Oc & Lau 2 Restaurant Bar

We came here on a weekday night for a party of 6 and there was no wait time. Food is always good. The mango salad is a must. You can order anything and the quality is always good.Place do get really busy. Clean and full of family, that's when you know you're getting an authentic experience.

I've been here a couple of times and they always have great seafood dishes but are also super busy! I joined the online Yelp waitlist and waited about 90 min for our table on a Wednesday evening (Tét week). It was nice because we were seated right away since we arrived within the time slot the app gave. However, I didn't like that they let you only order once and no second rounds due to it being busy...we felt very rushed and under pressure to order what we want. I recommend the grilled razor clam with basil, fried rice with salted fish and shrimp, salt and pepper fried squid, and passion fruit soda. Razor clams were flavorful and a good portion. Salt and pepper fried squid was pretty crispy and had a good flavors in their batter. Fried rice with salted fish and shrimp had that nice wok-fry taste but didn't have a lot of salted fish, though the shrimps were huge! We ordered the jug size for passion fruit soda for $20 which was great for sharing. Tastes like a mixture of passion fruit juice and ginger ale/ sprite. The fish sauce fried chicken was okay, but more soggy and not very crispy. Coconut swirly escargot came with the mini pot where they light the bottom to keep it hot. The coconut sauce was tasty and came with lots of escargot but they were super tiny. I liked the sauce in the house special mango salad but thought the mango itself was too hard to chew lol. The seafood egg noodles were yummy. My only other complaint with the food is they put wayy too much stir-fry vegetables as fillers for their dishes. The chicken wings dish was actually like ordering a salad with a side of chicken wings. They do give you free chè for dessert! Nice and friendly service, just didn't like that we felt rushed the whole time we were there :/

One of the best Viet foods in OC, prices are fair for delicacies, ambience is not so great. Restaurant gets packed on weekends, for good reasons, Recommend this place for the food but not ambience. But if food is great who needs ambience! Service is pretty good they are very attentive to your needs. Would be 4.5 stars, but can't do it on Yelp.

This past weekend, my dear friend from college and I had dinner at Oc & Lau 2 Vietnamese Restaurant and Bar in Garden Grove to celebrate her birthday. Happy Belated Birthday my friend!This place is one of my friend's favorite restaurants in Orange County. It was my first time here actually. They specialize primarily in escargot, but has other seafoods and beef dishes, too. I don't recall seeing much chicken dishes if at all.Ambiance was nice. It had good open space, but I felt it was way too crowded on the main side of the restaurant. Tables were way too close to one another. I barely had enough space to walk through when heading to the ladies room. Luckily, we sat at a table on the bar side which is the better side because it is quieter and the air flow is a lot better IMHO.Now onto the food... OMG, our entire meal was so so very tasty and delicious! Every dish we ordered were presented beautifully and in good portions. All had amazing flavors at every bite. Prices were very reasonable for the size. Even though they were super busy and I mean it was a full house plus a long line of people waiting inside and outside of the restaurant, our servers were very friendly and attentive. Service was impeccable. Thank you all! Here's a tip... get on their waitlist via Yelp before driving over here. Trust me, it will save you a lot of wait time. I think my friend waitlisted for us, hence, we didn't have to wait upon arrival. Good thinking my friend!After a wonderful dining experience and scrumptious meal, it won't be my last! I will be back to try more of their amazing dishes. They do hot pots, too. I highly recommend this restaurant hands down. They also have their original Oc & Lau 1 location, but I hear it's smaller. Thank you Oc & Lau for sharing your escargot-ness and more specialty dish with us! You need to open a few more locations like in San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire. We'll welcome you any day!Our dine-in order:1. House Special Mango Salad (with squid and escargot) - Top #1 fav salad! I couldn't stop eating this salad. Green papaya was very fresh and crunchy with tons of squid & escargot all tossed in a sweet and tangy sauce. Just delish! My mouth is watering just thinking about it LOL. Must get every time!2. Fried Frog Legs - Top #1 fav appetizer! Very well seasoned with a light crunch on the outside and tender frog meat on the inside. Yummy! Will get again.3. Coconut Swirly Escargot with Basil Leaves - This was probably my least favorite dish. I normally don't eat escargot much, but glad I tried it here. It wasn't bad, but I prefer the thicker escargot meat.4. Crawfish Fried Rice with X.O. Sauce - If you love crawfish, this is the dish for you. They do not skimp on the amount of crawfish. Flavor was on point all around. A very colorful dish!5. Stir-Fried Glass Noodles with Escargot and Crab - Top #1 fav noodle dish! I am a big fan of glass noodles. This one did not disappoint. Pepper seasoning made this dish delectable. It's a staple at the dinner table!6. Fresh Coconut and Kumquat Juice - Refreshing and citrusy! I liked it. You may get it in a cup or pitcher.My to-go order: (Dinner was so good, I had to order some to-go that same evening... yes I did!)1. House Special Mango Salad (with squid and escargot) - same comment as above2. Fried Frog Legs - same comment as above3. Crabs and Shrimps Fried Rice - Good, but the Crawfish Fried Rice with X.O. Sauce was better.4. Filet Mignon Shaken Beef with Egg Noodles - Big beef chunks, but tenderness was not consistent. Buttery noodles were different in texture and taste compared to the Chinese version... Vietnamese version was very luscious!5. Stir-Fried Seafood Noodles - Tasty, but nothing special. Pretty standard noodles.6. Che desserts with taro and bananas - Delightful. Not too sweet. Just right.

