Tita's Restaurante - Buttonwillow

Tita's Restaurante
20643 Tracy Ave.
Buttonwillow, CA 93206
Phone: 661-764-5111
Type: Mexican food / Central American
Map



I hit this place up on the way back from up north. It's right off the 5 freeway... I think it's in Buttonwillow. I originally wanted to go to the Taste of India nearby but it was closed. I didn't want the Carl's Jr. that the rest of my fam was eating, so I drove across the street to this Mexican/Salvadorian restaurant. They have a decent sized menu full of the regular Mexican dishes, as well as Salvadorian stuff. I got the shrimp burrito ($9 something) cuz I couldn't make up my mind. That thing took so long to arrive that my family was already done with their burgers and fries, and were waiting for me. The place wasn't even that busy and it still took awhile. Oh well, at least you know it was fresh. Too bad I had to drive the rest of the way home (like 2 hours) without getting to eat my food hot. When I finally did, it tasted okay. Maybe it was cuz I was real hungry. They put a lot of shrimp in it and it was too big and messy to eat with your hands. I would go here again when I go up north if the Indian restaurant is closed again, and I'm not in a hurry.

Mae's Cafe - Garden Grove

Mae's Cafe
9062 Trask Ave
Garden Grove, CA92844
(714) 898-7044
Type: American diner / restaurant
Map



My girl's been telling me to try this place out cuz we always see it on the way to Tofu Village. The thing that caught our attention was that it's open 24 hours. We also read some reviews saying it's the best in its kind around the area. We'll see...



Mae's is pretty much like any other American Diner. What I noticed was the prices for most of the things on their menu are in the decent range-- meaning cheap-- meaning less than $8. If you're vegetarian or pescatarian (eats seafood but not meat), this place won't give you too many options. Since I already ate fish that day, I had to settle for the regular french toast ($4.25) and 2 eggs ($2). Nothing special. Just like any other french toast and egg meal I've eaten.

French Toast


eggs


My girlfriend got the Louisiana hot links ($6.50). That thing looked hearty. It came with some hot links, hash browns, eggs, and country gravy.. All that for less than $7? Not bad. She thought it was okay, but she doesn't wanna go back here. She'd rather go to Harbor House in Sunset Beach.

Louisiana hot links meal


....with gravy


We also got the fried zucchini ($5.95) because I knew I wasn't gonna get full just from french toast and eggs. Those were good.

fried zucchini


Unfortunately, I won't be ordering any of the stuff I mentioned above. Mae's is decent, but I've had better-- and since I'm not gonna be in that area as much, the chances of going there are pretty slim. But if you live around the area and you want a late night bite to eat, by all means...

Lucky Chances - Colma

Lucky Chances Casino - Colma Cafe?
1700 Hillside Blvd
Colma, CA 94014
(650) 758-2237
Website
Map



I ate here with my family on my last day of the Nor Cal trip. I thought West Covina had a lot of Filipinos. But Daly City and its surrounding cities may have So Cal beat. Where else are you gonna find a casino 10 minutes away with literally all the waitresses in the cafe being Filipino? ...other than the Philippines smart-ass.

We tried going here late at night before, but it was just too packed from clubbers and hungry gamblers. The place kind of smells funny. I think a lot of the gamblers in there haven't gone home to shower in a couple days. Makes you wanna eat doesn't it?

Actually, the food was not that bad for me. I read a lot of other people's reviews on Yelp and some said it's nasty. I didn't have complaints and neither did my family. My family who we visited go here late at night many times.

The menu here is mostly Filipino with a little bit of Chinese, American, and maybe Italian. Since it was breakfast time, most of us got breakfast dishes. We ordered the fish combo, kare kare (pronounced exactly as it's spelled) a kind of curry, tocino (pork), calamari, and other Filipino breakfast plates.

Fish w/ eggs and rice


kare kare


tocino


looks like tapa (beef)


The calamari was actually pretty good. I kept taking little pieces while I ate my own meal.

calamari


I really liked my meal. I got the peppered salt and spicy fish. It comes with some breaded fish and rice. It's really simple but the fish was really good. I think I ate it with some fish sauce which made it even saltier, but better.

peppered salt and spicy fish


All the meals cost about $7 - $9 so it's not exactly the cheapest Filipino food you can get. If I lived around here, I'd definitely make this place one of my regular late night spots.

Nation's - Daly City

Nation's Giant Hamburgers
201 Westlake Center
Daly City, CA 94015
(650) 755-8880
Type: American food / hamburgers
Website
Map

Took a recent trip to Nor Cal just to hang out with family. Normally I would go out of my way to get some more exotic food, but it was later at night and we were already tired. Nation's was conveniently located just a few minutes from where I was staying, and it was one of the other places that were open 24 hours other than Denny's and the other regulars.

