Orange County: Lunch at OC & LAU

 

After getting nem nuong (pork spring rolls) at Brodard as an appetizer, we jetted over to OC & LAU for a Vietnamese seafood feast. OC & LAU is also known for hot pot but since it was a warm day, we went with just refreshing seafood.

We were hungry so we may have ordered too much for three people. And we did just eat a bunch of spring rolls before dropping into this spot. However, I contend this was all worth it and I had fantastic leftovers for days.

The grilled shrimp were done perfectly with juicy heads if you wanted to suck out the brains and other tasty bits or just go straight for the plump shrimp. I ate it whole with the crackly shell as I found it hard to peel off. I did do away with the feet though. Too much info? Don’t order these if you’re squeamish about handling whole shrimp because you’ll get down and dirty with ’em.

When I spotted the escargot salad on the menu, I knew I’d had to try it. It said it was going to be served with ong choy (morning glory) but these stems didn’t seem like the familiar hollow stem veggie. I liked this salad very much. The escargot reminded me of geoduck. Great texture.

 

Oh my goodness these scallops were huge! These are not one-biters! I would suggest not being so seafood greedy like me and savoring (several) bites of each scallop. Otherwise, you might end up choking like I did… but it was worth it!!

 

 

I love, love, love razor clams. I like how these and the scallops (shown above) were done with lots of fried shallots and herbs. Plus the peanuts gave it a crunch. The clams themselves were very tender.

 

We were getting full so we ended up eating all the tender beef from the shaken beef noodles dish and I took home the noodles for another day. Did I mention I love leftovers?

I would love to come back for more seafood and hotpot!

OC & LAU

10130 Garden Grove Blvd., Garden Grove, CA 92844  —  (714) 636-2000

 

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