Gold Dig #62

There are typically a handful of Orange County spots that make Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list, and Garlic and Chives is one of them. There is always some debate among followers of Jonathan Gold about whether or not he should be including these restaurants on his list, as the OC is technically not LA. Nevertheless, I found an excuse to drive all the way down to Garden Grove and try this spot. I’d say it was worth the trip.

The Dish

Garlic and Chives is a casual Vietnamese eatery, located in a strip-mall. The name is apt, particularly the garlic part, as there seem to be fried garlic bits sprinkled on pretty much every dish. The fairly extensive menu of delicious small plates is very reasonably priced, so you can try lots of them!

Spicy Garlic Toothpick Lamb

These are small pieces of lamb marinated in garlic and house seasonings and deep fried. The lamb is sweeter and less cumin-heavy than the toothpick lamb made famous by Chengdu Taste, and more consistently crisp on the outside and juicy in the middle.

Holy Crunchy Chicken Wings

These crispy fried chicken wings come in a sweet and spicy sauce topped with fried garlic chips. They are a solid rendition of Asian fried chicken wings, which magically bring together the crispiness of the fried skin with the sticky spicy sweet of the sauce. The sprinkling of fried garlic is a nice added touch of flavor and texture.

Deep Fried Salmon Belly

Th salmon belly is battered in garlic seasonings and fried crisp. It is served on a bed of vegetables and sprinkled with more fried garlic. When you dip the salmon in the house special sauce and pop it in your mouth, you get a wonderful salty sweet flavor and bite through a thin perfectly crisp fried outer layer to a buttery piece of belly that melts in your mouth.

Salmon Belly Rolls

You can’t go wrong taking that same salmon belly and wrapping it in rice paper with mint, vermicelli, and cucumber. Dipped in the tamarind sauce, this is one of the best rice paper rolls I’ve ever had. When you can have crisply fried salmon belly, suddenly plain old shrimp just doesn’t seem as good.

Lotus Root Salad

The lotus root salad has pork, shrimp, onions, peanuts, carrots, cucumber, and celery. It’s also topped with (surprise!) fried garlic, and comes with a couple shrimp chips on the plate, which made me adore this dish for that reason alone. Actually the salad itself was a great counterpart to all of the fried and garlicky food we were consuming, with lots of great crunch and freshness. It reminds me how much I like lotus root and wish it were used more often.

Shaking Filet Mignon with Whole Garlic

The filet mignon was tender, juicy, and deeply flavored in salty sweet goodness. And of course it had the requisite sprinkling of fried garlic. Really good with a bowl of white rice.

Charbroiled Colossal Black Tiger Shrimp

The grilled tiger shrimp is served with house special garlic noodles and tossed in garlic butter. The noodles were so good that they turned out to be the centerpiece of this dish, with the shrimp more of an accent providing a touch of charred flavor and a bit of texture.

Soft Pan-Fried Chowfun w/ Beef

The fresh rice noodles are slowly pan-fried and topped with beef, vegetables, a sweet sauce, and of course fried garlic. Nothing to make this stand out particularly from other chow fun, but a solid rendition of a dish that I like.

Sticky Rice Topped with Chinese Sausage, Eggs, and Shredded Pork

The sticky rice is served in a cast iron skillet, which gives the rice a nice crispy bottom layer. You can get sticky rice with clay pots of pork belly or different kinds of fish, or you can get it topped with Chinese sausage, a fried egg, and fluffy shreds of pork, which is what we went for. I think next time I’d like to try it with one of the clay pot dishes so that I can pour all that yummy gravy on the rice.

Crunchy Sea Salt Garlic Fries

The fries have good crispness and nice seasoning. They were the pick of my friend’s 10-year old son, who aptly described Garlic and Chives as “awesome because it’s the only resturant where you can get noodles, wings, and fries all on in one place!”. He’s right, and you probably should.