OC - Lunch Recs for Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley?

[I got nothin]

My office is moving to the HB/FV area around the intersection of Magnolia and Warner, so now I need to find all new places to go for lunch for basically EVERY cuisine. I live in Huntington, so I've already been to a few places (but usually for dinner) and I have a few places I'm planning on trying. Please help me find new lunch spots within roughly a 15 minute drive radius. I'm looking for both hole-in-the walls with cheap lunch specials, and the occasional expensive lunch.

Here's what I have on my list so far:

Mexican: Lucia's Tacos y Mulitas; Mario's, Azteca's
Peruvian: Peruvian Kitchen
Chinese: Lotus
Japanese: Shin Sen Gumi (Yakitori & Ramen)
Sushi: Matsu, Gesshin, Kasen
Unhealthy Grease with a side of chili fries: Tommy's
Indian: Bukhara
Vietnamese: Is there anything closer than Little Saigon?
Korean: ?
Italian: I heard Pizza D'Oro has a nice lunch special; is Mangia Mangia open for lunch?
Greek: ?
Sandwiches: Philly's Best
Thai: Thai Pepper, Phuket Thai, Thai Princess
Anything else: Lazy Dog Cafe, Kings Fish House and all the other chains at Bella Terra

Any and all help would be great.

[thebaron]

Ditto for Silk Thai and Ebisu. We head over from Newport for either.

[MacGuy]

For a great hole-in-the-wall Chinese Restaurant check out Fu Wing Low at the corner of Heil and Brookhurst (5-10 minutes from Magnolia/Warner). The food is always great (different members of my extended family are there almost every day). I highly recommend the Pot Stickers, Orange Beef and Fried Shrimp.

[aprmayjun]

Here's some more for your list:

Japanese: Kappo Honda (Brookhurst and Ellis), Ebisu Ramen (Brookhurst and Garfield), Ebisu Supermarket (pre-packaged sushi), Mitsuwa food court (Paularino and Bristol)

[CynD]

Tsuruhashi, if open for lunch, is a great Korean bbq, on Brookhurst iirc near Adams.
Herb's Blackforest Bakery, on Brookhurst not even a mile S of the 405, is a great little bakery/deli.
I don't know if the Plow Boys market has a deli or take out, but check it out anyway for Hawaiian/So Pacific Island goodies and a great produce department. Their butcher is also good.
If JJ's subs is still there, on Magnolia south of Warner (or maybe it was Slater?), they used to have great subs - haven't been in a long time.

[poptisserie]

We used to come to Tsuruhashi for lunch five years ago, but week after week of counting us as the only patrons, they finally decided that it wasnt profitable. There were great lunch combinations and everything was always delicious! They dont offer the same things at dinner, so if they do end up reopening for lunch, I'll be first in line.

[aprmayjun]

Oh, how I miss those days.

[CynD]

Forgot to mention - Plowboy's is on one of the corners of Magnolia and Warner, making it very convenient.

[poptisserie]

JAPANESE
Ikko for Japanese/sushi in Costa Mesa, which is right next to SC Plaza.
http://poptisserie.blogspot.com/2007/06/ikko-japanese-restaurant-costa-mesa.html

Sagami-Tei on Magnolia and Warner for all-you-can-eat sushi or teppan

VIETNAMESE

Au Lac on Brookhurt and Heil for Vietnamese vegetarian. Stay away from the stir-fries.

Bodhi Tree on Main Street is similar to Au Lac..
http://poptisserie.blogspot.com/2007/06/bodhi-tree-vegetarian-cafe-huntington.html

And for my favorite vegetarain place, Bo De, next to the Asian Garden Mall on Bolsa.
http://poptisserie.blogspot.com/2007/07/bo-de-westminster.html

Cali Restaurant on Brookhurst & McFadden. rTy their Bo Luc Lac - shaking beef over watercress

My new favorite is Sandwich Planet, off of Newland and Westminster. Dont be deceived by the name because they do a mean salmon over crispy rice!
http://poptisserie.blogspot.com/2007/...

Bukhara and Fuji's are great picks.

[oohenrioo]

The taco trucks on Beach in the residential street behind the Chili's and Bally's plaza. There's another truck on Slater and Beach in the auto industry area. 50 cent per taco! Free pineapple juice in the Slater location.

[bubbles4me]

Bukara is great
Lazt Dog is a mess
Flame Broiler on Springdale and Edinger is good for a quick healthy bite
John Philly Grill is a gutbusting but yummy meal
DiSimones makes a mean Cuban Sandwich its in the Smart and Final center on Edinger
Thai Princess on Beach in the Target center makes killer fried rice
Cancun in the Stater Bros center on Goldenwest and Warner has wonder carne asada and wicked addicting quesadiallas

[OC Mutt]

Silk Thai is my favorite Thai in HB. It's on Beach Blvd.

