Where Locals Eat in Orange County

Why is the best everyday food inland?

Because the coast sells the view and the inland cities sell the food. Orange County's densest, longest-established immigrant neighborhoods sit behind the beach towns, in Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Buena Park and Irvine. That is where the county's everyday cooking lives, mostly in strip-mall plazas rather than on a photogenic main street.

It catches people out because the postcard version of Orange County is entirely coastal. The reality is a suburban county with a spectacular edge, and the interesting kitchens are in the suburban part. A room with an ocean view is charging partly for the ocean. A counter in a plaza off a six-lane boulevard is charging for the food.

So the useful way to plan eating here is by district and by food culture, not by chasing a single restaurant across the freeway grid. Pick a neighborhood, drive there once, park once, and eat two or three things instead of one.

What should you eat in Little Saigon?

Pho, banh mi, com tam, bun bo Hue, che and Vietnamese coffee, ordered across the district rather than at one address. Little Saigon spans Westminster and Garden Grove and anchors one of the largest Vietnamese communities outside Vietnam. Bolsa Avenue is the spine. Go at lunch, when turnover is highest and everything is freshest.

This is not a walkable restaurant row. It is a long boulevard lined with plazas, and the good counters sit inside them beside bakeries, grocers, jewelry shops and cafes pouring iced coffee thick with condensed milk. Park in the plaza lot, not on the street, and walk the plaza. Carry some cash for the smaller counters. Go with a group if you can, because the format rewards ordering more dishes than any two people can finish.

Which other inland districts are worth the drive?

Four, mainly. Downtown Santa Ana for Mexican food, Brookhurst Street in Anaheim for Levantine and Egyptian cooking, Beach Boulevard through Buena Park and Garden Grove for Korean, and the Irvine plazas for Persian, Taiwanese and Japanese.

Downtown Santa Ana, along Fourth Street and the blocks around it, is the most walkable eating district in the county. Bakeries, taquerias, mariscos counters and juice stands that have fed the neighborhood for decades now sit beside newer coffee bars and a food hall. Park once in a structure instead of circling the blocks for a street spot.

Brookhurst Street in Anaheim is Little Arabia, a designated district of Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian and Palestinian kitchens, bakeries and cafes. Shawarma, mezze and fresh pita come out fast and inexpensive, and it is a short detour from the theme parks.

For an old-California detour, the traffic circle at the center of Old Towne Orange is ringed by antique shops and counters, including a soda fountain that predates most of the county's freeways. A good breakfast stop on the way inland.

What does the coast do well?

Seafood and the setting. Newport Beach still has a dory fishing fleet selling the morning's catch beside the pier, one of the last operations of its kind in the country. Dana Point's harbor and Lantern District, Laguna's cove-side rooms, San Clemente's Del Mar Street and the Main Streets of Seal Beach and Huntington Beach deliver the classic version.

Coastal dining splits cleanly into two things: cliffside and harborfront patios with a sunset view and a bill that matches, and the taco shops and breakfast-burrito windows a block inland where the surfers eat. Both are worth doing on the same trip.

Costa Mesa is the county's most design-forward food and drink cluster, particularly the SoBeCa area around The LAB and The CAMP. For drinks, the brewery scene is concentrated inland around Anaheim, Fullerton, Orange and Placentia, with taprooms closer to the water in Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa.

Common questions

Where is the best food in Orange County? Inland, in the immigrant neighborhoods behind the beach cities. Little Saigon across Westminster and Garden Grove, downtown Santa Ana along Fourth Street, Little Arabia on Brookhurst Street in Anaheim, and the plazas of Buena Park and Irvine carry the county's everyday cooking. The coast is where you go for seafood and a view.

Do you need reservations to eat in Orange County? For harborfront and cliffside restaurants on a summer weekend, yes, especially if your group runs bigger than four. The inland counters mostly do not take reservations and do not need them. Book anywhere with a water view and simply show up early anywhere without one.

Is it worth leaving the theme park area to eat? Yes. Brookhurst Street in Anaheim, the Anaheim Packing District and the Korean restaurants along Beach Boulevard are all short detours from the parks, and all of them beat eating inside the gates.