The place is in a good location, close to a couple of major streets, the only downside is that the parking lot can get a little crowded during busy times, but you’ll usually find a spot in a minute or two.

You can find this location at 13041 Newport Ave, Tustin, CA 92780. Bronx Sandwich Co. has a few other locations throughout Orange County as well.

My favorites here are The Bronx Club, King of Queens, The Mobster, and the B.B.Q. Brisket (pictured above).

I’ve had other sandwiches and they’re all good, but these are my favorites. I have tried the salads as well, and they’re fine. But their strong offerings are the sandwiches for sure.

The fries are also delicious, I always get them well-done and they come out super crunchy. Definitely, a place to come back regularly.

This is my latest review in Google Maps, follow me there if you'd like.

The post Bronx Sandwich Company in Tustin – 2022 Review appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I took the kids after school one day to see what was up with them since I hadn't been there in a year, maybe two.

This is what happened during this new #foodieadventure.

There's a reason I haven't been to Bruxie in a while. Or rather, several reasons, only one of those reasons has changed now.

A few years ago Bruxie started to change. I'm not sure if they went through some growing pains, but the quality of the food went down, prices went up and the part that made Bruxie awesome kinda lost its appeal.

I can't quite pinpoint what appeal I'm referring to, but it was gone.

This time around, the food was amazing. I ordered the B.A.M.F. and got the kids some chicken tenders with Bruxie's waffle fries. Check out how everything turned out in the video.

The thing that changed was the quality of the food. I only have tried the B.A.M.F. and what they were serving at Taste of Huntington Beach the other day.

But I can say that the taste and quality are back, that's undisputable. The price, still a problem. Maybe it's just part of growing up, but $30 for 1 "grown-up" meal and one "side order" seems steep.

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A couple of viewers and some people in Meetup have asked me why don't I get anything else besides pho when we go to our Dot Com Lunch.

But we actually try a lot of different places and dishes. Make sure you're part of the meetup if you want to join in our next meetup.

We've been to Happy Dining, and Mai Thai and a few others I haven't reviewed yet. Just join the meetup and we'll keep you posted of new events and locations. But in this day, I tried something besides the pho.

In this Dot Com Lunch video, we also talk a little bit about the minimum wage hike in California and generally just have a good meal.

My Review of the Crispy Noodles with Sea Food (Mì Xào Giòn)

This time around, I tried something besides Pho. This looked attractive and I don't recall having it in recent years. Maybe 4 or 5 years ago.

This dish is too mild for my taste, I had to add a dash of chili and a little bit more cilantro, but once I took care of that, the dish was perfect.

I would get this again if I was looking for a healthy light dish with bok choi and seafood.

And tiny little corns. It had some of those. That's a thing in some Vietnamese dishes, really.

It was nice eating some of the noodles while they were crispy and crunchy, but later on, some had been soaking in the sauce and gave them a nice bite but weren't crunchy anymore. I guess this is what you hope for with this dish.

That was a nice contrast. This dish is different. Good, but different. I'd recommend it to anybody that wants to try something new and wants to go with some seafood.

I think a couple pieces of shrimp would have made this a perfect dish, but I can't complain.

The post Pho Ba Co Review – Crispy Noodles With Seafood (Mì Xào Giòn) appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

This place was a total surprise for me. Marcie, one of my #ocfoodies friend said it was good, but I didn't expect it to be this good, I got caught up in the food so much I forgot to take pictures and b-roll.

I still managed to make a video so that's what is here today, check it out below the review.

My review of Mai Thai.

I was in a bit of a rush so I didn't get to take it all in. With that said, I thought this was the best Thai food I've had in a long time.

In my own personal best of the best restaurant battles, Mai Thai is a contender for the number one spot for Thai food in Orange County.

Someone asked me where the best Thai food is around here, and I had a tough time picking between Mai Thai and Vientiane Lao Thai in Westminster. I haven't reviewed Vientiane on the blog or video yet, but it's really good.

So it's a tough call, but we can also say that they are both #1 in their own style.

Mai Thai is traditionally Thai as far as I can tell, while Vientiane Lao Thai has a lot of Laos influence and may even be considered more Laos than Thai.

