Top Southeast Asian Restaurant in Irvine
Pho Ha Noi
14021 Jeffrey Rd, Irvine, CA 92620, United States
Ehhhhhh.My girlfriend was craving pho and spring rolls so I decided why not give this place a shot since it is so close to us. Ive gone here prior and only had some spring rolls (which I didnt like) but thought the place deserved another chance.We came here on Saturday evening to find an almost empty restaurant, which Im assuming most people were going to Mokkoji Shabu Shabu next door. We got seated immediately. Once our server returned my girlfriend order #24 Pho Tai Nam Sach (Large), Goi Cuon (spring rolls), and I ordered the Com Bo Luc Lac. We also got a pot of hot tea.Our food came out very fast and I couldnt complain since we were hungry. My girlfriend said for her pho the broth tasted good, but shes had better. The spring rolls were OK. The hot tea was good.My food:- Com Bo Luc Lac: The meat was tender and tasty, as well as the onions. I wasnt a fan of the orange rice that came with it, which had the scent of coconut but tasted nothing like it. I would have preferred regular white rice. The salad that accompanied it was very dry, with a spritz of whatever dressing they put on it. Normally this dish at other restaurants would come with a soup on the side and a bowl of salt/pepper with a lemon, but this one didnt.Service was a little dry. No one came to check on us and the server just stared at us at times.Parking is plentiful, there are even charging spots super close. A motorcycle parking area is right by there as well, barricaded for safety.Good food is worth traveling far for, and I recommend making the trek to Westminster for better pho.
Sutha Thai Kitchen
1161 Irvine Blvd, Tustin, CA 92780, United States
If anyone knows me, they know how much I love Thai food. And if you really know me, you know that the pad see ew is the only thing that hits home for me every time.I wanted to try this restaurant out because it was the closest one near my home that actually looked decent. (We tried Thai spice and that was a huge miss.) I ordered the ever so popular pad see ew with beef along with the Thai fried rice with beef.Pad see ew - definitely full of flavor but a bit too overcooked on the pan. Tastes a little burnt but not to the point where I hate itThai fried rice - definitely delicious but an overwhelming amount of rice in comparison to the meat and vegetable ratio.Overall, I did enjoy it and even though it's a bit of a hole in the wall the food is delicious and the customer service is great. Seriously, I ask them for extra tomatoes on the fried rice and they pack it on like no other! The only reason why I docked one star was because for some reason they mixed up my order once and made my fried rice with lots of mint. The mint was so overpowering that I couldn't even taste anything else in the dish which was a huge turn off.Other than that, this is definitely worth trying out. The prices are fair and the taste is definitely there!
PhoTasia Restaurant
5329 University Dr, Irvine, CA 92612, United States
Pho Tasia is a clever name that combines Pho and Taste. It also conjures up images of a magical experience from Disney's Fantasia.Do the food taste magical? Not quite, but I vouch it is the best Vietnamese food near UCI - unless we drive to Westminster or San Gabriel (search for Golden Deli). It is much better than nearby Phans55 and Pho So 1, which are average. Pho Tasia family also run Pho Ba Co and Ha Long, which are good too.Everything on the menu tasted great - pho (hot noodle soup) or bun (cold vermicelli salad); grilled beef, chicken, pork, pork chop, or shrimp; steamed egg meatloaf, fried egg rolls, cold spring rolls, various dessert drinks, and even the fish sauce.Prices increased $1-2 in last few years, but they are still reasonable in Irvine standard. I like the value platter which include a little bit of everything. Tips: If you order any rice plate, you may add $1 to get a lemonade.I recommend you also try Thuan Kieu Noodle & Grill. They specialize in broken rice and grilled meats. They opened a new locate next to Chipotle on Irvine Blvd at Culver Dr.Enough food fantasy. I need to get back to work, so I can pay my food bill. :-p
