Heroes

Well, I was having my birthday party in the Anaheim area and since I don't know that area very well, I asked my friend for dinner recommendations in the Anaheim or Fullerton areas. Being a long-time resident of Orange County, he suggested Heroes, so I sent a caravan of my friends to Heroes for my birthday dinner, having never tried the restaurant. Now that is trust.


Heroes is tucked into downtown Fullerton in a district called SOCO (South of Commonwealth Avenue). This area is full of red-bricked shops and restaurants that are within walking distance, something only found in Southern California's downtown areas.

While waiting for my entire party to arrive before being seated, I knew I was in for a treat just watching the patrons through the window. The sizes are gigantic, even the drinks are enormous!


Walking to our table at the rear of the restaurant's dining room, we walked past a long bar with a seemingly endless line of beers on tap. I would say there are two routes to go at Heroes: Order a couple pints of different beers to try what they have on tap or find something you already like and order it in their large size. For the occasion of my turning a year older, I took my friend's recommendation and ordered a large Newcastle Framboise, a mix of Newcastle beer with raspberry-flavored beer.


I ordered the Tuna Melt with curly fries . Thankfully the sandwich arrived already cut in half because I could only finish one of the halves before calling it quits. The curly fries were freshly fried, but unfortunately I must not have been paying attention because one of my friends ordered onion rings as his side, which were excellent. The Tuna Melt had a large portion of tuna salad, but an even larger portion of fresh veggies, which included lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles and was finally topped with cheddar cheese. Fortunately, the tuna salad was well seasoned and did not have a lot of filler vegetables, so the tuna salad shone through all the vegetables. This is a good place to split an entree with friends because of the enormous portion sizes.


Devin ordered a Patty Melt which was short compared to everyone else's entrees because of the absence of vegetables. Unlike the hamburgers, the Patty Melt did not have vegetables, used melted Swiss cheese, and had grilled sourdough slices as the bun. He also ordered curly fries and was barely able to made a dent in them.

At the end of the meal, I was presented with a delicious, hot peach cobbler that was topped with vanilla ice cream. Similar to our other dishes, the peach cobbler was large enough to pass through our party twice and I was still left with a portion that I couldn't finish. I never really met a cobbler I truly enjoyed until this one; the hot peaches melted in my mouth and were cooled by the vanilla ice cream. The crumb topping didn't get soggy and added a nice crunch. I especially appreciated this peach cobbler because the peaches weren't encased in a thick, sickly sweet syrup, but instead the natural juice released from the peaches during their time in the oven seemed to be the only sauce.

Heroes is a very relaxed atmosphere with large food and drink portions. They have a large selection of beers on tap and there are television screens tuned to sports throughout the restaurant so you can watch your favorite team. The service is very casual, with a different face appearing each time something is brought to the table. Although the atmosphere is appropriate for a large and noisy group, we received our bill as a single number circled on a piece of paper rather than itemized, leading to a lot of confusion at the end of the meal.

Heroes Bar & Grill
125 W Santa Fe Ave.
Fullerton, CA 92832
714-738-4356

Spires

Out running errands on a Sunday morning, we realized it was quickly approaching lunchtime, but hadn't preplanned where to eat.


This is how we ended up at Spires. We frequently pass by Spires on our way to the grocery store or the bank, but I never really gave thought to trying it out until Devin reminded me of its existence. That's the kind of place it is; it's quite and unassuming, you're not expected to dress up to dine here, but one comes here to relax and enjoy a comforting meal at a reasonable price. I was eager to try a new place, but unfortunately didn't have a suitable camera with me, only the camera on my cell phone. So here's a restaurant review, kind of, just please excuse the quality of the pictures.


You can see that the house Thousand Island dressing was quite lumpy in addition to being very thick. The lumps in the dressing were chopped pickles and onions, providing much of the flavor in the otherwise plain, iceberg lettuce salad. I really enjoyed this tangy, house-made Thousand Island dressing.


It's at places like this that I most rely on my pescetarian diet, because there were little, if any (other than a plain salad) vegetarian options here. The Tuna Melt sandwich came with a choice of french fries, coleslaw, fried zucchini, or onion rings. I was excited to to see fried zucchini on the menu as an option to the standard sides, and so could not resist getting them. Swiss cheese came on the tuna melt and while Swiss is not my favorite kind of cheese, it worked very well to add a subtle nutty flavor to the tuna salad. The tuna salad was adequately seasoned with enough mayonnaise to provide a creamy texture while still retaining the crispiness of the grilled bread. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this Tuna Melt, since I was initially hesitant about the Swiss cheese.


Fried zucchini are an occasional treat for me, usually reserved for county fairs. The fried zucchini at Spires did not at all resemble the huge mutant zucchini often found at county fairs to be soggy messes of grease. At Spires, the fried zucchini retained their original shape and were quartered lengthwise. Appropriately, ranch dressing accompanied the fried zucchini. Biting into the fried zucchini, the centers of the vegetable were able to retain their crunch, not because they were undercooked, but because they were cut to a manageable size and the deep-fry oil was at the correct temperature. Because the breadcrumb coating was thin, the flavor of the zucchini was able to shine through and surprisingly, here was only a light reminiscent of grease left on my fingers from picking up the fried zucchini sticks.


Devin had a cheeseburger ordered medium and his choice of side was french fries. He enjoyed his cheeseburger and fries on the same level as those found at Denny's, Coco's, and Norm's, but didn't find them to be anything outstandingly special.

Spires
13451 Newport Ave.
Tustin, CA 92780
714-544-0631