Del Taco kicks Taco Bell's ass in all respects. I wish they had them here in the Northeast...

Other than when I was a student in Boston, I never ate as well as when I lived in Newport. Too many places to list them all here, but there used to be a Red Onion Bar/Restaurant where the Hooters(TM) is now on Balboa...it closed in 1994, and it was NOT related to the chain of Red Onions so the food was much better...what I liked best was it had NO Accessible entrance for wheelchairs, so I had to either waddle up the steps while someone carried my wheelchair, or actually be lifted and carried up by four guys, like I was the pope. After two or three visits with sizable tabs, the manager left instructions for the bouncers to carry me up instead of my ex-college roomies. Right next door (Balboa Surf and Turf Club) is the place where Dennis Rodman used to party and beat the shit out of a bartender ....


Down by the marina on PCH is a Landry's/Joes Crab Shack which is much better than most of the outlets in other cities. And if you can stand the paper plates and red checkerboard table cloths, the Crab Cooker offers awesome, healthy seafood at very low prices. Blackie's pub ("sorry, we are OPEN") has awesome buffalo wings....