Thai and Chinese Express
2540 Main St J, Irvine, CA 92614, United States
Wowsas 4 Stars!! The first time I check this place online about a year ago this place only had 3 to 3.5 stars. Now a solid 4 stars with over 176 reviews. Wow! Im impressed. Today while getting ready to place my usual order and I couldnt find the menu because it has been a while. I checked out this page and guess what? I didnt write my review yet!!! What the heck!? Im a fan I have told and sent endless people here but I didnt write a review. Fail!I love the fact that I can call in my order an within less than 10 minutes my order is ready. I only had to wait an extra minute once ever. This use to be in my Lunchtime top 5 for a very long time but since I got back in to working out. Salad and chicken and sometimes switch with tuna is my typical day.I cant live without the beef pad see ewe. In my opinion this place makes it the best. I appreciate the big pieces of beef and veggies. Delicious! I usually only eat half an order even though I can easy finish the whole entire box. The sizes are huge and good enough for some people to share. I had other items but I always go back to beef pad see ewe. Also, get the spicy chilies with fish sauce as a condiment. Go with spicy, but specify mild if you cant take the heat.I like this place so much I came on a weekend once. Given this is near a business area that is dedication. I recommend picking up your dinner and lunch at the same time. I recommend this place not because its the best Thai place, but because it just taste good. It not gonna win any authenticity awards. It is called Thai and Chinese so you be the judge. Good lunch time option. Try it for yourself.
Thai Cafe
14715 Jeffrey Rd, Irvine, CA 92618, United States
Update; 01/03/2023We had dinner at Thai Cafe. Do they have new chef or something? We order total 5 dishes and they were all too salty except shrimp pad thai. TomYum Koong soup used to be the best in town and our favorite but it tasted little water down. They use cheap white mushrooms instead of oyster or pine mushrooms. $20 for mostly water soup.Yellow curry was also not so rich in taste. The potato and carrots were cold.Broccoli and mushroom beef also had cold broccoli and thin white mushroom pieces.Pad thai was still good but portion seemed smaller.Very disappointed. Steam rice is still extra items.***Always like the food taste here. As every other restaurants, the price went up dramatically. Tom Yum Soup is $20 for mostly mushroom, tomato pieces and a few shrimps.They were doing OK during COVID with take outs so I dont know if this big price hike is really necessary. Ordered 3 dishes and paid $60 with a tip.
Top other services in Irvine:
Seafood City Supermarket
2180 Barranca Pkwy, Irvine, CA 92606, United States
Horrible, horrible cashiers. Need upper executives or even store managers to address this CONSTANT problem. If I didnt need Filipino spices, I wouldnt go here. I have to go here, but I make it as seldom as possible! This time, the cashier was definitely not proficient at her job. So, so slow...in everything. She would SLOWLY look around each product looking for a bar code, then when found, scan it SO SLOWLY, and then slowly put it in a bag, unless she had to open up a new bag, which she got and opened super, super slowly. After a last item was scanned, it was left on the scanning bed. Once the customer began to pay, she removed the item from the scanning bed, which of course scanned it again. She had to go to another cashier in order to take the double scanned item off the order...more slowness!!! Then paying in cash, it took her so, so, so long to pull 67-cents out of the till. Then to top it off she counted 67-cents two more times in her hand before giving it to me. Of course, no thank you or have a nice day, or thank you for shopping at Seafood City. Nothing...Go shop at Vons so youll know how to treat customers. Their parent company, Safeway, is the largest grocery store chain in the nation...why? What sets them apart? Customer service!!!2☆ Fair, it would have been a 1☆ Poor, but I need the Filipino spices, at least they carry them...lol...If you go here, consistently expect horrible cashiers!
