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by far the BEST chinese restaurant I've had in irvine so far. The place is small and gets really crowded so the only waiting area is outside.
We ordered 4 dishes and the shredded pork was really delicious! The flavors were rich and addictive and the added onion on the bottom definitely is a good compliment to the dish. Next we have the three cups chicken, also yet another flavorful dish, the only complaint I have was the slight overpowering taste of basil, they literally covered the entire pot with basil so there isn't a bite of chicken where you aren't eating basil.
The mabotofu could've used less chili oil, while it was tasty, the dish was a bit too salty and I needed to mix A LOT of rice with it to tune out the saltiness. The four seasons beans was an ok dish, nothing great about it, but nothing bad also.
Overall I give this restaurant a 4 star for making me feel like home =)
Visited my friend in Irvine and she took me here for dinner. We're both from HK, so I have faith in her palate and taste.
The wine-fish filet (sorry I don't remember the name) was DELICIOUS.
Other dishes were nicely cooked and appetizing.
Other people's food looked fantastic too, haha.
I wish we had more restaurants like Chef Chen up in Nor-Cal.
i have to be honest i REALLY miss restaurants like this.
so ok I can understand fellow yelper's complaints about the service, but, really it is a pretty classic chinese restaurant. as long as they take the orders fast, and keep the rice and tea coming, i'm ok with it.
came on a saturday night when it was packed with a group of 4, got seated after a short wait. service was actually not bad, they brought out peanuts, tea and dishes as soon as we sat down and gave menus. the inside has really nice decor, its chinese, but not so over the top that all the fake gold blinds you like some LA places.
ok so the food is the real reason i'm giving chef chen 5 stars. first of all, 4 entrees for 4 hungry hungry people fed all of us! and each entree was under 10 dollars! thats cheaper than AYCE kbbq! and probably healthier...anyways, we ordered the jing jiang rou si (captial sauce meat? sorry cant remember the english name), some kind of green beans, mapo tofu, and three cups chicken. it was amazingly good, all the flavors were really intense, the mapo tofu was really spicy, but not to the point of burning, and the three cups chicken had the perfect sauce in the claypot.
good food nice environment, good price? im there.
I wish I could tell you what I ate, but my parents ordered for all of us. I can tell you it was a very tasty seasoned pork appetizer, an excellent seafood soup, fresh greens, and a nicely cooked whole fish dish.
I've been eating here for quite some time now. Service is decent for as long as I've been there. Although when they're busy, you'd have to wait for a minute or two until they come to you (yes, count to 60 or 120). they're reasonable as long as you're reasonable.
During cold days, their claypots just make me warm & fuzzy.
Some of my other favorites are:
- beef pancake rolls
- mongolian beef
- steamed whole fish
- seafood stirfry
- mini steamed dumplings
- do miao (Chinese veggie-water spinach maybe?)
- mapo tofu (spicy & yum)
- beef & broccoli
- (anything) with black bean sauce (spicy & yum)
I kept hearing about their xiao long bao, but the mini steamed dumplings just always seem to win me over. ^_^
Chinese food's been known to use lots of oil & msg. Until this place shows up. Ok, it's not completely non-oily, but it's less than what you'd normally see at Panda Express, or Pei Wei (yuck). Again, so far, this is one of the few Chinese food I'd eat. And I'm of Chinese-descent. Enough said. =)
Used to frequent this location when it was New Shanghai. Came here when Chef Chen opened, and it was similar food, but not as great and definitely more expensive.
The ambiance is great, the decorations and lighting class the place up a lot in comparison to the delis and eateries in the same plaza.
But the food at their prices?
There are plenty of alternatives a stone's throw away in any direction.
Everywhere else in this plaza had a line to wait, so just decided to eat here. Weird thing was that the menu looked strangely familiar. Then I remember the menu at Tri-Village. Even the description for Peking Duck is verbatim. So just ended up getting the same things. I'm a fan of Tri-Village, so I thought the food there was a little better. And another thing, service, not so great here. I'm Korean. The waitress lady asks me something in Chinese, I tell her that I'm Korean. I order food and that was the last time I saw her, until we needed the check. I know that this racism is vice versa in a Korean joint. But it really sucks being on the receiving end of it. At Tri-Village, only minimal racism.
