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9211 Bolsa Ave Westminster, CA 92683. (714) 893-1976

My mom actually chose this restaurant to host the luncheon after my Tea Ceremony.  The restaurant was packed!  There was quite a line out the door even though there was a large amount of seating space inside.   I had been to this place a few times before and remembered it as being quite good.

We had two tables at the restaurant and about 22 people.  So, not all the food featured below was something I tasted.

This dish was a fried sushi dish.  It was nice and crispy on the outside but it bit too bland on the inside.  In fact, I’m not sure what was on the inside.  Possibly shrimp?

 I didn’t order this!

 Hmm, again, I think this was at the other table.

 Ah!  Something I recognize!  This is the standard Chinese broccoli typically seen most Chinese restaurants.  It has an oyster sauce on top.  This one was pretty average although as far as I’m concerned even the average ones a very good.

 This is my favorite!  Shrimp dim sum with some kind of rice noodle shell.  Very tasty.

 I didn’t get to try this one but it is a rice noodle wrapped around either pork or shrimp.

 I didn’t try this one either but it looks good!

 Bleh!  Looks like eggplant.

 Man, this looks good too!

 Aha, I did have some fried rice.  It was VERY good.  Not too oily like some Chinese restaurants.  t was nice and fluffy and flavorful, but not too dry or overspiced.

This dish was good too.  More salty than spicy but I enjoyed it.

 Overall, the restaurant was very good.  The service was just so-so and the ambiance was typical of a fast paced restaurant in that area.  It isn’t a place I would go to for a romantic evening but if you want good food and don’t mind waiting a little bit, this place is worth it.

Taste: 9/10
Service: 3/5
Atmosphere: 2/5
Total: 14/20

10911 Westminster Blvd. Garden Grove, CA. 92843. (714) 638 - 8315.

http://royalcapitalseafood.com/

This was sometime ago near the beginning of summer. Everyone was finished with the school semeter/quarter and we all decided to celebrate with some lobster! Hai has been to Royal Capital a couple of times before and tells us that he has actually driven there from San Diego just for lobster. So either this place is really good, or he is just too crazy.

Now, there were about 12 of us eating lobster, so we asked for about 15 fifteen pounds. Of course, you can never get precisely what you want because you have to get a whole lobster, so I think we ended up having 15.5, which is close enough. The lobster meal comes with tons of yummy and thick chow mein noodles underneath.

In the end, we were full and I was broke. Everybody chipped in for the $300 bill and we left in search for a dessert shop. =)
Taste: 8/10
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Total: 14/20

8895 Garden Grove Blvd, Garden Grove, CA 92844
(714) 636-2849

First, the meal! Look at all this yummy food!

Combination of Seafood & Beef (7.89)

Spicy Pork (12.98)

B.B.Q. Rib (13.91)

At first, the tofu soup was a bit strange, probably because I hardly eat tofu. But, the taste grew on me and I’d love to come back for more tofu soup next time I visit. Although, once again, I’m reminded that I’m not too big of a fan of seafood. I only picked at the seafood inside. I don’t really care for bbq ribs either because I’m too lazy to eat off the bone, but my company ordered it, saying it was the best meat on the menu. I did like the pork, which was not spicy despite the name. If I can’t taste the spicy, then there definitely is no spice on there, but that works for me! The bottom of both meat dishes wasn’t oily the way some korean restaurants seem to be, most likely because the meat was on a bed of onions! Brilliant idea!

As for presentation, these pictures look delicious! They make me want to come back for more! As for service, I honestly never remember much at any restaurant so I rate them all about the same unless it was memorably good or bad.

Taste: 7/10
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Total: 13/20

15351 Brookhurst. St. 101-107 Westminster, CA. 92683. (714) 775 - 8828.

I went to this restaurant a few months ago for a wedding reception and the food tasted okay. For this visit, everything tasted a little better. But not too much. Our group ordered the same eight course meal that we had a few months ago. I was with my dad and a few family friends. All the photos taken for this lunch was done by my dad. I didnt want to do it, because I didnt want the rest of the adults blaming me for holding up their meal. ^o^ hohoho

The first dish they bring out is the appetizer. I was never a big fan of this because its just filler food. I prefer something that has more body to it. Plus, cold seafood dishes never please me!

The soup was bland and needed salt and pepper. It was brought out in a large bowl and served into individual dishes by the waiter. I just happened to put my bowl onto my plate for photo presentation purposes.

Vegetables, what more can i say?

(shrimp leftovers were combined with the appetizer)

There was also dishes for fried fish, fried rice, shrimp, duck, and quail (not shown). I probably liked the shrimp the best. It wasn’t overpowering or lacking in flavor. The duck was soft and juicy, but it tasted some what like hometown buffet roast beef. Quite strange! And the fried fish tasted so-so. Fried rice was very dry. Quail had a very salty seasoning to it.

Overall, this meal was difficult to rate as there were some dishes that I liked, and some that were just okay. There was nothing that I thought was outright bad. Its just personal taste that I find some of their dishes as so-so.

Taste: 6/10
Presentation: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Total: 13/20

5215 E. 2nd St, Long Beach CA, 90803, (562) 621-1698

I visited my friend Guyton in Long Beach and we decided to eat locally. We parked near 2nd street, which was filled with different restaurants. Since I wanted to try something not so common and my friend had not been to this place since high school, we decided on Open Sesame, labeled as ‘Authentic Lebanese Cuisine’ by the restaurant.

Even from the street, we noticed that it was one of the most packed restaurants, despite being almost 2 in the afternoon. We initially passed it by, thinking that there would be a long wait, but last minute, decided to first check the wait time before trying elsewhere. Luckily there was no wait so we went to an inside table. Here was our view:

We wanted to try a variety of foods so we decided on one appetizer and two menu items.

The appetizer was a lebanese style pizza called the Zaatar (4.25), which was topped with thyme, sesame seeds, sourberry, fresh mint, olives and tomato, and sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil. I really liked this non-greasy vegetarian pizza, plus fresh tomatoes are one of my favorite toppings.

The meat dish was the Open Sesame Combo Plate (12.99), which had charbroiled skewers of kafta, chicken tawook and beef kabob served on a bed of basmati rice with hummus and salad. I thought the beef was a little dry and the kafta was slightly better in taste. I did like the chicken combined with the basmati rice. I’ve found that I really like the variety of flavors that is accompanied by Mediterranean rice, especially since I tend to eat plain jasmine rice with most of my meals, and this one was as tasty as some of the others I’ve had.

The other combo dish was the Vegetarian Plate (9.99), which had hummus, baba ganoug, tabouleh, grape leaves and two falafel patties. Hummus has never interested me much, but the baba ganoug was very good. I don’t even know what it is made of but I liked it. The falafel patties tasted strange at first, probably because I’m not accustomed to them, but I grew to like them the more I ate. Most of the vegetables on the plate were untouched, as were the vegetables on the meat combo dish. I’m not much of a salad eater, and I figure Guyton and I were trying to eat the more filling foods. =)

The food wait was probably about 25-30 minutes and we got our appetizer a few minutes after the main dishes arrived. The flat bread for dipping in the hummus and baba ganoug was a bit hard as well. I don’t remember any waiters coming by to ask about water or anything so I’m not sure if there was even service, other than the person who took our order. Overall, I think it was a good place to try out something different, but I won’t be back unless there’s a special on that yummy baba ganoug!

Taste: 7/10
Presentation: 4/5
Service: 1/5
Total: 12/20