Best Restaurants of 2023

We are down to our last day of 2023. It's hard to fathom that this is my 14th year writing this restaurant review blog. Most of my fellow food bloggers have stopped writing and either drifted off to other pursuits or have transitioned to becoming influencers on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, or whatever the latest visual app is the hottest. Sometimes, I feel like I'm the last of a dying breed. But I carry on to bring you my thoughts on restaurants in OC and beyond. 

This year is the least amount of reviews I have ever written in a calendar year. No, I have not been on a diet, incarcerated, or been told to curtail my eating by my doctor. I have had another hobby that has taken up my time this year, namely audiobooks. Before, when I used to get home from work, I'd write for a few hours before Katie got home. This year, I got home and continued listening to the audiobook I was listening to on my twenty-minute commute. I have decided that I need more balance in my life, so I'm determined for that to change in 2024. 

Needless to say, I have a significant backlog of restaurants I need to write about that we've already visited, and my restaurant wishlist has ballooned to over four pages. I've set a goal to write at least 80 reviews in the upcoming year, hopefully getting me back on track. Thanks to everyone who has stuck by me this year, checking to see if I've posted a new review, commenting, liking, and recommending places you feel I should visit. It's much appreciated. 

This was also the year I hit one of my personal goals for my blog: 1000 different restaurant reviews. I hit that significant number in August and do not intend to stop anytime soon. My new goal is to be the most prolific restaurant reviewer in OC. I'm still determining who has reviewed the most restaurants in Orange County, but I'm gunning for them. I will also take the time to update my past reviews by fixing broken links, editing my grammar and spelling errors, and denoting restaurants that have closed for business. 

So, here's to a great 2024! Now, my top ten restaurants of 2023. 

#10 - Nosh House - Tustin

Starting things off is Nosh House, which claims to be the only Glatt kosher restaurant in OC. They are run by the same people who own OC Kosher Market a few doors down. The menu here is diverse for such a small place, but don't sleep on the Reuben sandwich, one of the best OC offers. 

#9 - Prince Street Pizza - Los Angeles

I love that some of NYC's most popular restaurants are opening outposts on the West Coast. One of the best we ate this year is Prince Street Pizza, which is opening in Costa Mesa this coming year. Sicilian-style pizza is sold by the slice, with my favorite being the meat lovers and the spicy spring, which features pepperoni and an addictive spicy red sauce. Expect long lines when they finally open their Triangle Square spot, but this pizza is worth the wait.  

#8 - Felix's BBQ with Soul - Oceanside

I was down in Oceanside renewing my library card and decided to try Felix's, which has been on my list for as long as I can remember. The ribs are the things to get here, whether beef or baby backs. Both were delicious. Also, do yourself a favor, and however much mac and cheese you're going to order, just double it. This is one of the best I've had in years. Worth the trip. 

#7 - Tacos De Birria Estilo Guadalajara - Laguna Woods

Birria is still all the rage, and the best we had this year was served at an Episcopal church in Laguna Woods? Yep, you read that right. The birria quesa birria taco and the birria quesadillas are tasty but don't think the birria ramen is just a humdrum fusion item. It's a dish that will warm you from the inside out. Excellent. 

#6 - LJ's Lil Cafe - Cypress

We don't make it up to Cypress very often, but you won't be able to keep us away after we tried the most talked about breakfast burrito in OC this year from LJ's. Run out of a space in front of Home Depot, LJ's uses tater tots in their burritos, and they are a game changer. Add in the light, fluffy eggs and excellent breakfast meats, and you get one of my top 3 breakfast burritos in OC. I just wish they were a little closer to where I lived, but this is another spot worth battling freeway traffic. 

#5 - Flying Pig Pub and Grill - Oceanside

Our yearly trip to get Katie a new purse at the Outlets in Carlsbad was even better when we combined it with dinner at the Flying Pig. This highly-rated restaurant lived up to our expectations. It provided me with my best steak of the year, a 14-ounce ribeye, while Katie raved about their house bolognese pasta. Definitely one of the better dining options in Oceanside. 

#4 - Da Bianca Trattoria - Orange

Da Bianca is an Italian restaurant that everyone wishes was in their neighborhood. It has a cozy and lively dining room with a caring staff and owner, and most importantly, some delicious Italian food. We visited two times this year, and both meals were delicious. Every pasta has been first-class; their Caesar salad is the best I've had this year. I can envision some more trips here in 2024. 