XLBs are decent, but not deliciously good. I also like the fried beef pancakes and the meat dish I tried was a bit on the salty side. Service is good but I went on a late Saturday afternoon when it wasn't too busy.
Read the reviews to know what to order, otherwise you'll come away thinking this place is average at best.
I don't know how to talk about what I ate. It was mostly Taiwanese dishes that I ate with my family when I was younger, and some Shanghai dishes. All of it was authentic, and really good.
Best of all, this place does not use ANY MSG (so they claim). They have natural alternatives now that are not synthetic chemicals. Also, of course, having really good cooks also helps.
This place is interesting. Taiwanese food wasn't always my radar, but this place is. Here's why:
Interior: Funniest thing. I went to ask the waiter, "can I sit here" and the dude actually told me no for no legitimate reason. I was like "O.O" Taken back. I was ready to give it poor stars but....
Food: The salt and pepper shrimp, basil beef was fantastic. I don't remember what else I ate, but those two dishes were really good. Perhaps I was just hungry that day. You were lucky Chef Chen!!!
Service: Nothing particular.
Overall: 3
I heard nothing but great things about this place but when we finally went to try it, the food was bland. We are always excited about a place that makes their own noodles (we love our noodles) and the hand sliced variety but geez! The menu states..."cooked to your liking"...we told the waiter what meat we wanted but when it came out, it had no flavor! I tried it stir fried as well as in the soup broth...broth had no flavor and was like having noodles in hot water. And the stir fried kind was mildly better. If it's cooked to your liking, do I need to specify to add salt, soy sauce, garlic, vegetables, etc??
Disappointing!! FYI, I figured maybe the 1st time they were just a bit "off" and I have done take-out 2x. Both the same results as the 1st try...so sad!!
We had been wanting to try this place for a while, but every time we're in the area, the line is always so long and I'm usually too famished to wait around.
Last weekend, we weren't hungry till around 8:30pm, so we decided to check this place out. We figured it was probably not as crowded. We did have to wait, but 10 minute wait was nothing compare to the usual 1 hour plus, so we stuck around.
I heard so much good thing about this place, so perhaps our expectations were too high? Or, maybe we just ordered the wrong food?
We ordered: chow-mein (they called it mixed noodle or something like that; it's supposed to be their house noodle), salt and pepper squid, and one of their dumplings from their dumplings/dimsum menu.
We thought the dumplings were very bland, for sure we had better. The chow mein was waaaaay too small for the price they charged. It was flavorless: not salty, not sweet, not sour, nothing! it was just tasteless. I hardly ever add soy sauce to Chinese food but the chow mein was so flavorless that we added a lot of soy sauce just to give it a bit of taste.
Salt & pepper squid was the only savior. It wasn't anything to brag about, but compared to the other two dishes we ordered, the salt & pepper squid was excellent.
This was one of the restaurants I bookmarked for awhile, so I was very disappointed that it didn't meet my expectation. We most likely won't return again.
this place would deserve 4 stars if the service wasn't so horrible. i've come here on multiple occasions & every single time i do they're extremely rude. the food is good, (beef chow fun = thumbs up) but i still cant get over the service. if it was empty, if it was packed, it never improved. lunch time is probably the least packed.
really good food and the variety of dishes are unbelievable. Really authentic and rarely found (definitely not a panda express style). Also if you like spicy food, try some of their really spicy dishes. Service is also 5 star, all waiters are very courteous.
Need to try the hot pots for sure!
I still really like Chef Chen, but I was so disappointed last night. During a typical dinner w/ family, we, of course, as usual, order way too much food, and lots of new dishes we've never had to try!
Everything was WAY TOO SALTY and WAY TOO OILY. I even specified w/ the servers there to make sure there is less salt and oil in all of our dishes (my pregnant sister is quite concientious of salt intake, etc.). Unfortunately, everything arrived at our table extra oily and extra salty. It was kinda a bummer.
We tried a few dishes that I'd like th share...
