Eating in California – A Week of Travels and Great Food

Eating in California might just be the best experience you’ve ever had on your family vacation. If it’s ever worth the money spent on eating out – California would be the place!

Hey guys! Hope your week is a off to a great start!

I’m finally more or less back to normal and settled in one place after a couple crazy weeks of very little “on-line” and a lot of “on- life” 🙂

In a couple of weeks I went from the East to the West coast – PA to CA, lost one teenager to a college in LA, gained one extra room in the house as a result of that, ate ALL the food and did ALL the fun things in CA, saw AC/DC live and more!

But let’s start from the beginning…

The boy is off to college…. That’s a whole sad and emotional story of its own, which I know the parents and step parents will understand as well as any of you who ever had to say goodbye to someone you love due to their moving to a different place. It shook our little family up and we’re still adjusting to living as a family of 3 day to day. But on to the bright side…

We decided to take a family vacation in CA while taking the boy to college hence today I’m talking about eating in California!

So first off, after flying into Orange County John Wayne Airport, we stayed in Anaheim, CA. For those of you outside of the US – that’s where the Disneyland is, and that’s exactly the reason why we wanted to stay there for a couple of days. 🙂

Eating in California: Anaheim

The very first place we ate at was IHOP. I’ve never been to that place before and it is AMAZING! It is a breakfast place but we went there for a brunch – worked great. Look at all the breakfast syrups they serve: 🙂

I opted for their Tuscan Scramble and those smashed red potatoes were absolutely the best I’d ever tasted!

Up next is a VERY honorable mention of the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Disneyland – nothing fancy but extremely delicious lunch and fast service – ideal for Disneyland where you want to eat a quick meal and keep walking around.

Located in Critter Country it has outside seating area with a gorgeous view. The turkey, bacon, lettuce and cheese sandwich was vey delicious!

For dinner, Downtown Disney treated me with hands down THE BEST salmon sandwich I’ve ever tasted! At that, my sandwich day was over 🙂

Eating in California: San Clemente

After Anaheim we moved to San Clemente for one day. Moving for just one day you say? Well, here’s what happened in just one day in San Clemente, CA.

I spent most of the day at the beach.

I took a cycling class at CB Cycle Barn and met the wonderful ladies who make the Barn magic happen.

While you may or may not agree with what they will teach you at the Barn, you just can’t deny that it is a very special place with unique atmosphere and beautiful people working there and attending the classes. I loved it! Thank you, Karen and Lisa for a warm welcome and a great class!

…and I had dinner at a great restaurant with a breath-taking view of the pier and the sunset over the ocean.

The Fisherman’s Restaurant and Bar will be remembered as the place where I had the most delicious fresh sea food linguini!

After saying goodbye to the beautiful San Clemente, we headed to Pasadena for the final leg of our travelling vacation.

Eating in California: Pasadena

Pasadena welcomed us with the famous Gamble House (apart from being an absolutely stunning home, that’s also the house that was used to film Back to the Future as Doc Brown’s house)…

…Norton Simon Museum and La Brea Tar Pits. It will also be remembered for the most exotic meal I’ve had in the US – Mongolian Hot Pot.

We went to a place called Little Sheep. If you have never been to a hot pot restaurant here is how it works: you have a burner in the middle of your table, then you order a pot of broth (we ordered a divided pot with two kinds of broth in it) and whatever you want in your hot pot – fish, tofu, veggies, meat… Here is what the pot looked like before we dumped a bunch of yummy goodness into it:

and here is the “after” picture 🙂

Pasadena will also be remembered in my family as a place where we had THE BEST fish tacos of our lives – at Rubio’s.

Trust me – you want to go there and order those tacos and then devour them like there is no tomorrow.  I guarantee you it will be the best thing that ever happened to you 🙂

And that’s what eating in California is all about – fresh, beautiful, and delicious!

But enough about me! Your turn!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Eat well and remember to visit my co-hostess – A Hungry Runner to see what she’s cooking today.

Link ’em up below, you guys!

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