NOVA Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Garden Grove

Overall experience, it's just another Sunday brunch buffet. Generally, food was OK. What did I have you ask? They had a couple typical American breakfast items such as bacon and scrambled eggs. But then, drum roll please, they had ube pancakes! You get to top it off with whip cream, the standard table syrup, or...wait for it...ube sauce! Omg! Although, the pancakes probably have been sitting there for a bit, so they were a bit on the dry side. Now on to the not-so-typical breakfast options, at the carving station, a beautiful beef cut with bacon and a side of a mustard glaze sauce. That definitely was a tender and flavorful piece of meat! Next on to the sushi, to which I had the spicy tuna and the salmon. Eh, it was your standard sushi. Then down the line there were chicken wings, white rice, a sauteed meat (I think it was chicken, lol) entree, longanesa, and noodles with a creamy sauce. Nothing too exciting here with these options. I took a couple bites from the chicken wings, the sauteed chicken was good, the longanesa was ok (not as juicy as I would like it), can't go wrong with the white rice but they had tongs to serve the rice (what happened to a ladle?), pork belly eggs Benedict (standard Benny with a slice of pork belly to which I threw in some of the bacon making it so much better!), and the noodles were nothing to write home about. They also had crab legs and huge cocktail shrimps. I did not partake, but my friends indulged. Ok on to the finale, desserts! I have a huge sweet tooth, but nothing here to see. Lol. Typical American buffet pastries, chocolate chip cookies, iced cakes, and such. Nothing I even recall to be of Asian inspiration.

They did have other offerings, such as bottomless mimosas and a dumpling tower. The table next to us has the dumpling tower, but it didn't look that impressive, either in presentation or options. The table of 2 didn't even finish it.

The cocktail menu seemed really exciting. Reading through their curated concoctions, I couldn't make up my mind on which one I wanna taste. I went with the Hanoi smash, and not as exciting as I anticipated. Thumbs down!

There is outdoor patio dining. We were seated inside though. The table was wobbly, and we asked the server to be moved or to fix the table. She elected to put napkins under the foot of the table, which didn't work well. I had to fold those napkins thicker and lift that crazy, heavy table to slip them in. Issue fixed! After I get that surgery for the hernia from lifting that table. 😂 We did notice a "secret" speak easy type door being accessed. We believe that is a private dining area.

The dining area was a bit loud. As my friends and I were catching up from where we last left off, it was very hard to hear each other. But we managed.

As for the value of this meal, I threw in my $120 and called it a day. It was more than my share, but what was more important was our friends birthday and catching up with friends. I believe the brunch buffet was $50 and cocktail $17, which probably would have been better priced at $35 for the buffet and $10 for the cocktail, lol. Trust me, my friends even mentioned the value of the meal was not worth the price.

Our friend had made reservations because of the social media frenzy of this place. Reservations were made almost 2 months in advance! That 2 month wait, not sure it met the expectations of the social media hype.

Parking is located right in front of the restaurant. I believe it's part of the Hyatt guest lot, to which you have to take a ticket and they will validate at...

I just found my new favorite restaurant! (I'm a BIG foody so this is saying a lot)

My experience at Nova Kitchen was amazing. This spot is pretty incognito. From outside you would never expect how great the ambience is. As soon as you walk through the front doors they have taken measures to wow guests in each part of the restaurant. From the giant LED screen in the dining room to the beautiful bar set up and even the decor in the bathrooms. Everything looked great.

Thats not even close to the best part of my experience. The food here is absolutely PHENOMENAL!

Im pretty desicive when ordering, but so many of the items on the menu caught my eye that it was pretty hard to pick. We just ended up getting a bunch of different things and almost all of them were winners. Ill definitely be back to try other items and to enjoy our favorites again.

Some of the stuff we ordered:

Miso Soup: Not very flavorful and pretty disappointing.

Spicy Tuna Crispy Rice: Very tasty. The crunchy rice added a nice texture. The slice of Serrano pepper was small so added flavor without being too spicy or overpowering the tuna.

Yellowtail Belly Nigiri I didn't try this, but my friend loved it.

Element Dumplings: Basically colored Xialong Bao. Beautiful presentation with 5 different colored dumplings. Flavor was great. Top was slightly hard, but didnt affect texture or taste.

"BTS" Roll Amazing roll. Packed with flavor and the fish tasted very fresh. Ours came with artificial crab inside, which wasn't listed on the menu. Definitely not upset about it though. Will be ordering on my next visit.

Pork Belly Mac & Cheese Im a sucker for Pork Belly so I had to try this. There wasn't much meat on the plate. Just some small pieces sprinkled on top. Also I prefer my mac & cheese saucier, but the cheese on top makes up for it.

Amai Miso Cod HOLY FUCK. Not only was the presentation on point, but my body almost left my body on the first bite. This dish was packed with flavor and the portion was definitely worth the price of $44. The description says its miso marinated for 72hrs. Every single bite was a little slice of heaven.

Side note, the menu said it was served with Bok Choy, but we received Broccolini instead. Not a big deal since it still tasted great. I think they may have adjusted their menu a bit and have yet to print new ones.

Korean Galbi Plate Comes with 3 or 4 pieces of Galbi sliced into pieces segments, served with rice and kimchi. The Galbi was really good and was cooked perfectly. The rice was nice and moist. Kimchi was good, but nothing to write home about. (Side note, Im Korean so my standards for the kimchi are probably higher than most)

Matcha Creme Brulee Ive never tried this kind of Creme Brulee before. The umami and savory tastes from the matcha really work well with the Creme Brulee. Its not too sweet so I really enjoyed this. My friend said it was the best dessert she has had in a while!

If we didn't order so much food for the two of us I would definitely have tried one of their steaks. Next time I will for sure order one. The Manila Ribeye was calling me.

My final comment is that they get a big bonus for being such a nice restaurant and still offering a pet friendly patio. My fur baby is named Nova so when I discovered this spot I had to bring her here. All of the staff was so happy to meet Nova and my friend's dog. They even brought water for the dogs without...

Last night was one of worst experiences in a restaurant.We were celebrating a friend’s birthday and ordered a couple of the most expensive items on the menu.In the beginning we were excited to grab food at a good location close to Disneyland after a long day. We were starved. The location was right next to the Hyatt and it was a beautiful restaurant with great accents and lighting. For the price point the items were served, we were not very impressed. Most of the items were not memorable, except the braised pork belly which was the highlight of the entire dinner. The food was beautifully presented yet lacked flavor and quality. Items on the order was forgotten or served in odd order. The service was poor and inefficient. While the waiter was absolutely trying his best and has the potential to be better. It seems that this location has poor management and the kitchen/wait staff are not trained to serve items with right timing and in coordination with items served. Also, it seems like they need a lesson on attentiveness for a table they are serving. We also saw some disappointed other guests who seemed to also experience the same frustration. Last, the young waiter sent the manager our way at the end of the day to which she graciously received feedback to work with their management to help resolve these issues and better their service. Customer service and a good product output are key for any establishment to be successful. While she apologized, she also tried to justify the reasons for each issue we had encountered which I believe is not useful for a guest who has had a bad service/experience. I’m sorry but sweet talking us is not going to change a bad experience. We’ve provided useful feedback in the most respectful manner given our frustration. What was expected was an offer of compensation for a waste of time and a poor experience, but of course none whatsoever. Cheers to never coming...