1. crab stone pot soup - ok, mediocre at best. I can make crab stone pot soup better than this. The soup was super salty but not flavorful. The crab was deep fried first which made the soup oily. The thin bean thread noodles was the one saving grace of the dish. There was very little else I can say that was positive.
2. Snapper fish w/ noodles covered in a red spicy sauce - ok, I am a light weight when it comes to spicy food to begin with, but this dish was quite disappointing. It was so oily too. The fish was deep fried. The noodles did not go well at all with the fish at all.
All in all I was disappointed w/ the new dishes we tried and the fact that everything was WAY TOO OILY. Our old faves were good, as expected.
I wasn't super impressed the first couple of times I came here. But lately, I have enjoyed it more… Read more »
Good stuff!
I've been reading the meh reviews about this restaurant and I believe the people who have been giving the worse reviews aren't getting the right dishes. Technically, it's not 100% Taiwanese food (if you want Taiwanese comfort food, go to A&J across the street or Good Time Deli, in that order).
Some of their best dishes are actually more Shanghainese in character. The Shi2 Jing3 Sa1 Guo1 "combination clay pot" as well as the braised pork hock are excellent. I have never been overwhelmed with salt or with grease, unlike many other Chinese Restaurants I've been to.
Portion sizes are really good, and we have always had good service there (with the waitresses taking time out to complement and play with our kids). 5 stars for sure!
this place is pretty damn good. I love the hand made noodles with chicken... the noodles have the perfect softness and chewiness to them. I get them every single time i go there... The only thing that gets a bit annoying sometimes is the language barrier between the workers and the guests. I sometimes come in just to order something to go, and it takes about 5-10 minutes for the woman to understand me... but the food always comes out great! the pricing is also not bad either and the portions are fairly large for what you pay for!
Culinary Greatness...Please read!
A group of us came here for lunch Monday. And it was not an easy to please crowd! The Chefs/owners of Sage, Sapphire, The Golden Truffle, a manager of Fleming's, and a prominent restaurant critic, and an attorney came here to eat. And as always, they never dissapoint!
We had a 14, yes 14, course meal here!
The ti-pong, twice cooked pork, shanghai meatballs, shao lom bao, hand made potstickers, curried lamb with housemade noodles, and the like were all fantastic!
To have a bunch of restauranteurs/chefs eat at an establishment speaks highly of the place itself.
Service is spot on! They constantly swap plates out, which is great.
The owner, Vicky is really helpful.
I used to eat at their old place, Taiwan Gourmet in Huntington Beach, religiously!
The only downfall is no beer/wine.
Reunited!
I used to eat at Taiwan Gourmet in Huntington Beach. One day the owners told me they were…
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Chef Chen was delicious food.
All of the dishes were high quality. Definitely try the Chinese-style roast beef. I also had the Kung Pao dish, which was fairly mild. The fish and wine was prepared a little bit too sweet, but was very good nonetheless.
Yes, it's not very traditional Chinese food, but I really don't find that to be a good enough excuse to dismiss quality here. It came to $15 a person here, which seemed very reasonable to me.
On a side note, watch out for your car in the parking lot. My bumper got smashed by a driver who couldn't dodge parked cars. Park FAR away.
Delicious Taiwainese food!! I've only ever gone here for lunch, and you get huge portions for less than $10! So yummy, as good as trendy Chinese-themed restaurants like PF Chang's, but 1/4 as expensive. Beware, if you spend less than $25 it's cash only; with 2 people we have trouble spending that much for lunch, because the food is so cheap!
My favorite dish is the cashew chicken.
My only complaint is this: When you walk in all the chairs have place settings already at them with chopsticks. I took my sister there (we are not Asian), and the woman who seated us look at us, removed the chopsticks, and replaced them with forks before seating us. We had to ask for chopsticks...it was very rude.