#3 - Breezy - San Juan Capistrano

It's tough for a breakfast joint to stand out. Breezy has stayed with me long after our initial visit with their unique Filipino fusion breakfast specialties. Their pork adobo breakfast burrito is something you should not miss, while their s'mores french toast will satisfy everyone's sweet tooth. They deserve all the love they have gotten from the local print media this year, and it's easy to see why there's almost always a wait outside their door most mornings.  

#2 - Moo's Craft BBQ - Los Angeles

I used to lament the fact that we did not have any great barbecue restaurants in Southern California, like the ones I've had in Texas and other parts of the country. This is not the case anymore. Moo's Craft is on par with my other So Cal favorite, Heritage BBQ. All the meats we've had have been spectacular, and their sides, especially the Frito Pie, were equally as good. It's been hard passing by Broadway on the 5 Freeway and not stopping here every time. It's that good. 

#1 - Bourbon Steak - Dana Point

The very definition of a special occasion restaurant. We live 12 miles away from Bourbon Steak and felt we were on vacation when we arrived at this restaurant inside the Waldorf Astoria Resort. The service is world-class and matches the food we encountered. My lobster pot pie is not a meal I will soon forget. A very fitting restaurant to celebrate my 1000th restaurant review on this blog. 

I look forward to sharing many more great restaurants with you in 2024. What restaurants will be on this list next year? Time will tell. As for now, happy new year, and have a delicious 2024. 

Hoping Matador Cantina Hits the Bullseye

 Matador Cantina

111 North Harbor Blvd. 

Fullerton, CA 92832

This is one of those restaurants I had to double-check to ensure I had yet to write a review. It seemed like I had been here before, but then I realized it was just for drinks and an appetizer. Adding to my confusion was the at least weekly emails I used to receive from their former PR firm. With so many emails announcing special events and new menu items, I quickly put them on my restaurant wishlist but have just made it here. 

Matador Cantina has been around just as long as this blog. Opened for business in 2009, Matador Cantina is located in one of the oldest buildings in Fullerton, dating back to 1899. From the time they debuted until about 2014, they won numerous awards for their margaritas, got lots of love for their Taco Tuesday, and had glowing reviews from many bloggers and print media outlets. 

Almost as rare as writing a restaurant review blog in 2023, Matador Cantina still has its opening Executive Chef from when they first opened their doors all those years ago. Chef Dave Dennis has even added General Manager to his list of duties. He describes his food as a fusion of authentic and contemporary Mexican cuisine, with some South American flavors thrown into the mix. We grabbed my parents for a long overdue meetup and headed to the restaurant. 

We visited on a Sunday at 4pm, just as the stragglers from the Sunday Funday crowd exited Downtown Fullerton. Parking was no problem at this time between meals. Like many older buildings, Matador Cantina is long and narrow. Coming in from the Harbor Boulevard entrance, there's a long bar to your left with TVs hung above it, showing sports when we visited. The other side featured a row of booths where we were seated. 

The dinner menu is split into starters, tacos, quesadillas, burritos, salads, and restaurant specialties. Appetizers hover around the $13 mark, while more substantial entrees range between $12 to $25. These are reasonable prices for this area of town. Tacos are listed at $6, but on Tuesdays, they offer street tacos for $2.25 and specialty tacos for $3.25 after 2pm. Matador Cantina also offers a weekend brunch, and they have happy hour every day except Saturdays from 2 to 6pm. Now that you have some background about this place let's see what we had on this late afternoon.  

As is my custom when eating in a Mexican restaurant, I'll start with a shot of the Chips and Salsa that came to the table when we were seated. The chips were fresh, and the salsa had a smokiness with a tinge of heat. It had a good consistency to it. Katie ordered the Guacamole ($11) for the table. The guacamole at Matador combines onion, tomatoes, cilantro, serrano chile, garlic, and lime. It was okay, but I expected more flavor with these ingredients. The avocado was the prevailing flavor, which is fine, but the other ingredients failed to show up in my bites. I was also not really a fan of the tostadas that this was served with. They were too over-fried, so I instead used tortilla chips that came with the salsa. A much better choice. 

