“Do you like it spicy?”
I love hearing those words. It’s a question I got recently from the cashier at Southern Spice in Irvine. When I said, “Yes. Yes I do,” she steered me toward an incredible eggplant curry.
“You want it spicy?” asked a waitress at Thai and Los Market in Anaheim when I ordered the pad kra pow. She was nodding her head in the affirmative as she asked the question, and I immediately synchronized my head movement with hers.
Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew, like the time I inadvertently swallowed a piece of Isan sausage that was hiding an entire birds-eye pepper.
At Irvine’s Meizhou Dongpo, I spiraled into a frightening coughing fit after gulping too big a spoonful of the Sichuan restaurant’s royal hot pot. But found myself reaching for another bite even before my eyes had stopped watering.
“If it’s too spicy, you can’t send it back,” warns my waiter at The Boiling Crab when I ordered their medium-spiced crawfish recently. I had already learned my lesson there on a previous visit when I ordered their top-tier spice and fully regretted it.
Here’s a bucket list of some of the spiciest foods I’ve found in Orange County. Not all of them will are to be feared. I’ve rated each of these dishes on a heat scale of one to five. (Warning: Level 5 is not to be taken lightly.) But if you like it spicy, they all fit the bill.
Meizhou Dongpo
15363 Culver Drive, Irvine. 949-433-5686
The dish: Royal hot pot
Description: A boiling cauldron of shrimp, beef, mushrooms, quail eggs, lotus root and Spam, plus a bushel of chilies and Sichuan peppercorn.
Spice level: 5
Chada Thai
9872 Westminster Ave, Garden Grove. 714-858-1693, chadathaigg.com
The dish: Tom kha kai
Description: Most people are familiar with Thai-style coconut-lemongrass chicken soup, but few have tasted anything quite like Chada’s version of “Thai-style spicy.”
Spice level: 5
Pho Go
14271 Brookhurst St., Garden Grove. 714-486-3207
The dish: Fresh chili paste
Description: It’s not a dish but rather a condiment that will catch your mouth on fire at this Vietnamese pho shop. The housemade sate, or chili paste, is made of nothing but pure chilies, a mix of birds-eye and habanero. Be extremely judicious with this stuff.
Spice level: 5
Playa Mesa
428 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa. 949-287-5292, playamesa.com
The dish: Chili oil
Description: Another condiment rather than a dish, the chili aceite, or chili oil, is made with dried, smoked jalapeños called moritas. A few drops go a long, long way.
Spice level: 5
Taco María
3313 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. 714-538-8444, tacomaria.com
The dish: Chili oil
Description: Virtually identical to the chili oil at Playa Mesa. Don’t let the luxurious calm of this restaurant fool you. This chili oil is liquid dynamite.
Spice level: 5
Thai and Laos Market
1721 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. 714-535-2656
The dish: Pad kra pow, Thai-style.
Description: Most people know pepper-and-basil stir fry called pad kra pow. Ask for it Thai style here and the beef comes finely pulverized (instead of strips) and loaded with fresh green chilies (instead of those ridiculous bell peppers most restaurants use).
Spice level: 5
Roman’s Taqueria
2400 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa. 949-548-5534
The dish: Chili arbol salsa
Description: Forget everything you know about arbol chilies. The salsa here is seriously hotter than you’ll find anywhere else. Your first impulse will be to slather it liberally. Don’t!
Spice level: 5
Suvarnabhumi
13572 Newport Ave., Tustin. 714-204-0654
The dish: Panang curry
Description: Panang curry is made with red curry paste, kaffir lime and coconut cream. Ask for it Thai-style spicy here, and you’ll see Jesus.
Spice level: 4
New Moon
7620 Beach Blvd., Buena Park. 714-562-9920, ewmoonrestaurants.com
The dish: Dragon beef
Description: Stir-fried beef with red and green birds-eye chilies, plus jalapeños. The intense heat is (somewhat) tempered by dark, sweet soy.