But if we start getting into that level of detail, we have to bring in the Malaysian influence and then the Chinese influence in Thai food, so for now, we'll leave it at that.

Plus you'll easily see and find out I have no idea what I'm talking about.  So there, both are number 1.

If you had asked me the same question, where is the best Thai food in Orange County? just a day before I tried Mai Thai, I would have known the answer right away.

Now I would have to really think about it, Mai Thai is up there, waiting for me to try a few more dishes before I declare it a winner.

Now back to Mai Thai's food.

Oh yeah, you'll find Mai Thai in Fountain Valley, two minutes from the Brookhurst exit off the 405 freeway.  (map link).

I ordered beef Panang curry and the Tom Kha Gai soup (coconut soup with chicken). I think that these are considered some of the most popular Thai dishes besides Pad Thai. Photos by @MarcieTaylor.

The curry was just pungent enough and not oversalted. It's easy to oversalt it but they nailed the flavor perfectly. I ordered it medium spicy, or "level 4-5" and it was hot but edible. Left just a tingle of spiciness on my lips.

The soup was outstanding and I'd go back for more in a heartbeat. Tangy and lemony, --I thought I was making up the word lemony, but apparently not. Grammarly says it's a word.-- with enough sweetness from the coconut milk and enough spiciness to keep you in check.

Another item that won my heart over was the little egg rolls. They came in the appetizer sampler dish, and they were just amazing.

I can't believe I'm raving about eggrolls, but they were delicious. The filling wasn't just mushy overcooked "stuff" and it had a perfectly seasoned garlic-infused medley of veggies and bean sprouts. I wanted more!

I will definitely be back for more soon. While I think that Thai Avenue has the best pad thai I've had, Mai Thai has the best overall Thai food I think so I recommend you definitely check it out.

Mai Thai in Fountain Valley

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From the official Taste of Huntington Beach website:

Featuring delectable tastes from local restaurants and catering companies. Add in unlimited sips from your favorite wineries and breweries, along with live entertainment by The Ramsey Brothers Band for your listening and dancing enjoyment – and you have the perfect mix for a great day of food, fun, and friends!

All proceeds go to the Children's library of Huntington Beach.

Taste of Huntington Beach is a fun event. I think you should go to if you're in Southern California and especially in Huntington Beach and surrounding cities. I know people come all the way from Riverside County, Santa Barbara, and even San Diego.

It is a single day event. I wish it were a 2-day event, and I think many people feel the same way. The primary reason I wish it were two days is that you simply don't have the time or a big enough stomach to try everything. There's so much food!

Every time I go, I come out stuffed like if I had gone to an all you can eat buffet in Las Vegas after a 20 day fast.

I had a chance to talk to the organizer and one of the requirements is that each vendor that participates must have at least 2000 servings. If memory serves me right, there were over 50 food vendors last time so there is tons of food to go around.

As you'll see in the video, these aren't tiny samples either. Many servings are big enough to be considered appetizer size and in some cases, you get a huge portion. Not to mention, the tastings are unlimited so you can come back for seconds, thirds, or more.

Another fun thing about it is that they also serve alcohol. You'll find local wineries, breweries, and distilleries serving their best.

I highly recommend you check them out. I believe they still have their early bird tickets available right now. So go get some!

Taste of Huntington Beach will take place on April 28 from noon to 4:00 pm.

I also covered this before, here's another video for the Taste of Huntington Beach 2016.

The post Taste of Huntington Beach appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Be it golf, cocktail hour, dinner parties or simply lunch. This is why we meet for lunch every week. To bring people together so that we can talk and see what we're all up to.

So this time the Dot Com Lunch meeting took place at Urban Seoul. Urban Seoul, like many of the places we frequent, is located in the Diamond Jamboree Plaza in Irvine; one of the newest outdoor shopping malls in the city.

It is a small place tucked away in plain sight. This is one of the reasons we never noticed it before. It is very easy to miss if you don't know where it is. But with that aside, once you find the place then you are in for a treat.

