Taiko Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Irvine

It's been a few years Taiko, what the hell happened to you?

I mean, I met you when I used to see you back in my college days. You offered great food and great prices. Then again, no one was nearby in Irvine at the time.

I felt bad not visiting you so I came with a good friend of mine about 10 years ago and you were still solid. Of course, once in awhile, I'll go visit A&J because your wait was so ridiculously long.

So I went and visited you this past weekend. Even though I was there 15 minutes after you opened at 11:45pm , I still was loyal and waited another 15 minutes watching people with party of 1 or 2 going in prior to our party.

I ordered your combo A meal with the Sesame chicken, tempura, and some bubble gum tough beefstick. Your sesame chicken sizes are either really big or really small and nothing in between. The oil drench from the chicken was leaked onto a paper below , which was on top this salad with dressing. So to paint you readers a better picture , I am basically eating a salad, dressing in chicken fat oil and mayo, with sesame chicken and a piece of paper in the way.

Your shrimp tempura basically is two butterflied shrimp tempura with excess batter and mixed with some potato and green bell pepper.

The teriyaki chicken entree was chicken cut horizontally and it even had cartilage for added crunch.

I do give you props for decent sushi here. It tasted like what I remembered before. Don't get too excited and wet your pants, The sushi dishes always seem to come last on the table so you still need to work on this.

For lunch, your prices are still good for the Irvine area. I truly think if you can do better in the food, you should raise...

Taiko Restaurant is a popular Japanese joint located in Irvine CA and is the place to be during lunch hours. This place opens at 11:30am and you’ll be surprised to see a ton of people lined up to get in there. While waiting in the hot heat for the restaurant to open, the line just kept growing. We finally went inside and I was surprised at the amount of room inside the restaurant. A couple in front of us left thinking there wasn’t enough room, but trust me, there’s a lot to accommodate the large amount of customers.

There’s sushi combination, lunch combination, entrees, side orders, rolls, and so much more.

Before we started the meal, we ate some salty cabbage and had some miso soup. Miso soup is a must if you go to a Japanese restaurant!

My friend ordered some California Rolls for all of us to share since we were all getting really hungry. She also ordered the Tempura plate with fried chicken and its a huge portion! We did not expect our plates to be so huge, you really get a lot for the price you pay. I tried the fried chicken and loved it. I’ll be sure to order this the next time I’m here.

I ordered the Taiko Restaurant Sashimi and Grilled Chicken lunch combo which comes with a side of salad and a little bit of veggies. The sashimi slices were pretty thick and really fresh. The grilled chicken was tasty as well and there’s was so much of it I just had to pack it to go.

My other friend “C” ordered the Taiko Grilled Salmon and Fried Chicken which was super tasty. We all ended up sharing so we could try a little bit of everything.

The best time to come here is during lunch because prices are cheaper compared to...

I think my first visit here was when I was 9 or 10 where I'd find myself looking forward to our monthly family dinners here. There was always a long wait outside.

At the time, the Kid's Meal was bomb, because they were just tinier portions of adult meals so you get the same good stuff! I always adored the cocktail umbrella they stuck atop the orange wedge :D

When I "graduated" to an adult meal, it was even cooler. LOTS more food! Woohoo!

Having gone to UCI and working in Irvine all these years, Taiko is still very accessible. I've been here with family, friends, bosses, and coworkers.

This was also where I first ate UNI. OMYGOD. (Thanks to a former boss!)

So I've always enjoyed coming here as it's nostalgic, the Host never seems to age, and frankly the quality of the food hasn't changed.

Their Sesame Chicken is still super juicy, the thick kewpie mayo is still insanely good with the green beans, crispy tempura, and great grilled calamari texture.

I went last night, after a year break, and I'm still pleased.

My friend and I shared a #9 Combination ($17ish) and a Seafood Salad ($10)

Seafood Salad had thick cuts of salmon, tuna, and yellowtail atop sliced cucumbers. There's a light ponzu sauce at the bottom as the dressing. It felt like this dish was never ending! Seriously packed with a lot of good fish.

The Combination plate is huge for 1 person, so for sharing it's perfect.

Between the 2 of us, we couldn't finish and ended up taking a doggy bag.

The prices may seem high at first, but you get a lot of food :)

To me, Taiko is definitely an Irvine landmark and they'll definitely get...