The year 2021 saw the launch of many restaurants in California’s Orange County. It is a long compilation of restaurants, including many Thai restaurants, Italian pizzerias and restaurants as well as locations that serve Spanish, American, and French food. This list of restaurants only contains 10 names. Many factors play a part in making these Orange County’s best ten new restaurants, including the service, drinks and ambience. So, with no further ado, let us get into the list of the ten best restaurants of Orange County in descending order.
Chang’An
The restaurant is named after China’s Xi’an city and is a branch of another location with the same name and almost the same menu in Vancouver. The restaurant usually has a quiet and romantic ambience, drapes tables with linens, sets the furniture items with wine glasses, and aligns all chairs.
Be sure to dress up when you visit the restaurant as well as expect expensive and quality food. Order gourd chicken and Peking duck served tableside, fried rice with ghost pepper and braised lamb. You can also find street tacos cooked over charcoal in this Fullerton, Orange County, location.
Tacos Los Cholos
Orange County has the second Los Cholos location, a Mexican restaurant that specializes in tacos and mesquite-grilled steak. The restaurant adds ribeye steaks, arrachera and beef ribs to corn tortillas alongside usual garnishes of cilantro and onion. The restaurant offers good quality beef products, including USDA Prime beef. It cooks great tacos over charcoal. So, when you seek a street-style version of tacos, look no further than this Orange County location. The so-called short rib enchilada is among the best-known food items at this Laguna Niguel restaurant.
Caló
It did not take long for Caló to become the most popular Mexican restaurant of South County. Owner Clemente Heredia hails from a restaurant background, as his grandparents owned Carmelita’s Kitchen. There are over 100 tequila options for you to pick from at Caló. It offers great margaritas, alongside good quality fish tacos and burritos. That said, the restaurant is known for its salmon roll.
ROL
An intimate tasting counter with 14 seats, ROL from chef Viet Nguyen focuses on cocktails and sushi rolls. The classically simple rolls contain many different quantities of rice, wasabi, toasted nori, and raw fish. Chic and casual, ROL in the City of Huntington Beach is among the restaurants with the newest concepts that opened in OC after a long time. It requires a reservation many weeks beforehand.
Butcher’s House
You sometimes fail to know what has been missing up to the time you discover it. Orange County has been missing a simple and affordable restaurant with a relaxed vibe that specializes in steak frites, salade lyonnaise, onion soup, and French wines. The brasserie has no pretense at all, which is among the best things about it. Chef and owner Jeoffrey Offer understands how to operate a butcher store, perhaps because his father worked as a French butcher. The restaurant offers top-quality dry-aged meat products, alongside a French burger buried under a large quantity of raclette.
Onotria
You may be familiar with the name Onotria. There was a less-popular Italian restaurant called Onotria along Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, with a great list of wines. The Onotria Costa Mesa location closed some time back, which contributed to a lack of simple agriturismo-style food options. Onotria is back with its new location that is near the earlier spot and that gets less attention than ever before.
Chef and owner Massimo Navarretta launched Onotria again in January 2021 in the form of a pop-up restaurant specializing in takeout. Then, in November, Navarretta created a location around the previous commercial space with a dining room with 20 seats. There, Navarretta serves a short and focused range of dishes, which include some of Orange County’s best ravioli and amazing branzino.
Hanuman
While the restaurant opened at the end of 2020, most people out of town discovered it only a few months later. It is regarded as Orange County’s most beautiful and contemporary Thai restaurant. The restaurant creates noodles such as pad Thai, khao soi, Thai boat and drunken noodles. Another notable menu addition is Hanuman’s Thai fried chicken. Gizzard shad is among the best dishes available at the Laguna Beach location.
Rebel Omakase
Chef and owner Jordan Nakasone of this stunning sushi restaurant focuses only on omakase, a form of Japanese meal that comprises chef-selected dishes. The menu at Rebel Omakese not only includes 19 pieces of wagyu beef and seafood but also borrows from the traditional Japanese meal kaiseki. It is a tradition in Japan that showcases an array of techniques, seasonalities and presentations.
Little Sister
Tin Vuong launched the original location of Little Sister a long time ago in Manhattan. He has opened many more locations since then but none with the same beauty as the new Irvine Spectrum brasserie. It is a rambling restaurant with not only tropical Southeast Asia-like vibes but also a menu with Vietnamese-style imperial rolls, French escargot and Thai-style papaya salad.
BluSky
The best restaurant in the county is BluSky of Edgar Beas. Chef and owner Beas has issued a challenge to the other restaurants that serve Spanish food in the area. With Spanish tomato bread, grilled octopus, Patata bravas, and Iberico hams, the restaurant offers the best-known products in its Basque Country location. The Orange County location of BluSky offers the best paellas.
