Little Sister — Restaurant in Irvine

Extremely LOUD, obscene & vulgar rap music blares thru the restaurant upon entrance, which ruined our evening out. We were looking forward to enjoying an evening out.... Nope, it didn't happen here! After enduring service & food delays, lack of attention, unprofessional service & timing details.... our dinner extended over 2 hours uncomfortably. Fortunately I had my $10 Strawberry Lychee Lemonade, but my husband had to get up in search of another straw after the third one...... paper straws collapse too quickly! I was almost able to finish....3 straws later. The kitchen appears extremely unorganized & dishes come out solo & haphazardly....one by one. Leaving diners waiting & food rapidly getting cold with no regard to others meals even at the same table & party. Our server was OK, but a bit snippy & kept saying, yeah, yeah, yeah.....abruptly. She clearly was not listening or maintaining professionalism with regard to our requests & concerns. I told her I was allergic to raw Onions, in particular & I was served raw Onions! What we did have tasted alright, but mediocre, too bland for my taste after relaying that I love spicy dishes. I had to request a spicy sauce to try to help cover the lack of taste. The kitchen lost our last dish, so we asked to cancel it & just have dessert. She kept saying it would be right up, Nope! They had to remake it, after seeing the bartender walk off with our missing dish!! And it was fried........who fries sticky rice?!? There was no indication on the menu! Over 1.5 hours after our Reservation we were still waiting for our last dish...... ....and it was fried, which should have been stated on the menu! She clearly was not listening or helping with our dining experience, creating disappointment & much frustration. Clearly not the best, sadly. There did appear to be a Manager dressed in a suit on the floor, who kept up a brisk pace several times from the front Hostess & server drink station to the kitchen window. He didn't appear to be doing much else. He never looked, checked on or even glanced at any tables, customers, dishes or diners AT ALL.......total disconnect from Customers. The lack of Customer Service seems abound & envelope without any assurance of proper service, meals or happy diners! In hindsight & upon entering our journey to deafness & our conversationless dinner, we should have immediately cancelled & gone elsewhere for a much quieter & more enjoyable evening. The music is noticeably loud & we did comment about it upon entering. We were told he could turn down the volume on the patio. Ok, why not inside? They don't appear to care. One Host did mention the Chef's vision of an loud party in his LA home. Hmmm, this isn't LA & we weren't attending a party........merely looking forward to an evening out to try a new popular local Vietnamese place. We were wrong on several accounts. We'll stick to our local LF favorites, tried & true Vietnamese Thanh Binh 2 & Pho King Way for a third of the price, much more comfortable & one actually receives meals all at once! Where our appetizer order is served prior to our food! It's not rocket science, but rather their lack of caring, unprofessional service & normal restaurant business practices such as the order of food served. One table celebrating a Birthday, received their dishes, so haphazardly....I noticed the Birthday boy never received his meal til after everyone else had finished theirs! He was NOT pleased. Our evening didn't make any sense to me, after years in the food industry & we won't be back....especially as long as they play the Chefs tasteless & obscene choice of party music & provide unprofessional service. They won't make it another year in Irvine...

We visited Little Sister restaurant in Irvine Spectrum on a Wednesday night as my wife had purchased 2 $50 gift cards at the local Costco and we wanted to give the place a try. It is a fairly large restaurant with both inside and outdoor seating right across the apple store and the environment is very inviting. Inside there is a bar and open kitchen concept in the missle of the restaurant which has extra high cielings and appealing furnishings. Our server told us that most people order family style and suggested a few items off of each section of the menu. We started with the shrimp and pork spring rolls which were very yummy and came with a delicious peanut sauce and was presnted nicely with some loose peanuts and vegetables. We had their brisket Pho, and we were very disappointed given our Pho arrived with 4 small bowls but no spoons and had to wait a good 10 minutes after asking our server for the spoons to get them, by that time as you might imagine the Pho was tepid. The sprouts and basil and cilantro that came with our Pho seemed old and we asked for fresh ones which they accomodated, but overall the Pho is not something that you want to visit this restaurant for. Many many better options in OC. The Shaken Beef dish was really yummy and likely the only thing that made me give this place a three star. The beef was super tender and marinated well and the whole dish was put together very nicely. We also had their crispy chicken dish which was served with a nice cole slaw, and a bowl of white rice which was decent and super crispy and a Ban Mi sandwhich which was good but nothing to write home about. Service was very slow, and the servers who were bringing out our dishes didnt seem very happy or take pride in presenting the food for us, which for me was a downer. Out bill came to around $150 (5 items and a beer) and we gave the server the two gift cards, only to see that she gave us a bill for the remainder of the charge, however we caught the fact that they had only ran one of the $50 gift cards. The manager rectified the issue and I dont think this was done intentionally but over all other then the Beef dish and the spring rolls, there was nothing about this restaurant that impressed me. Luckily there is toms of option in OC for good vietnamese/asian food, so this is likely the last time for us at Little Sister, even though I had high hopes when we...

Urgent: Food Poisoning Incident and Lack of Response

Dear Little Sister Management,

I hope this email finds you. I am writing to bring to your attention a serious matter regarding a recent visit to your Irvine Spectrum location on December 13th, 2023.

On that evening, three members of our party fell seriously ill with symptoms of food poisoning after consuming the Shrimp and Black Rice dish. Interestingly, I was the only one who did not consume this dish and did not experience any health issues. The severity of this situation has been exacerbated by the complete lack of response from your establishment.

I have made seven attempts to contact Little Sister over the course of 16 days, leaving messages for Stephanie, Wendy, and Roy. Each of them assured me that they would return my call, yet not a single response was received until today when I finally managed to get through to Roy.

During our conversation, I was dismayed to hear that, despite clear evidence of a food-related illness affecting our party, Roy insisted on doing nothing. Furthermore, his suggestion that the illness may have been due to the amount of cocktails served is not only unprofessional but highly offensive. It is disappointing that such a response was provided, as it reflects poorly on the level of customer care and responsibility demonstrated by Little Sister.

To add to this distressing experience, I was also charged a 3% credit card transaction fee amounting to $12 on a $400 bill. This, coupled with the lack of response and inappropriate comments from your staff, has left me deeply dissatisfied with the overall experience at Little Sister.

I urge you to take immediate action to investigate and address this matter. Food safety and customer well-being should be of the utmost priority for any reputable establishment. I expect a thorough investigation into the food poisoning incident and an appropriate resolution to be communicated to me in a timely manner.

If this issue is not promptly addressed, I am left with no choice but to escalate my concerns through relevant channels to ensure the safety and satisfaction of future patrons.

I appreciate your urgent attention to this...