Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 24.  The scale used to be 0 to 10, so restaurants written about before 2012 may have only had their ratings adjusted by formula and not by hand (hence all the 2s, 5s, 8s, etc.)  The scale works as follows:

An asymmetrical 0 to 24 scale may not be intuitive, I realize.  But as a rule of thumb: a double-digit score means I liked it, while a single-digit score… less so.  Also, as you might expect, scores from many years ago may not be very reliable, so do check the dates.

Orange County

In a place notorious for landslides, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that seemingly every restaurant I used to enjoy has gone downhill.

Click on the column titles to sort the entries!

Name	Cuisine	Address	Last update	Score
Boil & Bake	Bagels	Bristol & Red Hill, Costa Mesa	2025-11-24	11
It looks like the California bagel revolution has spread from the East Bay all the way down to Orange County, for here was a bagel boutique with locally-sourced fancy toppings; I got a pretty basic one with cream cheese, heirloom tomato, capers, dill, lemon, flaky salt, and olive oil.  Pretty good, and apparently a big draw, because the line had about a dozen people when I got into it and about three dozen when I got out of it.  (I upped this by a point after trying the cheddar and Fresno chile bagel I took home with me⁠—that turned out to be a winner.)
Cream Pan	Bakery	El Camino Real & Sixth, Tustin	2024-02-22	11
I randomly happened across an article declaring that Cream Pan in Tustin was the best bakery in California… and then, a few days later, on an impromptu trip to So Cal, I just as randomly found myself driving past it.  So I stopped in and got a strawberry croissant and a strawberry banana pastry.  Strawberries are not in season in February, so the experience was not all it could have been, but sure, strawberries and bananas and pastry cream on croissant dough is bound to be a winner.  Best bakery in California, though?  That’s a negatory, cap’n.
Cinnamon Works	Bakery	Santa Ana Canyon & Avenida Margarita, Anaheim	2007-02-17	5
As recently as five years ago this place sold some of the best muffins I'd ever had. Now it appears that everything is oversweet and underdone. I'm sure I would have loved that when I was six.
Rockwell’s	Breakfast	Santiago & Santiago, Villa Park	2024-08-15	10
This was one of my regular haunts during my second stint in Orange County, circa 1998.  When I returned in 2007, I discovered that the spinach omelette I had been crazy about in the ’90s had gone way downhill.  Well, the place is still open, but the menu looks almost entirely different now.  By happenstance we ended up staying in a hotel right nearby, and Ellie wanted to try the breakfast burrito she saw on the online menu.  We split it, and I wound up liking it more than she did!  So, still nowhere near a return to the pantheon, but I can restore the blue rating at least.
Nook Coffee Bar	Cafe	Bristol btw Randolph/Baker, Costa Mesa	2024-02-22	6
Here I got a strawberry lemonade, which turned out to be unexpectedly carbonated.  Somehow I’m always surprised by this.  I see it on the menu, I expect to get something like the Odwalla juice I drank gallons of in the ’90s, and instead I get a soda.  Maybe that’s what they call a lemonade in Britain, but this is California, guv’nor.
Let It Brie	Cheese-centric	Commonwealth btw Harbor/Pomona, Fullerton	2024-08-14	12
Went here to treat my high school French teacher to a belated retirement lunch.  The place was her suggestion, and it was a winner: I had a sandwich with gouda, artichokes, and pesto, topped with a drizzle of honey, and it was aces.
Campitelli Cookies	Dessert (cookies)	Santa Ana Canyon & Avenida Margarita, Anaheim	2020-01-03	11
I came here 13 years ago remembering spectacular cookies from when I grew up here in the '80s (and even from my second stint here in the late '90s), so I was disappointed when they turned out to be just okay. But now we've hit the '20s, and with that disappointment in mind, getting some cookies that were pretty darn okay was a happy surprise.
Mr. French Crepe	French	Culver & Michelson, Irvine	2020-01-03	10
This is a little crepe stand in the front of a supermarket in the Iranian part of town. The crepe I got was pretty good (though I was sad that the basil promised on the menu had run out); the reason this place has five stars on Yelp is that the guy who runs the place is either super friendly or a heck of a schmoozer, depending on how generous you're feeling.
Moulin	French	Orange County chain	2020-01-03	5
Here I got a pretty flavorless hot chocolate and a dessert ("The Cube") that mixed chocolate, hazelnut, and lemon with weird-tasting results.
Sattva Indian Rasoi	Indian	Alicia btw Fabricante/Jeronimo, Mission Viejo	2025-11-22	6
We needed to grab dinner near our hotel and this had good ratings, but I guess those ratings were just for delivery orders, because these people seemed to find the concept of offering a pleasant dining experience to walk-in guests completely foreign.  At 7 p.m. they were running a vacuum cleaner at high blast, and it took several requests before they grudgingly turned it off.  But that just meant that we had to listen to Bollywood music on a blown speaker that made it sound like a symphony of shrieking and farting.  Meanwhile, when I tried to order the Hyderabadi dish that I had come here for, the waiter said they were out of it, and when I declined to order a different dish and figured I’d just have a few bites of Ellie’s (since I wasn’t actually all that hungry), suddenly it turned out that they could make a new batch in five minutes.  At least the food was palatable.
