OCFB Review - Philly’s Best - Santa Ana

May 31, 2008 · Filed Under OC Food News · Comment 

Hi, I recently joined up as a contributor to the Orange County Food Blogs.  I thought nothing would be better then to write a review of one of my favorite weekend lunch destinations, Philly’s Best in Santa Ana.

Go check out my review!

Philly's Best Cheesesteak
Inside Philly's Best
Outside Philly's Best

Philly's Best Cheesesteak and Onion Rings

Philly’s Best
1804 N Tustin Ave
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(714) 543-3311

Tags: , , , ,

Topz - Orange

May 28, 2008 · Filed Under OC Food Reviews · 3 Comments 
Top From the Inside
Topz "Healthier" Cheeseburger

Topz claims itself to be the “Healthier Burger Grill”.  Other then they use angus beef and trans-fat free buns, there isn’t a difference to any other burger place.  Oh did I mention you can get cheese on your burger too?  But wait you can’t order bacon, that must be what makes it healthier.

If you can’t tell by now I wasn’t really that impressed with Topz.  Their burgers are nothing special.  Heck they don’t even use all fresh ingredients, I saw the cook toss on two frozen patties on the grill.  The meat they use is ground to fine so the burgers have no consistency to them.  Also I know people are going to see the menu and go, “Air Baked Fries!”  If you like french fries that taste stale then order them, I’ve had better oven baked fries.

Topz really has nothing going for it, except for their Garlic Ketchup, but I already determined I can make that at home myself.  If you are looking for a delicious burger call me up, I can make something 100 times better then what they conjure up at Topz.

Don’t waste your time, if you do, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Topz
1632 E Katella Ave
Orange, CA 92856
(714) 628-0266

Tags: , ,

House of Madame Jo Jo - Long Beach

May 23, 2008 · Filed Under OC Food Reviews · Comment 
Madame Jo Jo's Pistachio Chicken
Madame Jo Jo's Beef Stroganoff

We went out to dinner on Wednesday night (May 21, 2008) with our friends.  It was their choice this time so my friend S decided to take us to one of their current favorites in Long Beach.  Now I know this is Eat in Orange County, and typically that’s the only place we eat at, but Long Beach isn’t that far away, and I honestly feel that the House of Madame Jo Jo’s deserves to be mentioned.

Madame Jo Jo’s is a small restaurant with a total of about 12 tables of various seating arrangements.  We entered and the waitress asked if we were their reservation for the night and indeed we were.  There were no other patrons there when we arrived at 7:30 PM.  I had heard it’s normally pretty busy.  Being the only customers gave us the opportunity to be the focus of the waitress and chef.  I really liked the ambiance with just the right amount of lighting and paintings and drawings of scantily clad women of the night on the walls.  It’s a romantic atmosphere that works for couples and friends wanting to enjoy a nice night out.

For starters we were served warm herb rolls along with a pesto sauce; nothing special but good nonetheless especially due to them still being warm.  Our friends got side salads, while I ordered a cup of the Spicy Cajun Chicken Chowder.  The Chowder was delicious, it had a spicy flavor that made me wish I had ordered a bowl, my only knock on the chowder was that it tasted a little salty, but my taste buds really enjoyed the Cajun flavors.  After our soup and salad was finished the appetizer that S ordered was delivered; Coconut Shrimp.  As explained in the menu it is 4 “Lightly breaded, sauted, served with a pineapple sauce”.  The shrimp was sweet, with almost a captain crunch sort of taste to it; not that the sweetness was a bad thing.  Mrs. DanGarion ordered the Rosemary Chicken with potatoes, while I choose the Pistachio Crusted Chicken along with sides of mashed cauliflower and roasted asparagus.  Our friends go the Pistachio Crusted Chicken and Beef Stroganoff.   My chicken was great, the flavors went perfect together.  The chicken is prepared along with a sun dried tomato sauce that went very well with mixed up with my mashed cauliflower.  My wife’s rosemary chicken was also tasty, although I only had one bite.  I would highly recommend both chicken dishes as they were some of the best meals I’ve tried lately.  I would defiantly order the pistachio chicken again, but at the same time almost all of their entrees sound good when you are looking at the menu.  Along with our meal we had 2 bottles of Turnbull Viognier which went perfect with our meals.  And to finish off our delectable dinner the 4 of us shared a slice of Chocolate Perfection, which is their take on dense fudge-like chocolate cake.  My friend and I had a couple bites but the ladies finished it off since it was their dessert we were just helping.

