The Background

A&J Restaurant is a popular restuarant in Irvine which offers many traditional Tawainese dishes. I hadn’t eaten here before, so I was looking forward to giving it a try!

I met up with some family at 12:30 pm on a Saturday and the restaurant was packed. The restaurant isn’t too big and fills up quickly. The wait probably took about 20 mins for a party of five.

The menu is quite expansive. There’s plenty of noodle dishes, appetizes, as well as some soup and rice dishes to choose from.

My cousin suggested the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup and Pan Fried Beef Bun, so those were must tries for me. By the sound of it the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup is one of the most popular items on the menu.

We also decided to get an order of the Pan Fried Pork Dumplings and the Chinese Beef Wrap to share.

The Experience

Beef Noodle Soup

With the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup you get a choice between a thin or thick noodle. I opted for the thin noodle.

The broth is rich and flavorful, with just the right amount of heat from the chili peppers, which melds well with the base flavor of the broth. It will definitely get your lips burning but isn’t OVERLY spicy. The noodles were perfectly cooked and tasted quite fresh.

In addition to the broth, the beef is a real standout here. It’s extremely tender and full of flavor and really soaks up that delicious broth.

The Bok Choy and scallions add some nice crunch to the soup. A nice way to balance out the textures within the tasty soup.

Pan Fried Beef Bun

One of the standouts under the Small Plates section of the menu is the Pan Friend Beef Bun.

The pan fry gives the top and bottom of the bun a nice fried, crunchy, exterior, while the inside is nice and doughy.

The bun encases some seriously juiced up ground beef. After taking a bite the juice comes flowing out. It’s delicious!

The scallions inside the bun provide a nice crunch as well. It’s a good combination of subtle crunch from the exterior of the bun, then the dougy interior, juicy, flavorful beef, and added crunch from the scallions.

Dipping in chili oil and soy sauce, of course, is always a must for any type of bun and made this even more delicious.

Pan Fried Pork Dumpling

This is very much like the Pan Friend Beef Bun, just in a different shape and stuffed with flavorful, seasoned pork instead of beef. These don’t have the juiciness of the beef bun but the outside of the dumpling is nice and crispy while the inside is dougy. There’s a good amount of pork filling in these as well!

Chinese Beef Wrap

The Chinese Beef Wrap is a unique item on the menu. The outside of the wrap is crispy and flaky and inside is doughy with tender strips of marineted beef, scallion, and cilantro inside. This is somewhat similar to the beef bun and pork dumpling except the beef wrap is a lot flakier and has thinly sliced cuts of marineted beef. I liked the addition of the cilantro. It really complements the beef well.

The Verdict

I really enjoyed the food at A&J Restaurant. The standout for me was the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup. The soup broth, fresh noodles, and tender chunks of beef are really outstanding.

Since the beef bun, pork dumpling, and beef wrap are all somewhat similar I’d go with whatever you’re in the mood for on that particular day. You probably don’t need all three unless you’re with a large party to share.

However, if I had to choose only one of the three it would be the beef bun. What specifically stood out for me was the immense flavor from all the juice contained within it.

There’s so much more here I want to try too.

This is certainly a Taiwanese spot that warrants a stop when you’re in the Irvine area!

A&J Restaurant

14805 Jeffrey Rd, Irvine, CA 92618

http://website.uniquemobileapps.com/free/rios12345/west-coast