Restaurants in Garden Grove

Jim and Patty Gattari spent years compiling recipes from aunts, uncles, parents, and grandparents, until, in 1974, they reached their limit. With a massive list of family traditions, the couple decided to share those dishes with the world by opening their own deli and local grocery. The combination of their hearty lasagnas, housemade meatballs, and friendly demeanor kept people coming back, and Orange Tree soon evolved into a popular sandwich shop, stuffing chicken salad, deli meats, and burgers between slices of bread baked fresh daily. Over the years, Jim and Patty's daughters worked the register during high school and when home from college as the family added burritos, tacos, and sizzling fajitas to their eclectic menu.

With hot daily specials such as baby back ribs and fresh roasted turkey, Orange Tree has today become the haunt of local firemen and business folk in the mood for fresh lunches. Patrons can follow the eatery's growth through the years by the frames on the walls that display photos of family members, local sights, and awkward prom dates with the restaurant down the block.

After the popularity of Anabella and Salvador Corona’s first El Pollo Norteno restaurant in Santa Ana, they began to expand to more locations, each of which serves healthy, homestyle Mexican food. Mesquite charcoal heightens the flavors of charbroiled chicken dishes, and catering trays liven up parties otherwise filled with awkward silences . Family packs of dinners, along with tacos, burritos, and quesadillas a la carte, feed the entire family.

Linguini, penne, spaghetti, and fettuccini—the chefs at Carolina’s Italian Restaurant have been preparing pasta in its many incarnations for more than three decades. But their time-tested cooking techniques aren't the only reason for the robust flavors in their classic Italian cuisine. Ingredients are delivered five times a week, ensuring that each tomato is as fresh as the day its life coach finally coaxed it off the stem. Quality seafood and meats such as Atlantic salmon and new york steak put a finishing touch on many entrees.

After diners polish off their meals, they can indulge in a dessert such as housemade tiramisu or cannoli drizzled with chocolate syrup. Then, they can lean back and admire the wall murals of Italian countryside and verandas, or watch confused airplanes circle the ceiling's painted blue sky.

The food at Cafe Lafayette alludes more to a sumptuous and expensive restaurant than a simple corner café. The kitchen greets the day with Florentine omelets and mango-blueberry crepes, and toothpicks adorned with fringe or tiny semaphore flags skewer sandwiches filled with salami and provolone or waldorf chicken salad at lunch. Dinnertime is when the upscale flavors are at their best, as gnocchi with wild mushrooms and beef stroganoff prepared with filet mignon share space with the house Pollo Di Lafayette, a chicken breast stuffed with spinach, walnuts, and blue cheese and topped with creamy pesto.

A little piece of Germany lies on 8 acres of Huntington Beach. Traditional restaurants and grocery stores line the quaint cobblestone streets, and people decked out in German dress meander through their wooden doors. As the sun rises over rows of dangling shop shingles, the air becomes electrified with the sounds of puffing tubas, sizzling bratwurst, and traditional German toasts. This is Old World Village, a mecca of bakeries, bars, delis, and eateries that have been celebrating German heritage for more than 30 years. Sauerbraten, wiener schnitzel, and spaetzle fill the air with savory aromas in Old World Restaurant as visitors to the bar raise their glasses to sip on such imported suds as Dunkel, Hofbräu, and Warsteiner. Meanwhile, the European market lines its colorful shelves with not only German staples but also goodies from Italy, Poland, and other countries. Though the village is the perfect escape for individuals in need of European merriment, mass festivities are its specialty: weddings, family reunions, and other celebrations benefit from its banquet services, and festivals such as Oktoberfest open German traditions to the public better than a congressional lederhosen mandate.

Executive chef Rahm Fama's career has rocketed him from his mother's cattle ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the limelight of his Food Network TV series Meat & Potatoes. Still, he has not forgotten the herds that helped him get where he is today, and he keeps those memories close while leading Culture 22. An ardent devotee of carnivore-pleasing cuisine, chef Rahm stocks his menu with porterhouses, bacon-topped burgers, and seafood.

Peppercorn-crusted 12-ounce new york steak au poivre bathes in a cognac sauce, and a dozen oysters paired with inventive dipping sauces from the raw bar set taste buds out to sea. Rahm's Famous New Mexican–style green-chile burger imbues a half-pound of beef with the piquant flavors of his native state, accompanied by french fries that, like wooden boards in a martial-arts studio, are hand-cut. As diners divvy up jumbo cocktail shrimp, servers ferry cocktails and beer to ebony four-top tables set aglow by chandelier and candle lighting.