Starting off the entree portion of our evening is Katie's selection of the El Gaucho Pasta ($16). Yes, pasta at a Mexican restaurant. The pasta came with a delectable cilantro chimichurri cream sauce, a distant pesto cousin, but not as oily. The grilled chicken was moist and tender, not something I usually say about chicken when eating in a restaurant. The plate was rounded out with garlic bread, which I did not try. Katie was delighted with her meal choice here. 

Also excited about his dinner was my dad and his Drunken Shrimp ($24). The shrimp was sauteed in a garlic and butter sauce that had my dad singing its praises. Joining the shrimp was some diced zucchini, which went well with the sauce. This plate was finished off with some cilantro lime rice and two pieces of the same garlic bread that came with Katie's meal. Again, not a typical dish that you'd see at a Mexican place, but my dad could not have been happier. 

So, leave it to my mom to get something I'd expected to see when we walked into Matador Cantina: a Shredded Pork Taco ($5). The corn tortilla was filled, stuffed to its gills, with pork, lettuce, and pico de Gallo. My light-eating mom struggled to finish this but gave it a game effort. She was happy with this taco but wished some cheese was included in it if they could have found some room. 

Everyone was excited with what they had ordered, and then there was my Carnitas ($16). When this was placed in front of me, I was surprised by the amount of pork included on the plate. These were some massive hunks of swine. Unfortunately, most of the bites for me were on the dry side. These carnitas lacked the fattiness that I like mixed with some lean parts when I order carnitas. There was no variety here, just dry lean pieces of pork. The cilantro lime rice was good, and the refried beans were okay, but I wish there had been more to help alleviate some of the dryness of the pork. Disappointing. 

Even with my less-than-stellar dinner selection, everyone else left Matador Cantina very happy with their meals. This is definitely a Mexican fusion restaurant, as shown in the pictures above. I would visit again, but I'd steer clear of the carnitas and try some of their specialty tacos, steak a la plancha, or seafood enchiladas. The prices here were reasonable, and they offer some excellent deals for happy hour, taco Tuesday, and other daily specials. We experienced good service on this visit, and their was not too much complaining about their service on Yelp, so that's a good sign. Now, I can officially cross them off of my restaurant wishlist. 

Out of five red capes (because matadors use capes to get bulls to charge them), five being best and zero being worst, Matador Cantina gets 2.5 red capes. 

For more information about Matador Cantina, head to their website by clicking here: https://thematador.com/

An Upswing in Good Pizza in South OC

aPizza Doho

34255 Pacific Coast Highway

Dana Point, CA 92629

If there's one thing I've learned in all my years of writing this blog, it's that people are passionate about pizza. Except for barbecue, pizza gets the second most responses when I write about it. Most people write to tell me that they don't agree with me or I don't know what I'm even talking about. I'll add fuel to the fire in this review by saying that the best pizza in OC can be found south of Irvine. Yes, there are some good spots north of Irvine, but South OC has recently had an influx of great pizza places open up. I was hoping that aPizza Doho would continue this trend. 

aPizza Doho took over the old Parallel Pizza spot open for business from 2018 to 2021 and was one of the numerous restaurants that did not survive the pandemic. The space sat vacant for close to a year, and like the former tenant, they are going for an East Coast-style pizza with an emphasis specifically on the pizza from Connecticut. Unlike its predecessor, aPizza Doho does not offer a clam pizza, but maybe that's for the best, even though I enjoyed it.  

The owner of this restaurant is Marcos Costas, a first-time restaurant owner but definitely not a stranger to the restaurant industry. He's been employed at Salt Creek Grill, Glasspar, French 75, Andrea Restaurant, Savanah Steak and Chop House, and others. Marcos is joined by cousins Anthony and Christopher Christian, who are co-owners and also have restaurant experience. While we were here, Marcos was very involved in the dining room operations, running food, introducing himself to each table, and ensuring things went smoothly. 

The aPizza Doho menu is what you'd expect from a pizza place. There are six appetizers, salads, three sandwiches, and what has brought most people here: pizza. Their pizzas are 15 inches, so they can easily feed two people or three if they are lighter eaters than Katie and me. They have a 10-inch personal pizza offered only for lunch that also comes with a salad. There are 10 featured pizzas, but they also have a build-your-own option. Pizzas will set you back anywhere from $19 to $28. We were famished, so we quickly ordered from our server and waited for our food to arrive. 