Pho Ba Co
4250 Barranca Pkwy, Irvine, CA 92604, United States
In my quest to find the best pho in Orange County Im revisiting some local favorites. Local as in 15 minutes or less from my work.I actually found Pho Ba Co a few years ago on the hunt for ramen within this same radius. I saw the $10 bowl a few doors down and pretty much turned around when the Tonkatsu was extra and the things I wanted would bring my total to $15 for just the ramen. Walking away, shaking my head in disbelieve I stumbled upon another, different golden brothd palace of equal stature in my eyes. Some pho places dont like to have their pho specifically to go and the reason is covering pho will spoil the broth.Protip: let it cool uncovered to room temp, then place in refrigerator.Unlike most they nicely separate everything here, but dont particularly like the raw thinly sliced beef in a baggie when ordering to go. I do like their baggie having everything you need, just not the right proportions. Barely any hot sauce, or hoisin.Spring rolls are a little basic and the dipping sauce is a little weak, not impressed. Egg rolls, overcooked and not packed tightly enough, fell apart (not enough egg).The pho broth was a little oily, middle of the road in terms of clarity, but lacked the complexity. Maybe hit it with the double spice bag. Something that I found when I let cool and stored was the amount of fat, definitely not skimmed after paraboiling. I think I mask it with the loads of spice and hoisin and other thingsService is good, but all in all I like the overall experience of Pho So 1 in terms of my lunch radius for pho. Its a large location, hidden and doesnt stand out next to other ho hum shops, its certainly expanded due to the split bathrooms and décor. No thumb in soup bowl.Vermicelli noodles were fresh, but not tossed for my to go order, rice is sometimes undercooked and not quite as broken as Id like, again I tend to overspice as a counter measure. I do really like their chicken, charred to perfection, well marinated. The beef BBQ is really good cut and flavor. Cheap drinks.
H Mart Irvine NorthPark
3931 Irvine Blvd, Irvine, CA 92602, United States
K-town food restaurant in this H Mart -- This is a terrible place to have meals, especially to-go. They literally said they dont provide any ban-chan (side dishes) for to-go. And, the quality of the food was almost disaster and I could not finish it. Even worse is the service, the cashier at the front ignore customers once they received a payment. I would rate 0 if possible, they are so much worse than any other restaurants in this Irvine area. Dont go this restaurant at thsi H Mart. H Mart itself is also terrible place to visit cause the service was terrible cause they lied to me about my stolen bag in this H Mart - they promised to call me when they finished watching the CCTV at the store but never they contacted me about my stolen bag at the store.
Little Sister
896 Spectrum Center Dr, Irvine, CA 92618, United States
Cute Asian fusion restaurant in Irvine Spectrum. Flavorful meals, delightful cocktails, hospitable services, clean and welcoming ambiance. Extensive Southeast-Asian-forward menu but elevated. Overall, it was scrumptious! Perfect for a date night with your loved ones.
99 Ranch Market
15333 Culver Dr Suite #800, Irvine, CA 92604, United States
Neither I nor my daughter had ever been to this market before, and we found ourselves wondering what it wise like.Upon entering, I noticed it was much like any grocery store except that it seemed much larger and very well appointed. Each isle was spacious and contained a good number of products and seemed to be along the same lines as an H Mart.One of the things I noticed both outside and upon entering was a heavenly scent of cooking meat. During my investigation of the establishment, I found there to be a deli that was much like one would find at a Panda Express, except the quality was clearly superior. In addition to the standard fair, they also had duck and BBQ spare ribs, which looked delicious.Since it was past lunchtime and we had not eaten, we thought it a good idea to eat here. As we ordered, one of the things you cant help but notice is the portions that were being served. It was so much food that we both understood we would be taking at least half home as leftovers. Truth be told, our individual servings provided us three meals each. The portions were so large.The flavor of our respective orders was exceptional! My little is a very picky eater, and she complimented how good the orange chicken was several times. Everything was as you could have expected had you gone to a sit-down restaurant, with one difference, the price. Now we are fans of Panda, and I mean no disrespect to that organization, but the amount of food, with the exceptionally large portions, for two people, was less than one would pay at Panda. Plus here you can also have pork and duck, two items never to be found at Panda.The staff were very courteous and friendly. They assisted my little with her order and making sure she was happy with what she received. I could not have been more impressed with our experience and have every intention of going there again.