Chakra	Indian	Campus near Bridge, Irvine	2011-04-09	0
Stuck in Irvine on a business trip, I tried this place. After boggling at the prices — I'm used to places like Fremont's Shalimar, with amazing entrees for $6 and naan for $1, as opposed to the $20+ and $5 respectively that Chakra charges — I put in my order. What I received was a small dish of vegetables chopped down to the consistency of cat food and a basket of burnt naan. Then I actually tried eating my meal, and almost broke my teeth on the rock-hard, apparently uncooked lentils. When the waitress came by to ask how things were, I politely pointed out that my meal was inedible, and she asked whether I wanted something else. I said I'd have another look at the menu. When she came back, she informed me that the lentils were "supposed to be that way" and that if I wanted to order something else I'd be charged for both entrees. At this point, the idea of eating gravel with blackened bread didn't appeal, so I paid my exorbitant bill and left — but not before hearing a woman who was apparently the proprietor wandering around apologizing to several similarly disappointed diners. No apology for me, though.
Roma D'Italia	Italian	El Camino Real & Sixth, Tustin	2020-01-02	13
Roma D'Italia is an archetypal red-sauce place with checkered tablecloths, but very good. I've had some great meals here and some okay ones: most recently, the gnocchi were not quite up to the standard I remembered (they seemed more industrial), the spinach lasagna was skippable, and my beloved German chocolate cheesecake had disappeared from the menu. Still good enough to score a 13, though, and I have to admit that while I was initially skeptical of the "pizza bread" my date ordered, I ended up gobbling up most of it.
Taco Rosa	Mexican	regional chain: Newport Beach, Irvine	2015-02-13	11
This is a higher-end Mexican restaurant. I got a chile relleño that had an unusually flavorful cheese mixture inside. I missed having some beans on the side, though.
Tacos de Birria	Mexican (taqueria)	two locations: Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo	2025-11-21	10
We got a couple of burritos at the Laguna Hills location, which operates out of a window at an Episcopal church.  Nothing to complain about on the flavor front, but structural integrity was not great: these were served on paper, not in foil, and because the fillings were very wet (e.g., beans had been pureed into a thin sauce), the burritos fell apart with a quickness.
Taco Mesa	Mexican (taqueria)	county-wide chain	2024-02-22	9
Shortly before the pandemic, I wrote: “Taco Mesa was a winner when I lived here in the ’90s and it’s still going strong.”  Significantly less strong mid-decade, I’m afraid.  I wouldn’t even say that the burrito I got even qualifies as good.  “High mixed” is about as far as I’d go.
Qué Vida Tacos	Mexican (taqueria)	regional chain	2025-01-01	8
Here I got a calacita taco.  It was fine.  I didn’t get a vegetarian burrito because it came with “fajita veggies” and I’m allergic to bell peppers; Ellie did get it, and reported that the fajita veggies were uncooked, or at least severely undercooked.
Papa Hassan's	Middle Eastern	Glassell & University, Orange	2002-01-28	14
The adaas (lentil soup with rice and pasta bits) is terrific, and the ful maddamas is great, but now that I have more than memory to use as a basis for comparison, I have to admit that the ful here is not quite in the class as that at the Kabab Cafe in Queens. Still good, though.
Zero Zero	Pizza	two locations	2024-08-14	11
We parked in front of a Starbucks in Huntington Beach so I could get on its wifi, and it just so happened that this pizza place was next door.  Ratings looked good, so we popped in and got a truffle and porcini slice, which was a little pricey but pretty darn good.
Sugo	Pizza	Paularino btw Bristol/Enterprise, Costa Mesa	2024-02-22	10
This is one of those Roman-style pizzerias with the looong pizzas from which you order rectangular slices.  The margherita slice I got was pretty good, but even if I still lived in OC, I doubt I’d go back, because that was the only vegetarian option.  (Pollara, a similar shop in Berkeley, had over half a dozen vegetarian slices on offer on any given visit.)
Juice Stop	Smoothies	Camino de los Mares & Calle Agua, San Clemente	2025-07-02	15
In memoriam.  Because the quality at the Juice Stop in La Mirada had declined so drastically, I decided to try its other remaining California outposts.  This place instantly became my new favorite smoothie shop; it upheld the Juice Stop standard from the ’90s and had friendly service to boot.  And then it shut down before I could even pay it a second visit.
Juice It Up!	Smoothies	regional chain	2025-11-23	9
After the quality at the Juice Stop in La Mirada went downhill, we found an acceptable replacement in San Clemente… only for that one to close down before we could pay it a second visit.  This chain seemed to offer up at least a few smoothies that were meant to be tasty rather than vehicles for powdered supplements, so we tried it out.  I didn’t like it as much as Blenders, but since that chain only has locations on the central coast, this filled in adequately.

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