Orange County Restaurant Week Returns With Fresh Flavors

Sharon Stello
8 hours ago
8 min read

The culinary celebration features over 200 eateries offering special menus, cocktails and more at varying price points.

OC Restaurant Week menu items at Brü Grill & Market in Lake Forest. Photo courtesy of Orange County Restaurant Week

From hole-in-the-wall eateries to Michelin-recognized fine dining establishments and everything in between, the local culinary landscape offers a smorgasbord of options. And, with Orange County Restaurant Week running March 8-14, diners can find great deals to sample some of the best meals around.

More than 200 restaurants are participating in this 18th annual edition in cities from San Clemente to Yorba Linda, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and beyond with seemingly endless ways to satiate your taste buds. A VIP Launch Party (tickets required) kicks off the culinary celebration March 7 at Marriott Irvine Spectrum with gourmet food samples, wine, cocktails and live music.

“Our slogan again this year is life is just better this week,” said Pam Waitt, founder of OC Restaurant Week and president of OC Restaurant Association Inc. “I think it gives everyone permission to have a week where you just get to hang out with your favorite people and try new restaurants.

“There’s a lot to like about it. You can skip the dishes and the grocery shopping and explore restaurants …. The chefs and the restaurants are creating menus that are packaged differently because most of us don’t always have dessert and an appetizer and drinks. You kind of let yourself indulge that week.”

Waitt noted that 250,000 people dine out during OC Restaurant Week, which boasts a website (ocrestaurantweek.com) organized by city, date night and girls night out menus, meals with wine pairings, special cocktails, small bites and snacks, brunch and breakfast, vegetarian dining and other categories – making it easy to find whatever you’re craving – as well as listings by price point (lunches from $15 to $35, dinners from $25 to $50, and luxury menus from $60 to $150). Most eateries offer a prix-fixe menu with a few options for each course.

“This is a multigenerational event: My dad is going to dine out during Restaurant Week much differently than my daughter-in-law and my son. And so we really took it to a different level with all of the ways of celebrating eating your way,” Waitt said. “The energy around it is being mindful of welcoming all the different demographics and ways people dine out.”

TOP ROW: At Brü Grill & Market in Lake Forest, Nashville hot "chicken + honey" boscaiola flatbread and the Pixie in Paris cocktail. Photos courtesy of Orange County Restaurant Week. BOTTOM ROW: At Haven Craft Kitchen + Bar in Orange, risotto arancini and wagyu flat-iron steak. Photos courtesy of courtesy of Haven Craft Kitchen + Bar

Palate-Pleasing Possibilities

Waitt said the annual event has expanded on what’s proved popular with diners in the past.

“They love luxury dinners, they love the date nights and cocktails,” she said.

When it comes to the luxe dinners, The Wild Artichoke in Yorba Linda tops the list at $158 per person for a chef’s tasting menu with The Wild Artichoke garden salad; Million Dollar seaweed salad with shrimp; Santa Barbara uni pasta; pan-seared, poached and grilled (sea bass, oyster and cabbage with wasabi beurre blanc); the Meat Finale (48-hour, sous-vide short rib or Moroccan lamb rack with an option for 2-ounce A5 wagyu rib-eye supplement for an extra $50); and chef’s dessert for two. The dinner also includes an amuse-bouche, intermezzo and bread accompaniment. Two courses have an optional Kaluga caviar supplement for an extra $30 each and a four-glass wine pairing is available for $80 per person.

Two Japanese restaurants – Izakaya Osen in Irvine and Sushi Roku in Newport Beach – come a close second with $150 meals. Meanwhile, an interesting option on the luxe list is the caviar + chelas flight for $55 at Chelas Mexican Kitchen in Laguna Beach. It’s available only with prepaid reservation on weeknights from 4:30-7 p.m. Diners may choose three of the following: Chelas caviar fries with chipotle crema and steak; two chicken taquitos with caviar cream; a beer-battered fish taco and caviar; three mini crispy potato tacos with caviar; and a pork belly taco and caviar.

But expensive eats aren’t the only draw during OC Restaurant Week.

“What we really built on more this year is the Culinary Passport …. We launched it a couple of years ago, but it just really took off last year,” Waitt said.

The passport lists restaurants by country, allowing families to “make an experience out of this and explore cultures through food,” she explained. The website even includes a Kids Culinary Passport that can be downloaded for children to fill out, journal style, with the restaurants they visited, types of cuisine they tried and any other notes they want to add.

“The moms with young kids are loving that,” Waitt added. “They can do that one night, date night the next, girls night another night – just really trying to make it a week of dining, but different ways of doing that.”

A new category was also added this year called small bites and snacks. “We added just a handful of restaurants or eateries that have small items,” Waitt said. “In between dinners, you might not want to have a giant lunch, so you can go get a snack. So some gelato places and tea places are offering just small little bundles of snacks and treats.”

For example, Gelato Paradiso in Laguna Beach offers a $6 piccolo copetta (cup) or $7 piccolo cono (freshly made waffle cone) with a choice of more than 30 flavors of house-made Italian gelato and sorbetto. Le Macaron in Tustin has a sampler plate with two French macarons, two rich, handcrafted chocolates and two beignets plus the choice of a hot drink or scoop of gelato, all for $15. Claws and Cream in Garden Grove will surely be a hit with the kids with its two soft-serve swirls and five claw machine game tokens for $14, among other offerings.

