A Piece of Havana on Harbor Boulevard - CLOSED

Moros Cuban Restaurant

1299 South Harbor Blvd. 

La Habra, CA 90631

Yes, it's been a long time since we made it to OC's most northwestern city—the Seattle of the OC if you will. When most people think of La Habra, they almost always question me that this city is not actually in Orange County. Yes, this city contracts with the Los Angeles County Fire Department for fire protection, but trust me, La Habra is in OC.

We had not come this way in over four years when we made our maiden voyage here to visit one of the best burger spots anywhere, G Burger. On this trip, we visited my parents, who live in Yorba Linda, and we all craved Cuban food. A quick search of Yelp brought us to Moros Cuban Restaurant.

Moros is celebrating their 5th anniversary of being in business this year. That's a significant milestone in the challenging restaurant business. Located in a nondescript strip mall, the big draws appear to be a Pizza Hut and Cask and Hammer, an interesting-looking dive bar; this fifth anniversary is even more impressive here, where if you blink driving up Harbor, you might miss this place.

Their website describes their restaurant as a modern take on Cuban cuisine influenced by Spanish and Latin cooking. The kitchen and this restaurant are helmed by Sean Saafan, an Egyptian who moved to New York at 19, attended the French Culinary Institute, and graduated top of his class. This is a pretty impressive resume, and it made us very excited to try the food at Moros.

We arrived at Moros just before 6pm on a recent Saturday. It was not a big place, and I was worried that we would have a long wait, but we just had to wait for one of the 12 tables to be cleared, and we were seated. There's no hostess stand here, and when you walk in, you see the steam tables used for their Sunday buffet. You think you ordered at the counter, but it's waiter service here. Lots of bright colors adorn the space, and the smells from the kitchen really got our mouths watering. We hurriedly made our selections and waited for our food to come out.

Before our food hit the table, we were presented with these Rolls and Black Bean Dip. The rolls had a subtle sweetness, adding flavor to this excellent bean dip. The bean dip appears runny in the picture but has some texture. I ate my fair share of this.

Whenever I think empanadas, I always think of Argentina, but other countries also feature these portable meat-filled pies. Moros offers Beef or Chicken Empanadas ($5 for an order of three), so we had to try both. The better of the two was the beef version, but both suffered from a bland and almost dry outer shell. The chimichurri served with these helped a little bit, but more was needed. These were not filled with enough meat to overcome the outer shell. We'd skip these next time.

You must not skip these Papas Rellena ($5), though. These little balls of deliciousness were filled with ground beef and onions, then encased in mashed potatoes and fried—kind of like a bite-sized version of Sheppard's pie. They were served with a thin white sauce, which coated them well and added some extra flavor. It was a delicious appetizer.

Entrees are up next, and I was a little surprised with my sister's selection, the Churrasco ($19). I can't remember the last time I saw her order steak in a restaurant, so this was something rare, no pun intended. This skirt steak was done to her requested medium and was still pretty juicy and delicious. It came with grilled onions and chimichurri sauce. Skirt steak can sometimes be hit or miss, but this was a winner this evening. It also came with a mound of rice and some delicious plantains. My sister did not eat much of this but took the rest home and enjoyed it the next day.

I wanted to try one of their rice dishes here, but the menu states that they take 30 to 40 minutes, and I did not want everyone to wait for my food, so I went with this Lechon Asado ($14). This marinated pork came topped with onions and a mojo sauce. Some pieces were a little dry, but this was remedied by asking for extra mojo sauce. This was a good-sized portion and very good the next day. The rice here was good, but the plantains were better. Fried nicely and not overly sweet. Just the way I like them.

Both Katie and my mom got sandwiches, so we'll start with Katie's first, the Chicken Sandwich de Moros ($11). This sandwich also includes beef or pork, but Katie's always partial to chicken. The chicken was joined on the toasted bread with plenty of greens, tomato, and their secret sauce. Katie felt the chicken here was a little on the dry side, but she enjoyed the flakiness of the bread. She thought this was a decent chicken sandwich but did not think it was very Cuban. She'd get something else on her next visit here.

My mom is a sucker for Cubano Sandwiches ($11), so I was not shocked to see her order this. The Cuban sandwich is one of the most balanced and delicious sandwiches ever created. You have saltiness from the ham and pork, the tang from the mustard and pickles, the creaminess of the Swiss cheese, and a touch of sweetness from the bread they use. All these components make a pretty awesome sandwich, and this one at Moros was right up there. They use a lot of meat in this, a lot more than we are used to seeing in a Cuban sandwich. It could have been pressed together with a little more, but the abundance of meat probably prevented that. This was served with some long, steak-sized fries, which had a nice crispness to the outside. My mom is more partial to smaller fries but found these to be acceptable. A lot of food here, and half of it got packed away for my dad's lunch the next day.

