Dawa kitchen — Restaurant in Garden Grove

Are you down with Dawa? Yeah, you know me 😁 I really like this Korean restaurant and hope to return soon.

The Food: The menu is not large but the flavors are, for the most part, big. I've ordered the Chicken Katsu With Curry and the Dawa Chicken. Both were very tasty.

For the former dish, the portion was huge. HUGE! The chicken katsu was bigger than my face -- no joke! And its panko breading had the perfect crispness. The chicken meat on the inside was a smudge dry, but I balanced it out by dousing it in the curry sauce, which was excellent. The fluffy steamed rice tied everything together beautifully.

The latter dish was equally satisfying, but for different reasons. The Dawa Chicken is kinda like chicken nuggets but Korean style, and in my opinion so much better than American-style nuggets. The outside is made of a thick batter of deep fried Korean sauce made in-house, while the inside had moist chicken meat. It came with a freshing side of shredded cabbage with sesame dressing. Before I ordered it, my server said it's more of an appetizer; I had mixed feelings about that because it costs $15 -- a bit pricey for a warmup dish. But I am happy to report that, per Dawa's M.O., the portion was big and was the perfect size for a one-person meal if you're not too concerned with accoutrements.

Like most Korean restaurants, Dawa offers free side dishes like kimchee, macaroni salad, and cucumbers. They're not knockouts, but they're nice to have as a complement to the more meaty, savior dishes.

The Service: I've had the same server twice and he's great. He won't hover around or touch base too often like you might find at a Western-style restaurant, but he's quick to help if you wave him down. He's also very polite, friendly, and knowledgeable.

The Atmosphere: It's not the biggest place, with mostly tables and booths for 4. There's one section in the back where two tables can be slid together for a party of 10. But I wouldn't go here at peak times with a large group. Fortunately, it's nicely decorated, pretty casual, and clean throughout.

The Location: It's located in a strip mall with a smallish parking lot, though we always found an open parking spot. The problem though is that the white lines designating each stall are too close together, so vans, SUVs, and trucks will find them to be a tight squeeze. Many larger vehicles end up double-parking just to make sure they can open their doors.

Overall: The food is quite tasty, the service is great, and the establishment is clean. The prices are a little higher than expected, and the small parking lot is annoying. But overall, I enjoy Dawa and...

Overall: 4.5/5 [dine in]

We came on a Friday night around 7:30 PM and were seated pretty quickly given that were a party of 8. We had to wait until all the food was served before we could put the two tables together but having they separate was actually easier for people to go use the restroom.

The two guys waiting the tables were professional & provided great service. Our server - Jong according to the receipt - pointed out the most popular items when we were reviewing the menu, cracked some witty jokes throughout the night, and called out the 18% gratuity has already been added to our bill (bless his soul). Needless to say, my family had a great dining experience here.

Curry Chicken Katsu ($25): This is the famous giant katsu that's viral on Tiktok. The meat was the span of my laptop so cutting it took awhile. My brother said it's a hit or miss since the meat could get really dry. Unfortunately for us, the katsu was very dry. The curry helped a little bit, but it tasted better dipped in the ddukbokki sauce. This curry came with a lot of rice so we had a lot of leftovers.

Original Braised Beef ($58): This came with 2 serving of rice. The meat wasn't as tender as I hoped and was almost overcooked. There were too many potatoes so the dish was a bit off-balance. The sauce was good, but not amazing - yet tasted great with rice. I think if we got the spicy braised beef with cheese, it would have tasted better but we went with the original to accommodate everyone's dietary restriction/preference.

Ddukbbokki ($17) + Cheese ($4): I didn't have high expectations for this dish, but it turned out to be absolutely delicious! The sauce was the highlight--we dipped a lot of meat in it and drizzled it over our rice. The rice cake had the perfect texture and paired wonderfully with the cheese. Unfortunately I didn't get to try the fish cake so I can't speak to it.

Garlic Su Yuk ($33): Everyone's favorite entree of the nice was this 10 hours sous vide pork belly in beef bone broth with house sauce on hot stone pot. This came with 1 serving of rice and a side of minced garlic, green onion, and I think ssamjang. The pork belly was thin and soaked up all the beef bone broth, giving it a delightful flavor that was - chef's kiss!

For the banchans, I loved the kimchi & macaroni salad. The cucumbers were a close second, though I didn't care for the yellow pickled radish. My brother loved the...

One of those places that you wouldn't expect if you just drive past it. But once you walk in, the place is decorated beautifully!

You can use yelp to check in, so if it's a longer wait, you can totally check in while you're driving to the restaurant!

Service is great! They make sure you get a full setup of napkins, chopsticks, plates and water with water cups! And they're attentive to what you're ordering and making sure everything is to your liking!

Food we ordered:

Curry Chicken Katsu - Just like the tonkatsu, it's a massive portion that comes out on a hot stone plate. Everything about it is perfect! The curry, the crispiness of the chicken, spices, everything!

Garlic Su Yuk - This is kinda like my comfort food right here. The pork is very tender and full of flavor from the broth. And the condiments compliment it! It's great that it comes with rice!

Spicy Tofu Soup - This is kinda like a good spicy soup you'd want on a cold day, or a day you feel you need some spice in your life. The tofu was cooked perfectly in it. The spice level was perfect, and we had a choice of Bulgolgi or shrimp, we went with bulgolgi this time and it was great!

Dawa Chicken - The chicken was juicy and crispy! The sauce on it was amazing! The salad on the side was the perfect way to get a temp/texture change. Overall a great dish to share amongst everyone!

Banchan was very fresh and crisp! The Mac was delicious and creamy!

There might be a wait here, but trust me when I say it's worth it!

Just a heads up for parking, if there isn't parking in the front, there's extra in the back!

Try it out! Don't be intimidated if there's a long wait! I've been here 4 times already and it's always a...