Healthy Eating Means Good Fortune at Fortune Cookies

Tired of Chinese food to-go? Want some fast casual AND healthy Asian food? Well I've got just the place - Fortune Cookies Restaurant.

Restaurant Layout

Fortune Cookies is not your typical cultural setting. First, it's located in a not so appealing plaza but don't be fooled by its externalities. Ignore the sign outside of the building seeming as plain as Times New Roman font; just take a peek through the glass window and you'll be curious to go inside and try the place out for yourself. It's set in a modern atmosphere with cushioned booths, tables for larger parties, and a sushi bar that runs along the wall. The ambiance is casual and the seating is spacious.

What takes the cake for this restaurant are the healthy alternatives they have to offer. There are:

-Heart Healthy options for those watching their cholesterol, blood pressure, and/or blood sugar levels

-Gluten free options on over a dozen menu choices

-Rice substitutions in addition to white rice (brown rice for a healthier alternative, red rice for a nutty, earthy feeling, and black rice for your daily dose of fiber and antioxidants.)

-Healthy sashimi and salad dressing options in any combination you choose and the entrée would be less than 250 calories.

Brown Rice Option

The Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy program helps promote better eating for students and families. Kudos to that! This has also become a tagline, or motto, for their website and restaurant. It works as a loyalty program using rewards cards every time they dine. A percentage of their meal goes to a child's school or if it's a family rewards card, points are accumulated and deals are offered from time to time. (For more info on the program check out the Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy tab on the main website.

Personally I like my Asian cultural cuisine to be experienced separately if the restaurant I'm dining markets as one specific type - though there are a few exceptions. Most of the dishes were Chinese, but then you get to the end of the menu and suddenly there’s a full sushi bar. Weird, but I guess it works out as people have told me the sushi was good.

Appetizer

I dined with a friend one night and our wait time wasn’t long at all. After being seated, our waiter took our drink orders and came back with a complimentary appetizer. Another kudos for that! Feeling the mood for seafood, we ordered the Veggie Lo Mein, Kung Pao Shrimp, and Fish Filet with Garlic Sauce. This place gave generous proportions so it was easy to share. Some dishes proved to be more authentic than others, though that would be because of the healthier option that was available. The glazes and sauces were not that sweet/savory, but they did add flavor to the dishes. I guess that’s where the healthy part kicked in. They weren’t drenched in soy sauce or sweet and sour sauce, just lightly coated. We also ordered brown rice for a healthy alternative. The entrées satisfied. The service was super efficient, considering we came during the dinner rush.

Veggie Lo Mein and Fish Filet

Kung Pao Shrimp

Overall, Fortune Cookies is a better alternative to everyday chinese food meals we eat. While you won't have that traditional deep fried goodness, you'll still delight in the taste of savory goodness from other chinese dishes. Just like their motto, Eat Healthy Stay Healthy, this restaurant is a great place for healthy eating and  happy living.

Fortune Cookies is located at:

18774 Brookhurst Street Fountain Valley, CA 92708

www.fortunecookiesrestaurant.com

They also have a second location is in Los Alamitos!

Sipz: A Vegetarian/Asian Fusion Experience

Happy New Year my fellow foodies! Hope you had a relaxing and food-filled holiday! I spent a good amount of my vacation in my hometown, San Diego. I love San Diego and everything about it- the people, the location, the lifestyle, and especially the food. It may not be the top metropolitan foodie city of California, but San Diego’s got its gems for sure. One of them is a mom and pop joint called Sipz - a vegetarian-Asian fusion experience. I come from an Asian culture and I know that the food can be hit or miss with being heavily vegetable influenced or meat influenced, especially with my specific culture. So I thought it was interesting going to a vegetarian/vegan Asian restaurant. Though I can vouch for others when they say Asian food is good but not always healthy (i.e. greasy, fatty, fried). I’ve heard great reviews about Sipz so before I went back to Orange County, some friends took me there for an early birthday dinner.

Let’s start with location. The one we went to was located on 30^th street in the North Park, a business district. That said, it’s street parking, but what can you expect at a downtown type of neighborhood? Sipz is on the same block as sports bars and other restaurants that are pleasing to the meat eater. But if you disregard the “Vegetarian” in the sign and actually go inside, you won’t regret it. The place was chic and had a very modern atmosphere. The service was of good quality. We got to experience it during rush and calm rimes since we dined right before and during the dinner rush. My friends were new to vegetarian restaurants and our waiter helped them decide what to eat. The waiter was genuine with his suggestions based on your personal food preferences and he didn’t push them to go for anything pricey; in fact, our waiter kept telling us the better ways to order some things (i.e. Get a FREE Mango Iced Tea with any entree paid for in cash, order a large option instead and share because it’s much cheaper). That sold me right there.

Japanese Fire Noodlez (Mild-Medium)

The menu was 100% vegetarian and I want to say about 40% was vegan (plus gluten-free options). It consisted of Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Thai dishes. What I liked was how confident they were to write chicken or shrimp without quotations because obviously you’d know this was vegetarian and the taste would be almost the same. We ordered the Japanese Fire Noodlez and Tangy Orange Chicken to test out the meat. The chicken tasted pretty good and was pretty damn close to the real thing, but I guess the carnivore inside of me still knew it was imitation chicken. That would also probably be due to the fact that I’ve grown familiar to soy than tofu, that I recognized the difference in texture. Nevertheless, the food was delightful. Their ‘no meat’ dishes are packed full of veggies, like the Vietnamese Rice Noodle Soup we ordered, so I would so don’t fret about ordering something with no meat. Pricing is reasonable - less than $20 a dish and it’s a casual setting that happens to be located in a downtown-like neighborhood; so several factors are put into price. But you get what you pay for, which is good tasting vegetarian food for the healthy eater on a budget.

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Soup

Tangy Orange Chicken

Sipz was over all very good experience, even with figuring in my preconceived ideas about vegan or vegetarian ‘meat’. Like what another friend of mine who I was dining with said, the best vegetarian places are the ones where you can leave without feeling totally bloated or bloated at all and feeling good about yourself. Sipz did justice. I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars only for it’s downtown location (parking), but Sipz is definitely a place for healthy eating and happy dining :)

Sipz has 2 locations in San Diego (Neighborhoods: Clairemont and North Park)
www.sipz.com