El Chilito

Griffin Eats OC is a food blog written by Griffin, about his different dining experiences around Orange County. Click Here To Contact Griffin ATTENTION!! On the left hand column, you will find links to search by cuisine or city. You will also find a restaurant index of all of the places I have written about on the column on the right. If you enjoy the site, please bookmark the site and tell a friend! You can also subscribe to be notified when the site updates by entering your e-mail address in the box on the left. Happy Eating! Please visit our partner sites DiningOutInOC.com for info on OC restaurant openings and special culinary related events, Booze It Up OC for info on OC 21+ events and Brunch In OC for info and reviews on weekend brunches. Showing posts with label mission viejo. Show all posts SEE BOTTOM OF ARTICLE FOR A SMASHBURGER GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY! SmashBurger, a chain that started in Denver CO, has recently begun to expand into Orange County. I was invited down to sample some of their offerings. SmashBurger sets themselves apart from their competition by literally smashing their burgers down on a flat top grill. They say that this puts a good sear on the meat and thereby gives the beef patty a good exterior crust while retaining the juices. Below is a video of the process they go through to create a SmashBurger. It seems that Smashbugers across the country all have regional specialty burgers in addition to the standard SmashBurgers. The two regional burgers for the Orange County area are The LA Burger and The OC Burger. I decided to try the LA burger and V tried the OC burger. The LA burger consists of a beef patty topped with a crispy wonton, fried egg, cilantro, cucumber, lettuce, tomato and a Japanese Steakhouse ginger dressing. The burger was very good. The cucumbers and the cilantro gave the burger a very fresh, crisp taste. However, I felt that the dressing was a little on the bland side. The OC burger was topped with baby portabella mushroo