boston hound for 9 days in LA, LAX, Anaheim, Fullerton areas

[ne_cyclone]

Trip has started today near LAX with a quick bite at Pacos Tacos. Tonight hoping to see a Pacific sunset nearby beach and maybe grab dinner around there? then off to LA tomorrow and then ANAHEIM/Placencia/Fullerton through Friday night and then LA again until we leave on Sunday morning.
Dinner is the biggest need and we are huge fans of Mexican Italian Korean Japanese any Asian really. Also things that a Boston area resident would find hard to get in our neck of the woods. We r hole in the wall people and trying to stay around 20 bucks per person.
Lunch recs in anaheim area for Monday thru Friday would be extremely helpful for my wife while I go to work.
Thanks so much for helping out with this great endeavor of ours. I will get more specificif needed to help us out.

[ne_cyclone]

the trip so far:
Saturday - Pacos Tacos (enchilada and tamale plate) near LAX for lunch then Manhattan Beach Creamery for dinner - both very good.
Sunday - Dim Sum in chinatown at Ocean City and dinner at Redwood Tavern in Beverly - good dim sum; awesome craft beer and split a divine fish and chips :)
Monday - El Farolito Jr. (placentia) for lunch - enchilada and taco plate; dosa place in Tustin for some happy hour $ beer and chicken tikka and a south indian fish dish called chelapa pulusu (pretty darn amazing)
Tuesday - convention food for lunch; bubba gump for dinner (this was a "why did we do this? but the wife had wanted to dine here for over 10 years) - whatever done and a checkmark in place - good margaritas tho
Wednesday - more convention center food awesomeness; El Cholo in La Habra for dinner (sonora enchilada and chile colorado) - really really good. Wife gets to eat at Lemonade near Venice Beach for lunch - lucky girl
Thursday - El Taurino in Pico Union for the wife (she sounded super excited); i get to eat at the convention center again!! - for dinner we are thinking of In-n-Out OR a good ramen place in/around Anaheim/Placentia/Fullerton - ANY RECS?

For the remaining week, we still have Park's BBQ, hawaiian food, ethiopian food and sushi. For teh areas we have Temecula/Anaheim/Placentia/Fullerton and then back to LA and plan to spend a day on Saturday (if the weather permits) to go visit Malibu and bike down to santa monica and venice beach. Any other recommendations that would help us out?

It has been a great experience so far and I wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to respond. I did find some of Das Ubergeek's posts that led us to El Farolito Jr. in the first place. Really enjoying our time here in SoCal.

Thanks again for any additional recs that you can give us...

[wienermobile]

In Venice highly recommend Gjelina.
http://gjelina.com/

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Gjelina
1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291

[Das Ubergeek]

There's not ramen I'd recommend in the immediate vicinity but if you're willing to go to Costa Mesa, there are several good places.

For Ethiopian I recommend Tana, on La Palma just west of Magnolia in Anaheim.

[Peripatetic]

It's probably an oversight that we haven't mentioned that Little Saigon is a five mile drive from the convention center. It's roughly centered on Brookhurst St in Westminster. Das Ubergeek and others are much more knowledgeable about Little Saigon than I am, but you will not go wrong if you visit Vien Dong [rhyme unintended!].

More info in this thread: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/590022

Vien Dong
14271 Brookhurst St, Garden Grove, CA 92843
714-531-8253

[Peripatetic]

BTW, I sympathize with your Bubba Gump experience. I ended up at that location a few years ago when the groupthink of non-houndish out-of-town colleagues prevailed.

[saucequeen]

If you like a hole in the wall and want to try amazing Korean noodle soup and Korean style tempura, head over to hangari kalgooksoo in garden grove. It will be about a 15-20 minute drive from Disneyland area, and trust me it will not disappoint. They only offer one type of kimchee but it is truly all you need and is that amazing. I live in LA, but meet my mom in orange county and will insist on eating here every time.

[wienermobile]

Here are two links that may help you around the Disneyland area:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/788432
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/807426

[wienermobile]

For Korean I really love Park's BBQ in Koreatown. Some of the best meats in the city with great service. Don't miss their Gal-Bi (Prime Beef Short Rib) Open late too.
http://www.parksbbq.com/

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Park's BBQ
955 S. Vermont Ave, Suite G, Los Angeles, CA 90006

[wienermobile]

Also lots of ramen all over LA now, This is a great recent list thanks to fellow chowhounder Peripatetic:

If it helps, here's my far-from-complete list of notable ramen places....

