Review: Landers brings its country-punk attitude to San Clemente

Upon my first trip to El Mahroosa Cafe N Hookah Lounge, I had a choice. Do I sit in the stark white room under harsh fluorescent lights, or do I make my way to the covered patio? It was clear. No one sits in the front room. Everyone, even if...

Photo by Morgan Edwards When the server brought the bread to the table, I at first thought it was a giant pita. The puffy half-moon sat upright in a narrow wicker basket and was as large as a woman’s purse. Next to the basket was a saucer of olive...

Photo by Edwin Goei I was 20 when I first discovered Peruvian cuisine. It was at a restaurant called El Pollo Inka in Lawndale, and a friend who’d snagged a job at Northrop Grumman in nearby El Segundo had told me about it. Everyone in her office...

“Havana, ooh na-na.” As it had been all morning, Camila Cabello’s earworm was stuck in my brain as I walked toward the new Habana in Irvine Spectrum. But as soon as I entered the restaurant, it was as though I went through a wormhole. I wasn’t in...

Russ Bendel, the restaurateur behind the excellent Vine in San Clemente and sublime Ironwood in Laguna Hills, uses the three-worded slogan “Cellar. Craft. Cook” to describe his wine-country-cuisine concept. But as he debuts Olea in Newport Beach,...