Our salads were out within five minutes. I went with my usual Caesar Salad ($15) selection. This version used a black kale and romaine mix topped with grated grana padano cheese and garlic bread crumbs. Maybe the menu did not mention the dressing because they used it sparingly. They could have used a heavier hand when applying some dressing. The lettuce was fresh, and I liked the inclusion of the bread crumbs, which added a nice bit of texture to this salad. 

Much better was Katie's choice, the Simple Salad ($12). This came with mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, gorgonzola, and an excellent spiced ranch dressing. Katie was generous enough to give me a bite of this, and after that bite, I wished she had wanted to trade salads. This was full of flavor. The gorgonzola and the pine nuts were excellent additions, but the dressing was the show's star. The salad was dressed perfectly, with just the right amount of ranch dressing covering each piece of lettuce. Very well done. 

Their appetizer offerings included meatballs, arancini, hummus, calamari, and these Zucchini Chips ($9). We picked these because we both got salads and wanted something on the light side to accompany our upcoming pizza. These are basically zucchini sliced thin and fried like a potato chip. They had a little crunch but were not seasoned enough with the promised sea salt. They might have been better with a creamy dipping sauce or their excellent ranch dressing.  

When I'm the one picking pizza, I usually gravitate towards the one with the most meat on it. Our server had suggested this Mia Mushroom Pizza ($25 plus $3 for adding sausage), and since I tasked Katie with choosing the pizza we would have this evening, she went with our server's recommendation. This pizza uses a rich garlic cream as its base and then builds on it with mushrooms, mozzarella, truffle oil,  pecorino romano, and plenty of arugula. I liked the crust well enough. It was crisp and light, with no soggy parts. For me, I'm all about the toppings. I enjoyed the way that the cheese, sausage, and mushrooms interacted. They were not trying to upstage each other, but rather, they were sharing the spotlight. I could have used more garlic cream, sausage, and cheese, but it was still a solid effort.  

Since we had a lighter appetizer and the pizza was more delicate than others, we had room for dessert. We had two choices: tiramisu or Banana Walnut Crumble ($8). You can see which we went with. This comprises sliced bananas in a banana pasty cream alternated with a walnut crumble in a small mason jar topped with whipped cream. It was okay, but it did not knock our socks off. It was not overly sweet, but I did like the unusual choice of the walnut crumble, which I assumed was the reason for the muted sweetness. 

aPizza Doho is another good pizza option for the people of South OC. Based on this visit, they sit just outside my top five pizza spots in South OC (Truly Pizza, Gibroni's, Brooklyn City Pizza, Terra Mia Pizza, and Lunitas Pizza are my current top 5). I look forward to a return visit to try more of their custom pizzas and to have that simple salad again. We experienced excellent service on this visit, as our server was warm and cordial but not too intrusive. A delicate balance to achieve. I found the prices here reasonable for a sit-down pizza place, primarily when one pizza will feed two, so you're paying only $13 per person. A steal in this economy. I hope 2024 will continue the trend of great pizza places opening up in South Orange County. 

Out of five phone books (because this restaurant is an homage to Connecticut pizza and the first phone directory was published in that state in 1878), five being best to zero being worst. aPizza Doho gets 3 phone books.  

For more information about aPizza Doho, check out their website by clicking here: https://apizzadoho.com/

Pacific Catch Opens in Tustin

 Pacific Catch

3040 El Camino Real

Tustin, CA 92782

I've been writing this blog for a long time when I have been to three restaurants at the same address. This is the case with this review. In the early days of my blog, this location was home to a Black Angus. That restaurant was torn down to the studs, rebuilt, and turned into Bonefish Grill. They had a nearly five-year run before they closed their only California restaurant. The space sat vacant during the COVID years but has been reborn as Pacific Catch. 

Pacific Catch is a fourteen-unit seafood chain restaurant founded twenty years ago, with a significant presence in Northern California. The only other Southern California location is in La Jolla. Still, I've heard rumblings of two or more OC restaurants opening soon and one in Santa Monica. Good news for seafood lovers. 

