Kaju Soft Tofu Restaurant (Culver) — Restaurant in Irvine

An incident occurred while we were there, and the professional way the staff handled the situation was very impressive. The table next to us brought a service dog, but had it sitting on a person's lap, at table level where the dog could clearly reach everything (in fact, the woman was playing with the dog's paws and using them to tap the table surface). I'm a dog lover and I own one myself, but I think that's incredibly unsanitary. A waiter came over and politely asked for them to put their dog on the floor..... but they said that the floor was too dirty for their dog. So the waiter put down a plastic sheet on the floor for the dog to lay on, but they STILL refused to set the dog down. Finally, staff very politely asked them to leave if they continued to keep the dog on the girl's lap. The customers were very upset by this and one of them was shouting as he left. Pretty crazy. I felt the staff were very nice and accommodating for how unreasonable the group was being.

Honestly, we were initially a little tentative about coming here seeing the 3.5 stars, but we saw the negativity was about service which, frankly, doesn't bother us as long as the food is good. However, both the service and the food was absolutely amazing. Our waiter Chris was very attentive and checked that we had everything we needed often. The food was served quickly and was delicious. My friend and I both got a lunch combo D, with the seafood tofu soup. The side dishes were refilled when we finished them. There's a neat cat robot that goes around serving food and blasting music...

I went to try the newly opened Kaju Tofu in Irvine the night before grand opening and was sat in the far corner table. Initially I was excited to try out this new Kaju (which is unaffiliated with the Kaju on Walnut) but my experience started to sour when I saw a table that got sat several minutes after mine getting their orders getting taken first while my table kept getting ignored. Not even after delivering food to the table directly next to us did the server greet us or ask us if we were ready to order, she just walked away without even looking at my table. It was only after the robot server delivered banchan to my table that it was "realized" my table never had our orders taken. Usually the banchan is supposed to come after you place your order, not before. Apparently it turned out the banchan was supposed to go to another table, but a server entered in the wrong table number and so it ended up at my table. My sibling also ordered a sikhye drink with her food but didn't get it until near the end of her meal when our server finally came by to ask how we were doing, but instead of apologizing for forgetting about the sikhye, she had the gall to ask "oh you want to order more sikhye" when my sibling never got her sikhye in the first place. I don't know if they have different servers working during the daytime but the serving staff that night needs better training. Not coming back until I hear they fix...

I never write reviews, but I am making an exception, and that is not a good thing. If I could rate this place a zero, I would. Don’t get me wrong, the food was probably bomb, but the services were BOMBED. I am talking decimated, like there was nothing left. First, the server gives us the menu and leaves. Then literally a different person actually delivers the food. And the food was pretty decent, and we had no issues with it. But then when our check comes by and the bill is already 40 dollars (without tip), we realize we are broke (because we obviously didn’t realize before). After we pay, the server literally has the audacity to ask if we were gonna tip. Keep in mind that we were going to pay a cash tip anyway. We thought she was asking about tea. After we said no (to the tea) and said we were okay, she literally said “No, we are not okay. You dined in, next time go to a different restaurant”?! Hello?! We will! We left the tip anyway because we are nice broke humans but that is the most insane thing I have ever experienced and was more shocked by her audacity than anything else. I am not even impressed with her shamelessness. Will never be going back again. And this wasn’t the first time here, but it’s certainly the...