The reason we went there is because I've been on a Korean Taco craving mood lately. Las Fajitas near Pho Ba Co had Korean tacos for a few weeks but then they stopped serving them.

I also had some great tasting Korean tacos at Mochilato, but they took forever to come out and weren't worth the price.

The tacos you can make at home like you can see in this video are really the best because you can put whatever toppings and seasoning you want. If you know how to cook and want to spend the time doing it.

But back to Urban Seoul. Let me show you some pictures first.

[envira-gallery id="49017"]

The manager on duty was really friendly and quickly explained the menu. I had an idea about what to expect but it was nice to get a proper explanation.

If you have never had fusion cuisine, then you're missing out. This combination is Korean/Hispanic.

The pork belly is used in a lot of the dishes here and with good reason. It is unbelievable. I probably haven't had pork belly this good before, ever. And I've paid some fancy prices for pork belly. Here? It's just part of their everyday fare.

Here is why I came to Urban Seoul. Their Korean tacos. I went with the pork belly order of three. They have other choices and I really wanted to try one of each but you have to order them in sets of three unless you come in on Taco Tuesday.

They were damn good, the perfect blend of flavors with a spicy flare. Squeeze a little bit of lime and this is as close to heaven as you'll get during lunch on a Monday.

If I had to describe Urban Seoul in one word, it would be: Amazing. You gotta go try it, and now they have a second location, Urban Seoul 2.0 at the Irvine Spectrum.

The post Orange County Food Review: Urban Seoul appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

And yes, they gave me a free lunch to check them out, but I still feel like their food is awesome. Healthy, locally sourced, and an amazing value.

Cava Grill is a fast-casual Greek restaurant. You order your food like you do at Chipotle and then bam! You'll be sitting there enjoying your Cava Grill bowl or salad like a boss.

Checking out Cava Grill

Cava Grill - Yelp

Cava Grill - Google Reviews

Cava Grill

View on Instagram

The post What’s for lunch? Try Cava grill appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

This was our first time there and it was really great. We had a great time. One of the highlights of the day was lunch because we found one of my favorite burger joints next to the museum.

The Counter is a burger restaurant where you can make your burger to order exactly as you want it. From the type of meat, to the size of the patty and every ingredient. They even have vegetarian options and by all accounts even the vegetarian options are awesome.

When they first opened, I went with my friend and we each got a monster burger, it was over $30 for each burger and we couldn't even finish them. But this time I was a bit more restrained and just ordered their 1 lb burger with some classic toppings. Check it out:

The post The 1 Pound Burger at The Counter appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Fast forward to today and you'll see gourmet burger joints popping up all over the place. McDonalds, Burger King and other icons of burgerdom are vanishing in exhange for higher quality and even hipster spots. Unfortunately, like most fads and trends, most of these new places are just fancy names dressed with fancy ideas but poor execution.

But when you find a good burger joint, it's like finding gold.

Such is the case with Peter's Gourmade in Tustin. I went to it a couple years back for the first time because someone told me I should try their greek fries and burgers. They were good and the burger was good too but for whatever reason I never reviewed them. So this is my turn to review this up and coming spot.

I went back recently before my trip to Hawaii to have lunch with my buddy Loren from Diesel Brew, Loren's a local guy but when he told me he had never tried this place, we stopped debating where we should eat,  this was it. I asked him after lunch if he had liked it and he said it was a great burger.

Peter's Gourmade has expanded, but something that remains true is their menu and quality. I was pleasantly reminded of how good their burgers are. I have to admit that I prefer my burger a little more seasoned but I'm picky to a fault. In a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate their burger at a high 7.

I ordered The Hermanator ($7.50)which is described in their menu as follows: All-Beef angus patty served on a toasted potato bun with bacon, pepper jack cheese, chipotle mayo, jalapeños, and lettuce. I went with this because I wanted their spiciest option. Unfortunately, this is not spicy enough for me. It was well made, and had a bit of a kick, and the flavor is great but if you're expecting something that will kick you hard, they will have to kick it up a notch.

I added a fried egg on top ($1.00) and it ended up looking like the picture below. Forgive the lackluster picture but I got so carried away chatting with my buddy that I started eating this before I took a picture so I had to re-wrap it and put it back for a shot that didn't show a big piece of the burger missing.

