Spicy Lao in Garden Grove Brings on the Laotian Funk

You'd need all your fingers and toes to count the number of Thai restaurants in Orange County, but up until a few weeks ago you only needed only one: Vientiane. There may be Thai restaurants and markets that offer a smattering of Laotian dishes,...

For this list of ten great Thai restaurants, not only have I included those from Long Beach (a non-OC city that's always been under this paper's jurisdiction), but also some Thai-Cambodian, some Thai-Laotian, and even a Thai-sushi hybrid, because...

Chicken satay at Banana Leaf Kitchen Photo by Shannon Aguiar In every part of Banana Leaf Kitchen’s name, there’s truth in advertising. As it’s first and foremost a takeout joint designed for GrubHub orders, the Huntington Beach eatery’s kitchen...

Youthful and energetic, Musky Bilavarn ping-pongs around his small Laotian restaurant, Kra Z Kai’s in Corona, like a dervish: There he is manning the gas grill in the kitchen, there he is taking a phone order at the counter, there he is refilling...

Kra Z Kai's BBQ   

As we say goodbye to October, we say hello to November, the holidays, and the restaurants that opened in the month that's past in our usual round-up. There were a lot of openings that we wrote about last month. There was, of course, more poke...