Speaking of my dad, his entree was the last one to hit the table. It's always a crapshoot about what he will order, but he settled on this Camarones Al Ajillo Con Rum ($16). This shrimp dish with peppers and rum made my dad very happy. The waitress talked him into a lower spice level than he would have liked, but the flavors were still pretty stellar. The shrimp were cooked well, but the sauce made this dish for me. When it was mixed with the rice, it resembled a jambalaya. Very tasty and deceivingly filling.

Moros is different from any Cuban restaurant we have been to before. They definitely nailed what they are going for here, and that's a modern take on Cuban food. The flavors were bold, and some of the meats had some issues, but everything was excellent for the most part. The next time we are here, I'll invest the time and try one of their rice dishes, which looked and smelled terrific when brought out to nearby tables. The prices were more than fair for the amount of food you get here. Service was superb, with Diana taking care of our every need, even on this busy Saturday evening. Glad we made it up here to La Habra again, and it will definitely not be four years before we're back.

Out of five horses (because the La Habra Stakes is run at Santa Anita Park almost every year), five being best to zero being worst, Moros Cuban Restaurant gets 3 horses.

For information about Moros Cuban Restaurant, head to their website here: http://www.moroscubanrestaurant.com/#about

Not Wurst By A Long Shot

Wursthaus

305 East 4th Street #106

Santa Ana, CA 92701

I was pretty upset when I was leaving Wursthaus. Not upset with anything that happened inside this restaurant, it was more about wasted time. They recently celebrated their one-year anniversary, and I had yet to make it in for a visit. It took an invite from the great PR company, Ajenda Public Relations for me to get my butt in here, and I have been thinking about going back ever since.

Downtown Santa Ana has tons of great spots. There's of course 4th Street Market, with all of those great options, there's also Kutsi Cocina, Chapter One, C4 Deli, and I could go on and on, but Wursthaus is not to be overlooked when headed to this restaurant-rich area. Located on the corner of 4th and French Streets, between the Northgate Market and the Playground Restaurant, I was excited to see what they had waiting for us inside this red brick building.

What they have is a re-imagined German beer hall, without all the over-the-top frivolity of an Oktoberfest celebration. There are no hard-to-handle beer steins, no Oom Pah Pah band playing, and no shot girls in lederhosen, although I would not be opposed to this if they wanted to add this feature. Co-owners, Gabriel and Georgina Ruiz have updated the brew hall concept, with a backroom that features long communal tables, a wood-topped bar, and a nice mellow atmosphere.

As we arrived here at just after 5pm, it appears that this is a favorite of people for after-work beverages and food. There was a rather large group huddled in one corner, the bar seating was already pretty filled up, and as the night went along, the communal tables became exactly that, filled with people, strangers, and friends partaking in libations and in what the OC Weekly had voted the best hot dog in Orange County last year.

The ordering process can be a little intimidating here, but only because there are so many great options. First, you choose your sausage from the classic, gourmet, or exotic section of the menu. Next up is your choice of pretzel bun or a traditional grinder roll, and then you finish it off by adding toppings to your creation. Ordering is done at the front of the storefront and then delivered to you in the surprisingly large back room. Let's see how everything turned out for me and my good friend George on this evening.

Starting things off are a few of the beverage offerings available this evening. At Wursthaus they have 20 Belgian and German beers on tap, and more bottled. I'm by no means a beer expert, but the bartender was very open to allowing me to try a few samples until I found something that I liked. I eventually went with the Leffe Blonde ($5), which was one of their lighter offerings, and one that would not overpower the sausages I'd be having. George is not much into beer, so he enjoyed a Filbert's Watermelon Soda ($2.90). No fountain drinks here, but they had a nice selection of bottled drinks, and also for you coffee fiends out there, they also feature critically acclaimed Stumptown Coffee products.

The item I was most excited to try was the first one out of the kitchen for us, and it was also the one that I had heard the most about from Wursthaus, the Drunken Fries ($9.50). I'd describe these as Animal Style Fries on steroids. They start with a base of their very good Belgian fries, which are hand cut from Kennebec potatoes, then they are triple fried, to provide a good crispness while leaving a soft and tender inside them. These fries are then topped with IPA caramelized onions, a very tasty house andalouse sauce, and your choice of sausage. We went with the spicy Polish, which added a nice slow heat to this. This has been haunting my thoughts since my last visit here, it's that good. George really enjoyed the fries, calling them, "the best fries he has had."

