John S.
Yelp
A part of me died when the Mad Greek location on Beach Boulevard in Stanton closed. Sure, time moves on, and things change, but in suburban Southern California, and especially in northernish Orange County for some reason, some old things feel like they're going to hang on forever.
When Naugles made its under-the-radar comeback a few years back, I had no idea that its second (?) location would be the former Mad Greek, and even after I knew this was now a Naugles, for some reason, I never noticed it when I was driving back and forth on Beach.
Years passed, but even time and laziness couldn't hold me back, so on my last full day in Southern California on my most recent trip, I followed Memory Lane wherever it took me, and the first stop was the Mad Greek (RIP) location of Naugles.
Before I even review the food, bravo for using the Mad Greek's space so brilliantly. There's not much seating inside, but the patio is lovely and shaded, and everything feels like it felt in the 1980s. I don't mean it feels like it's been around since the 1980s; I mean that the furnishings feel like they felt when they were new in the 1980s.
The menu is iconic in ways that my nineteen-year-old niece wouldn't even understand--do teenagers still overuse "iconic," or was that a 2019 thing?--and down to the ridiculous specificity of the individual prices (why?), they've nailed this Naugles thing just right.
The food? The food! Classic Naugles fare, and just so you know that I don't only go for the cheese, I had the non-meat breakfast burrito with red sauce. It tasted exactly as Naugles should taste. And the French fries! They're still the OG Naugles crinkle-cuts. The only good thing that Del Taco retained from Naugles is those fries, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that the new-old Naugles fries are even better than the original Del Taco fries, which were the same or similar knockoffs of the old Naugles fries. In case you're doing the math at home, I believe the new Naugles fries are better than the old Naugles fries.
The people who work here are friendly and patient as can be. The food comes up fast, and you'll be on your way right quick.
Thanks for lessening some of the soul-deadening effects of the passage of time, Naugles! I'm still sad the Mad Greek is no more, but I'm glad it's a Naugles now. Long live Naugles.