Moulin

Seldom do we say that a restaurant is worth visiting for the vibe as much as the food, but Moulin is as legitimately French as a cafe can get when located at an Orange County plaza or shopping mall. To be fair, the cafe’s Parisian vibes do vary between locations and times of day – they’re perhaps most classic in Newport Beach, where mostly occupied chairs and tables fill the restaurant’s paved plaza walkway during brunch hours, like a scene straight out of the 5th arrondissement.

From pastries and salads to soups, sandwiches, and drinks, everything looks, feels, and tastes like it could have been on an overnight flight from Paris along with Laduree macarons right before you arrived. Service is very light touch: You order from a counter and, unless the items you picked were all ready to take away at that moment, your food will be dropped off as ready without further interaction. There’s typically a line to order, and a 10- to 15-minute wait for any hot food to be assembled and delivered, though many sandwiches, pastries, and drinks (including bottles of Orangina) can be grabbed immediately without a need to wait.