They call themselves a West Coast fish house, but a Pacific Rim fish house might be more appropriate. With a quick glance at their menu, you will find influences from Japan, Hawaii, Korea, Mexico, and more dotted across the page. The menu includes starters, sushi offerings, mix-and-match entrees, bowls, tacos, and sandwich options. Starters range between $9 to $27, while entrees go from $15 for an ahi burger all the way up to $59 for a mixed seafood grill for two. 

We arrived at Pacific Catch on a recent Thursday at the peak dinnertime of 6pm and were met with a bustling restaurant. We had made reservations, so we got seated right away. This dining room seems much lighter now from when it was Bonefish Grill. Natural light pours through the large windows and the skylight in the dining room. A very relaxed and peaceful atmosphere plays into the island vibe they have going on here. Our order was promptly taken, and we were excited about our first experience at Pacific Catch.  

I don't usually get a drink when we eat out, preferring to save room for more food, but the island vibe I was getting from this restaurant drew me to the Mai Tai ($14). This was a very high-quality mai tai, not made from a mix. This beverage had a smooth feel with three kinds of rum, lime juice, and a housemade mixture of papaya, orange, and guava. I enjoyed this because it was not too sweet and made me feel like I was in the tropics. Very well done. 

When you check out the Pacific Catch Yelp page or look at other tables while dining here, you'll see just how popular this Pupu Platter ($27) is. Every table near us ordered one. This platter changes slightly with the seasons, but when we were here, it featured coconut shrimp, guaca-poke, two pork belly musubi, blistered shishito peppers, and a spicy cucumber banchan. My favorite of these items was the guaca-poke. The yellowfin ahi was dressed with their sesame-soy marinade, which was not too overpowering, so it let the ahi shine through. The guacamole was an excellent accompaniment. I have a love-hate relationship with coconut shrimp, as I usually find the breading way too overwhelming, so you can not taste the shrimp underneath it. That is not the case here. The outer coating was light, yet crispy, and did not need too much of the provided Thai sweet chili sauce. I popped many shishito peppers in my mouth, served with an addictive wasabi aioli. The pork belly musubi did not do it for me. I found it lackluster, and I'm a pork belly fan. It needed to be more prevalent, as the teriyaki glaze covering it, along with some grilled pineapple, sabotaged the richness of the pork. The cucumber was okay but not spicy, and we left most of that alone to focus on the more substantial items of this platter. 

Katie was excited to try the Sushi Bombs ($5 each). These are other items that I do not see on their current menu, so this may also be a seasonal item. We went with the original ahi poke and the serrano ahi poke versions of these. The tuna is encased in a sweet-soy inori pocket with some sushi rice. I enjoyed the relatively large size but found the original one too bland. Some soy sauce or another sauce would have helped liven things up with this. The Serrano version was better as it was dressed up more, and the slight spiciness awoke my taste buds. A much better pick.

Most seafood restaurants offer a mix-and-match menu, where you pick the kind of fish you want and the style and sides you'd like to complete your meal. At Pacific Catch, they call theirs the fresh catch meal. Out of the five types of fish offered when we were here, Katie selected the Kanpachi Yellowtail ($32). I was struck by the portion size of this cut of yellowtail. She picked the Asian chimichurri to top the fish and kimchi fried rice with a sunny-side-up egg and Mexican elote corn as her sides. Katie felt the yellowtail was cooked perfectly, moist, and tender. She was also a big fan of the chimichurri, which bursts with flavor. She enjoyed the uniqueness of the kimchi fried rice but felt that the elote fell flat in the flavor department, with only the pickled onion adding any taste. 

As usual, when eating in a restaurant for the first time, I get as many items on one plate as possible. That meant it would be the Korean Surf and Turf Platter ($35) for me this evening. As has been the case for most of this review, this is not on the current Pacific Catch menu, but it may come around again. It included grilled skirt steak, prawns, kimchi fried rice, glazed shitake mushroom, edamame, kimchi, and cucumber banchan. The skirt steak was nicely cooked to my desired preference of medium rare, with a simple marinade giving it a flavor boost. The prawns were large and filling. For the sides, I really enjoyed the kimchi fried rice with the sunny-side-up egg that bound everything together. The rest of the sides were filler. The glazed mushrooms and edamame, the pickled carrots and ginger, and the spicy cucumbers were okay but were not really anything that made me swoon. They were all boring. 

