Restaurant Review: Eight Korean BBQ and their signature Eight Flavors of Pork Belly

My friend Kara and I were invited to Eight Korean BBQ in Buena Park. We both love Korean BBQ and we were here to try their set meal offering their signature eight different flavors of pork belly. This set meal is the "Combo A", easily the most popular item on the menu. The flavors include wine, original, black sesame, garlic, herb, curry, miso paste and red pepper paste. At the time of this writing the price for "Combo A" is $59.99, which can easily feed 3 people.

Besides the amazing eight thick cut slices of pork belly, you get a large salad, refillable side dishes, a huge seafood tofu stew and then mozzarella kimchi fried rice at the end of the meal.

As you can see I cannot get enough of the eight different flavors of pork belly! It is made for taking photos of!

Take a look at the large boiling pot of seafood tofu stew! Spicy and delicious that is perfect on any day!

One of the best parts of eating at Eight Korean BBQ is that it is full-service, meaning that you do not have to do any of the cooking. Let that sink in for a minute. You do not have to do any of the cooking! Our server cooked all of the pork belly as well as made the seafood stew and the kimchi fried rice.

Made in the same bowl that the seafood tofu stew was, our server then made the kimchi fried rice. She asked if we wanted cheese and we said yes. I know what you are thinking. Cheese on top of kimchi fried rice? The cheese melted into a gooey pile of amazing! I cannot ever remember any other Korean BBQ place making this and I would happily get this with the mozzarella each and every time!

An amazing meal that I cannot wait to go back to and eat again and again.

To learn more, check out their site:
Eight Korean BBQ

The Newly Refurbished Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant

Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant underwent a complete refurbishment earlier this year.

The beautiful new entrance takes you to the Hostess stand. No longer do you have to wait in their old switch back queue. You simply check in and if there is a wait they will ask for a cell phone number and they will text you when your table is ready. So your wait is exploring the California Marketplace.

If you do want to wait inside the restaurant there is a spacious lobby area.

There is now a full service bar. They have some wonderful boysenberry-infused cocktails.

Two of your boysenberry options are a draft boysenberry beer and a boysenberry lemon drop. They also offer a boysenberry mojito.

The biscuits are still served fresh and warm.

You get your own butter and boysenberry jelly.

The chicken noodle soup is still one of the best ever. And one can never go wrong with some salad as well.

The Mrs. Knott's Famous Friend Chicken Dinner with mashed potatoes and corn. Now I used to think that Mrs. Knott's chicken was one of the best on the planet but I don't know if it has been years of eating the flavorful and juicy chicken at the Plaza Inn at Disneyland but there is a lack of flavor on Mrs. Knott's chicken. The chicken here is still moist and juicy but the lack of flavor made me sad.

And what else would you finish dinner off with than a slice of boysenberry pie?

A wonderful refurbishment of the Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant is sadly held back by the flavorless chicken. Other than that, the service, the ambiance and the rest of the food is authentically homemade. Maybe I will try something other than the fried chicken on my next visit.


Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant

Address: 8039 Beach Blvd, Buena Park, CA 90620

Phone: (714) 220-5055

Mother's Day Special at Medieval Times Buena Park and Ticket Giveaway!

Mom's are very special! This is why Medieval Times Buena Park is giving Mom free* admission for all shows from today Monday May 4th, 2015 until Sunday May 10th, 2015 when accompanied by one full-paid adult admission!

* Moms should mention code: MOMWEB at the time of purchase. Not valid on prior purchases or gift certificates. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Advance reservations and payment required.

Added Bonus!

For $20 more, guests can add a special Mother’s Day Package that includes:

• Photo of “Queen Mom”
• “Queen of the Castle” Cape
• Mom’s choice of champagne mimosa or cider in a souvenir champagne glass.

