El Gallo Giro - Review #2

El Gallo Giro 1442 S Bristol St, #A Santa Ana, CA 92704 (714) 549-2011 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch Official Site

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When it was time for me to get lunch earlier today I decided to drive down a stretch of Edinger that has quite a few Mexican restaurants and see which one I ended up at. This stretch is roughly between Jamboree and Bristol. On the way I saw six or seven restaurants I've been to before but I realized the one I've been away from the longest is El Gallo Giro.

Part bakery/panaderia, part restaurant, part butcher shop/carniceria, and part juice bar, El Gallo Giro (Spanish for "The Blond Cock," or "The Blond Rooster"; UPDATE: Gustavo has left a comment saying it actually translates as "The Fighting Cock.") attracts a lot of local business. While I'm a big believer that it's hard to define exactly what "authentic" means when it comes to Mexican food I still think it'd be hard to see this place as being anything other than 100% authentic.

I'm only going to scratch the surface in this review and cover more about them later but for this visit I saw a sticker on their carniceria sneeze guard advertising Sopa de Fideo con Pollo. To order, I placed my order in one spot, paid for it at their aguas frescas bar, and picked it up at another spot. I only figured out how it worked with help from the one English-speaking employee there and am not sure how I would've figured out the process otherwise. When I related this to somebody who called me on my cell on the way back they said, "It sounds like the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld."

Maybe it is like that but not because any employee there acts like a Nazi, but just because you're not likely to know how the line mechanism works without somebody explaining it to you.

When you order your food they don't ask if you want it "for here or to go;" they just bag it up and if you want to you can open it up there and eat it at their very minimal counter space. I wanted to eat there but due to the crowd I took it back home with me. My soup had the little noodles in it that characterize Mexican fideo soup, a whole leg of chicken, and plenty of cubes of zucchini in a hearty tomato based broth. It also came with three potato taquitos and lime wedges and avocado slices. Made a perfect light lunch for a day that I already had an early dinner planned. Expect more El Gallo Giro coverage later...

El Gallo Giro - Review #1

1442 S Bristol St
Santa Ana, CA 92704

Listing on Yahoo! Local

Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch

Official Site

Veronica C. has submitted a review of El Gallo Giro. I went there shortly before starting this blog and I liked the fact that they had six different types of aguas frescas. Here's Veronica:

My Italian chef boyfriend (I lucked out!) introduced me to El Gallo Giro in Santa Ana. Apparently they are a small chain. It's in a small strip mall off of Edinger and S. Bristol. We went on Sunday night, the place was packed. The place is open 24 hours and according to my boyfriend, they are always very busy. There was a security guard inside the restaurant near the cash register, and another in the parking lot. Interesting! I wish I had a camera with me, the restaurant gives you full view into the kitchen with all the work going on . . . it's dizzying to see, and very entertaining.

When you arrive in the restaurant, there are 2 lines: one for their prepared foods . . . which all looked wonderful, and a separate line for Tortas. We stood in line to order the "Torta Cubana" ($6.99) a sandwich with bread from their bakery next door, which has: marinated pork leg, breaded beef, ham, head cheese, avocado, cheese, and beans and a chile. It was great! The place reminded me of that SNL comedy sketch where they say "Cheeseburger Cheeseburger Cheeseburger!" Except here there was a guy saying, "Torta Torta Torta!"

The Torta Cubana was so big I couldn't finish it and that's saying A LOT. :) They also have "aguas frescas." I had the tamarind drink and my boyfriend had the banana. Very nice! We waited 20 minutes in the Torta line, but it was well worth it. The place is mainly for carry-out, although there is a small strip of seats along the window.

Their bakery next door is incredible with the best pan dulce I've had in California . . . soft, and made with cinnamon tea, and very inexpensive. I would recommend this to anyone wanting authentic Mexican food.