Our server was excited about these Crispy Dulce De Leche Spring Rolls ($12), so we tried them. I was not a fan. The cheesecake filling was very dense inside the spring roll, and it was hard to eat with a fork, so I just picked it up and ate it that way. The dulce de leche gelato and the caramel sauce were my favorite parts, but not enough to get this again. I'd go for the hula brownie sundae or their malasadas the next time I visited. 

Pacific Catch was hit-and-miss for me this evening. I feel that I really just ordered the wrong things. I should have gone the more seafood route with my entree and gone with my gut about our choice of dessert. On my next trip here, I'd veer towards their fish and chips, mixed seafood grill, or the mix-and-match fish option. The service we encountered at Pacific Catch was first-rate. Everyone was so cheerful, and the food was brought out promptly. I'm glad this address is active again after Bonefish Grill closed. We definitely need more seafood restaurants to choose from. 

For more information about Pacific Catch, head to their website by clicking here: https://pacificcatch.com/

** We were provided this meal for free in exchange for an honest review of their service/food. No other compensation was received. 

Making Out Like a Bandido in Tustin

Tacos El Bandido Express

13812 Newport Ave. 

Tustin, CA 92780

I usually take my nieces out to dinner once a year for their birthdays. This was not my niece Kaylie's birthday. We took her to dinner this time because she would be leaving with her church to visit the Philippines for two weeks. She had never left the country before, and we wanted to wish her well and learn about her upcoming trip. I asked her what she wanted, and she suggested tacos. She must have great taste in food, just like her uncle. I looked up places in the middle of where we both live, and the one that stood out to me the most was Tacos El Bandido Express. 

To tell you the truth, I don't know much about this place other than they have a very respectable 4-star rating on Yelp, and they opened in December of 2021. There's a food truck that is located on Garden Grove Boulevard that is named Tacos El Bandido. They use the same logo and have similar menus, so they might be related. There's no website listed for either place, so I'll assume they are somehow related.  

We arrived at this blink, and you'll miss it strip mall at 4pm on a recent Sunday. The best landmark I can give you is that El Bandido is across from Wahoo's, at the corner of Walnut and Newport Avenue. There are wanted posters above the register featuring large pictures of most of their menu items, which is helpful for indecisive eaters like my niece Kaylie. 

The menu is varied, and they offer descriptions of everything in both English and Spanish. One portion of their menu is dedicated to the hottest trend right now, birria. The menu does not clarify whether this is goat or beef birria, but as you'll later see, we can confirm that it's birria de res, also known as beef. There's a menu board of specialty items and another one listing the options for their tacos, burritos, tortas, and flour and corn quesadillas. Nine kinds of meats are offered, ranging from asada and carnitas to the more adventurous lengua, cabeza, and the always delicious suadero (beef) taco. Lots of options, so we quickly ordered and waited less than ten minutes before our food was ready. Let's see if this place would be an excellent send-off for Kaylie. 

It's not the most authentic of dishes, but I have been on a real Asada Fries ($10) kick lately. This version was straightforward, with pinto beans, cheese, pico de gallo, asada, guacamole, and sour cream topping the fries. I loved that they used crinkle-cut fries because they stay crispy longer than regular fries. The asada was seasoned well and was another standout. These fries could have been balanced out with some extra cheese and guacamole added to the mix. They were layered well, and I'd get them again. 

Katie is a big fan of birria and an even bigger devotee of Ramen Birria ($10). I used to think this mashup was just a fad, but it's pretty good. I should have had Katie lift some of the noodles with her spoon for the picture, but you'll just have to trust me that there is ramen in this rather large bowl. The birria was hearty and went well with the provided noodles. Katie calls this dish comforting and looks forward to the cooler days ahead when she can see this dish heating her up against the arctic chill that winter in Southern California can sometimes provide. 

Keeping the birria train running, we also ordered this Quesadilla Birria ($9.50). This is my favorite way to eat birria besides a quesa birria taco. The corn tortilla was handmade and provided a sturdy structure for the plentiful birria and cheese housed inside. It was not the easiest thing to eat, but it was satisfying. I should have opted for some consome to dip this in. Next time, I will know better. 

Here's a quick shot of the cavalcade of tacos we ordered this early evening. They have eight meat options, and these street-style tacos are priced at a modest $2 each. They drop to $1.50 if you eat here on a Tuesday. They are very reasonable, and they come with two corn tortillas and are dressed simply with some avocado sauce. Onions, cilantro, and red and green salsa are available at the salsa bar on the left-hand side of where you order. Let's see which tacos I liked the best. 

