85°C Bakery Cafe has opened in Tustin, it’s 7th store in Orange County. Another store is in the works at the Irvine Spectrum Center. 1100 Irvine Blvd., Tustin, CA 92780.
A new restaurant called Hook & Anchor has opened in Newport Beach. It takes over the spot that used to be Beach Barrel. Featured items include lobster rolls, garlic farm lobster fries, po’boys and grilled fish plates. 3305 Newport Blvd. Ste E, Newport Beach, CA 92663.
The original Mall of Fortune location of Brodard has become a vegetarian restaurant which is called Lotus on the printed menus but called Brodard Vegetarian on the signs outside. 9892 Westminster Ave. Ste R, Garden Grove, CA 92844.
A new Indian restaurant called Masala House has opened in Orange on Chapman near Prospect. A buffet lunch is served as well as a dish only offered on the weekends called “sarson ka saag makki ki roti”, a Punjab dish that consists of unleavened Indian corn bread served with a stew of mustard greens. 3533 E Chapman Ave., Orange, CA 92869.
King Noodles 68, a Vietnamese noodle shop, has opened in Garden Grove featuring various noodle and pasta-based dishes including macaroni soup with pork rib. 10561 Bolsa Ave., Garden Grove, CA 92843.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.