George and I did two rounds of sausages here, and I started my sausage saga off with this Smoked Polish ($6.50). The sausage is the star of the show here, with a good amount of paprika present, along with a tinge of garlic to compliment the pork. I had mine topped with plenty of jalapenos to provide a slow burn. The pretzel bun here is pretty tasty, and it is sourced from a local Santa Ana bakery, Bread Artisan Bakery. Their stuff is always stellar, as was the case here at Wursthaus.

George's initial foray into sausage nirvana was this Gourmet Chicken Jalapeno Sausage ($7.50). He likes his stuff topped with sauerkraut and tri-colored peppers. He really enjoyed this, and for once he was quiet, which if you know George is kind of a rarity. I was pretty happy that there were six condiment choices on each table. Yes, five of them were a type of mustard, (Dijon, spicy, honey, American, and whole grain), but I always enjoy mixing and matching to find my perfect combination for each sausage.

For my second, and final sausage at Wursthaus, I selected this Smoked Cheddar IPA Bratwurst ($7.50). I kind of just ordered this on a whim, not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. It had a great snap to it, with a nice and meaty inside. The cheese here was not overly prevalent and allowed the natural flavor of the pork to come through. This went really well with the American mustard provided on the table. After having this, I also figured out that I'm more partial to the grinder rolls than the more bready pretzel rolls.

I was pretty surprised when George ordered this Smoked Hungarian ($6.50). I guess even after knowing someone for 26 years, you can still be surprised by something they do. Another pork-based sausage, which is spiced with garlic and paprika, this had George singing its praises. He loved the heartiness here, which went well with the slightly sweet caramelized onions. A very nice pairing, even if this is not the most photogenic food item ever.

Yes, it took a little nudge for us to make it into Wursthaus, but we will not need to be nudged again for our eventual second and subsequent visits. I have not been to Wurstkuche in LA, but I have been to Linx, Dog Haus, and Joe's, and this is right up there with those sausage titans. A number of their Yelp reviews mention the relaxed vibe here, and I think that's a fair assessment. Wursthaus is not trying to be too hipster, they are not really trying to be something they are not. They have cultivated a spot where you can hang out, enjoy some European beer, and have a sausage or two while enjoying your friend's company. A perfect fit for Downtown Santa Ana.

If you would like to experience Wursthaus for yourself, or for more information about Wursthaus, head to their website here: https://wursthaussantaana.com/

Returning Visit to Stubrik's Stekhouse

Stubrik's Steakhouse and Bar

118 East Commonwealth Avenue

Fullerton, CA 92832

I was looking over some of my older reviews, and was pretty embarrassed by some of the pictures I used in the early days of this blog. I know I'll never be a great photographer, but the camera I was using back six year ago looks like it maybe had two mega pixels, and the pictures looked even worse in low light.

One of those early reviews was for a place we were going to be eating for our good friend, Jamie's birthday. I felt this was a great opportunity to of course do an updated review, but also help me get over the sub-par pictures that I took of the food at Stubrik's Steakhouse in Downtown Fullerton.

Stubrik's has been one of the stalwarts in Fullerton for well over ten years. I don't even remember the first time I was here, but it was a long time ago. If I remember the story correctly, this place was opened by two friends, Stub and Rik, who worked in the restaurant business together, and then wanted to open up their own joint. They wanted a spot that was not overly stuffy, served good food, and at a relative value.

Located right next to the Fullerton Train Station, Stubrik's does have a laid back vibe. The restaurant is pretty dark, with lots of exposed red brick throughout the place, and an open ceiling revealing many wood beams. Towards the front of the house there's a bar that runs the length of the room, and near the back entrance, there's some comfy, secluded booths. I've never been upstairs, but I know there's a couple pool tables, and a lounge in this loft-like space.

The menu here is pretty diverse, and most people will have no problem finding something here to eat. There are of course a good number of steak options, along with seafood, chicken, and pasta dishes. Most entrees are in the mid twenty dollar range, with some cheaper, and some a little more expensive. Our party of ten finally all made it here after battling traffic on a recent Monday night, finding parking in this very crowded lot, and made some quick decisions on what to eat. Let's see if Stubrik's is still as great as we remember.

My best friend Chris, and his wife Adrienne are perennially late for almost everything, but they made it here just as our first appetizer hit the table. Very proud of you guys. First up was this Garlic Cheese Bread ($6). This sourdough loaf was nicely sliced, which enabled easy sharing, and was topped with garlic butter and cheddar cheese. This was an okay garlic cheese bread. The garlic was not as noticeable as I would have liked, and the bread needed more of a crunch to it. This one was a little too doughy for my taste.