However, 5 stars for tastiness and excellent value!
some of these dishes are GROSS (my least favorite is the honey walnut shrimp dish.....mayo and starch overload!) and some are ok.
the bf loves the general tao's chicken and sesame chicken. i think it's just ok. but if you've read my other reviews on chinese food, i simply am not a big fan of chinese food. HAHA....aw.
the service is really great though - quick seating and the food comes out super fast......which might be why it is often suspicious to me.
i was hoping this place would wash away my fears about chinese food but not quite.
on goes the search.....sigh. :P
Meh... for such a popular restaurant in a predominantly asian part of greater LA, I expected much better food here. The place was a little small, and relatively packed, so I had high expectations for this place... I was sadly mistaken. The best dish we ordered was the String Beans with ground pork. Nothing spectacular, but it tasted great (also it's one of my favorite dishes, so I'm biased hehe)
The rest of the dishes we ordered (walnut shrimp, beef with sha cha sauce, and cong you bing) were all relatively bland and had neither flavor nor great texture to the food.
PROS: The waiters were nice, came by with water quite a lot. Also, it's a very clean and nice looking restaurant... we had a nice time chatting for about half an hour after we'd finished dinner.
It was a pouring rainy night in Irvine and Chef Chen had an incredible line out the door! I couldn't believe this place was so popular, but I could smell the food from a mile away and it looked as delicious as it smelled. I am not the biggest fan of Chinese food so I don't get it often, but Chef Chen reminded me why people love Chinese food so much. Chef Chen's food is Taiwanese style - my favorite! The biggest issue that made this a 3 star instead of 4 star restaurant was because the prices are not worth it and there are tons of EXCELLENT chinese food places for cheap in the Rowland Heights/Hacienda Heights/Monterey Park area. For Irvine, you can't go wrong with Chef Chen's though.
We ordered 3 dishes between the 2 of us:
Half Smoked Duck ($10.99) - this is duck with crispy skin on the outside. It comes with those half moon buns that you put the duck, oyster sauce, and scallions in. The duck was kind of on the dry side and I've definitely had better at other Chinese restaurants. The nice thing was it wasn't overly oily and even tasted kind of healthy, but it's still my least favorite of the 3 items we ordered.
Shrimp with scrambled eggs ($10.99) - this is a very basic Chinese dish - you can get this at most Chinese cafes for CHEAP so it's waay overpriced here. I have to admit It was tasty though and had the perfect amount of saltiness.
Combination Clay Pot ($13.99) - it seemed like everyone in the place had a clay pot on their table. Like I said, it was pouring rain, so what better thing to eat than a hearty portion of soup in a clay pot. It was such a big portion! The clay pot was filled to the max with shrimp, calamari, pork belly, fish, veggies, and vermicelli noodles. It was good! I highly recommend getting something from the "Clay Pot" section of the menu.
These 3 dishes were more than enough food for me and the BF. We had to pack half of every single dish home cuz we both couldn't eat anymore, and my BF is a voracious eater! Glad to know that even though the prices avg $10 a dish you get your money's worth - it's likely you'll take home leftovers and extend the food into another meal!
I was hesitant to try Chef Chen because it had replaced New Shanghai, which was an awesome little place. Finally, after my companions refused to go to A&J because we can't really read/speak Chinese, I gave in. After all, I read some pretty good reviews about this restaurant...
And those people were right. The food was not bad at all. We ordered the Chinese-style Roast Beef Sandwich (or whatever it was called; I think it was $6.99) and two other items, some sort of sesame chicken and rib dish, I believe. My friend felt the "sandwich" had too much scallion overwhelming the taste. I agreed; it was pretty good but like all hyped things, wasn't all it was made out to be. The other dishes were also okay. Reasonable portions and acceptable prices, but I prefer places out in Chinatown or wherever. Also, it's too "clean" for me to truly be great.
Nevertheless, it had the rude service of all great Asian restaurants. We came here on a Saturday evening and the waiters/waitresses were hovering over us as if they were rushing us to get out. They were not very friendly. However, what was interesting was the peanuts we were given as an appetizer or something. First time I remember something like that at a Chinese restaurant!
Anyway, I'll consider going back but would prefer not to.
I highly recommend Chef Chen. The food is fresh and tasty. I have tried many of their dishes and they always seem to have great flavor and right balance of ingredients. Definitely better than other restaurants in the plaza....
