Hooking up for Hot Dogs in Orange

Pacific Coast Hot Dogs

3438 East Chapman Ave. 

Orange, CA 92869 

If there's one thing that south OC needs, it's a good hot dog place. Sure, there's a few restaurants down this way that have a hot dog on their menu, like The Hat, Tommy's, Five Guys, and Hot Off the Grill, but we need a hot dog-centric restaurant. A no-nonsense place where the main focus is hot dogs and no Wienerschnitzel's diminished quality over the last few years does not count. We need a place like Pacific Coast Hot Dogs, which unfortunately is not south of Irvine, but instead resides in the city of Orange. 

PCH Hot Dogs reached out to me recently on Instagram to come by for a visit. It had been seven years since my last visit, so you could say that I was definitely ready to quench my hot dog cravings. I decided I'd meet up with my good friend Rebecca, a long-time Orange resident, one who has passed by this place many times but had never stopped until now. 

Situated as close as you can get to the heavy traffic on very busy Chapman Avenue, PCH celebrated their 25th year in business last year and is still going strong. The man who started it all is Scott Browning, a self-proclaimed hot dog fiend. He was a big fan of the hot dogs at Cupid's in Northridge, where he grew up. When he moved to OC, he was frustrated by the lack of good hot dog spots, (I feel your pain, Scott), and he decided to create his own hot dog legacy. 

This roadside restaurant has nine hot dogs on their menu, fries, and a ground beef taco, which we are told is slowly gaining in popularity. PCH uses Thrifty's ice cream to make floats, freezes, shakes, or, if you prefer, just scoops for those with a sweet tooth. Prices are not growing to break the bank here, as most hot dogs hover around the $4 mark, which is two dollars more than what you can get at Weinrchnitzel, but the quality here is way better. 

Rebecca and I decided on what to have and found a table on their patio, which was shielded from the wind while we caught up with each other's lives and basically just gossiped about all of our old coworkers. We could easily talk for hours, as we did this afternoon, but we also had hot dogs to eat, so let's check out Pacific Coast Hot Dogs. 

Here's what we picked up fresh from the window. We decided to get a nice cross-section of their menu but did not want to make hogs of ourselves, even though I could have totally eaten way more than this, but I did show some restraint for once. Let's dive a little deeper into each item.  

I could sense Rebecca's anticipation of diving into these Chili Cheese Fries ($4.65) as I was snapping my pictures as quickly as I could. The crispy fries, chili, and grated cheese were as photogenic as anything I have eaten recently. The fries were nice and crisp, they layered the chili well so every french fry had some on it, and what made this for me was the hand-grated cheese, which is very rare these days with the popularity of bagged cheese that almost everyone else uses. A very nice start to our visit.   

These two hot dogs look similar, but they are not. The one up at the top is the BBQ Bacon Dog ($5.40) with its slice of bacon, jalapenos, pickle, and barbecue sauce topping the snappy hot dog. I'm not usually a big fan of barbecue sauce, but it worked here, with the tinge of spice from the jalapeno and the smokiness of the bacon. On the bottom is the Tijuana Dog ($5.40), which comes dressed with mustard, diced tomato, grilled onions, and jalapenos. This one showcased the all-beef flavor of the hot dog and the snap of the casing better than the bbq bacon dog. I also have to mention the buns, which were pliable and soft, but still held everything together nicely. 

I did not ask, but I'd bet that the Chili Cheese Dog ($5.40)  is the most popular item on the menu at PCH Dogs. This was filled with chili, grated cheese, onion, and mustard. The chili is very solid, but not overly spicy. It adds good flavor, which goes well with the rest of this hot dog. I appreciated that this is not a sloppy chili dog, one that is so overloaded with chili that most of the chili winds up on the parchment paper as you consume it. This did not happen here, as it had the perfect amount topping it. I easily could have eaten another two or three of these with no problem. 

Since I visited Pacific Coast Hot Dogs, I have lamented the fact that they are not located closer to where I live. It would be so nice to be able to swing by whenever the hot dog cravings set in, but maybe because they are so far away, it makes a trip to PCH seem even more special. Check them out for yourself and let me know what you think of them. Now that Rebecca has tried them out, I'm sure she will be swinging by from time to time. Lucky girl. 

For more information about Pacific Coast Hot Dogs, head to their website here: https://pacificcoasthotdogs.com/home