My first three tacos were Carnitas, Asada, and Pastor ($2 each). Each of these was very solid. I loved the pastor with its little chunks of pineapple, adding bursts of flavor with the marinated pork. The asada, like on the fries, was seasoned well but was more tender than what was on the fries. The carnitas were good, but I would have liked more variety in the carnitas. I like it when you have different textures of the shredded pork. Still, not a bad taco out of the bunch. 

For my last taco, the one on the left, I tried their Suadero Taco ($2). For those of you unaware, suadero is a brisket taco. It's cooked in its own fat until it becomes melt-in-your-mouth tender. The one here at El Bandido was very tender and not a taco to be missed. I've now made it my mission to order a suadero taco at every place I visit that offers one. I want to raise awareness of how delicious suadero is. The carnitas taco on the right was not mine, but I may have helped Katie finish it after she was too full from slurping down her birria ramen. 

I really enjoyed our visit to Tacos el Bandido Express. Everything we had was very good, and the prices were very modest, a combination you don't often find. Even though we were here at the early dinner hour of 4pm on a Sunday, this place was busy and had a good, consistent flow of customers during our stay. Even though a sign alerted guests that they made their food to order, so it might take a little longer to get their meals, we did not find that they took any longer than we had expected. I foresee plenty of return visits here in the next few months. 

Out of five locomotives (because one of the most famous bandits in history is Jesse James, a man who is presumed to have robbed at least 20 trains in his time), five being best to zero being worst, Tacos El Bandido Express gets 3 locomotives. 

As I mentioned before, Tacos El Bandido Express does not have a website, so for all the latest information about them, click here to check out their Yelp page: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-el-bandido-express-tustin

A Pizza Spot to Good to Be True?

 Truly Pizza

24402 Del Prado Ave. 

Dana Point, CA 92629

I will give you a little behind-the-scenes peek at the food blogging/Instagram world. The more followers a person has, the greater the chance they are being paid to visit or promote the restaurant they are showcasing. This leads many top food influencers to over-inflate what they may think of a restaurant. The tell-tell sign of this is when they say something is the "best of my life" or "this is perfect."  I hear these phrases constantly while scrolling through Instagram, and these phrases lose their value after so many instances. 

My policy for my blog and social media posts is to always honestly convey what I think of a restaurant. Even though I have a very modest following on social media, I get invited to some restaurants for a free meal, but I only give them a rating once I return and pay for a meal. I want my brand to be more of a reference point for all of you instead of a commercial for whatever restaurant invites us in for dinner. That's why 946 of my 1088 posts on this blog do have a rating attached to them. 

I bring this up because, yes, we got invited to Truly Pizza in Dana Point for their media event before they opened. What follows will feel like I'm gushing about this restaurant, and I am. Since our initial visit, I have been pleading with anyone I encounter that they must try this place, and I've gotten three Truly Pizza gift cards for people. So, yes, I will shower affection on Truly Pizza, but it's not because we got a free meal. It's because it's excellent. 

Truly Pizza opened in June and was an instant hit. They had wait times of over 2 hours for walk-ins on weekends and peak meal times. Their reservations were booked solid, and they had to suspend online reservations briefly. They are back now, and as I'm writing this four months after their opening date, online reservations have become more accessible, which is great for pizza lovers in Dana Point and the surrounding area. 

It's not really surprising that people have flocked to this restaurant. The team behind this spot has an excellent pedigree. John Arena collaborated with longtime friend and hospitality industry veteran Donna Baldwin and her developer partner Steve Muller to co-found Truly Pizza. John is a third-generation pizza maker who brought New York-style pizza to the people of Las Vegas with great acclaim. Rounding out the team and helming the kitchen at Truly Pizza is Chris Decker, a renowned pizza champion and a new resident of Dana Point. 

They have created a menu that will not overwhelm you with too many choices, but most people will find something to satisfy their cravings. There are four starters and a quintet of salads to start your meal. Two sandwiches are available for the two people out there who are not fans of pizza. Speaking of pizza, there are two types to choose from at Truly. They have their round 12-inch American artesian, which they describe as crispy and airy. There's also a square pizza reminiscent of Detroit-style pizza but with a much lighter touch. Prices for pizzas range between $17 to $30 and can easily feed three people with no leftovers to be taken home. Let's look at the food that got me hot and bothered since I had it a few months ago. 