Waitt said OC Restaurant Week lets people try a new place that might become a favorite and allows participating restaurants to see a bump in sales, especially if they have a popular menu.

“Even … City Cruises (in Newport Beach) has special pricing for Restaurant Week with a really cool menu,” Waitt said. “There’s so much diversity. So you can experience that one day and then go try some cool place like Nova Kitchen & Bar in Garden Grove that’s multisensory and hits all five senses during your dining experience. So if you’re a … foodie-curious type of person … there’s just so much like that. I would say just study the list …. It’s all over the place. You can do barbecue (or) hamburgers one day and the next day you’re having a five-course wine dinner.”

At Descanso in Costa Mesa, from top left, short rib estofado, the alambre dish and the plancha tables. Photos courtesy of Descanso

Flavorful Finds

Descanso in Costa Mesa has participated in OC Restaurant Week since the eatery opened in 2018.

“It’s become an annual tradition for us and something our team genuinely looks forward to because it gives us a chance to welcome new guests while also celebrating with our loyal regulars,” said Descanso owner Rob Arellano.

“OC Restaurant Week is one of the best opportunities to showcase what Descanso is all about: authentic Michoacán-inspired flavors, hospitality and the plancha dining experience. We love that it brings the community together and gives guests a reason to explore restaurants they may not have tried yet.”

When it comes to the plancha experience, think Benihana but Mexican cuisine. A group sits around a chef preparing their food on a flat-top grill, offering dinner and a show. For $70 per person, start with fideo soup or Caesar salad, followed with a 10-ounce rib-eye steak, fingerling potatoes, charred onions, grilled serrano chiles, avocado-toreado salsa, morita chile aioli and cotija cheese, with arroz con leche cheesecake for dessert. Non-plancha Restaurant Week menus are also available with familiar favorites elevated with bold, thoughtful ingredients, Arellano said.

“We curated a focused yet flavorful set of dishes that highlight what makes us unique: customizable classics like our alambre with your choice of protein, rich and slow-braised short rib estofado, and other standouts that reflect our commitment to vibrant, satisfying food.”

Haven Craft Kitchen + Bar in Orange is another returning participant in OC Restaurant Week, taking part numerous times since the eatery opened in 2009. Haven founder and owner Wil Dee likes that the week brings in people from all over – Los Angeles, San Diego and the Inland Empire – as well as Orange County diners that have never been to Haven before.

For the week, featured starters range from French-style onion soup to risotto arancini, local beet salad, and creamy burrata cheese drizzled with garlic-chile oil and entrees like fish tacos or a fried chicken sandwich for the $25 lunch or grilled Spanish octopus, wagyu flat-iron steak or duck confit for the $50 dinner. Both meals also include pappardelle with sun-dried tomato pesto and The Haven Burger among entree options. Dinner comes with a choice of pumpkin cheesecake or sticky toffee pudding.

“This year, we have chosen to highlight menu favorites,” Dee said, “so that guests who enjoy a dish may be able to return to experience it again after OC Restaurant Week ends. We’re also offering a wide variety of dishes, so there’s really something to suit every palate.

“OC Restaurant Week is a great reason to dine out,” he said. “And, while some diners are looking to try new things, others are looking forward to reconnecting … at a familiar spot. Haven has been that place for so many over the years.”

At A+O Restaurant & Bar, from top left, fish and chips, tiramisu and waterside seating along the Newport Beach Harbor. Photos courtesy of Balboa Bay Resort

For those seeking a view with their meal, A+O Restaurant & Bar at Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach is set right on the harbor with fire pit tables on the patio.

“As a waterfront dining destination in Newport Beach, we value the opportunity each year to showcase our culinary creativity and signature coastal flavors to both longtime locals and new guests discovering us for the first time,” said A+O Executive Chef Diego Bernal.

“We’re especially excited to share some of our guests’ favorite staple dishes, including the classic A+O Burger and our famous beer-battered fish tacos, while also introducing new menu additions, such as desserts like our tiramisu.”

Bernal emphasizes local sourcing and refined, coastal-inspired cuisine, reflecting his creative interpretation of classic West Coast fare that is both vibrant and healthy. Examples include the chef’s seasonal burrata (offered for dinner) with pistachio pesto and roasted beets, and the organic namaste bowl (available at lunch and dinner), a plant-forward dish with wild rice, forest mushrooms, fresh vegetables and cashew romesco.

A+O’s lunch is $30 for a choice of starter (fresh baked focaccia or a side Caesar salad) and entree like the A+O Burger, beer-battered fish tacos, club sandwich or fish and chips; dessert is $5 more. The $45 dinner elevates the starters to chef’s seasonal burrata or bison chili and entree choices such as Jidori chicken, chef’s market fish or balsamic skirt steak; it also includes dessert.

“Restaurant Week gives diners the chance to explore new restaurants or revisit favorites in a fresh way,” Bernal said. “At A+O, guests are able to experience our signature flavors and scenic harbor views through a thoughtfully curated prix fixe offering. It’s a great way for guests to discover something new while enjoying the quality, ambiance and hospitality A+O is known for at an exceptional value.”

No matter which restaurants diners choose to try during these special seven days of culinary celebration, they will no doubt find great deals and come away with some new favorites.

“It’s just a fun week,” Waitt said. “It feels like in a world where so many people are not unified, it feels very community forward during this week. And so I do get a lot of satisfaction from that part of the event, to see people coming together and just enjoying life, which is not always easy to do.”