Left Coast Brewing Distillery Smokehouse - Irvine — Restaurant in Irvine

Update: I redid my review after they severely downgraded the quality of their food. It was great for opening, but now is pretty garbage overall. Check out the Orange County Register review for details. Please see my pictures for the differences in the brisket alone. New location! Food we had: Brisket sandwich - 1/5 (formerly 5/5): it was great during launch week but now it's plain awful. Tastes like nothing. I'd bet a fortune that it's not 75 hour smoked like they claim. Mine was brown the whole way through and smoked brisket should have a good degree of pink from the smoke. The bun had more flavor than the brisket, and they're now using less than half the amount of brisket than they did near opening. Pulled pork sandwich - 2/5 (formerly 3/5): Dry, tastes only of BBQ sauce. Pork belly burnt ends - 3/5 (formerly 5/5): They taste pretty good, but nowhere near how they did during opening week. They gave us 5 small pieces, which were each significantly less than a bite each. This is about 1/5 of what we were served during opening week. Corn bread - 4.5/5: really good corn bread, plenty sweet without being overpowering. Not dry at all. Did not change between opening week and now. Ribs - 2/5 Disappointing. Cooked to the point of being dry. Hopefully just a new restaurant mistake. Update: not a new restaurant mistake, they're just bad. The beer was really good overall, nothing to dislike about everything my group tried, which was most of them. However, the barrel aged offerings were very expensive compared to other local breweries, at $11.50 for an 8oz. The barrel aged Asylum was my favorite beer of the night, but at that price I'll probably get something else in the future. The location itself is outstanding. Lots of room, lots of tables, large bar, plenty of parking, beautiful interior, and really close to the Irvine Spectrum and OC Great Park. Update: we probably won't be back too often now because of the incredibly disappointing changes...

Our party of 4 had a negative first impression of Left Coast Brewing Co tonight! We came on Wednesday, 6:45pm (15 mins before their trivia night which starts at 7pm on Wednesdays).

It was packed, no open tables, line was almost out the door to order food/drinks.

Long story short, I ordered food with a blonde female cashier who told me it would be ready in 25 mins. Our group found a table outside and we hung out with our drinks.

I waited for my food for 55 minutes before I finally requested a refund. It was just 1 Reuben sandwich with no pickles - not a huge or complicated order at all. The server even came up to our table holding a Reuben sandwich and said he doesn't know why MINE isn't ready yet!

My friend who ordered waayyyy before me never received his food either and requested a refund as well. We had been watching the servers walk past us and everyone around us were receiving their food!

I asked Rob, the cashier/bartender, for a refund - I showed him my receipt with a time stamp of 7:03pm and showed him my watch which said 7:55pm. He asked for my card, took it to the back and brought out a guy named Matt. Matt processed my refund.

Neither Rob or Matt apologized for the fact that an unsatisfied customer has been waiting for nearly AN HOUR for food. I wasn't rude or nasty at all, I kindly asked for my money back and I got it! A simple apology could go a long way, but it appears they do not care about their customers.

Magically, both our food was ready at the exact same time while we were receiving our refunds. I got to keep my food which was already refunded, so they get to keep a star.

Major props to the male server wearing red that was aware of our situation since we kept seeing if the food he was walking around with was ours - he admitted there was a mistake and told us,...

Had to stand in line for 20 minutes to place our order. Food took about half an hour to be "dropped off". Didn't have anything on the table (Salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard) and had to go to the bar and wait if we wanted anything. Table was dirty...had to find a rag and wipe it down ourselves. Not an awesome experience.

Ordered the Reuben and asked that I get Cole slaw instead of the normal Sauerkraut. Was told they could do that but sandwich came with sauerkraut. Took so long that I just ate it anyway.

Daughter got a side of Mac-n-cheese...tasted like buttered noodles with some grated parmesan sprinkled on top.

Other child got chicken sandwich...it had been left in the deep fryer waaaaaay to long. Tasteless and drier than shoe leather.

Son was happy with his brisket sandwich.

Tab came to $114 for 3 adults and a child where we had an average of 2 large beers each. Wasn't sure how to tip given the service level was more like a Wendy's than even a casual sit down restaurant.

Craft beer selection was good and liked that they sold it in 5oz ($2), 10oz ($4) and 16oz ($6) sizes. Might be a good place for craft beer fans to go to sit at the bar and sample a bunch of different beers. Just bring your...