HIT SINGLES

Where to find the best Belgian waffle? A magnificent mole verde? To-die-for dim sum? Times restaurant reviewers Linda Burum, Michelle Huneven, Jonathan Gold, Max Jacobson and S. Irene Virbila give their favorite platters a spin.

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When aficionados of Japanese cooking think of Osaka, they think of earthy, assertive flavors, a healthy amount of salt and a roll-up-the-sleeves informality. Tustin’s Osaka Kappo specializes in all of the above, serving up a superior tenkoro soba. A hand-thrown ceramic bowl comes filled with light green buckwheat-and-yam-flour noodles, feather-light battered shrimp, grated radish, scallion and a dashi (soup stock) the equal of any this side of the Pacific Rim.

Osaka Kappo, Tustin Plaza, 13861 Newport Ave., Tustin; (714) 730-7051. Tenkoro soba, $6.50.