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.

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.

1. The ahi and salmon options are so fresh and tasty
2. 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.

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.

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.