Listen closely and you can hear the clanging of wine bottles, snapping of tablecloths and rattling of silverware in anticipation of diners set to pour through the front doors of one of Orange County’s thousands of dining options. A smattering of new eateries will open next year with hopes of swaying diners from its thousands of competitors with ambiance, location and food its owners and chefs deem too good to resist. Some might turn into beloved stalwarts, others a mere blip in time. But all of them are worth getting to know within Orange County’s growing culinary landscape as you fill out your must-try list for next year.
While the following isn’t a comprehensive list of all the restaurants and watering holes poised to open next year, it is merely a taste of what to expect in 2024.
Adding to San Juan Capistrano’s status as a culinary destination, River Street Marketplace, a roughly 60,000-square-foot outdoor dining and retail destination, will open at some point in early 2024. Developed by Almquist Developers, who helped create nearby Heritage BBQ and Mayfield and Stanton’s Rodeo 39 Public Market, a gaggle of news restaurants will stake ground, including Bred’s Hot Chicken specializing in Nashville hot chicken; Capo Leisure House, a brewery and cocktail spot with a 40-foot bar top, fire pit and sixteen taps with its own original beers and a rotating roster of suds from local breweries; Fermentation Farm will feature probiotic, titular fare like sauerkraut, pickles, sourdough bread, bone broths and kombucha; Finca by David Pratt, an upscale restaurant by the noted chef that will serve house-ground burgers and other wood-fired dishes; Capas and its Baja-inspired ceviche, smoked tacos and burritos from local chef Michael Campbell (formerly of Pueblo in Costa Mesa and the Loft at the Montage in Laguna Beach); Hudson’s Cookies, a bakeshop with more than 30 cookie creations; Kozan Teahouse and Boba featuring such cold beverages as brown sugar milk tea, matcha milk tea, cheese foam-topped teas, fruit-infused teas and more; La Vaquera, an upscale Mexican restaurant from Acme Hospitality Group; McConnell’s Ice Cream, the California ice cream brand with a 70-year legacy opening its first O.C, brick-and-mortar; Meat Cellar Market and Steakhouse will offer an in-house butcher counter with humanely raised meats, as well as specialty foods, a cheese counter and wines. It also doubles as a steakhouse restaurant serving Tomahawks, prime bone-in ribeye, wagyu Tomahawk, surf and turf and more. Mendocino Farms will have grab-and-go items like avocado and quinoa salad, a “not so fried” chicken sandwich, Mama Chen’s Chinese chicken salad and more; Nom, an Asian-inspired, fast-casual eatery will have bowls with protein options like espresso-rubbed pork, sambal-marinated tofu, teriyaki chicken and bo-luc-lac beef; Shootz Hawaiian, a fast-casual spot focusing on Hawaiian comfort foods like hot kimchi butter katsu sandwich, brûléed musubi and jalapeno garlic shrimp; Ubuntu Cafe, a Long Beach restaurant will open its first O.C. location, will serve breakfast egg sandwiches, house-made gluten-free granola and other morning, lunch and dinner fare.
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Meanwhile, at the District at Tustin Legacy, Prime Hot Pot, a hot pot spot specializing in wagyu hot pot, will open by the end of January. It will take over the former JT Schmid’s location. And Fluffy Fluffy Dessert Cafe, part of Fuwa Fuwa, will griddle up bouncy Japanese-style souffle pancakes. It’s scheduled to open sometime between mid-January and early February.
Le Shrimp Noodle Bar, sister restaurant to Paradise Dynasty, will open two locations in the spring of 2024. Le Shrimp Noodle Bar is slated to open at Irvine Spectrum Center by late March or early April near Bristol Farms market. Le Shrimp will also open a Fountain Valley location in late April or early May across from MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center. The restaurant, which first opened in 2021 in South Coast Plaza, specializes in wok-hei shrimp broth noodle soup.
Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza will see Yu Cake open by spring. Already a favorite in Los Angeles, where it opened in 2020, the upscale bakery will feature pastel-hued mille crepe cakes, like white peach oolong and ice blue sea salt coconut; cheesecakes; daifuku; cake rolls and more.
Dutch Bros, an Oregon-based drive-through coffee shop with a cult following, will open its first Orange County location — two of them, if fact, in Fountain Valley: One at the Village Center shopping center and the other in the parking lot of Floor and Decor. With locations already open in the Inland Empire and Oceanside, O.C. can look forward to getting its hands on such beverages as the Cocomo (a coconut mocha), the Double Torture (extra double shot vanilla mocha) or other espresso-based concoctions. (The chain does not sell drip-style coffee.) Look for them to open sometime in January.
Fast growing fast-food burger chain Shake Shack will open its Brea location inside the former Corner Bakery spot sometime in the back-half of 2024. “We are still a bit away from having an opening date solidified,” said company spokesperson Kate DeMarco.
Over in Capistrano Beach, the upcoming El Caminante Bar and Bungalows lodgings along Pacific Coast Highway, will have a cocktail lounge and wood-fired pizzas that, according to its website, will be “served from a vintage airstream.” Look for both the hotel and food/bar to open in February.
Currently in its soft-opening stage (which is industry speak for the time before a grand opening wherein a restaurant gets its sea legs), Vegan District Asian Eatery’s new location in Anaheim will officially open in January. This will be the second location for the vegan spot; its first is in Loma Linda.
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Over in Stanton, Blue Bowl, an acai bowl purveyor, will open its10th location inside Rodeo 39 Public Market. It offers healthy bowls with such bases as blue coconut, matcha, huckleberry and blue chia pudding. Blue Bowl’s Stanton location is slated to open in spring across from Sweet G’s, near Phoholic.
A roughly 11,000-square-foot building under construction at Downtown Disney called Parkside Market will feature a slew of options for Korean rice bowls, fried chicken sandwiches and Caribbean-inspired coffee. To wit: Seoul Sister, with executive chef Kelly Kim helming the menu, will serve bowls based on bibimbap with a California twist. LA-based Sip and Sonder, a coffeehouse and eatery lauded by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best cafes in town, will prepare Caribbean-inspired fare in addition to caffeinated beverages. And making its West Coast debut is Chicago-based GG’s Chicken Shop serving its famous take on fowl. The 21-and-over crowd can look forward to a second-story, yet-to-be-named watering hole with cocktails galore and a see-and-be-seen vibe.
In addition to Kei Supper Club, an upcoming omakase-esque dining experience with founder and executive chef Viet Nguyen, Kei Concepts will open a handful of other eateries in 2024, including its third location of ROL Hand Roll Bar, expected to arrive in Irvine in July; Kei Coffee House, a new coffee concept, will open its doors in Fountain Valley in August; and Vox Kitchen, which will welcome its second location at South Coast Plaza, expected to arrive by September.
Taco María, one of Orange County’s only three one-star Michelin starred restaurants, will most likely reopen somewhere, sometime, someplace in 2024. The noted restaurant, the brainchild of chef-owner Carlos Salgado, closed its Costa Mesa location in July.
