Not long ago, the award-winning food critic at the Orange County Register, Brad Johnson, published his annual best of OC restaurant guide.
As always, it is a great mix of restaurants, innovation, and mouth-watering writing. Johnson is a pro and it shows.
Interestingly, only five of the 75 restaurants listed are in Laguna Beach (Broadway, Selanne Steak Tavern, Oliver’s Osteria, Rebel Omakase, Maro Wood Grill). None of these made the top 10.
How could that be? Laguna? World-class tourist town that claims five-star hotels, five-star beaches, five-star everything?
No, we’re not surprised. Except for a few rare exceptions, Laguna’s restaurants have been lagging for years. Why? We’ve already alluded to it: tourists.
Tourists don’t want to eat food they can’t pronounce. They want swordfish with a creamy cream sauce. They want pork chops or a safe rib-eye. And they absolutely want a warm chocolate lava cake.
They don’t want Taco Maria’s brilliant aguachile with scallops from Baja, pink guava and cilantro blossoms, which Johnson calls “absolutely extraordinary.” We tried them on Tuesday, and they were revelatory.
When was the last time you ever heard Laguna’s food described in such glowing terms? Very, very rarely. Maybe Tabu Grill from years ago.
The other interesting thing about Johnson’s list is how diverse the food is in Orange County. Creativity is absolutely rewarded.
Costa Mesa, hands down, is the foodie beacon of Orange County. It has 17 restaurants in the top 75 – well above its peers.
Where are the only three full star Michelin restaurants in Orange County? Costa Mesa.
Wait, you might say, Costa Mesa with about 110,000 people is a much larger city than Laguna’s 23,000-ish. That’s true. But population alone (or even per capita numbers) doesn’t explain why Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, Huntington Beach, and Garden Grove – all with much larger populations – have 17 ranked restaurants combined. The same as Costa Mesa.
Anaheim, the largest city in Orange County with nearly 350,000 people, has only three ranked restaurants.
So, you could say, hey, Anaheim only has three restaurants and Laguna has five – woo-woo! We’re better than Anaheim!
Not so fast. Laguna Beach is SUPPOSED to have great restaurants. It’s one of the reasons why people visit from all over the world.
People go to Anaheim for Disneyland and cotton candy.
So why Costa Mesa? What’s their secret sauce?
In a word, diversity.
With four of the top 10, Costa Mesa’s winning lineup is enviable: elegant French, inventive Japanese, authentic Spanish and mind-blowing Mexican.
There’s Vietnamese street fare, succulent seafood, comfortable bistros, artisanal pizza (called the best in OC), magical xiao long bao (aka Shanghai-style soup dumplings), real Thai boat noodles, sushi that’s not a California roll, and so much more.
Johnson admits that the power of Costa Mesa is undeniable, but he’s not sure why.
“Once again, Costa Mesa dominates this guide. Why? Because Costa Mesa is the culinary epicenter of Orange County,” he writes. “There is simply no other city in the county that compares with the diversity, breadth and quality of Costa Mesa’s restaurants. I don’t know why. I just know it to be true. From the city’s defacto town square (South Coast Plaza) to the Eastside and more recently the Westside, too, there’s a creative energy in the Costa Mesa food community that remains unmatched.”
Diversity … creativity – things Laguna needs to embrace when it comes to food.
Unfortunately, Laguna’s top restaurants barely survive. They say they don’t have the luxury of being cutting-edge. Keep the tourists happy. Feed the beast.
Maybe that’s true. But a little more sauce might help.
