Review: Garlic & Chives by Kristin in Little Saigon reconfigures the familiar in startling new ways

Garden Grove's Garlic & Chives is a small-plates Vietnamese restaurant that plays with the familiar in tantalizing ways. Be sure to try the toothpick lamb and deep-fried salmon belly.

Jonathan Gold • Los Angeles Times • September 4, 2015

Here we are at the Mall of Fortune, the vast strip mall that many people consider the heart of Vietnamese Garden Grove. There are sprawling noodle complexes, a crowded bakery and a seven-courses-of-beef restaurant that seems as large as a soccer...

The full article can be read on the Los Angeles Times website.

Garlic & Chives Is Little Saigon's Latest Hotspot

Edwin Goei • OC Weekly • February 18, 2015

If Little Saigon were Vegas, Bolsa Avenue would be its Fremont Street, and the intersection of Westminster Boulevard and Brookhurst Street would be where Las Vegas Boulevard meets Flamingo Road. The corner is arguably one of the busiest and...

Restaurant review: Bowled over by the Bashu fish at Fang's Kitchen

Jonathan Gold • Los Angeles Times • February 6, 2015

Water-boiled fish is one of the most impressive dishes in the Sichuan repertoire: an enormous bowl of vegetables and broth bloodied with a half-inch of vivid chile oil. At Fang’s Kitchen, the sleek new Chengdu-style Sichuan restaurant in Monterey...

Review: 20 great Orange County options for Chinese takeout and delivery

Brad A. Johnson • Orange County Register • May 14, 2020

We won’t be queuing up like sardines to squeeze into Din Tai Fung again anytime soon. But we can still eat great dumplings. And dandan. And barbecue duck. While a few of Orange County’s top Chinese restaurants have closed temporarily (Fu Wing Low...

100 Favorite OC Dishes, #7: Family-Style Dinner at Mai's Kitchen

Edwin Goei • OC Weekly • October 13, 2016

Until I'm lucky enough to be invited by a Vietnamese family to their home for dinner, Mai's Kitchen is, to my knowledge, the only restaurant in Orange County that specializes in Vietnamese family-style home cooking. These are meals that consist of...

Szechuan Impression skewers all expectations

Jonathan Gold • Los Angeles Times • October 31, 2014

Bobo chicken, at least as interpreted at Szechuan Impression, is a party in a pot, a ceramic pot that strongly resembles a novelty St. Patrick’s Day hat, half-filled with chile-laced broth and with long bamboo skewers sticking up from the vessel...