i-Tea Cafe in Irvine

A Taiwanese style cafe that serves food. Apart eat in area, they also have a counter for take out, which seem to be very popular. Some of the menu were handwritten on paper and sticked to wall. We ordered 2x special menu, both served with free drinks. Food was pretty good, two people for $23. The seating was slightly cramped though.

Mizuki Restaurant in Irvine

We came to this Japanese restaurant to celebrate end of exam for my wife. Not a busy place on a Saturday evening. We ordered a sushi set, caterpillar roll (eels with avocado, please see picture), Kobe beef sushi and New York steak with miso sauce. The caterpillar roll was nice but Kobe beef sushi was a bit tough. The sushi set came with black cod which was tasty. However, service was slow and dinner was pricey, 2 people for a little over $80. We had better sushi with cheaper price elsewhere, so I doubt we will return to this restaurant.

Strawberry Farms Golf Club

We came to this golf club to find out more info on the course and lessons. We stopped by at the restaurant to have lunch. It has a nice view facing the outdoor driving range. We ordered lunch special - avocado shrimp salad and champion burger. They are both very nice, $30 for two people. Good service as well.

Pho Factory in Irvine

Vietnamese cruise in Irvine. My wife ordered a Vietnamese style french baguette and I ordered a large portion pho with well done brisket and flank. The pho was ok, nothing special. But the baguette was really good, definitely worth going there for more in future.

Koko Cafe (可口港式西餐) in Irvine

This is one of the few Hong Kong style cafe in Orange County. It opens between 11am and 11pm daily, located opposite to the Irvine Valley College, seats around 60+ customers. We came here for lunch. They served soup as part of meal order. We ordered baked seafood in creamy sauce and Singaporean fried rice noodle. The food was pretty good. Two people for $21 with drinks.

Marie Callender's Restaurant & Bakery

They have a $10.99 special on Shepherd's pie or Chicken pot pie that comes with caesar salad and a slice of marie's pie as desert. We ordered one each. They also served us warm corn bread as starter. The shepherd's pie was not authentic as they don't use mince beef and there was no pastry on top. Pastry crust on the chicken pot pie was thick and dried. Rather disappointing. Then we ordered apple pie and double cream blueberry pie. That redeem itself. Overall, a place supposes to be famous for pies (according to advert), it ain't so. Two people for $30, not worth the price and won't be coming back.

Olive Garden in Irvine

An Italian chain restaurant. Most dishes come with refillable free soup or salad. I ordered Seafood Portofino and my wife ordered half sided panini. The spaghetti was slightly salty. $37 for 2 people. For the price we paid,  food was okay and we had plenty of leftover to take home.

Daily Grill in Irvine

A restaurant in Irvine that labelled themselves as 'Classic American with a Contemporary Twist'. This was our second time to this diner. We first came here for brunch and we were really impressed with their chicken hot pot. It reminded me of the great British pies back home. Apart from this dish, their strawberry lemonlade was nice as well and deserved a mention. However, other dishes weren't that good. It cost a little over $80 for 3 people, not that value for money.

The Balcony Grill & Bar in Irvine

A Taiwanese restaurant that serves Shabu Shabu. It is located on the 2nd floor of the Diamond Jamboree Shopping Center in Irvine. They also serve fresh soy drinks by Soyumi - a fresh delicious healthy soy drink. Portions are pretty big. We ordered pineapple fried rice, braised pork chop noodles and shrimp in spicy garlic tomato sauce. My wife likes the desert from here. Dinner cost $50. As this place has a bar, lighting is dim (the only negative point for me).

Thai Cafe Irvine

This Thai restaurant is conveniently located off freeway 5 Jeffery exit. We ordered Tom Yum Koong, Papaya salad and Pad Thai. The soup was fantastic, but my wife seemed to be allergic to the spices. She also preferred the Papaya salad from Busaba Eathai back in London. Portion was big, dinner cost $40 for 2 people.

Chili's Grill & Bar Restaurant

A typical US diner. Always want to try out as food on their TV ad look tasty. We had Old timer burger with cheese, shrimp taco, blackberry ice tea, etc. Looks good but taste was ordinary. When we first arrived, the waitress gave us pieces of paper for coloring/drawing, apparently they were collecting donation for the St Jude Children's Research Hospital. The finished artworks were hanged on the ceiling as part of the deco.

