The following are summaries of recent Times...

The following are summaries of recent Times restaurant reviews.

Faraday’s Grill and Spirits, 13102 Newport Ave., Tustin. (714) 730-3442. Open Sunday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. MasterCard, Visa accepted.

Faraday’s is a family restaurant with cheerful service, juicy burgers, and some mighty devoted fans. Why else would anyone wait a half-hour for institutional food on a Tuesday evening? Everybody goes ape over onion strings, mountains of flour-dredged onions deep fried until crispy, and the sappy sweet barbecue that kids favor so shamelessly. Breakfast is actually quite credible here, with fluffy pancakes, homemade muffins, and squeezed to order OJ. Portions are predictably generous and prices are modest.

Baci, 18478 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach. (714) 965-1194. Open Wednesday through Sunday for dinner only, 5:30 to 10 p.m. MasterCard, Visa accepted.

Baci is just a storefront restaurant with modest decor, but young New Yorker Angelo Parisi gives his food a rough sophistication; nearly all his dishes are touched with originality. All of Italy finds its way onto Parisi’s small menu. Complimentary appetizers might be a superbly light chicken minestrone, or some cold, garlic-infused broccoli. Dishes like fettucine agnello, flat noodles with stewed lamb, and linguine tuttomare, with scungilli and shrimp, sustain the enthusiasm. The best dessert is panna cotta, the poor man’s creme brulee.

Hastings, in the Anaheim Hilton, 777 Convention Way, Anaheim. (714) 750-4321. Open Friday through Tuesday for dinner from 6 to 11 p.m. Call for lunch times. All major cards.

Hastings has good food for a hotel restaurant, but other aspects of dining there can be annoying; service is particularly spotty and indifferent. The room is predictably clubby with the predictable hotel creature comforts. The menu features a sumptuous lobster ravioli appetizer, a fine seafood Caesar salad, and some highly credible entrees including filet mignon that melts in the mouth and great veal. Seafoods are done handsomely. The wine list is extensive and intelligent.

Hassan’s Cafe, 3325 Newport Blvd., Newport Beach. (714) 675-4668. Open for lunch from Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and for dinner from Tuesday-Sunday, 5:30 to 11. Closed Monday. All major cards.

Hassan’s Cafe specializes in the cuisine of Lebanon, a hybrid of Turkish, French, and local influences, and the restaurant is relaxing and exotic. Mazza, one of the world’s great noshes, is the absolute must here, a splendid array of Middle Eastern appetizers like mutebel, a smoky eggplant dip, and warrab ennaq, vine leaves stuffed with aromatic rice. There are interesting main dishes like kibbe nayya, raw ground lamb mixed with bulgur wheat, sort of an Arabic version of steak tartare. Kebabs are first-rate.

Nui Ngu, 10528 McFadden Ave., Garden Grove. (714) 775-1108. Open Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays till 8 p.m.

Pagolac, 14564 Brookhurst St., Westminster. (714) 531-4740. Open Tuesdays through Sundays noon to 10 p.m.

Little Saigon is always an arresting place to browse when in the mood for adventurous, inexpensive dining. Nui Ngu, in a misbegotten strip mall on McFadden Avenue, specializes in the wonderfully obscure cuisine of Hue, in Central Vietnam. Bun bo Hue, a peppery beef noodle soup, and banh bot loc, sticky tapioca flour dumplings, are unforgettable. At Pagolac you can experience a phenomenon known as bo bay mon , literally “seven courses of beef.” The Vietnamese are mad for it. Unload a truck before you go.

Bagatta, 3012 Newport Blvd., Newport Beach. (714) 675-4020. Open Mondays through Thursdays from 6 to 11 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays till midnight. Sundays from 5 to 10 p.m.

The early returns show Bagatta out to a healthy lead in the Newport Beach Italian restaurant sweepstakes. It’s a terrific addition to the local dining scene. Chef Andrea Rogantini brings heavyweight experience to the kitchen. Owner Tony Bagatta makes a charming host. Such dishes as salmon carpaccio, latticed with a moss green pesto sauce, and dry cured bresaola make spectacular beginnings. Pastas are beautifully textured. Desserts, such as zucotto and homemade spumoni, are other-worldly.

Sapori, 1080 Bayside Drive, Newport Beach. (714) 644-4220. Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., till 11 p.m. weekends.

Sapori is a modish, elegant neighborhood trattoria where the cooking is serious. Chefs Adriano and Franco Maniacci hail from Palermo, Sicily, but play no favorites with regard to the many regions of Italan cuisine. Bruschetta di pane Saracena , triangles of roasted wheat bread with a garlic puree, are delightful, and many pastas come blanketed in savory sauces. Suprema di rombo, turbot in a leek and watercress sauce, pays homage to nouvelle. Veal Milanese is the best you’ll find anywhere.