Steak Fries ($5) were out next, and these were your basic, straight out of the bag french fries. Not bad, but nothing that would make you take notice. They were seasoned with salt and a little bit of pepper. These resembled the fries from Red Robin.

The birthday girl, Jamie does not eat meat, so this might explain why these appetizers were a little on the tame side. The trend continued with this Corn Bread ($6). This was a pretty average cornbread. One of the positive points is that this was not really crumbly, like a lot of our cornbread experiences we've had recently. Unfortunately, this was not very moist, and was kind of boring. It was only jazzed up a bit when slathered with the provided honey butter.

I don't know what it is about salads that have sunflower seeds included in them, but I'm starting to really like this trend. Entrees at Stubrik's come with your choice of soup or salad, and of course I went with this Traditional House Salad. Mixed greens, red onions, a pretty solid blue cheese dressing, and of course those sunflower seeds are included here. Fresh produce, the good flavor from the red onion, and the nutty essence of the sunflower seeds made this an above average dinner salad.

Not in the mood for a steak, Jamie's goofy brother Jake had this Meatloaf ($16).  He was even generous enough to give me a bite of this, and I have to admit it was pretty good, as far as meatloaf goes. The meatloaf here is topped with a wild mushroom sauce, which contained plenty of fungi. Very moist meatloaf, with a good sauce over it, made this a winner in my book. This came with some veggies, which were alright, but the scalloped potatoes shined here. Cooked crisp, with some real nice bark on the outside, and a tender inside, these were one of the better scalloped potatoes we have had. Not a bad dinner option when coming to Stubrik's.

Most of the rest of us had steaks at Stubrik's, but I was sitting at the end of the table, so I only got shots of mine and my friend Chris's plates. All of the steaks were basically the same looks wise, but Chris went big and had the 24 Ounce Porterhouse ($42). I had the 16 Ounce Ribeye ($29) served black and blue style, which means this steak was stuffed with dry blue cheese, and covered in a burgundy blue cheese sauce.  This is probably the way to get the steaks here, because these are not the best quality of steaks, and it kind of hides that fact. I understand that ribeyes have a good amount of fat included in them, it's a trade off for adding more flavor, but the one I had here was more fat than beef. The sauce is good, if you are a blue cheese fan, but the blue cheese is not as overpowering as you may think. The steaks here come with some veggies, and garlic mashed potatoes with gravy. The potatoes were devoid of any garlic flavor, and the gravy did not add much either. Maybe subbing the scalloped potatoes is the way to go instead.

Taken for what it is, Stubrik's is a pretty average steak house. If you come here expecting to be blown away by your steak, you will probably leave here disappointed. The steaks are better than the ones at Outback, but then again, which ones aren't. Stubrik's is probably in the same company as Black Angus and Lone Star Steakhouse. I thought the prices were a few dollars too much, for the quality of the beef you get here. Nothing on this trip really stood out as anything memorable, or something that we will definitely have to come back for. Service was pretty good, which is always a crap shoot when you are a party of ten. Our waitress was right on top of everything we needed. It was good getting together with our friends, and also good that we got to do an updated review and pictures of this place.

Out of five red hats, (because Fullerton is home to the founder of the Red Hat Society), five being best to zero being worst, Stubrik's gets 2.5 red hats.

For more information about Stubrik's, head to their website here: http://stubriks.com/

Hopping Along to LAX

Hopdoddy Burger Bar

830 North Sepulveda Blvd.

El Segundo, CA 90245

Yes, you guessed it, another trip up this way to take Chuck and Stephanie to LAX. For ardent readers of this blog, you already know they are flying off to North Carolina to see their grand kids for one of their 8 annual trips to the East Coast. With all of these trips up the 405 Freeway, we'd have run out of places to try, but just like OC, the South Bay always seems to have a new place opening up. This time, we sent Chuck and Steph off with a meal from Hopdoddy Burger Bar.

Hopdoddy is a burger chain from Austin, Texas, that just recently pushed into California. This chain established its first restaurant in 2010 and now has locations in Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and soon to be four spots in California. They have three already open and operating in the Golden State (Playa Vista, Newport Beach, and this one, El Segundo) and a coming soon sign hanging over Tustin. This South Bay location opened last August and has had some positive press, so the four of us were excited to try it.

I could sense Chuck's apprehension about us getting them to the airport on time when we pulled into this pretty busy shopping center on the corner of Sepulveda and Rosecrans. The shopping complex is called The Point, and its anchor stores are all pretty hip and include restaurants like True Food Kitchen, North Italia, and Mendocino Farms. Chuck's high anxiety about leaving here on time was not warranted because we almost walked up to the counter at Hopdoddy.

