Spent a long weekend in Laguna Beach. Very convenient walking city.
My sister’s family recently moved there and I expect I’ll go down once a year or so - so if anyone has recommendations for Laguna Beach and surrounding areas I would appreciate them, as they are decidedly not foodie people.
First lunch was a chile verde pork burrito at La Sirena Grill after doing my laps in the nice outdoor community pool ($2 drop in fee!). Standard burrito, nothing worth noting, although it was quite large.
Apizza Doho - Dana Point.
New Haven style pizza in SoCal? Who would have thought. The crust was great, but they overloaded the topping so it got soggy. I would get something simpler next time. The clam pie had really finely minced clams with not too much flavor - I’m a sucker for clam pie so had to try it, but wouldn’t get again. Caesar salad was really good with a combination of kale and romaine, anchovy dressing and tie spiced salt mix sprinkled on top.
Shirley Bagels, Laguna Beach
They’re decent properly made bagels (boiled and baked), and the lox open face sandwich was pretty massive.
Heritage BBQ, San Juan Capistrano
Top notch Texas style BBQ. Brisket, ribs and sausages were all really good. The sides were too. Plenty of brisket in the bbq beans and the cornbread was super moist and not overly sweet like a lot of BBQ joints. Santa Mara style tri-tip had great flavor. Will definitely come back.
The Taco Stand, Laguna Beach
I’d been to their Carlsbad location before. Looks like they’ve really expanded with multiple SoCal locations and locations in Las Vegas, Texas and Miami. They make the tortillas to order, the Baja fish tacos are fresh and crispy, they have a proper trompo for the pastor, and a serve yourself salsa bar with multiple styles of salsa, pickled onions and limes. What’s not to like?
I also had some good pastries from Moulin, and decent ones from Urth Cafe.
