Top Pan Asian Restaurant in Santa Ana
Pick Up Stix Fresh Asian Flavors
2801 W MacArthur Blvd Suite D, Santa Ana, CA 92704, United States
It has been a while since Ive been to a Pick Up Stix. 12 years? Anywho, I remember it being better. Was it? It could have been, it was a different location.It wasnt the cleanliness or service that disappointed me. The place is clean and the employees were nice.The food quality was good, nothing under or over cooked. So thats great, so far so good.The problem was the food was rather bland and this with something they defined as spicy. That doesnt seem like something that should vary from location to location. So it must have been bland way back when, I just forgot.If you like bland, this is your place! Otherwise move along unless you have people in your group that think Bushs baked beans are very spicy.
Pick Up Stix Fresh Asian Flavors
5576 E Santa Ana Canyon Rd, Anaheim, CA 92807, United States
*Update*After giving them a year to sort out their issues I tried to order from their website directly. Once again, second order in a row, they left out an entire item so I once again didnt get to eat with my family.Dont order more than 1 thing if you want to eat dinner the night you order it. I am very disappointed with their customer service skills. I placed my order online and picked it up. Once I got home I found out that I was shorted my beef meal. I called the restaurant and asked to talk to the manager. After 15 min on hold I hung up and called back and was put on hold for 2 more minutes before I could even say 1 word. When I called back again and asked to not be put on hold because I cant listen to the recording after hearing it 750 times and would rather listen to the counter. The phone was passed to Erica who said she wasnt the Manger but was in charge and would ask that they refund me in 3 business days for the beef meal. No offer to deliver the food or even apologized for leaving it out. I understand mistakes can happen but when they add all the mis-steps in this one order experience it shows that either nobody at this location has pride in doing their job well and/or were never properly trained which is a failure of management. Either way this place is currently a huge let down compared to the Placentia location.
Top other services in Santa Ana:
DIN KY RESTAURANT
5127 W Edinger Ave Suite D, Santa Ana, CA 92704, United States
**Din Ky Restaurant Review: A Mixed Experience**Din Ky Restaurant offers a range of Vietnamese dishes with a mixed experiences.The highlight of the menu, the Hu tieu, stands out as the better option among the offerings. Its flavorful broth and well-cooked noodles elevate the dish to a satisfying level.However, the Pho Ap Chao and Mien xao hai san leave much to be desired. While passable, they fall short of expectations, lacking the depth of flavor and texture one might hope for in such Vietnamese staples.One notable downside is the long wait times to have food served and to pay with cashier observed at the restaurant, especially during peak hours, which can make the overall dining experience less enjoyable.While Din Ky Restaurant shows promise with its Hu tieu, improvements are needed.
DTTN 2.0
220 E 4th St #102, Santa Ana, CA 92701, United States
First time here and what an amazing experience. The service was absolutely wonderful. Elizabeth was a delight. She checked on us regularly and made sure every dish came out to our liking. Im not a huge fan of alcohol, but I do occasionally like a very light and refreshing libation. When I asked regarding drinks that would be low in alcohol and refreshing to the taste, she made sure to have the bartender whip up something close to what I was looking for. I ended up with a pineapple coconut passion fruit concoction with just the right amount of rum where I could feel it, but not taste it. Her level of attention immediately jump-started our evening on a high note and it only kept getting better.My husband and I ordered the Hokkaido milk bread and butter and it was heavenly. The bread was crispy on the outside, warm and fluffy on the inside, and a creamy taste. The butter accompanying the bread was rich and creamy and had a sweetness to it that complimented the creaminess of the bread.We then ordered the slow-roasted Japanese yam, which was beautiful in flavors and in plating. Yams are incredible on their own, but the brown butter soy lime emulsion had a sharp refreshing flavor that balanced out the heavy starchiness of the yams. The gai-lan were tender and salted perfectly and added a bit of crunch for texture. Beautiful.For entrees, my husband ordered the mozzazo rigatoni. The menu described it as if cacio di pepe and carbonara had a baby, and let me tell you, that baby was absolutely divine. Its probably the best pasta Ive had in years. The creamy pasta was bursting with flavors and spices that just worked amazing together.For my own entree, I ordered the wagyu skirt steak lomo soltado. Now, my husband and I frequent a few Peruvian restaurants. Detentions lomo soltado just blew every single other one weve tried out of the water. The wagyu was cooked perfectly medium and the level of heat was perfect. I enjoy spicy food, but I also like to enjoy my food, so I dont like the spiciness to affect the taste of my food. They got that balance just right for me. My husband and I got our own entrees, but we split them half and half and neither of us could decide which we liked better. They were both amazing but their flavors were so wildly different we just loved them for what they were.And then there was the sticky toffee pudding. Holy toffee-loving heck. I have not put something that delicious in my mouth since my MIL took me to Addisons for my birthday. My mind was blown. The pudding itself was not sweet at all allowing for the toffee sauce to shine without overpowering the sweetness. The whipped cream they served with it was salted. SALTED!! So you get a salty-sweet flavor when you top your bite with whipped cream. The way they balanced the flavors in this one dessert was absolutely genius. You have a dense, spiced cake with minimal sweetness, a beautiful toffee sauce full of delicious flavor, and a bit of saltiness to cut the sweetness when it gets too intense.Overall, the experience was perfect. Excellent service and the atmosphere was great! Im so glad they do not crank their music up so you cant hear each other. That seems to be a trend, but the music here was loud enough to hear, but not to overpower conversations. This place really checked every single box for service, food, and atmosphere. We will definitely need to come back here again.
