Wagyu Meat & Grill — Restaurant in Irvine

Don't eat here. If it was possible to place a negative review in every category possible I would. My boyfriend and I ordered delivery & the restaurant staff failed spectacularly.

We ordered 1 salad & 2 galbi plates through a delivery app; 1 plate with cabbage & macaroni sides & the other plate with rice & macaroni sides.

We we're delivered 2 wagyu beef plates; both came with 2 sides of rice each. The 3rd item ordered was not included. The receipt stapled to the order had our names on it & listed 2 wagyu beef plates with 2 sides of rice.

Let me just summarize their mistakes that combined together like a decepticon transformer to form their supreme failure:

1. Staff failed to correctly read the order placed via delivery app. There was no verbal miscommication because the order was not called in over the phone. It was done via app. All they had to do was read the order, with a reading comprehensive level equivalent to that of a minor who graduated primary school. Of course, you could ride this off as a simple mistake reading an order. You would be correct, but given the rest of the summary, it would be rather hard to believe it was just that.

2. Staff failed to correctly include the meat selected in the order. Consider this, what is the difference between their wagyu meat & galbi meat order options? 1 has white ovalular shaped objects (i.e. bone) in it (i.e. Galbi). The other option is soft cut up meat that has no bones. I dont believe their staff need to be specialists to figure out that the meat option they included didn't have any white bones sticking out against the dark brown colored cooked meat.

3. Staff failed to correctly include the sides selected in the order. I'm not noodlogist nor am I a vegetable connoisseur, but I certainly know my shapes and colors. Rice is a white ovalular shaped grain of food while macaroni is a white-yellowish hollow c-shaped food. Cabbage is a green irregularly shaped food (especially when sliced into a salad). I for one know that the colors green & white aren't the same, & I can successfully play the toddler game, Shape Sorter. I know that neither a c-shaped block or a irregularly shaped block will fit through a oval shaped hole because they are not the same shape.

4. Staff failed to correctly include the total number of items included with the order. Most of us aren't mathematical geniuses, but many of us in the U.S. can at least count to ten before the age of 13, and most definitely by the age of 14 (the youngest age you can legally work in the U.S.). I was wrong. As, it's clear there are some people at least 14 years or older who can't even count to 3. Oh, but someone could easily overlook 1 of 3 lines if they were reading an order in a rush. If that's what you're thinking you would be correct. It's hard to believe that all of these things combined could constitute as being a speculation failure, if it wasn't for the last summary detail in conjunction with all the other details.

5. Staff failed to correct the order they had completely gotten wrong. As frustrating as this experience was, we were willing to ride it off if they would fix the mistakes & delivery us the correct order. We aren't unreasonable after all & understand mistakes happen. So, we double checked our order & confirmed the restaurant was open before calling them to explain the situation. Despite the fact that their website confirmed they were open, when we called no one answered & the call went straight to voicemail. We made multiple attempts to call them to get them to correct the order. Same result, no one answered.

A few mistakes could have been blown off, but what excuse could this restaurant give when their staff didnt just make 1 mistake. No, they made a sequential series of mistakes that could only be summed up as the 4th of July firework finale of failures when attempting to fulfill 1...

The Plate Is Not Worth It

Coworker suggested trying something new so we tried this place out. For $10.99 for the bowl and $12.99 for the plate, it was worth a shot. I ordered the Wagyu Beef Plate and the guy taking the order simply asked “white or brown rice?” indicating to me that it was an option. Actually, they charge a $1.00 fee for brown rice but I was not actually told that there’s a fee. I only noticed after the transaction looking at my receipt. Dropped a star for not mentioning the fee.

I did however choose to “add the egg” as suggested for the additional cost. The egg was a very modest portion for $1.50. After comparing the plate size to the bowl size of my coworkers, it turns out that even though the physical dimensions are different, the volume of the bowl and the plate for the main item is identical. So, essentially you are paying $2.00 more for adding a kale salad along side of already a cabbage salad. Typically, a consumer might expect the more expensive option to actually have.. more of the main item? Dropped another star for that.

Lastly, since the dressing for both the cabbage and kale salad seemed the same and watered down and for the small size of the added egg, I dropped another star.

The restaurant interior was nice, the staff/owners seemed friendly and the flavor/texture of the meat was not bad so kept the review at 2 out of 5 stars. The $10.99 bowl with white rice might be a good deal considering the rising cost of food and living across the board but I will...

We haven't been back to this side of Culver plaza since Tea Station and Baskin Robbins closed, but we decided to try this new place out after seeing "wagyu" on the menu. Thought it was super interesting to see protein bowls/plates offered as well as a butcher shop on the side for wagyu steaks/meats.

We came by to pick up dinner here and grabbed tea next door too. I ordered the wagyu beef bowl with no green onions and sub brown rice (+ $1.00). Boyfriend got the combination plate with wagyu beef and kurobuta pork. The bowl comes with a side of cabbage salad and the plate had two salad sides: cabbage & kale salad.

The cabbage salad is quite bitter and was lightly dressed. To bring more balance, I added some of their teriyaki sauce and hot sauce. Since we brought it home, I also added mayo to make it more of a slaw. It mixed well with the beef too!

The star of the show, wagyu beef, was good but fell short of my expectations. I felt it was over cooked and dry, which is a far cry from what I thought of for "wagyu" since it's known for its extreme marbling. I had hope it would have been more tender and soft instead. However, seasoning was flavorful and I really liked their brown rice.

Overall, it was nice to try something new. I think if I were to return, it would probably be to try their selections from the butcher shop. The prices seem reasonable and I would be able to cook to my...