Came back here and ordered different items on the menu. Everything was good as usual. Service was great. Bao, our server is friendly and always happy!

A friend strongly recommended Oc & Lau -- and I'm so glad she did because this was the best meal of my trip! Came for a weekday lunch and service was extremely fast. Flavorful, fresh seafood and amazing drinks!Recommend:-House crab or lobster with egg noodle-Grilled king scallop with fish eggs-Crawfish fried rice with XO -House special mango salad-passion fruit basil seeds and jelly

We ordered the exact same dishes as we did when we visited OC & Lau 1 but, although they tasted similar it was obvious that the food tasted slightly better at the original OC & Lau...King Scallops: 8/10A bit dry, rubbery and over cookedClam soup: 9/10Very flavorful but, not cohesively balancedShaken Beef with Egg noodles: 10/10Too Good to be sharedService:10/10There was no wait at this location around 5pm so that was a plus but, we still prefer the original OC & Lau ;) Rock on OC & Lau 2

Waited almost two hours but we left with happy tummy. The food was hitting that night and the price is quite reasonable too! Grilled garlic buttered escargot ($15) - favorite of the night! The snail is tender and big, and the butter was garlicky but not too much Mango squid salad ($14) - the squid was the perfect texture, the salad is tangy and fresh Stir fry conch with water spinach ($18) - The stir fry conch was flavorful, good smokey taste. However the water spinach was mostly bland. So really have to mix the dish for even taste Sweet and sour red tilapia ($25) - the fish was not fishy or muddy tasting. Fried nicely so it has a bit of crunch. I am not typically fan of sweet and sour but this one is not like the common sweet and sour, this one a bit fruity Crab and shrimp fried rice ($17) - good amount of crab and shrimp, the fried rice is not overly flavorful which paired really well with other dishes that are stronger in flavor.Definitely expect to wait since it is always busy especially on weekends!

We had a big group so there were many many dishes ordered but also would be a lot to break down each dish. Overall positive experience from customer service, food, and experience. Highlights for me included the Lau Thai, chicken wings (I know how dare I at a seafood restaurant), and the mango salad. The dessert at the end is also worth mentioning because it was so good. They are almost always out of the razor clams. The lau Thai came with so much stuff and the broth was good. It did come extremely late though. Everything came one at a time and after finishing everything sat around some more until the lau finally came. This place stays extremely busy, there were so many people waiting before I arrived and still waiting after I dined. They seem pretty efficient besides the whole lau incident. It's above average noisy and you constantly have workers going around serving everyone. Feels a little hectic but overall casual place.

One of my favorite restaurants in OC.They always have fresh and very flavorful seafood dishes. 5 stars!