To learn more check out their site:

Mother's Day Special

And I am also giving away two tickets to Medieval Times Buena Park!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

US Residents Only. No purchase necessary to enter. All fans have an equal chance to win, however, you must enter to win. A winner will be randomly selected via RaffleCopter and notified via email. No cash value. Winner will have 72 hours to claim their prize or a new winner will be selected the same way. Several different ways to earn entries (some can be done daily). Prize will be fulfilled by sponsor. One prize per household. Not liable for unclaimed prizes or fulfillment. Good luck! 

Restaurant Review: Dami Sushi & Izakaya in Buena Park

Time to check out the latest Japanese restaurant in Southern California. Welcome to Dami Sushi & Izakaya in Buena Park.

I love the glass water bottle. They are happy to bring another bottle as soon as you finish this one.

A little edamame arrives while you go through the menu.

A little tsukemono arrives as well. The presentation is quite rustic and I found that to be charming. Like being in the country where things are just simpler.

My friend Anthony and I had arrived hoping to order one of their dinner combos but were informed that they are no longer offering them. We found out from the owner later that the reason they are not offering them is that there are so many dishes that it overwhelmed the kitchen and then it meant that customers were not getting a good dining experience. So they are trying to figure out how to streamline that process and then bring it back. So we were a little sad but understood this and decided to order a few items and try them out with hopes the dinner combo comes back.

Anthony ordered the tempura oysters. The presentation was fantastic and the oysters were really nice and light. It was a pleasant surprise as there was no briny taste.

I ordered the D-clams as I love steamed manila clams. The white wine garlic butter sauce was amazing. And as you can see in the photo there was a ton of clams. I would gladly order this again.

We then decided to order the Dami box. This was a very eclectic group of sashimi. Not your typical sashimi and that made this a unique experience.

Delicious surf clam! A bit on the chewy side but so good!

Abalone! Quite a rare treat and happy to see this on here!

Some of the most tender octopus I have ever had!

I love seaweed! So light and flavorful!

The halibut isn't too unusual but still a nice on the palette.

The sea skirt was way too briny for me but yet another unique item of this set.

A wasabi octopus dish that I loved. I love wasabi and the fact that this was sort of a pickled octopus was just another great unique dish.

The chef also made us this lovely one piece salmon sushi and one piece tuna sushi.

This was the most tender melt in your mouth pieces of sashimi. When we talked to the owner we were informed that they buy fish that day. So you are getting the freshest sashimi there is.

Great food and service made for a very enjoyable experience. We will be back to try the dinner combo which I hope comes back soon to their menu.

Dami Sushi & Izakaya

Address: Unit A, 5151 Beach Blvd, Buena Park, CA 90621
Phone:(714) 739-2537

*All photo taken with a Nikon D5200*

Restaurant Review: Surah Korean BBQ!

As many of you know I am a huge fan of Korean BBQ. I have to go to All You Can Eat (AYCE) places to get my fill of the various proteins that are available. I had been hearing a lot about this place in Buena Park that served mostly Kobe Beef and it's American equivalent Wagyu.  I finally got to go to Surah Korean BBQ in Buena Park the other night to try them out.

The price is a great value for Kobe Beef and Wagyu! Please note that if you go on Saturdays you have to go with a minimum of three people in order to do the AYCE! Trust me you will need the support to get through as many of the amazing offerings they have here!

You can order a delicious bowl of fish eggs over rice. They are so brightly colored that I thought it was shaved ice.

There are so many side dishes that they bring out to you and happily refill! Here are some of my favorites! The baby clams are so good and spicy that I could not stop eating them!

The pickled baby bok choy was so good!

I love tempura cucumbers!

Bean sprouts are one of my favorites!

Daikon kim chi is one of my all-time favorite kim chi's!

Traditional cabbage kim chi is another kim chi favorite of mine!

But the real reason I was here was for the meat! Check out the beautifully marbleized Kobe Beef brisket! Each piece cooks up fast as it is so thinly shaved and the meat is so soft it literally feels like it is melting in your mouth!