Baja Fish Tacos
3664 S Bristol St, Santa Ana, CA 92704, United States
This place has all the makings of a star. Easily one of my favorite places to grab lunch. 4 stars for raising their prices.Tip: call ahead, the lines to order, get drinks, salsa and eat are long and the parking lot is a bit of a cluster F.Ive spent a fair bit of time in Baja so I can say as far as authenticity its a vague word to use in description as a style of food. Its not wrong, but its not accurate. The Ensenada style fish taco is what everyone knows and due to the name and origins associate a whole slew of food to be Baja style which it isnt necessarily.Im not a salad guy, but their unwrapped burrito is so good it makes me not want to return to work. Granted I dont want to in the 1st place, but its a game changer. Champagne vinaigrette, well marinated steak, rabanos, red onion slivers, cheese, guacamole, romaine lettuce, corn. The dressing isnt very sweet or tart, but its smooth and densely flavored, a bit strong at the end. The steak has a good citrus and garlic note along with a good cut and char marks. In combination it works 100% of the time everytime for me to give me a win for the day.Their tacos are pretty big here, large piece of densely battered fish on a corn tortilla topped with a cabbage shred and crema fresca based dressing, salsa fresca and bang. Its not the best Ive ever had, but its pretty good, nothing to knock here. Filling, but priced as such @ $3.00 most people dont bother, All their tacos are this way, large and pricey, but classical. The priciest of the bunch is the shrimp, but to me its the best. White wine and butter sautee with cotija cheese. Personally I would have liked to see Manchego on it, but thats me. Steak again is packed and bursting with flavor and the blackened fish is a nice change of pace and something most people would cook while camping in baja.The seasoned white rice is light and just that lightly seasoned, unlike the Spanish rice we too often think of for Mexican dishes. Black beans all day over pinto. Baja bowl is pretty heavy in it has both beans, rice, meat and lettuce.They are very busy in store so service is great for to go, but lacking a little for dine in. The Salsa bar is packed and people do not wait in line, they simply cut and wiggle and weasel their way in but the design doesnt make it so that area flows at all. A few tables outside and tables are cleaned as fast as they can, but I think compared to the other Mexican food around this place is boss, but make no mistake there is a lot of mediocre Mexican food in OC. They are pretty busy and were open to me asking for a quesoritto. Parking lot is sketch in that people dont give an F so I suggest park as far away from others as you can or up front if possible.
Peking Kitchen
413 W 17th St, Santa Ana, CA 92706, United States
2.14.2024.If youre looking for an excellent place to eat, this is it. Family run, excellent food. Kung pao chicken, lo mein beef, colorful shrimp is over the top. All the soups are made wonderfully. Flavors etc are the bomb... come in and youll come back again & again. We come from arizona & always stoo in to eat...yum! ...Orange chicken tender and delicious. 3 meat with vegetables was good, king Pao chicken wonderful. Fried rice excellent. Hot and sour soup the best Ive ever had. Service was excellent, restaurant is clean, cute. Staff awesome.
Benchmark
601 E Santa Ana Blvd, Santa Ana, CA 92701, United States
Benchmark is a really cool outdoor restaurant/bar that is great for a date or a quick hangout.When you first come in, youll notice a really lovely set of lights, outdoor bar, some heat lamps (at least in the winter) and seats scattered about. Loved the lights and the trees being mixed in throughout the place. We RSVPed ahead of time just in case which is convenient.We sat down and looked through the menu. My friend started with the cab which was solid and I got the sake old fashioned. A bit bummed there wasnt any whiskey but with the agave syrup, this old fashioned wasnt too shabby. I also got the red ale which was good.Food-wise, we got a few items.+Gochujang fried chicken: Yum! The gochujang goes perfectly with their fried chicken although youll have to realize that this is more of a popcorn chicken style. Absolutely loved it.+Little Gem Salad: Not bad. The croutons were actually my favorite part of this fairly straightforward but good little gem salad.+Artichoke Fondue: Perfect for a start, especially a beer. Note that we got three pretzel pieces in case you want to inquire about more with our fondue. The fondue itself is terrific - cheesy but not overly salty.+Ahi Tuna: Probably my least favorite dish personally but not bad. They give you a lot of rice crackers which arent too bad. The tuna itself I think I wish there was a little less aioli.+Their brown butter cake dessert is really terrific and worth trying. Not overly sweet; buttery; and love the presentation. The seasonal sorbet wasnt too shabby either.Service was super kind. Kudos to Stewie (sorry if I got your name wrong!) for being an awesome host and really being kind to us throughout the evening.Parking is a bit tight. They have a private lot they share with a few other shops that is a little hit or miss in terms of room. There is some neighborhood parking but it definitely seems like there isnt a lot of room sadly enough.One quick suggestion: I think blankets would be really nice for the winter nights. Especially this past month, its been uber-cold and although the heating lamps are warm, ours did go out a bit through our dinner. A blanket wouldve been a nice back-up.
Orange County Mining Co
10000 S Crawford Canyon Rd, Santa Ana, CA 92705, United States
My husband and I came to celebrate our anniversary here as we had our reception at this restaurant a year ago. Having our anniversary dinner here only made sense, as well as the sentimental value it held. However, this wasnt the case and we were extremely disappointed.My husband had booked the reservation like 2 weeks in advance and specified it was for our anniversary, yet that didnt matter. Originally he requested an outdoor table because of the beautiful view, however the rain had been on and off that day, so he assumed we would automatically be switched to an indoor table because everything was soaked but he didnt think to call and confirm, common sense should have kicked in for the restaurant and we thought they would accommodate accordingly...but boy were we in for a surprise.After checking in, about 5 mins later the hostess escorted us to the slippery and wet patio with the off and on drizzle going on (Mind you I am 7 months pregnant). She led us to a soaked table with literal puddles on the white plastic patio chairs and was like The server will be right with you and my husband was like Umm this is wet, are you seriously going to have us dine out here? Its a slip hazard and my wife is pregnant. And I asked if we could sit inside. The hostess then replied, Well have someone come clean this up and theres going to be a long wait if you want to sit inside. We waited for about 2 mins and it started drizzling again and nobody came out to clean the table, so I told my husband lets go inside and check if theres availability inside.We were told it would be an hour wait, despite having a reservation. I understand it gets busy and weather may be unpredictable but really? They really led us to a puddle filled table and expected us to sit there while it was drizzling?Thankfully our wait was only 25-30 mins. While being escorted to our table, I expressed to the new hostess that it was our anniversary dinner and we had our reception there a year ago, so we were looking forward to eating here. Pssh might as well have been talking to myself, it went in one ear out the other... service was so slow. Our silverware and drinks took forever to be given to us. The food was disappointing... no flavor and our baked potato which we both upgraded to, was cold. My husband ordered the prime rib and I had the rib eye. My husbands prime rib, half of it was like all fat, inedible fat too, not like that thin layer of fat thats everyones guilty pleasure to eat haha, just legit pure fat. The only delicious thing was the artichoke dip appetizer we ordered. Our entrees at the reception last year, blew this years meal out of the water...did not compare, not even close. Again, need I remind you we were there for our anniversary dinner and not once did the server acknowledge this. Most places bring out a little dessert slice or something commemorating that special event you are there celebrating, the table next to us, it was someones birthday and they brought out a slice of cake and we got zilch.Overall my experience left a really bitter taste in my mouth. I was really looking forward to our dinner, proud of my husband for having booked it in advance yet the restaurant just totally missed the mark on this. The food, service, atmosphere, lack of common sense and hospitality, just really poorly executed.Needless to say, we definitely wont be booking our next anniversary there, despite the sentimental value that place originally held.I hope you guys have a better experience than we did.
Ritters Steam Kettle Cooking
1421 W MacArthur Blvd, Santa Ana, CA 92704, United States
If its good enough for cleaning its good enough for cooking. Im talking about Steam people. Quite possibly the only steam food place other than say a dumpling house. Its certainly classified as southern, creole and seafood, but perhaps they should use my preferred term Gulf Cooking.The location and décor may not prove you the authenticity and deliciousness, but make no mistake. They churn out some good as it gets West of the Mississippi food youll have. Décor is kind of basic, a little too corporate franchise and not enough Mom & Pop style. Imagine Boiling Crab, but less shrimp boat pirate. Service is good and they know whose eaten here before and are super welcoming to the uninitiated to make them feel comfortable with the style cooking.Starts. No lemon for the calamari, thats kind of a new thing and not entirely common for cooked calamari anyhow. Crispy crunch and not chewy. The fries are a bit basic. Fried pickles are excellent if you like them, snap to them and the cream sauce has some kick to it despite it looking a bit lie Ranch. Red beans and rice with the Andouille is the staple to many Creole dishes and is excellent. I get this every time. Spicy Softshell crab needs a delivery, like a slider or bacon blt/po boy to take it from a somewhat basic app to a more complete entrée. The oysters are gulf and not the PNW or Atlantic many expect. If your not used to clams they are smaller and heartier than mussles and to me they take better to a basic flavor like the standard vs. red steamer (tomato based soup stock). The bacon wrapped shrimp are not your basic seafood wrapped in bacon app, they marinade the shrimp in molasses, add mozzarella and deep fry it. The molasses mustard has this BBQ sauce sweetness with some tang from the mustard. Another good one for the uninitiated.As good as their seafood is I stay away from the clam chowders (both NE and Manhattan). Nothing wrong with them, both are good, but the nuances needed to make them sing just arent quite there, but their tomato sauces are good so its one of the better Manhattan chowders around. Go with the Ritters chowder because it has shrimp and crab and more fills out the simple clam chowder ingredients. Ive never had a salad, probably because Ive never been to the south and seen anyone eat a salad when Ive stayed at their house. Thats more for marketability. Po Boys with anything fried are amazing, but Ive suggested on a # of occasions if they made a softshell crab, shrimp and bacon po boy, it would kill. The catfish and chicken dont quite do the sandwich type justice so if youre more adventurous try the fried oysters. The bread is soft and if you overload with sauce and ingredients does fall apart. I suggest getting a po boy with another dish to use the sauce as a dip. Mustard isnt enough and leaves the po boy lacking any kick. Linguine and clams in white sauce isnt quite East Coast Italian, but its better than what we get out here usually and something I get quite often. The diablo shrimp doesnt have kick so dont think its spicy. You should add okra to everything. Its such a staple, but I know many cant handle the texture.Cioppino is kind of bland, compared to a real Italian version or even the siete mares Mexican version. Filling, but not heavy. The Gumbo is HEAVY and will sink your battleship so dont try and eat this on your own. It really should be shared, its also not cheap or small at all. Etouffee is like a lighter version, but the only item with crawfish. They really need to have that a la cart. T Pan Roast is also a large shared item somewhat like paella.6+ add gratuity and prepare to get messy and youll probably smell like seafood even with a good handwash, a good shower should do it. Id say its a value on what you get if you choose right, but stay away from the lobster as it gets pricey and not something they really even use down there.
MacArthur Plaza
2 Hutton Centre Dr, Santa Ana, CA 92707, United States
Whoever owns this plaza should be embarrassed and I sincerely hope that the tenants are getting a REALLY good deal on rent. The concrete is sticky and disgustingly dirty, which like…of course the ground is dirty, but this takes it to a whole new level. The furniture, which looks like it came from an Irvine Company landfill, is rusted, broken, and filthy (I guess maybe Irvine Company owns this plaza, but I have NEVER seen an Irvine Company property this gross). Dumpsters are overflowing with trash. Add to that the overwhelming smell of raw sewage, and it's a wonder anyone can manage to eat here. It's a shame because there seems to be a good variety of restaurants, whose owners and customers deserve way better.