And it looks like this:

The hermanator name comes from the head chef and as I've been told, his name is Herman so it makes perfect sense. The price tip toes on the high end for a burger like this, but the quality of the meat and the made-to-order service would fetch closer to $10 at most other locations in Orange County so it's perfectly reasonable. Adding fries, the egg and a drink put our lunch at a little over $24 for two people. Not bad!

I'm not a huge fan of the shredded lettuce approach, but it works fine in this case, I also wish the yolk on the egg hadn't been throughly cooked; you always want a little runny yolk if you get an egg on your burger. I must admit that Red Robbin's Royal Burger turned me onto the whole egg on top thing and they always do it perfectly, but I can't judge this burger based on this minor flaw because it doesn't normally come with the egg.

I love their new redecorated and expanded location. It feels fresh and well kept and comfortable. The location isn't new, they just took over the shop next door but now they almost doubled their seating capacity so even when you come for lunch at rush hour, you'll have a good chance of getting a seat. We arrived just before the lunch rush and by the time we were finished with our food, the line was out the door and around the corner. All these people can't be wrong so if you want a good burger for a great value then go check them out.

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You'll find Peter's Gourmade easily off the 55 freeway at the McFadden exit. Don't let the surrounding area discourage you, this is a gem you find in a rough spot.  I am almost sarcastic when I say rough spot; I mean, it is south Tustin which is not bad at all if you compare it to a rough spot in South LA. I recommend you beat the rush so you can find a parking spot. When it comes to the location, this is their weakness, there is only a small parking lot that is shared with another half-dozen businesses so it can be tough to find a spot.

Rumor has it that they are looking to expand and if my wishes came true they'd open up a location in Irvine or Irvine/Costa Mesa border because that's where I want to go when I eat so I can meet up with my friends and colleagues. And we all love a good burger.

The post Checking out the Hermanator Burger at Peter’s Gourmade appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The Irvine farmer's market has been around for a long time now and if you want to meet some of the region's best food producers, farmers then you should visit this.

avocado-oil-seller avocado-oil grapes terranium lemmon-irvine

The vendors as much as I know...

• Spring Hill - delicious cheese. I tried them all! - http://www.springhillcheese.com/
• Awesome Terrariums $15 to $50 - No website found, but they are pretty cool!
• Arnett Farms - http://www.arnettfarms.com/
• Papidaddy. (me) http://papidaddy.com/
• Anita Lau (Mad Hungry Woman) http://madhungrywoman.com/. I ran into my friend Anita, foodie extraordinaire.
• Avocado Oil. Amazing! starts at $15.00 for 1/2 liter. You can use Avocado oil like olive oil or any other cooking oil. It's healthy and stands really hot temperatures before it burns.
• Baba Food. Awesome we bought three things. Khalid will take you on an amazing hummus tasting tour.

You can find the new location here:

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Here's the video from that day.

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We went to The Counter the other day, there is a new location in Irvine. If you've never heard of it, I recommend you give it a try. Their thing is "Custom Built Burgers", They are the best non-fast food burgers I've ever had. I think this is largely in part because you can put whatever you want in them. Everyone is bound to have different taste preferences so it fits everyone. If you don't like onions, don't get them! Maybe you like pickles olives and bluecheese with a one pounder all beef patty. Who knows? you have so many combinations to choose from. The burgers in this picture and the ones in flickr are the 1/3lb size. They also have 2/3 and 1 pound. I can't imagine eating 1lb burger. They have a small notice in their menu... the weigh of the burger is *after* cooking so you truly get 1 pound of meat.

You can always make a classic burger if you want, beef, tomato, lettuce and american cheese. Or you can mix it up with other ingredients like red bell peppers, crumbled feta cheese, olives, sprouts, grilled onion, mushrooms, avocado, etc. If you don't like beef then they have other meat choices as well, like chicken.

I will probably make my way over to The Counter again at least a few times in the next year. Its one of those places that you'll want to go back again and again, just to try a different combination each time. Cheers.

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