced tomatoes which makes it easy to eat. It’s run by koreans so there are also some sandwiches with bbq beef. yum.
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Avocado, Ham & Turkey
The avocado is smushed and smeared all over inside the bottom of the bread so you pretty much get it in every bite. The meats were a bit salty, but the sandwich was otherwise very satisfying.
- I came here for
- a meal on the go
- My meal cost
- less than $10
- I tipped
- no comment


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