Aloha stacks — Restaurant in Irvine

Aloha! A great breakfast & brunch spot in Irvine!

Woodbury Town Center is a lovely spot to hang out and walk around and this restaurant was a nice find. The restaurant is a few doors down from LA fitness and is surrounded by other restaurants/businesses. It had actually been in my bookmarks for quite some time so I was happy to have been able to finally try it.

We arrived early afternoon, maybe an hour and a half before closing this past weekend. To no surprise the place seemed fairly busy, with a line out the door and all seating taken inside. We stood in line, browsed the menu, and were ready to order by the time we got to the counter. We ordered the Ube Coconut Belgium Waffle and the Spicy Chicken + Bacon Waffle.

The food:

Ube Coconut Belgium Waffle: A plump Belgium waffle covered in strawberries, whip cream, some ube goodness, and coconut flakes. Super tasty and mildly sweet. I liked it a lot and licked the plate clean :P.

Spicy Chicken + Bacon Waffle: Not your typical chicken and waffle dish. It's quite overwhelming to look at haha. It's a Belgium waffle with good sized pieces of chicken katsu, bacon, cheddar cheese, spicy mayo, powdered sugar, and maple syrup. It's not love at first bite but it gets better as you get through it!

Service was good, there wasn't much interaction with the workers except for ordering at the counter and the occasional water glass fill-up.

There's some seating inside and plenty of seating outside.

Parking is plentiful, no problem there. Depending on how busy it is you may have to walk a distance, but it's not terrible.

Definitely a place worth trying, whether you're in the...

1 star: Cold food? Seriously? Aloha Stacks misses the mark.

I really wanted to love Aloha Stacks. The place was packed – busy like a market! – and you can't beat the location in Woodbury. But sadly, my recent experience left me feeling disappointed. I dropped over $50 on breakfast, only to have it arrive stone cold. Cold bacon, cold French toast, and a barely lukewarm omelet. Seriously? Who wants to eat a cold breakfast (besides cereal, of course!)? It's almost as if they intended to serve it cold!

Even my cappuccino was a letdown. You see, when you order coffee, they don't bring it to your table. You have to wait for them to call your number, then go pick it up yourself. By the time my number was called, my cappuccino was already lukewarm! Why not just bring the coffee with the meal? That way, everything arrives at the table nice and hot – instead of nice and COLD like my food today.

I let my server know about the cold food, and all I got was a halfhearted "oh sorry." No offer to remake anything, no attempt to make things right. To add insult to injury, the food is carried across the open courtyard uncovered, so who knows what kind of dust landed on it during its journey to my table.

Look, I get that things happen, but for the price, I expect hot food and better service. A simple solution would be to cover the plates when walking across the courtyard. It's the little things that make a difference. Unfortunately, with this kind of experience, I don't see myself returning...

This was my second time visiting Aloha Stacks for brunch. I ordered the Breakfast Burrito, and my husband had the Fried Chicken with a side of pancakes. My burrito was flavorful, well-seasoned, and filling, just the right mix of eggs, potatoes, and cheese. His meal looked great too, but the sauce on top of the chicken was a bit too strong and overpowered the flavor of the meat. The pancakes were soft and fluffy, and that balanced things out.

He also tried the Iced Ube Latte. It had a pretty purple color and creamy texture, but it was sweeter than expected, so he added some coffee to balance it out, and that made it much better.

The restaurant itself is usually quite busy, and both times we visited there was a line, especially the first time. We actually prefer sitting outside since the indoor area feels a bit crowded. I don’t see that as a bad thing though, it just shows how popular...