Tasty Spot Cafe Irvine — Restaurant in Irvine

Ready for some Hong Kong cafe style food without having to drive up to the 626 area to get it? Luckily, the Irvine location recently just opened up again so I knew it was my chance to try it. I went in on a Wednesday evening around 6:30pm and the place was super busy. Despite a busy crowd, I feel like the servers did a wonderful job in making sure orders were being taken care of and dishes were being delivered to the customers in a timely manner. While I’m not familiar with the prices of the DFC in the 626 area are cheaper than the Irvine location, I still think you’re getting a decent sized meal for what you are paying for. Overall, some improvements can be made (see below) but I would definitely come back to try out their other popular dishes.

|| L O C A T I O N / P A R K I N G || -Cross Streets are Yale Ave. and Irvine Blvd. -Located in the same plaza as Zion Market, Dada Shabu, Hako and more! -Large parking lot with plenty of spaces. Majority of the nearby spots were all full but you can definitely find a spot if you don’t mind taking a couple extra more steps to your destination.

|| F O O D || Fried Salt & Pepper Pork Chop - For some reason I couldn’t locate it on the menu but I showed our server the photos and they mentioned that we could still order it. I’m very particular and picky with this dish because this dish is a family favorite, so you know that I’ve tried almost every restaurant that has this dish. I really enjoyed the seasonings, but I felt like it wasn’t well incorporated with the fried pork chops. Another thing to mention is that the meat used was very thin, which makes it subject to being over fried at a faster rate. Perhaps it is just my preference to have thicker meat cuts for this kind of pork chop dish.

3 item BBQ: I selected the roast duck, roast pork and the bbq pork. My favorite chinese bbq to order is usually the roast duck or the roast pork. The bbq pork is usually third or fourth in line, but at DFC, their best bbq dish that I ordered was actually their bbq pork! It was super tender and juicy (not dry like some other places). The duck was good, esp the crispy skin, but maybe it was portion of duck that was given to us, but it had little meat to it. There were only one or two pieces that actually had a decent amount of meat and weren't just bones. The roast pork wasn’t bad, I liked how the meat was tender and that the skin was crispy.

Grilled Chicken Steak (from their western menu) - I always order either the grilled chicken steak or the pork chop whenever I’m craving hong kong cafe style food, hence, i was curious about how they would tackle this dish. The portion for this dish is super generous. You get two big pieces of grilled chicken steak that is super flavorful. The best part is that the skin is super crispy. I got mine with noodles instead of rice and chose the black pepper sauce. That sauce definitely had quite a kick to it which I enjoyed, but those who do not like spicy may...

If you’re looking for some delicious and fulfilling food in Irvine this is one of those places! This was my first time in this part of town and from the outside you can already smell and taste the food before you even walk through the doors. Parking was aplenty and the location was such a prime spot. The interior was beautifully decorated and there was really big neon signs that made you feel like you were back in Hong Kong. I’ve always loved Hong Kong style Chinese food so coming here was a no brainer. We came on a Wednesday night and it was pretty packed, but we were able to be seated almost immediately which was really nice. Service was very attentive and the food was great! We ordered a couple items: the Hong Kong BBQ combo, salt and pepper pork chops, and a grilled chicken & noodle dish!

The BBQ combo was superb. I really loved the taste of the roasted duck. The skin was crispy and juicy. The roasted pork out of the three was the best. It was super flavorful and I wished I had bought another round. The fried pork had a great mix of fat and meat. The skin was very crispy and not hard so it made it super enjoyable to savor and eat.

Almost always, I always get the salt and pepper pork chops. It’s one of my favorite Chinese dishes. The pork chop was very flavorful and the meat was super juicy. The seasoning on top made the dish pop.

I’ve had grilled chicken and noodles at other Hong Kong style restaurants and this one has one of the juiciest and moist chicken I’ve had. The lemon pepper flavor really makes the chicken super delicious. The sauce for the noodles is kind of like a spicy tangy sauce. So unless you’re not a spicy type of person I would try getting different sauce if you can.

Overall experience was great and I would definitely come back again if I were to come back to Irvine for some delicious Hong...

Delicious food or restaurant scam. Our family of six people came for Lunch on Mother's Day 2024. The menu price looks reasonable. We ordered 5 dishes. The waitress insisted on a special steam fish dish on Mother's Day only, not on the menu. That sounds good. we ordered and did not ask for the price. The waitress was very nice and attentive. But when we saw the bill we were totally surprised. The special steam fish costs $128. The total bill is $306 including the tip of $47.98 tip (20% for the large party of 6 people). I think the tip is out of control - tip inflation- from 15% to 20-40%. The dish was a little salty. I rated 3.5/5 or maybe 4 if less salt. I ate many similar steam fish dishes in other restaurants IMHO the cost may be about between $25-$40 - not $128. This restaurant used scam tactics common in Greek or Hong Kong restaurants without menus to overcharge customer Because of Mother's Day I did not want to confront or ask why. I just paid the bill in return I am writing this review to tell people to be aware of the restaurant scam. This restaurant is a loser. It has a stain on its reputation. This review will stay here for a long time. Restaurant scams should be no place in Irvine. I will never come back. Special Mother Day = Special Rip-of Customer Day 3 star went down 1 star I hope everyone should write a review like this if he or she gets restaurant scam. The world will be better and people should treat each...