I read the reviews here and tried it and was pleasantly surprised. The walnut shrimp was very good as was the string bean and pork dish. The Mongolian beef had too many scallions but the beef in it was tender. The special Chow mein didn't have enough noodles and the meats were cut a little too big. But, the waitresses were very nice and helpful when ordering. The decor was nicely done and the music was conducive to a calm meal.
I'll definitely go there more often with my family and without.
I'll give them one star for decent food, but nothing for the poor service and rude waitress and owners. Their table layout sucks, I hate those tables along the wall where you basically sitting staring at the white wall for the whole time.
One time we walked in for some early dinner when the place was completely empty and we were directed to one of those tables and when ask if we could move to anyone of the empty middle tables we were flatly told NO, WTF, we just walked out and went next door to Sam Woo. FU bitches.
Couple month later I decided to give this shit hole another chance and guess what we were directed to the same freaking table AGAIN, when ask to move to another empty table we were told by a middle age fat Chinese woman with glass and greasy hair, who I'm sure is the owner's wife, that the large tables are for party of six or more. Hey there were five of us, your freaking place was half empty. My in-law and my kids were hungry and instead of walking out again we just order the usual stuff, ate our lunch and swearing never ever to come back again.
I was here with family (meaning w/ parents who speak Chinese & know what to order & how to order off menu) Good food, good service.
I recommend going with someone older who speaks Chinese, they tend to treat elders a lil better...other than that, it's typical Chinese restaurant, except this one is in Irvine, don't hafta drive an hour to get good food.
Get the beef roll, seafood clay pot...fresh sauteed veggies (ask for it)
Okay I go here all the time. It's been a while since I have come back b/c the last time the food was going downhill all the time. My favorite dishes are the Shanghai Ribs and the Fish Fillet in Black Bean Sauce. After trying everything on the menu.. these were the dishes that I liked the most. Their sauteed intestines are only so-so in flavor. A little one-dimensional in flavor and way too much leek.
So why the low rating? Today was just bad! I didn't want to complain because they always greet me warmly and asked how come I hadn't been there for so long. I walked in first and they immediately asked where my Mom was... that is how often I go O=9 Most of the staff members recognize my face and who I am with! lol scary! I always feel like I must tip more since they know me! =P
The Shanghai Ribs were not bad. It was about the same as always with a slight difference in sweetness and quality of meat but tolerable. The fish today was just BAD. I think the black beans have gone bad. It tasted rancid and the sauce was totally off key. My Mom eats almost everything and she didn't touch it much. She normally pours the sauce and veggies over rice and chow down. This time we just left it to be thrown away.
I should have let her complain but I just felt bad. Then I said she could complain if we never come back and then she didn't complain! So complicated! I don't think I will be back for a while now. Thank goodness I washed the bad aftertaste off with KBBQ tonight with Kate T. & Marlon E. ^_^
I have never been treated so rudely by a waitstaff in my entire life.
Chef Chen's closes at 9:30 pm on Sunday night. We arrive at 8:45 and immediately feel like we're inconveniencing the staff just by virtue of being there. The hostess quickly seats us and starts talking to my Japanese friends in Chinese. Realizing that they have no idea what she's saying, she switches to English and tells us the kitchen closes at 9:30 and to hurry up and order. It's not even ten til 9 at this point. We hurriedly look over the menus and try to come to a consensus on what to get.
Not more than a minute later, a male server comes over and asks us what we want. Like a vulture he hovers over us until we just name some food items: sesame chicken, house fried rice, and beef with vegetables. The food comes out about 5 minutes later, fine. It's all tasty and everything, but how are you supposed to enjoy your food with the entire staff standing around, silently wishing you'd just leave?
Five minutes into our meal, the waiter slaps down the check --fortune cookies and all-- without saying a word, like a robot. It's obvious they want us the hell out of there. He comes back a minute later and tells us we need to pay now because the cashier is closing. WTF? Who does that? Isn't the cashier supposed to close after all the customers have left? The whole time, the staff is standing around watching us eat and talking to each other in Chinese (obviously about us).