Nation's has over 20 locations in Northern California. I don't think they have any down here, but that's okay. I'm not saying it's a bad place. I got the salmon burger and it was okay, but there was nothing special about it. I would say the best thing about this place is that it's 24 hours.

Young and Lazy - Long Beach

Young and Lazy
6200 E Pacific Coast Hwy
Long Beach, CA 90803
(562) 961-8588
Type: Japanese food / sushi
Get directions



We hit this place up a couple hours right after Sushi On Fire. It's another sushi joint. I've been here before and I ordered a custom salmon teriyaki bowl because they didn't have it on the menu, and I didn't like it. It was way too small. The taste was forgetful.

For some reason, I felt like more salmon sushi, so we went here. They have a mix sushi combo. I asked for 6 pieces salmon and two pieces tuna for $8.50. You definitely get what you pay for. I'm no sushi critic, but I noticed that this wasn't quality sushi. It was okay for me, but my girl didn't like it. I didn't like the tuna though. The salmon was really lacking in color.

8 piece sushi deal


This place has other sushi and a few other rolls. My two experiences here haven't been great, so I'm not gonna be going back here. You can test your luck with the rolls if you want, but you better hurry. I think this place might go out of business already and I think it's only about a year old. Every time I come here, there's no other customers. The place is super quiet inside. I feel bad for them. The lady at the counter was nice. I hope they do something to turn the business around. They should start with the taste of their food first in my opinion.

Sushi On Fire - Huntington Beach

Sushi On Fire
301 Main St # 103
Huntington Beach, CA 92648
(714) 374-8885
Type: Japanese food / sushi restaurant
Get directions





I've been to Sushi On Fire twice already. Both times were during their afternoon sushi Happy Hour. You'll get 20% off sushi and rolls if you come here between 3pm and 5pm. It's not a super bargain but I think it's worth it. If you're a baked/special roll kind of person like me, this is a great spot for you. They have so many rolls to choose from that it might take long to decide which one you want. The regular prices are a little bit higher than many places, but Happy Hour evens things out a bit.

The prices I state here are before the 20% discount.

To start off, we got the spicy scallop hand roll ($5.50). It's just a regular hand roll with raw scallops. I don't usually like scallops that much, but this roll wasn't bad at all.

spicy scallop hand roll


I'm always ordering some sushi nowadays. For me, it helps neutralize all the different tastes from the baked rolls. It's a tasty way to reset your palette. We ordered just the basics: salmon suushi, albacore sushi, and yellowtail sushi--all $4.95. I had no complaints about the sushi.

salmon, albacore, and yellowtail sushi


Luckily we knew one of the waiters there. He told us try some sauce which really went well with the sushis. It's some green sauce that's a little spicy and sour. I don't know what it's called.

The Green Sauce


I ordered the Main St. roll ($12.75). I forgot what was in it, but I remember it was just okay. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't get that again with all the other options Sushi On Fire offers.

Main St. Roll


The White Roll on the other hand was really good. The name makes it sound pretty plain, but I assure you, you won't regret trying this. The rolls are baked with a batter on the outside, and there's two different sauces on top. In the middle there's a pile of spicy tuna that you can eat with it. To top everything off it the whole dish comes with 10 individual rolls.



Like I said before... If you like specialty rolls, you'll love Sushi On Fire. I can't really vouch for the sushi even though I thought it was good, but I don't think you'll be disappointed either way.

allmenus.com

allmenus.com

I just found out about this place while searching for some info about a restaurant. The name should be self-explanatory. You'll find the menus from many restaurants in Southern California, as well as cities around the U.S.

Secret Spot - Huntington Beach

Secret Spot

3801 Warner Ave Unit B

Huntington Beach, California 92649

562 592 4494
Type: Vegetarian / Sandwich / restaurant
Map

The Secret Spot is properly named. I don't think they wanna keep the place a secret, but it's just kind of hidden in a small shopping plaza behind a gas station. It's so small that there's only 3 or 4 tables inside.

picture taken from one end of the restaurant. There's a mirror right behind the baby chair to make the place seem bigger.


This place is frequented by a lot of vegetarians/vegans. Since it's located right off PCH, it's a perfect spot to go to after a good surf session at Bolsa Chica or Sunset Beach-- although I prefer the north side of the HB pier as my usual break. I believe they have a deal if you get food before 11am, you get a dollar off your meal. They have other little deals which I should've taken a picture of. Sorry.

So anyways, this place has a lot of sandwiches and Mexican style food. So we ordered the Dynomite sandwich ($7.50) and the shrimp burrito ($7.99). Both come with chips and salsa. The Dynomite is a regular sandwich with tofu and barbecue sauce. It was good, but you get tired of it after a while.