I know I promised food, but I wanted to give you a glimpse into the atmosphere that Truly Pizza has created. We were seated upstairs with a beautiful view of the surrounding Lantern District of Dana Point. The faux lemon lattice above us provided a garden feel to the setting. Downstairs, the dominant feature is the glass-enclosed kitchen, which gives an excellent view of the hardworking kitchen staff creating pizzas and other menu items. Now, I promise, here's a look at the food.  

We started things off at Truly with two salads and a starter. Katie selected the Salumi Chopped Salad ($22) to begin with. This salad uses little gem lettuce and Calabrian chili vinaigrette as a dressing. The dressing had a tinge of spice to it, which played well with the rest of the ingredients of this salad. The high-quality soppressata and sliced salami were plentiful and joined in the bowl with red onion, fresh mozzarella cubes, shaved fennel, beans, and olives. Katie called this a meal in itself and would not hesitate to get this salad again. I had the popular Dana Point Wedge ($18). This version of a wedge starts with iceberg lettuce portioned into six stacks of easy-to-manage lettuce and then is complemented with candied pecans, dates, shaved egg, chives, red onion, smoked bacon, cracked black pepper, Point Reyes blue cheese, and finished off with their unbelievably good herby ranch. Yes, the produce was fresh, and the inclusion of the pecans and dates made this their own, but their incredible ranch dressing really set this apart. It stole the show here and ruined me for the bottled stuff I use because I'm too lazy to make my own. This wedge is a must-get. 

We added the Garlic Pull Apart Bread ($12) as a last-minute addition to our order. It's baked in a cast iron skillet and is topped with garlic, butter, and a sprinkling of Romano cheese. I could have used more garlic on this, but I always favor plenty of extra garlic. The rolls were nicely done, with a crunchy outer shell and pillowy soft bread underneath. These were made even better when we asked for some ranch to dip them in. 

Pizza Time! I've never really been into supreme pizzas, preferring to go for pizzas with the most meats and leave the vegetables for someone else. Our server and Katie talked me into getting this beautifully presented Suprema Pizza ($30). This square pizza came with roasted mushrooms and peppers, cup and char pepperoni, sausage, garlic confit, and a spicy giardiniera resting on a whole milk mozzarella and a red sauce underneath it all. I'm not a crust guy at all. I almost always leave the crust alone, but the crust here at Truly Pizza is light and airy, and I found myself eating all of it. The toppings are of the highest quality and yield no grease whatsoever. I love the cup pepperoni, as it has a great crunch to it. I thought the giardiniera would overpower here, but it went well with the other toppings. Katie and I could have finished this pizza, but I wanted a few pieces for the next day to see how it would hold up. The next day, it was just as good, even heated up in the microwave. I have my eye on their Crispy Pepperoni or their La Foresta pizza, featuring sausage, mushroom, and ricotta, for my follow-up visits. 

A sweet treat to end your meal at Truly is a great idea, as I watched table after table trying their house-made Soft Serve Ice Cream ($8). They rotate their flavors, but they had the classic chocolate and vanilla when we were here. You can choose one topping, picking between olive oil and sea salt, sprinkles, grape nuts, chocolate sauce, Oreo crumbles, or pistachios. I had the vanilla chocolate swirl with olive oil and sea salt. The contrast between the sweet and salty was a nice balance. Katie got straight chocolate with grape nuts because it reminded her of her childhood. I liked the added texture that the grape nuts brought.  

Hopefully, this blog post will entice you to try Truly Pizza. People are really partial to the kinds of pizza they like, whether it's New York, Detroit, Chicago, or any other type of pizza that is popular at any given moment. I would characterize this pizza as Californian, with its fresh and high-quality toppings, light crust, and unique topping combinations. I definitely got the sense that they pay attention to every detail here and want to showcase their pizzas and other items' greatness. It shows in the pride that they emit when complimented about their restaurant. I will be back soon to do a proper review when we pay for our meal, but honestly, I can't imagine not being impressed with Truly Pizza on my next visit. 

For more information about Truly Pizza, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.trulypizza.com/