Spice level: 4
Southern Spice
3850 Barranca Parkway, Irvine. 949-679-6914, southernspiceirvine.com
The dish: Gutti vankaya
Description: Baby eggplants stuffed with spicy Southern India-style peanut-coconut paste, cooked in an onion-tomato masala. Careful, this one sneaks up on you.
Spice level: 4
The Boiling Crab
14241 Euclid St., Garden Grove. 714-265-2722, theboilingcrab.com
The dish: XXX Cajun-style Crawfish
Description: They offer four levels, with their hottest tier called XXX. The next level down is medium, and this one is still very hot. You’re going to need rubber gloves for this. And an ice-cold beer.
Spice level: 5
Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai
891 Baker St., Costa Mesa. 714-557-2947, ramenbannai.com
The dish: Green chili ramen
Description: It’s spicy without any special requests. But it’s even better with an extra dose of green chili and one of their umami chili bombs, in which case, look out.
Spice level: 4
Ritter’s
1421 W. MacArthur Blvd., Santa Ana. 714-850-1380, rittersskc.com
The dish: Gumbo
Description: Here’s another Cajun scorcher. They offer a heat scale of one to 10 where seven is very, very hot.
Spice level: 4
Red O
143 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. 949-718-0300, redorestaurant.com
The dish: Yellowtail aguachile
Description: Classic Mexican aguachile: raw fish in a citrus broth spiked with serrano chilies.
Spice level: 4
Bangkok Avenue
17221 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach. 714-841-9567, bangkokavenue.com
The dish: Isan-style sausage
Description: Northern Thai-style pork sausage studded with whole birds-eye chilies. If you average all the bites, it comes out to a spice level of 4. An occasional bite, however, will be off the chart.
Spice level: 4
Ngu Binh
14092 Magnolia St., Westminster. 714-903-6000
The dish: Bun bo Hue
Description: This Vietnamese noodle soup in a red chili broth is meant to be spicy. Most restaurants don’t make it spicy enough. This place does.
Spice level: 3
Mr. Kebap
16937 Bushard St., Fountain Valley. 714-369-2001, mrkebap.com
The dish: Spicy kofta
Description: Spicy Turkish beef patties generously infused with smoked and dried red chili pods.
Spice level: 3
Haidilao Hot Pot
2710 Alton Parkway, Irvine. 949-566-1766
The dish: Unfiltered red chili broth
Description: This hot pot restaurant offers several choices for broth. The hottest, most delicious is the unfiltered red chili broth, which is filled with hundreds of Sichuan chili pods.
Spice level: 3
Noodology
15455 Jeffrey Road, Irvine, 949-336-7338, oodologyirvine.com
The dish: No. #3, Beef rice-noodle soup
Description: Taiwanese-style spicy beef noodle soup with green and red chilies.
Spice level: 3
Chong Qing Mei Wei Szechuan
5406 Walnut Ave., Irvine. 949-651-8886
The dish: Cumin lamb with chilies
Description: Sichuan-style lamb stir-fry with fresh serrano and dried Sichuan chilies, plus Sichuan peppercorn.
Spice level: 3
The Smoking Ribs
14211 N. Euclid St., Garden Grove. 714-867-6057, thesmokingribs.com
The dish: Spicy barbecue sauce
Description: This one’s another condiment. It’s the spiciest American-style barbecue sauce you’ve ever tasted. I’m guessing it contains habanero powder.
Spice level: 3
Ecco Pizzeria
440 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim. 714-817-7323, eccopizza.com
The dish: Pizza diavola
Description: Wood-fired pizza with very spicy salami, plus jalapeños, Fresno chilies and hot giardiniera.
Spice level: 3
Garlic & Chives
9892 Westminster Ave., Garden Grove. 714-591-5196, garlicandchives.com
The dish: Garlic crab
Description: Crab stir-fried garlic and jalapeños. More garlic than peppers, so it’s more savory and pungent than dangerously spicy.
Spice level: 2
Sushi Roku
327 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. 949-706-3622, sushiroku.com
The dish: Tuna jalapeño roll
Description: Every classic California sushi bar serves a tuna jalapeño roll, and nobody does it better than Sushi Roku.
Spice level: 2