As you are waiting in line to order your food here, you are assigned a table by a hostess. I like this system, as it prevents people from staking out a table before they even order, which is one of my pet peeves. I felt this system helped the flow of customers, but this is one of the biggest complaints about this restaurant online.

The menu here is, of course, burger-driven, but there are three salad options for the two of you who are not into burgers. There are 15 burgers to choose from here, one of which includes a special burger, which is rotated frequently. Burgers run the gamete from beef, bison, lamb, chicken, turkey, tuna, and a black bean corn patty for non-meat eaters. There are also a few sides and a wider variety of shakes available. This menu brings to mind the one we experienced at Shake Shack in Vegas. Let's see if we'll like this place as much as we enjoyed that New York-based restaurant chain.

We started with these Green Chili Queso Fries ($6.75). The fries here are made with Kennebec potatoes, and tasted pretty fresh. They were fried well, with the absence of any grease. I would have liked them bigger because we had to dip them into the green chili queso dip. This dip had a slight punch, and I liked it. It resembled more of a soup than a dip, but maybe that's because I could have seen myself eating this with a spoon. It was that good.

We tried the Truffle Fries ($6.95) at Hopdoddy as if we did not have enough fries. These were not as good as the ones above. Yes, the fries were the same, but the truffle flavor failed to shine for us. Also, without grease, the Parmesan and green onion slid off these fries relatively easily and collected on the bottom of the basket. Stick with the green chili queso fries.

It was burger time, and up first was Katie's selection, the Magic Shroom ($9.75). This burger starts with an Angus beef patty and is then topped with goat cheese, mushrooms, tomato, mayo, basil pesto, white onion, and red-leaf lettuce. Katie really enjoyed how all these toppings played well with each other. The burger was juicy, and you can definitely tell that they grind their beef daily here. It's a very fresh-tasting burger and one that she'd get again.

Whenever we eat with Stephanie, she always scans the menu for the items with some heat behind them. That's probably why she got the ominously named El Diablo Burger ($9,25). Again, the Angus beef patty is in play here and is outfitted with pepper jack cheese, habanero and, serrano chilies, caramelized onions, salsa roja, and chipotle mayo. As is the case with most items she tries, she claims that it could have been hotter, but she did appreciate the heat that was there. Stephanie did make quick work of this burger, but that's probably because old man Chuck was prodding her under the table to hurry up, as they only had two hours until their flight.

Speaking of old man Chuck, he wanted a burger that reminded him of his boyhood, and since they didn't have dinosaurs on the menu here, he settled on this basic Classic Burger ($8). This basic model, with added cheddar cheese, also came with tomato, lettuce, and sassy sauce, and their house spread was made up of mayo, mustard, and horseradish. Not as strong as I was expecting, I rather enjoyed this sauce. Chuck was impressed with his burger, calling it one of the best he's had in awhile.

I had difficulty deciding what burger to have here, but ultimately went with the Terlingua Burger ($9.50). This burger had a meaty chili, cheddar cheese, Frito's, and sassy sauce. I did a little digging and found out why they call this burger the Terlingua. There's a chili cook-off every year in Terlingua, Texas, on the first Saturday of November. Still determining if this chili would win there, but this was a superb burger. The chili had a mild flavor, the Fritos added some crunch, and the Tillamook cheddar is always one of my favorites on a burger. The buns here are freshly made every day and do an excellent job of standing up to the insides of this burger. I would have liked more sauce on this, but that would be my only complaint with this burger.

The burgers at Hopdoddy are not going to wow you with their size. We all left here satisfied, but not overly stuffed. The burgers are a little bigger than the ones at Umami, but what they lack in girth, they more than makeup for with flavor. We all really enjoyed these, and would come back here in a heartbeat. I look forward to checking out our Hopdoddy at Fashion Island soon. I thought the prices were manageable here, but if you are hesitant to pay ten dollars for a burger, this might not be your spot. Service was good on this visit. The guy who brought our food to the table checked on us frequently and even got Chuck a refill on his drink, saving his arthritic hip a few steps. If we ever run out of spots to hit up when driving these two to the airport, we would definitely visit here again.

Out of five bats (because Hopdoddy started in Austin, Texas, in 2010, and one of that city's biggest attractions is watching over one million of these flying mammals fly out from under a bridge in search of that night's dinner), five being best to zero being worst, Hopdoddy Burger Bar gets 3.5 bats.

For more information about Hopdoddy Burger Bar, go to their website here: http://www.hopdoddy.com/