These are the Kobe Beef rib fingers! These finger sized cuts of Kobe Beef are also super tender and flavorful! You can really taste the quality of the beef here!

This is the marinated short rib! This is so coveted that you can only get one order per person even with the AYCE! The meat is so flavorful and tender that you can see why there is only one order per person. You would never stop ordering this if you were allowed to! Yes, it is really that good! So make sure you order it early in your meal because this is one you do not want to miss out on!

This is the beef tenderloin that you are also limited to one order for every two people. The meat is so tender as well!

The duck can only be ordered as your last order since they give you a different grill to cook on. But once you order the duck you can order as much as you want! I am a huge fan of duck and you don't see it at most other AYCE Korean BBQ places! The fat adds so much flavor to the meat! Such a great way to end your meal!

So come hungry and bring friends who are just as hungry as you! The quality of the Kobe Beef and the Wagyu will keep you coming back! Great service plus a relatively quiet dining experience are two more huge pluses!

Check out their web site for more info:
http://www.surahbbq.com

Surah Korean BBQ & Sushi

5333 Beach Blvd.

Buena Park, CA

(714) 523-0056

Open daily, 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. 

All-you-can-eat barbecue, $27.99 per person (minimum of three diners on Sat., two the rest 

of the week). 

Do You Know Where Else Disneyland Could Have Been Built?

We have all heard the story of Walt sitting down at a bench (perhaps the one I am sitting on in the above pic from The Walt Disney Family Museum) in front of the carousel at Griffith Park as he watched his two daughters go round and round. He thought that there should be a place where the entire family could spend time together.

This idea became a park near The Walt Disney Studios. But the idea kept growing larger and larger until Walt decided he needed more land to build his dream.

He had the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) look for the site that would eventually become Disneyland. Walt had several criteria that must be met and the SRI put "Buzz" Price on the project.

The location would be somewhere between Pomona and Tustin. Buzz broke up that area into ten different districts and eight were eliminated because of price, already being developed, or the topographic features. The two remaining districts were the Whittier-Norwalk area and the Orange County area.

Buzz came back with 71 different locations. Most of them were quickly dropped for one reason or another until there were four locations left for consideration. Some of the reasons for those locations to be dropped included factors such as weather, smog, accessibility, and topographical features. Obviously, the location in Anaheim became the home of Disneyland. But do you know where the other three locations are?

One of these locations was the corner of Valley View and Orangethorpe in Buena Park. It is located near the 91 and the 5 freeways.

Currently home to a massive JCPenny distribution warehouse!

This building goes on and on and on! I like the accessibility to the area.

The next location is nto too far from the first and was a massive 2,218 acre site that is now pretty much the city of La Mirada. The land was known as the McNally Ranch area and yes, it is the McNally of Rand McNally.

Neff Park is the home to of the McNally Ranch. There are several buildings still here.

The foreman's house still stands here.

As does the carriage house.

And the Neff home is still here.

Further up the way is the remainder of the empty land and is the home to both a park and golf course.

The La Mirada golf course and the park next to it would have made for a beautiful theme park and resort area away from the hustle and bustle of the freeway.

Imagine what Walt could have been able to do with over 2,000 acres! This of course if Walt could have afforded all that land.

The terrain is hilly and combined with a few miles of distance from the freeway as being a deterrent to the location. At the same time, I like the distance from the freeway and especially if Walt was able to buy all this land, it would have made for a huge "Disney World" type area. Plus, the hills could have been destroyed to create a large berm for the park. But I am sure this would have added to the construction costs. But this is still my favorite out of all the three locations.

The last location was the other Orange County location!

This is the Willowick golf course in Santa Ana.

Another beautiful area but the farthest away from the freeways.

This lack of direct access to freeways was this areas fatal flaw.

Hope you enjoyed this tour of the other places that Disneyland could have been built. Look for more original articles in the future about the little known history of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure!