A perfectly, evenly dressed caesar side salad with knife-and-forker “crouton”. This one caught us off guard, haha. The giant crouton was a bit hard to manage but it was yummy nonetheless!

The “wow factor” for this one’s quite obvious, it’s over a foot long! And it came with a different kind of bun. It was more of a semi-crispy, soft, baguette than the standard hot dog bun. Two of us couldn’t finish this.

Their famous “frozen hot chocolate”. Delicious. ~$7.

Serendipity 3’s got a sweet location between Caesar’s Palace and the Bellagio which means mad foot traffic. If it weren’t for a prime location (or rampant John Cusack fans?), I don’t know what would keep this place so incredibly crowded. Personally, about $37 post-tip for these two items is a bit expensive for me.

Serendipity 3
3570 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(877) 346-4642

The bruschetta was actually the best part of this meal. The bread used won’t cut the roof of your mouth .

Salmon. WYSIWYG.

Why’d they fork my tiramisu?! It’s tasty here, but if I had to pick, Maggiano’s slice would win. Nom nom nom.

Come on down for some expensive, fairly plain and uninspiring eats! Bring some cash too ($5?), since its valet only. I must give them credit for the waitstaff though: they’re very friendly and personable. There’s a major non-creepy flirt on staff. And one of them was as kind as he was tall…6′ 7″ or something insane =O.

Villa Nova
3131 W Coast Hwy
Newport Beach, CA 92663
(949) 642-7880

Thick ass bacon. Mmm! Even the Original Pancake House in Orange doesn’t have the same bacon. They can’t even do the eggs and hash browns right over there. Anaheim’s place to be!

Slightly crispy… perfect.

They tell me it’s ham and eggs but I can only see Elmo.

No food dishes named after bands here, but you still get rockstar quality. You can have breakfast feeling like you’re in somebody’s home here. That’s probably because this used to be! This house turned restaurant has definitely got charm.

They close at 2pm so if you’re a night owl like me… set your alarm clocks!

And don’t forget to carve your initials on the gimonstrous tree outside.

Original Pancake House
1418 E Lincoln Ave
Anaheim, CA 92805

Shot with Emil’s Canon S90.

The Food
This is egg noodles with some bite to it–served with sliced pork, wontons, bean sprouts, lettuce, in a rich, hot broth. I love this with soy sauce soaked jalapenos on the side. I feel so Asian dining at these kinds of restaurants.

You can get these noodles served with about 10 combinations including pork, chicken, duck, shrimp and wontons. Some places even have deep fried shrimp in the soup. At $5-$7 each, this is pocket change.

Lately I’ve been eating this with the broth on the side. My dad usually gets it this way and now I see why! The soup is sipped in between bites instead and this changes up the Mi experience. A very nice worker at Mi La Cay #4 suggested me to add about 2-3 tsp of spicy mustard (from the yellow squeeze bottle) and vinegar (yeah that bottle of red stuff isn’t soy sauce!) to the noodles, mix, and to be fearless.

If you are on a diet don’t even think about it. The meats are fatty and the broth is rich with oil too…

It’s almost making me forget about Japanese ramen.

Oh, soo good!

The Restaurants
But why are there three different Mi La Cays? And why do some of them have “China Chef” as part of the store name? I wish I could tell ya.

That nice worker I mentioned earlier turns out to be one of the family members and owners!. She let out that all of the owners of Mi La Cay are related and that this is a family run chain, but each place has their own recipe. Apparently it’s their game to talk smack and brag about how their own restaurant is better than the others.

Soup-wise I can barely tell the difference. But personally, my money’s on #4 (10078 Westminster Ave) because of the ever-so-friendly waitress and their smaller-cut jalapenos .

Mi La Cay
14092 Magnolia St #116
Westminster, CA 92683

China Chef Mi La Cay #4 (Uh, what happened to the others?)
10078 Westminster Ave
Garden Grove, CA 92843

China Chef Mi La Cay
8924 Bolsa Ave
Westminster, CA 92683

Food: A
Value: A
Service: A
Ambience: B

Bun Bo Hue. Hue (a city in central Vietnam) style beef vermicelli soup.

50% off bun bo hue is on their business card!!

Dec. 25th search for good eats led us to Thanh Noi. You also get a light tropical retreat feel to this restaurant.

I tried
bun bo hue,
banh khoai,
and some iced coffee.

Having never tried bun bo hue outside of home, and never having banh khoai (banh xeo though), the food here is well worth the low price.

Service was a bit slow but I’ll let that slide just because it was Christmas.

Thanh Noi Restaurant
413 N Euclid St
Santa Ana, CA 92703
(714) 554-9900