Koba Tofu Grill in Irvine

This restaurant locates in the Heritage Plaza, off 5 freeway. The plaza's undergoing renovation at the time of our visit. We ordered a seafood combo to share, it came with fish, BBQ beef, seafood tofu, stone pot rice. It is same style as BCD Tofu House. The beef smell really good. Other than that, nothing special about this place. They have 3 other branches, one in south Irvine (UCI campus), one in Fullerton and one in Diamond Bar.

Buca di beppo in Irvine

An Italian restaurant recommended by my brother, located in Irvine, close proximity to Tustin Marketplace. When we first entered the restaurant, we had to go through the kitchen area before you arrived at our table - that's certainly a different experience. Decor is kind of European style, with Italian photos and artefacts on the walls as well as inside the restrooms. They had 2 portions size for most dishes - small (feeds up to 3 ppl) and large (feeds up to 5 ppl). They used sweet red peppers cans as stands for pizza plates. In fact these cans ain't empty, wonder whether red peppers are actually inside or not. We ordered margarita pizza and seafood linguine to share, plus a small cesear salad. Food was tasty, cost us $44. Likely to go back for more.

Ayame Shabu Shabu Hot Pot in Irvine

Located at the northern part of Irvine. It is not a big restaurant. Service is good. Everyone has his/her own hot pot set for Shabu Shabu, which is kind of cute. I had Thai Tom Yum soup base and my wife had spicy miso soup base. They also had sushi on the menu. We ordered the 'Oh my god' roll, it's really yummy! As tasty as the title said. Desert was delicious too, she enjoyed it very much. We were happy that we found this place. $60 in total for 2 people. They have a sister restuarant called Zipangu at 2930 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.

Korea House BBQ Restaurant in Irvine

As we are not too happy with the service we got last time at Arirang  and Shik Do Rak always has a long queue, we decided to try a new Korean BBQ restaurant in Irvine today. This restaurant is closed to the University of Irvine, with many tables and private rooms. I was immediately attracted to the unlimited BBQ for $19.99 per person - choice of 5 types of meat (chicken, pork and beef). The quality of meat wasn't good (not nicely cut) and the small Korean side dishes weren't freshed. Plus on occassion I could smell odor coming from the restroom. The only good point about this restaurant - great friendly customer service! Doubt we will return though.

The Counter in Irvine

The Counter is a custom built gourmet burger place. Our relatives recommended this place to us. We visited their Irvine branch on the 9th Dec (Fri) for dinner, but was packed and long queue. We decided to go back again today for late lunch and this time we had seats. You can either order from a list of burgers or build your own one. To build your own burger, you can choose at least 4 kinds of toppings, cheese, sauce, type of meat, and size of burger. The smallest size is 1/3, that's still way bigger than the quarter pounder at McDonald's. Their burgers are the best we had so far. We also ordered vanilla milkshake and that's lovely too. Service was good, but they did mix up with the change. Their burgers are in the pricer range, $10 per burrger. A treat every now and then!

Ka Ju Tofu Restaurant in Irvine

Another soft Tofu place in the Irvine area. It is right outside the freeway 5 Jeffrey exit. This restaurant has various tofu sets. We tried seafood, mushroom and pork tofu sets, and they all came with grilled fish and rice as usual. My favourite dish was actually... Oi Kimchi. I previously tried curry tofu here but the flavor was so weak that I didn't feel like I was eating curry, so that dish is a no-go! $34 for 3 dishes was reasonably priced. May come again.

Capital Seafood Restaurant (金都) in Irvine

First time we tried dim sum in the Irvine area. We came to this restaurant inside Diamond Plaza along Jamboree Road. We ordered 8-9 dishes and cost less than $30 for 3 people. I still prefer dim sum restaurant up in Monterey Park area.

The Cheesecake Factory in Irvine

We had lunch at the Cheesecake factory inside the Irvine Spectrum today. Service was good and the waitress was very friendly. I had fish and chips for the first time since I left England. It's certainly different to the fish and chips that I used to have. Instead of a single fried cod, the fish was given in several portion. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the dish and the colesaw was fresh and good. My wife ordered the meat loaf. It's also different to what we used and it didn't taste that good. Mind you the brown bread was soft and the best so far. If we come back to Cheesecake factory again, we definitely stick to desserts haha.

Daphne's Greek Cafe in Irvine

First time we tried this little Greek cafe restaurant. The food was tasty and the price wasn't expensive. I had burger, which wasn't like your regular American burger. The fresh fries was freshly made. $20 dollars for 2 people ain't bad.