We grudgingly pool some money together and wait...I think to myself, "If they want their money they can come and get it." They take the bill eventually but never come back with our change, until I have to ask for it right before we leave.
As we exit, I glance at my watch. 9:35. We kept them a whole five minutes! Poor babies.
I'm sure the other dishes here are good, but when the chips are on the table, Chef Chen's true colors show. Customer service like that is inexcusable and tells me I'm not welcome in this restaurant. If I wanted to be treated like shit while I ate...well, I would have gone to Chef Chen (there is no way to complete that analogy). I won't be back.
It's my favorite chinese restaurnt at least in Irvine.
Good price and Clean and tasty
Nothing special menu compared to others.
Service is just typical
I don't know why I feel very comfotable all the time.
That's the reason I gave 5 star, maybe very personal thought....
My favoirte are
Mapa tofu(a little spicy)
Juicy Pork dumpling
Galic pork rib and more more
For Irvine, I give this a 4....for OC altogether, this is probably a 3.5. But since their service is relatively good for being a Chinese restaurant...I like to round up.
The simplest advice I have for you is, if you live in Irvine or in the area and craving decent Chinese food, ditch Sam Woo and go here. If you don't live in Irvine, stay where you are or venture elsewhere that makes the drive worthwhile.
We order two things and only two things when we're here, the chinese beef roll sandwich thing and the juicy dumplings. The beef roll is dressed with a hoisin-like sauce and scallions (they tend to put too much so I have to take it out). It's really yummy and quickly fills you up. The juicy dumplings (phonetically sounds like show-lum-pow) is just what you'd think it tastes like. Definitely eat this in a small bowl so you don't lose any precious juice, and swallow it whole (no pun intended). Our bill is somewhere around $22 if we ordered what I just mentioned and maybe another filler dish. I wouldn't go here ordering pan fried dishes, it's just not good.
Also, my final note is---when you enter any Chinese restaurant, you really do have to step in there with a different mindset. I personally don't mind when they ask me to move, or ask us to share tables with other patrons...no biggie. I'm not paying an exorbitant amount of money for food, and quite frankly...it's something you just gotta get used to if you want to continue eating Chinese food =)
We went to Chef Chen's on Sun 12/28/08 for lunch. Their food is delish, but I had to write this review due to the fact that they just do NOT have any manners! I'm Chinese...but I totally am embarassed to be called Chinese because of these people, they're SO rude & just do not have any manners.
We ordered their Jing Dong Meat Cake, the "Chinese Burrito" which has beef & green onions rolled in the Chinese pancake, we also had the Chinese pancake shreded & cooked with meat... all delish... can't go wrong with their food... one of the few authentic Chinese restaurants around.
So while we're eating, I see a sign that says min charge of $25 to use a credit card. With what we ordered above, I knew we were around $20, so I ordered something additional thinking it was enough.
So here we are...end of the meal, they bring the check, it was $23.67, I put my ATM/Checkcard down, to pay. The waitress looked at it & said they don't take credit cards for less than $25... I looked at her in disbelief, I'm like I'm a lil over $1 short! She's all, you can use your ATM then. So she asked me to goto the counter to punch in my PIN. After I did, she's all, you have to add tip here at the machine, how much tip do you want to leave? I looked at her in disbelief... how can you ASK for tip??? WTF!?!?! What if I didn't want to leave her any?
Ok so I was already ticked off... then we're still sitting there... my wife was finishing up the food & drinking water & they started clearing the table before we even stood up, my daughter was sitting on my lap & they took her high chair away... I was like WTF all over again...
Do these FOBs not have any manners? They're giving Chinese a bad reputation...
Plus the parking lot, Chinese/asian drivers just do NOT know how to drive... in the parking lot, some stupid lady stopped in the middle of the lane waiting for someone to get out of a spot, I stopped in front of her in disbelief...can she not move to one side so I can get thru? I put my hands up in the "asking WTH" gesture, so she decided to back up... literally 1 foot... thinking that's enough for me to get by... uh... hello, she didn't move! So I sat there & waited along with 3-4 cars behind me till she got into her space...
all I can say is WTF WTF WTF!?!?!