Dynomite


The shrimp burrito was aight. I also got tired of this one after a while. The chips and salsa helped though.


The best thing about this place for me was their smoothies. If you go there between 3pm - 6pm on a weekday, the smoothies cost $4. I think they're like 5 something each at other times. I got the peanut butter and banana one, and my girl got the blueberry/mango smoothie. I'll tell you now that those are one of the best smoothies I've tasted. I'll for surely go back just for those.

smoothies


This place is a little on the higher side compared to similar places... but actually, a lot of vegetarian places are usually pricier than non-veggie places. So I guess it's about average. The food was decent. I'll go back just for smoothies though. I'll try other flavors as I'm sure they'll be good. So spread the word about the Secret Spot.

Kura Sushi - Costa Mesa

Kura Sushi
212 E 17th St
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(949) 631-3200
Type: Japanese food / sushi / restaurant
Website
Get directions





I heard about Kura Sushi while searching for a sushi place in Newport Beach. I always frequent the Monster Munching blog to get ideas and inspiration for new restaurants to try. He pretty much said that it was a good place to peep out. He also gave a breakdown of the different prices of the plates. I liked.

Kura is unique in that it's a revolving sushi restaurant. The whole restaurant doesn't revolve like the one in Sleepless in Seattle. The food is put on plates and the plates are put on a conveyor belt that goes around to all the seats and tables. The plates are different colors so you know how much each one is. See the Monster Munching blog for the breakdown of the prices cuz I forgot.



There's just too many items to list that we got just between two people. I like this place for several reasons. One is that the amounts of sushi/rolls/food is small enough so you can try other things. It's also small enough in price to try other things as well. I like the conveyor belt thing because you can get the food when you feel like it instead of ordering it all at once. One thing to note though: If you want a lot of food available on the assembly line, you should probably go during peak hours. When we went, we had to order most of the good stuff, cuz not much was coming around. You should also ask about things not on the menu they give you. We saw some other people ordering things and were like, "Damn. We shoulda ordered that." So ask.

Edamame, albacore (ponzu sauce too tangy for me), cajun salmon sushi, and regular salmon sushi. I liked the two salmons although not the greatest.


don't remember


Rainbow roll and Crunchy roll. I liked the crunchy roll. I think it was less than $3 per order.


umm... Spider roll?


More rolls with tangy ponzu sauce


Candy roll?


Good ol' California roll ordered just to take up space in my stomach so I don't order too much


I had no complaints about the place. My girlfriend didn't really like it that much. I guess she knows her sushi more, but maybe I'm the lucky one for being ignorant still. I'll go here again, but I'll check out other places in Newport/Costa Mesa first.

A glimpse of what we're capable of...

I Love Sushi - Costa Mesa

I Love Sushi
2340 Harbor Blvd.
Costa Mesa, California 92626
714-540-6195
Type: Japanese food / sushi / restaurant
Website
Map



Yup. Another sushi restaurant. And there's more coming....

"I Love Sushi." I really do. Well, mostly the baked rolls, but after Sushi Roku I've been easing into the uncooked territories more often. I found out about this unusually-named sushi restaurant when I was looking for good sushi bars in the O.C. I saw all the great reviews about the place, and I believe it was ranked in the top ten best sushi places by AOL Citysearch. I had to see for myself. Plus, people said the prices were decent. So that was a big decision-helper.

So let's see. Did I love the sushi at "I Love Sushi?" It was okay. The fried oysters ($5.95) were good.

Fried Oysters (I think it came with maybe 6 pieces)


The salmon sashimi was cool.... for the price ($9.95). My girlfriend said it wasn't that great. The crunchy roll ($7.65) was pretty cheap, but I don't recommend it for avid crunchy roll consumers. One word.... wack.

Wack Roll... I mean Crunchy Roll (back) and salmon sashimi (front)


I'd say that the Toyota Cut Roll ($8.95) was the best thing we had. I ordered that cuz some other reviewer said it was good. Thank you reviewer. The fujiyama ($7.95) was ok, but the cooked fish that it came with was not good. I didn't like the salmon sushi ($3.95) only because they put wasabi in between the fish and the rice. I don't get why they have to do that. If you want wasabi, there's some on the side. I heard that's some traditional way of preparing it, but I'm good on that.

From left to right: Toyota Cut Roll, 2 pcs. salmon sushi, and 2 pcs. fujiyama.


So does this place deserve to be in the top ten in the OC for sushi bars? To me, that's a no. If it does, I feel sorry for Orange County. Maybe I came at the wrong time, cuz most of the people who reviewed the place on Citysearch gave it really good reviews. So maybe you shouldn't take my word for it. After all, I don't consider myself a sushi connoisseur. I just know my taste buds weren't agreeing with everybody else.