Four Sea Restaurant — Restaurant in Irvine

Do not, and i repeat, do not come here. I am a native taiwan person living in the US. I have had my share of bad service at authentic asian restaurants but this place was the absolute worst. After using their self serve machine to order, I walked up to the counter and was ignored by multiple employees that was there for a good 10 mins before I loudly flagged one of them down to get someone to take an addition to my order. The food is abysmally disappointing.

My family has been going to the si hai in San gabriel for at least the last decade if not more - and was very excited to see this one close to where we were staying. Paid over $100 for the 3 of us (2 adults and 1 child) and left half of it on the table - normally I can’t stand to waste food that we paid for, but leaving the food meant that we are only out the $100 and not have the bad taste in our mouth too. We ordered the shao bing with marinated veggie and pork - and the bing was literally hard as rock and I couldn’t chew it. The apprtizer tofu and pig ears were hard and had no flavor, that alone cost us close to $20 and we just left it after a couple bites to make sure it’s really as bad as the first taste suggested.

We noticed the table next to us left a lot of food when we first came in, that should’ve been our clue. To top it all off, my child wanted to take the soupless xiao long bao to-go, and the waitress i flagged down literally looked at me in the eyes and walked by without doing anything. I would say it’s possible she didn’t hear me but there was all of 2 other customers in there and I spoke very loud in both chinese and english.

If this is a franchise, I recommend the franchsor to pull their license, and if this is family opening an affiliate restaurant, they need to tell him/her to stop before the affiliate destroys the good name of the main store. I rarely leave reviews because who has the time, but if I could, I would make 10 more google accounts just to leave more negative reviews of this place. Don’t come, don’t eat, don’t even look at this place should...

This place didn’t work.. in fact there wasn’t anything that stood out about this restaurant other than leaving here with little positive memories. I think Taiwanese food may be an acquired taste, and if you like Asian food this may be an exception. Although the food here fought with our taste buds, it was packed and there were lines out the door with to-go order pick up and people waiting to order. After we order, we were given a number and it’s open seating (if you can find an open table). The restaurant was not the cleanest with food and napkins all over the floor (maybe because as soon as someone leaves the table, another group sits down).. or it could be the restaurant have messy patrons..

The first of our item took over 15 minutes (fried donut stick) and it was not even freshly fried. The texture was cold and chewy. The porridge did not come until about 10 minutes later, and it was so-so.. The sticky rice (famous staple of Taiwan) with dried pork was too salty to eat. The potstickers took over an hour and oily (you can see the oil on the dish when you lift up the potstickers), and the dumplings (took over an hour) arrived with the skins cracked stuck to each other and dry from the juices leaking out. Even with the warm soy milk, it took the staff over 15 minutes to bring it, even though they just had to scoop it out of a warmer. Almost all the items we tried were too salty (even the egg). Their only saving grace is their daikon cake that had a perfect balance of flavor and good mix of daikon. I had Taiwan food before and don’t remember it being like this.. Maybe this just...

I'm originally from San Gabriel - the land of the best Chinese food in America. That is an accurate statement. I'm also not Chinese, so I don't know what to order other than what my Chinese friends tell me to order when I was in San Gabriel.

When I discovered this place...I was confused that this place was in Irvine. When this place first opened, I knew it was authentic....I had no idea what to order and I didn't have my Chinese friends to help me order. I resorted to remembering what my friends told me to order back in San Gabriel....FAN TUAN.

Their Fan Tuan...is one of the best I've had....and I had some pretty good ones in San Gabriel. For those who don't know, it is basically a breakfast burrito, but instead of a tortilla, it is sticky rice. There's a scrambled egg with chives inside, pork sung (dried pork flakes), cruller (a fried stick - like a donut stick if you will), and pickled vegetables. It's a fat bundle of goodness and is one of the biggest Fan Tuan's I've had ever.

If you don't know what to order, do yourself a favor and order a fan tuan, along with a egg crepe with pork sung, and their soy milk or peanut milk, or a wintermelon tea if you're feeling more on the refreshing sweet side. Don't eat your meal without the garlic sauce. The pork belly Bao that is by the register is either the BEST THING EVER or is just average because it is dry- but it's a great quick meal.

Get soy milk in a giant bowl and put sugar in it and drink it....that seems to be how you're supposed to eat it. This place gets crazy on the weekend mornings. ...