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Galaxy Taco is a modern Mexican restaurant located in San Diego and offers a very authentic Mexican taco experience! The restaurant is located in the La Jolla region of San Diego and the area is known to be a rich neighborhood.
We drove down to San Diego right after work around 5:30PM and we were stuck on I5 due to traffic. It took us more than 1.5 hours to get down to San Diego. By the time we got to Galaxy Taco restaurant it was almost 7:30PM, but luckily it was not too busy. There is a small parking area on the side of the restaurant. If the lot if full, there is plenty of places for street parking.
The restaurant's seating area is essentially divided into two sections. There is outdoor covered patio seating area and indoor area. We did not really have a preference and got a table on the patio. Our server was extremely enthusiastic at introducing us the daily 3 taco specials. However, at the end we ordered a plate of guacamole chips, a fish taco, and a chicken taco.
The guacamole chips plate came really fast. We were starving and finished the chips really fast. The server came right away and served us another plate of chips with no charge. After a while, our tacos were here! The tacos were a good size. The fish taco was cooked perfectly. The fish was fried, but the fish meat was still juicy and tender. We really loved it! The chicken taco was good too. But we thought that the chicken taco has too much onions on it which made it a bit spicy. The taco dish was also served with rice and beans as usual.
Overall, we think that Galaxy Taco is a great place to dine and experience Mexican food. However, if you have been here already, there sure are many other Mexican restaurants in San Diego that offer authentic taco experience!
Tasty Noodle House is an Asian Chinese cuisine restaurant located in Culver Plaza in Irvine. It is not a very big restaurant and can probably accommodate up to around 50 people at once. The tables are very crowded together. We got there on a Friday night around 6:30 and there was a line to get a table. We put our name down on the sign up sheet and waited for about 5 minutes before we got a table.
It was unfortunate that we were sitting by the entrance. The entrance of the restaurant has a wall of glass window and glass door. Since the restaurant is facing west, the sun light shone through the glass and was very glaring. So if possible, it would be the best to get a table towards the inside of the restaurant.
Although the restaurant has the word "Noodle" in its name, it does also offer a variety of other rice dishes. We ordered a pork sauce dry noodle dish, a beef rice, and a Xiao Long Bao. The Xiao Long Bao dumpling was quite disappointing. There wasn't enough juice trapped inside the dumpling. The dumpling skin was quite thick as well. Overall, the dumpling tasted like it was from a frozen freezer, and not a hand made dumpling.
The good thing is that the pork sauce dry noodle bowl was quite decent. It came with a lot of sauce, along with some cucumbers. The noodle was well boiled to maintain its tenderness. The best dish we had today was actually the beef rice. The beef was quite juicy and tender. There were also some daikon mixed in the rice and was very well cooked to have a soft texture to it.
Overall, this restaurant is half decent and we would definitely come back again. However, I would not recommend any steamed dishes such as dumplings.
Whiting Ranch Wilderness is located by Lake Forest in Southern California. It is a very popular park for mountain bikers and offers numerous trails for both hikers and bikers. This place is always packed with people during the weekend. There is a few parking spaces by the entrance to the park, but the parking space is very limited and costs $3. Most people park their cars in the plaza across the street and walk over.
We got to the park around 7:30AM in the morning and there were not many people. This time we were hiking to the Vista Lookout, which was the highest point of the park. The first section of the trail was quite sandy. The good thing was that it was just raining last night, so the sand was quite packed and easy to walk on. This first section of the trail was also shared with bike riders. However, if you are to bike on this section of the trial, keep in mind that this is a one way biking trail.
After about 40 minutes, we completed the first section of the trail and got to the fork. This was where everyone took a rest. At this point, there were many trails heading to different directions. The Vista Lookout was on the right side and thus we took the trail on the right. The trail on the right was quite wide and also allowed cars to drive on. The good thing was that this section of the trail was no longer sandy and easy to walk on. This section of the trail was also where the ascend starts so prepare yourself for this.
The trail took several turns and kept on ascending. Once you come across another fork and see another sign pointing to Vista Lookout, there would only be 0.3 miles left. From the Vista Lookout point, we had a 360 degree view of the entire Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. It was an amazing view. We could also see the Red Rock Canyon on the North side.
We did not stay long at the Vista Lookup however, since it was quite windy and looked like it was about to rain. Overall, it was a great spot to enjoy the view on a nice sunny weekend.