Ramen Jinya (opened Dec 2011)
5174 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-549-0188
http://www.jinya-la.com/ramen/

Ikemen Dip Noodle (opened Aug 2011)
1655 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046
323-800-7669
http://www.ikemenhollywood.com/

Fujin Ramen (opened Aug 2011)
Hong Kong Plaza, 1017 S Glendora Ave, West Covina, CA 91790
626-814-2020

Ramen Yamadaya (opened Aug 2011)
11172 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90230
310-815-8776
http://www.ramen-yamadaya.com/

Tsujita LA / Artisan Noodle (opened Aug 2011)
2057 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025
310-231-7373
http://tsujita-la.com/

Ton-Chan (ramen) (opened Dec 2010)
821 W Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776
626-282-3478

Ramen Yamadaya (opened 2010)
3118 W 182nd St, Torrance, CA 90504
310-380-5555
http://www.ramen-yamadaya.com/

Ramen Jinya (opened July 2010)
11239 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604
818-980-3977
http://www.jinya-la.com/ramen

Ramen Mottainai (opened Jul 2010)
1630 W Redondo Beach Blvd, Gardena, CA
310-538-3250

Yukino-Ya (opened Dec 2009)
18230 E Gale Ave, Industry, CA 91748
626-581-8420

Kushiage Dining Horon
2143 182nd St, Torrance, CA 90504
310-515-6147

Asa Ramen
18202 S Western Ave, Gardena, CA 90248
310-769-1010

Santouka Ramen at Mitsuwa Marketplace
21515 Western Ave, Torrance, CA 90501
310-782-0335
http://mitsuwanj.com/

Santouka Ramen at Mitsuwa Marketplace
3760 S Centinela Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90066
310-398-2113
http://mitsuwanj.com/

Foo Foo Tei
15018 Clark Ave, Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
626-937-6585

Kosuke (very mixed reviews)
618 W Main St, Alhambra, CA 91801
626-289-8030

Shin Sen Gumi
18617 S Western, Gardena, CA 90247
310-715-1588
http://www.shinsengumiusa.com/

By Peripatetic on Feb 2, 2012 02:58 PM

[ne_cyclone]

Thank u - plan to try Park tonight. How about the Anaheim area - hoping that Disneyland did not create a huge tourist trap chai restaurant zone. Thanks again for helping out. There is some Chinese dim sum in Chinatown this morning.
Thanks again.

[bulavinaka]

Drive an extra 15 minutes further east down the 10 into San Gabriel Valley for superior dim sum. Elite on Atlantic in Monterey Park or Sea Harbour on Rosemead in Rosemead are both menu-driven dim sum places worthy of the extra effort. 888 on Valley is great for the cart experience.

For your stay in the OC, I'd recommend searching for posts by poster Das Ubergeek. He's a very respected hound who lives in the OC and had ferreted out a ton of recs around the OC areas that you mention.

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Elite Restaurant
700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754

888 Seafood Restaurant
8450 E Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770

sea harbour
3939 Rosemead Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770

[Das Ubergeek]

Harbor and Katella in the tourist zone are pretty depressing places to eat. There's plenty around, though—and if you are staying in Placentia or east Fullerton, you'll be out of the area for most of the prior-Disneyland-thread recommendations. To wit, some Placentia-area stuff besides the previously recommended stuff:

1. Q Tortas in Old Town Placentia. Exactly what it says—tortas.

2. Tortas La Corona on Placentia Ave. south of Yorba Linda (YL) boulevard. The ONLY things to get here—and I mean the ONLY things—are the aguas frescas and the carne asada torta, which is done in the style of Tortas Washmobile (a famous Tijuana street food stop).

3. Sushi Noguchi on YL Blvd. in Yorba Linda. A splurge given your budget but worthwhile. (You CAN eat for $20 a head, but you'll have a better time if you do $40 or even $30 per person.)

4. Slater's 50/50 in Anaheim Hills, because, honestly, you need a peanut butter and jellousy burger with bacon.

[Peripatetic]

+1 wienermobile's recommendation for Park's. Here's a good blog post about them:

http://exilekiss.blogspot.com/2010/01/superior-grilled-meat-now-serving.html

Other good K-Town places that are easy for non-Korean speakers:

ChoSun Gal Bee
3330 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019
323-734-3330
http://www.chosungalbee.com/

Don Dae Gam (sister restaurant to Park's BBQ, specializes in pork)
1145 S Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90006
323-373-0700
http://exilekiss.blogspot.com/2010/10...

Beverly Soon Tofu (aka Beverly Tofu House)
2717 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90006
213-380-1113

Parks is definitely tops for BBQ, though the banchan could be better.