A couple weekends ago, Honeybear wanted some Northern Chinese food. So we decided to go to Chef Chen. The last few times we went, the wait was too long and I was famished.
I speak Mandarin and had no problems ordering. We got the niou rou shaobing (chinese roast beef sandwich), Mapo tofu, and stir fried greens. The price was rather expensive for what we got. Honeybear looked at me, and I recounted the bill. We paid, but Honeybear was not happy.
For the same amount of money, we could have eaten better at A & J across the street, or even the breakfast stuff at Champions. We think the food was good, but prices are high.
Pretty tasty. We liked their veggies, fresh, crisp yet tender, not oily yet strickinly bright and healthy to the eye.
You know how they serve peanuts as appetizer in those Chinese restaurants? They serve seasoned peanuts! Yummy, I finished them all with the steamed rice.
-H
I've been coming here since they moved from the HB area. Chef Chen is definitely one of my favorite Chinese food in SoCal. Everytime I came there the food have always been good. The staffs are very friendly - highly unusual for a Chinese restaurant. I always see the owner there making sure that everything is running smoothly. My favorite dishes are the shrimp lettuce wrap and their sizzling-rice soup. I usually try something new everytime I go there and I haven't had a bad dish so far. I hate to recommend this place so highly because it'll get more crowded; as it is already packed during dinner time.
2.5 stars
After hearing a few friends rant and rave about this place, we decided to check it out. Their fall back is the prices, it's way too expensive for what they're serving. I like their beef sandwich but you can go to Champions across the street and get it for a lot less.
My sister took me here for the first time.
I have to admit, I REALLY liked the food here.
Not the typical Chinese seafood restaurants I always end up in.
Their Taiwanese dishes weren't out of the norm, but different compared to what I usually order and boy was it GOOD!
Food was fresh, came out steaming..
Gave me a the same feeling as my gramma's home-cooked meal would.
Not sure if I could deem this as a complaint..
but the tables were seated so close to the next table that we might as well have been dining together.
The food distracted me so I actually didn't mind at all.
Small restaurant, very busy, really good food.
Would come back here over & over again.
This is the real deal Shanghai style Chinese food. If you go, ask the waiter/waitress for their recommendations as they do serve some "gringo" food which is terrible as with the authenticity of the people and place they are not accostomed to making orange chicken or a General Zhou's dish. Some of the dishes I've tried with great pleasure are "dou miao" (Chinese greens), "Xiao Long Bao" (steamed dumplings), twice cooked pork, lemon chicken, beef and broccoli and steamed whole fish. You can't go wrong with this place...and the prices are unreal...10 times better than Pei Wei's and half the cost.
What started out as a bang has now fizzled to barely a sizzle. Often, relatives want to just come here due to its proximity since THEY don't drive far for food, but Chef Chen has become one of those places which we try to stay away from these days unless it's a family affair.
Its popularity remains due to the fact that this sort of food is not widely available in Irvine, but drive to Lake Forest and you will find pretty decent Sichuan cuisine at Taste of Asia and for the 'mian dian' (or the northern style dim sum items) Formosa does cong you bing, xiao long bao, niu rou xiao bing (beef sandwich) much better and far cheaper.
Service is such a hit and miss depending on who serves you. You can get anyone from the extremely curt and rude to the nice smiling lady who is often there at lunch time and not at dinner time. Most of the dishes are overpriced here for the portion size and quality you can get similarly in Rowland Heights. Sure, gas costs more these days, but I'd rather pay that price and get far better quality than eat here or better yet, just drive to Lake Forest -- it's not THAT much farther than Irvine.
UPDATED 01-24-08: We've come back several times now after the first and subsequent visits and this… Read more »
Irvine, CA
Category: Chinese
Irvine, CA
Category: Chinese
Irvine, CA
Category: Chinese
Irvine, CA
Category: Chinese
Irvine, CA
Category: Taiwanese
Steamed, pan-fried, boiled, in soup, with soup or…
Some of my favorite dining destinations in Orange…
Xiao Long Baos, or otherwise known as little juicy…
My local dry cleaner, watering hole, deli, cafe,…
Some of my favorite restaurants in Southern…
