Sam Han (三漢) Korean BBQ & Buffet in Rowland Heights

For a buffet restaurant, this place was surprisingly good. Quite a lot of choices for meat and seafood, price was affordable too.

Aria (아리아) Korean BBQ Sushi Bar in Buena Park

Tried this Korean BBQ restaurant in Buena Park today. Loads of side dishes and $60 for 2 people, managed to have some left over to take home. Service was slow though. Food was okay, nothing spectacular. Not sure whether we will come back for more though.

The Counter in Irvine

The Counter is a custom built gourmet burger place. Our relatives recommended this place to us. We visited their Irvine branch on the 9th Dec (Fri) for dinner, but was packed and long queue. We decided to go back again today for late lunch and this time we had seats. You can either order from a list of burgers or build your own one. To build your own burger, you can choose at least 4 kinds of toppings, cheese, sauce, type of meat, and size of burger. The smallest size is 1/3, that's still way bigger than the quarter pounder at McDonald's. Their burgers are the best we had so far. We also ordered vanilla milkshake and that's lovely too. Service was good, but they did mix up with the change. Their burgers are in the pricer range, $10 per burrger. A treat every now and then!

Macy's Signature Kitchen at South Coast Plaza Mall

We stumbled upon this great restaurant/food court inside Macy's Home Furniture Store while shopping at South Coast Plaza. We often have impression that restaurant/cafe or food court inside a department store isn't usually nice or just pricey. But to our surprise, this restuarant served great food and price wasn't expensive at all. It features 3 different menus from 3 famous/celebrity chefs. They are as follows: 1) CCQ (Cat Cora's 'Que) - salads, sandwiches, wraps, and platters in BBQ style 2) Marc Burger (Marcus Samuelsson's) - a variety of burgers including a mini "kobe", turkey, and chicken breast 3) La Brea Bakery (Nancy Silverton) - classic sandwiches and grilled paninis, along with soup and salad

We chose La Brea Bakery and Marc Burge. The tuna melt panini was tasty and served with soup. However, the panini looked just like a 'toasty', rather than the proper European panini we had back in England. Lack a bit authenticity. The burger was real nice but it's weird to have crisps inside. Anyway, burger was juicy, lots of saucy, loved it. $16 for two people, affordable pricing. Recommended!

Corner Bakery Cafe at South Coast Plaza Mall

We found this lovely cafe while shopping at the South Coast Plaza. They have several combo sets on the menu. We chose the Ravioli combo that served with cesear salad - $8. It was lovely but not enough for 2 people to share, so we had to order an additional pasta. They have free wifi too. Worth going back for more.

Luminarias Restaurant in Monterey Park

This restaurant located at the hill top of Monterey Park, right next to the Monterey Park Golf course. They serve mainly Mexician dishes. As we had a party of more than 10 people, we had to order from the set menu... either salmon or steak. The steak was good but not so much for the salmon. Service was a bit slow even though the restaurant wasn't full at all. It has a nice view, but not sure whether we will come back for more in the future.