The service was excellent, but I didn’t expect anything less considering there were no other guests.  Our waitress was very nice and checked on us numerous times while we were enjoying our meal.  I completely and wholeheartedly recommend the House of Madame Jo Jo’s for couples and groups as a great destination with great food.  Considering the quality of food the price is good as well.  Entrees range from $11-29.  Our dinner for 4, with 2 salads, 1 cup of soup, 1 appetizer and 1 dessert totaled to roughly $100 not including the wine, which for fine dining isn’t that bad.  I have had much more expensive meals that left me disappointed.

Rating: ★★★★★

House of Madame Jo Jo
2941 E Broadway
Long Beach, CA 90803
(562) 439-3672

Tags: , , ,

Beach Pit BBQ - Tustin

May 17, 2008 · Filed Under OC Food Reviews · 2 Comments 
Beach Pit BBQ from El Camino Real
BBQ Chicken Dinner
BBQ Baby Back Ribs Dinner


Little did I know when we walked into Beach Pit BBQ that I was walking into an establishment created by Tim DeCinces, a former baseball player whose father I cheered on for the California Angels in the 80’s. I didn’t catch wind of this information till today when I researching some information for my review.

Our visit to Beach Pit BBQ was on Monday, May 12, 2008. As we walked up it appeared pretty busy, we quickly found out there was some type of benefit going on for the daughter of a local man that passed away recently. We were told later by one of the wait staff that it wasn’t normally that loud. It didn’t really matter to us we just wanted good food! So we walked up to the counter and ordered our food; that’s right this isn’t a place where you are seated and have the wait staff take your order, you place your order and then take your seat. I did have one question about this type of set up, since you are ordering and paying for your meal before you sit (just like a fast food place) does that mean you are not expected to tip? The only reason I ask this is because all the staff did was bring my order, we did everything else ourselves, including get and replenish our drinks. Either way, that being the case we placed our order. I ordered the BBQ Baby Back Ribs dinner with beans and macaroni and cheese, while Mrs. DanGarion ordered the BBQ Chicken with beans and potato salad.

We took our seat in a secondary area near what would normally be called the front of the building. This section was walled off from the primary seating area. There were a lot of families with children, and many of the children walking and running around. Don’t get me wrong I like kids but when I was a child my parents had strict rules that I had to sit at the table with my family when we went out to dinner. But I’m getting off track; it’s not the businesses fault that parents aren’t respectful of the other patrons.

So we took our seat in the area that no one else was sitting and watched the traffic pass by in the quiet Old Town area of Tustin. After about 15 minutes our food came out. Everything looked good and piping hot! My wife said the chicken was really good, it was moist and had a lot of flavor, she was afraid that it was a little pink, but I explained to her that smoking will cause that with chicken. She wasn’t a big fan of the potato salad; it was bland and had big chunks of potatoes. My ribs were great; they fell off the bone with a little bit of work and were very flavorful. The ribs were lightly covered with their mild BBQ sauce which actually still had a bit of spicy kick to it. I loved the taste of the sauce so I covered them with even more as I worked on finishing off half of my full rack. The macaroni and cheese was good, it had a faint taste of sour cream in the background, I wasn’t sure if it’s a baked Mac’n'cheese, which is normally my favorite because I like to have some of the crusty part that was on top from the baking, but it was good nonetheless. We both agreed that the BBQ beans seemed sort of like a sweet version of chili, and although we thought they were good, they just weren’t something we would recommend to most people. I sort of wish they had done a more traditional BBQ bean with just their BBQ sauce and some pieces of meat. Overall the meal was good, and we do plan on going back and trying other items on the menu. I think our new visit will be for lunch so we can try some of their BBQ sandwich items, a Tri-Tip sandwich is always a good item to try, especially with the temperatures getting hotter nothing is better than having some BBQ in summer.

The pricing of items is about normal for BBQ, my rib dinner was $24, the chicken was $16, along with drinks our bill was approx. $45.

Overall we were pleased with our visit to Beach Pit BBQ. Our visit was fun, our food was good, and it proved itself a worthy leftover as I took the other half of my ribs with me to work the following day.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Beach Pit BBQ
560 El Camino Real
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 929-7427

Tags: , , ,

Next Page »

14548 pages viewed, 229 today
6027 visits, 93 today
FireStats icon Powered by FireStats