[Wonginator]

I don't eat that often in your area, but when I do, here are a few places I've enjoyed, in addition to what you've already mentioned:

Philly cheese steaks: John's Philly Grill, Toober's Chips Dips & Cheese Steaks
Hawaiian: The Loft, Maui Hawaiian BBQ, Aloha Hawaiian BBQ, Fuji's Famous Burger
Chinese: Wei's, Mandarin
Mexican: La Capilla
BBQ: Lou's Oak Oven
seafood: Zubies Dry Dock

[meltedcheese]

we're talking lunch here so...and some won't be chowish, but they all have something to offer.

Alerto's for food to go- brookhurst between slater and warner: great carne asada burrito, great fish buritto, great chicken burrito and good breakfast burrito

Near Ellis and Brookhurst: corner bakery and banana cabana- everyone at work likes their sandwiches and if you go to banana you can see tank abbott sometimes.

warner and magnolia there's a small indian takeout with some tables, pretty good forgot the name.

the best coffee is on brookhurst and talbert near the claim jumper- shaun is a god and they have good breakfast burritos.

people will like Mimi's and the food's pretty good.

on magnolia south of garfield there's a catalina fish place never been to that location and north of garfield is an east coast deli that's pretty good. there a great hot dog place on beach near there it's in the same center as the honey baked ham store.

i'll continue in a bit

[HBfoodie]

East Coast Hotdogs on Beach Blvd near the honey baked ham store and Beach Burgers is no longer in business...

[meltedcheese]

i agree about the loft on beach and warner
and fuji's is really good on edinger and gothard

Azteca's- has potato tacos, and potato taquitos off menu

Japanese: Shin Sen Gumi (Yakitori & Ramen)-good

Italian: I heard Pizza D'Oro has a nice lunch special; is Mangia Mangia open for lunch?

if you want pizza, good garlic chicken and some middle'eastern food go to moonlight pizza on warner west of brookhurst by the carl's jr. some may not like it, but several of my co-workers and i like it. it's all you can eat and pretty cheap.

Anything else: Lazy Dog Cafe- good
bella terra- good, but not chowish
Any and all help would be great.

[holy chow]

Mangia Mangia is open for lunch.

Lazy Dog Cafe is disjointed, confused and marginal at best. Stay away, far away.

Isn't the new Thai Nakorn in Stanton? Thai Nakorn would be far better that Phucket Thai, which was really a poor dining experience. Speaking of Stanton, Park Avenue?

While Super Mex's food blows, their salsa and chips are worth the price of admission.

What about the old chicken coop place... they used to have a sister store in Costa Mesa back in the punk rock heyday.... I forget the name and I'm getting old. They serve seafood and steaks and it isn't bad.

[Mommy2Bryce]

Let me add one to your unhealthy catagory: Jose McCoys (Warner near Bolsa Chica in the Ralphs shopping center) for their strips and cheese. Very simple, yet so tasty!

[kingkong5]

From the corner of Magnolia and Warner, little Saigon isn't that far away. Bolsa Ave/Magnolia has TONS of great Vietnamese restaurants you can hit up for lunch. On the Southeast corner is Hanoi restaurant, which has excellent bun cha hanoi. Over on the Southwest corner is a banh mi che cali and a mi la cay, a sandwich place and a excellent noodles place.

At Magnolia/Edinger is a small restaurant called Mirada, behind the A Chau supermarket. They do pretty good fried rice, pad thai noodles, and other decent stir fries.

At Magnolia/McFadden is Saigon Bistro, which has great french/vietnamese. You can get rabbit, steaks, etc. here.

Good luck and have fun with your search!

[I got nothin]

I've had numerous enjoyable meals in Little Saigon, but I was usually accompanied by a Vietnamese friend who would guide me to various restaurants and help me with suggestions on what to order from the menus. It's about time I ventured around there by myself. Thanks for the tips

[kingkong5]

My wife and I are both Vietnamese, and it helps when we have some knowledge beforehand about what's good, what to order, and sometimes most importantly, HOW to order it (extra sauce, more meat, fewer noodles, etc). For example, when you go to Hanoi restaurant, make sure you order their sweet potato/shrimp fries. They are so good, but you would totally overlook it when you read the menu.

But even when we go to a restaurant that we don't know anything about, we have a way of dealing with it. My wife likes to ask the waiter what's good, what's their specialty at this restaurant, and if it sounds good she'll try it.

At the same time, I watch to see what all the other people are eating, and whatever is the most popular with the other customers is what I'll try. We usually make it pretty well with this technique and discovered good food this way. Have fun and please report back if you find something really interesting.