OC Restaurant Week is going on this week and is offering wonderful discounts.  Luckily for vegans, we have some options.  I went to 118 Degrees in Costa Mesa for a $10 lunch special.  118 Degrees is an all raw-all vegan restaurant (although I think they might have bee products in some smoothies).

Their Restaurant Week lunch menu included:

CA Pear and Walnut Salad (Organic Mixed Greens with Crisp Marinated Pears and Walnuts, topped with our famous Sweet Mustard Dressing.)

Choice of:

Sicilian Focaccia on our house made sprouted buckwheat crust topped with onions, olives, sun-dried tomato
and sweet macadamia cheese.

Or

Fried Avocado Hand-Helds in a Nappa Cabbage Leaf with our Tahini Cheese, Chopped Organic Spinach, Diced Cucumber, and Flax Rolled Avocado.

Dessert Duo, Daily Selection of Dessert Bites from our House Selection of Popular Desserts

My dining partner and I got one of each entree and ended up splitting them.

$10 Lunch Special with Fried Avocado

The salad was simple and the pears added a nice bit of sweetness.  I love the “fried” avocados at 118 Degrees so I was excited to get it in a handheld.  Although it didn’t end up being eaten in handheld form, it was still delicious.   The daily dessert duo ended up being their brownie and apple cobbler.  The brownie was more like fudge.  I loved the texture, but I find raw chocolate to be too bitter for me.  I also wasn’t a big fan of the apple cobbler.  I love baked apple cobblers, but since this was a raw dessert, I’m assuming they dehydrated their apples.  I was never a fan of dried apples, which is why I could have passed on this dessert. The crust was good, though.

$10 Lunch Special with Sicilian Focaccia

As far as the sicilian focaccia dish went – I actually didn’t have high hopes for this one.  I was concerned that the crust was going to be bad (I’ve had bad experiences with raw items trying to replace bread).  I ended up really liking their focaccia.  The topping of greens was also wonderful.

If you are in the area, I’d highly recommend stopping by for this fantastic deal.  They have a separate dinner special for $20.  You can get all the information at the OC Restaurant Week’s website.  The deals end March 3rd, so you better get over there!

Note: Avanti Cafe also is having OC Restaurant Week deals and includes some vegan options. See their options here.

I recently went with a group to Au Lac in Fountain Valley.  This restaurant is great, because it has a huge menu with Vietnamese style cooked foods and extravagant raw foods.  It is also great for people living in Orange County, because it is centralized within the county.

I started off with the BBQ Pork Rolls with rice paper, barbecued soy pork, chive, pickled daikon and carrot, and served with a peanut sauce for dipping.  This thing was stuffed with fake pork, so don’t order it if you aren’t into the fake meats.  I liked that it was sliced for sharing (I was with a group, after all).  I love peanut sauces, and this one did not disappoint (although I do wish they gave a bit more).  As for the roll, itself, I liked it, but I actually think I would have liked a tofu-based roll instead.  It was too fake-meaty for me.

BBQ Pork Rolls – $4

For my entree, I ordered the Stir-Fried Soy Seafood Noodles with yellow noodle, soy seafood, stir-fried bok choy, snow pea, napa cabbage, and shiitake sauce.  The menu declared that the noodles were crispy, but I guess I wasn’t expecting the “bird’s nest” style noodles.  Luckily, after sitting in the sauce for awhile, the noodles softened up.  I like that this dish is not just vegetables and not just fake meat but a hearty combination of both.  I still wish it was a soft, non-fried noodle, but the flavor was still excellent.

Stir Fried Seafood Noodles – $10

Because I was with a large group, we ended up ordering a few desserts and sharing them.  All of their desserts are raw and all are perfectly sliced for sharing.  Our group went with Choconut X-tasy, Donut Holes, and Rainbow in the Sky.  The Choconut x-tasy was my favorite (it’s also the one I always order when at Au Lac).  It is described only as pecans and cocoa powder, but I’m sure there is more to it than that.  It is served slightly cold and tastes like a kind of creamy ice cream-type dessert.  The donut holes were a recommendation by a friend and contain a healthy dose of spirulina, coconut, and macadamia nuts.  I personally liked them, but I can see that they might not be for everyone (maybe on the account of the spirulina taste).  It’s a doughy ball with a gooey chocolate filling and coated in a very fine coconut sugar.  The advice given to me before eating this was to not inhale when putting this ball into your mouth – as the fine coconut sugar will get stuck in your lungs.  Lastly, the Rainbow in the Sky might have been my least favorite, but still very good.  It contains blueberries, spirulina, jackfruit, raspberries, dates, and pecans.  I’m less of a fruity dessert type of person, which is why I liked it least.

Choconut X-tasy (Raw) – $7

Donut Holes (Raw) – $7

Rainbow in the Sky (Raw) – $7

Au Lac is in a small complex with a hodge-podge of businesses.  It looks very generic from the outside, but inside they have renovated it to be very sleek.  They have gone with a black and red theme with modern porcelain tableware and low lighting.  Once inside, it’s a very sexy place to take your date.  Some of my group are mostly raw in their personal diets and they raved about the raw menu here.  Au Lac also has a large elixir menu to help fix any of your aliments.  The parking is very easy and the location is close to the 405 freeway.  A definite must for anyone in the Orange County area.

Au Lac

Au Lac
16563 Brookhurst St
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
714-418-0658

Tuesday-Sunday
Lunch 11:33 am – 3:33 pm
Dinner 5:33 pm – 9:33 pm