Anh Hong, 10195 Westminster Ave., Garden...

Anh Hong, 10195 Westminster Ave., Garden Grove. (714) 537-5230. Open Mondays through Thursdays 3 to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Anh Hong is a Vietnamese restaurant for beef lovers only; the specialty is a seven-course beef dinner that would bring a trucker to his knees. You start with a flavorful beef salad topped with a sweet vinegar sauce and then experience a variety of courses ranging from fondue to grilled sausages wrapped in Hawaiian lot leaf. Service is warm and attentive, and the waiters will show how the various courses should be eaten. Just make sure you go on an empty stomach.

The Clay Oven, 15345 Jeffrey Road , Irvine. (714) 552-2851. Open Tues. to Sun. for lunch and dinner. All major cards .

The Clay Oven is an Indian restaurant inauspiciously located in a country shopping mall and specializing in dishes from the tandoor, the authentic oven advertised by the restaurant’s name. Fish tikka, here made with chunks of broiled swordfish, is downright heavenly, and tandoori chicken, rubbed red with a spice mixture and broiled until sizzling, is another winner. There is an interesting selection of vegetable dishes, as well. Wash everything down with giant bottles of imported Indian beer.

Marrakesh, 1100 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach . (714) 645-8384. Open nightly. All major credit cards.

Eat with your fingers without fear of recrimination from your mother at Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant in Newport Beach. You sit on cushions at a low table in a tentlike room and manhandle your way through a traditional, multicourse dinner served by waiters in desert garb. Begin with harira , the spicy lentil broth, and assorted salads eaten with local bread. B’stilla , a chicken and egg pie topped with cinnamon and sugar, will follow, and then a choice of main dishes including quail, rabbit and couscous, the grain staple eaten throughout north Africa.

Sun Hai, 8940 Garden Grove Blvd., Garden Grove, Suite 114. (714) 552-2851. Cash only.

This tiny hole-in-the-mini-mall, in a quiet Korean neighborhood in Garden Grove, serves some of the best Chinese dumplings you will ever taste, at laughably low prices. Best are pan-fried dumplings, eight to an order, perfectly browned, crunchy and toothsome, eaten with rice vinegar and Korean chili paste. Also wonderful is the restaurant’s spicy fried chicken, a sumptuously blended dish of red and green chili, green onion, and little bits of batter-fried chicken that have been rolled in pepper salt.

The Wine Cellar at the Newporter Resort, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach . (714) 644-1700 . Open Tuesday-Saturda y, 6-10 p . m .

The Wine Cellar is Orange County’s newest temple of haute cuisine . Menus are rotated every week and consist of five courses, designed by Jean Banchet of Le Francais in Wheeling, Ill., one of the most famous chefs in the world today. Menu VI--which begins with a cold pheasant pate with green chartreuse, continues with a stuffed filet of sole in a champagne sauce, and features grilled squab with green cabbage and natural juices--is one of six prix fixe menus presented by executive chef Ted Gray, and it is a knockout. You won’t find better French cuisine anywhere in the state.