Orchid- Costa Mesa

My loyal dining companion, GameBoy, and I set off at 1 pm with one goal in mind: to eat lunch and return to work by 2 pm, sharp. We drove down Bristol, passing Paularino, searching for an Indian restaurant I thought I had read about. Instead, we found Orchid, a Persian restaurant with an $8.50 lunch buffet. With the clock ticking in the back of our minds, we quickly grabbed plates and hit the buffet.

It was a bit picked-over, which was not surprising given that it was a little past prime lunch hour and only partially-full. Nonetheless, there were still 3 types of rice (yellow, green, and white), something that looked like naan, something that looked liked a samosa, a chicken stew dish, an oxtail stew dish, something that looked like tandoori chicken, ground beef kabobs, hummus, and a parsley salad. I'm not sure why the food had a lot in common with Indian food, but I'm pretty sure it was a Persian place since it had Arabic writing.

In any event, I loaded up on a little of everything, then dug in. The tandoori chicken-like item was nice and juicy- better, in fact, than many versions of tandoori chicken I've had. The kebab was decent- not bad, but not spectacular. It may be that I just don't like ground beef kebabs. The oxtail stew was a surprising find for me, having only had oxtail stew as a Chinese dish. This oxtail was also cooked until juicy, but wasn't complimented with anything else, so while it was initally yummy to eat the tender meat, it got heavy and greasy-tasting on my second course. The chicken fared much better in this preparation, especially since it was given an extra kick by some sort of spicy sauce.

I've had parsley salad before, in a Persian restaurant on Westwood Boulevard up in LA, but the one offered by this buffet tasted particularly good. Its onions, tomatoes, and couscous were refreshing, especially given the heavy meat items I selected. Finally, I had the hummus, which was an overly-chilled and average version, but still good with the naan-like flatbread. I passed up the yogurt and salad offerings, but left with a full tummy and slight food coma. Mission accomplished.

Date of visit: 3/13/07

Orchid Jewel
3033 S Bristol St, Costa Mesa, CA
(714)557-8070