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Gurume Sushi In Irvine Offers High Quality Sushi in the OC
The Background
Found in the corner of a shopping center in Irvine, CA, Gurume Sushi offers gourmet style sushi (Gurume means “Gourmet” in Japanese after all) and other signature dishes. There’s also an Omakase menu which is a nice option to see.
The menu is pretty hefty and diverse. In addition to some inventive rolls and sashimi, there’s classic Japanese dishes like Suki Yaki, Udon, Tempura, and Japanese meal sets . There’s also fusion type offerings like Yellowtail w / Jalapeno Carpaccio, Amberjack Miso Ceviche, and Uni Pasta.
There’s so many items on the menu that sound appetizing it’s certainly tough to decide on one single item!
The Experience
I came here on a Friday with family around lunch time and got seated immedietely. The restaurant was pretty quiet on this day, which was nice. The atmosphere overall seems like a very chill vibe with a sleek modern look to it.
We ended up ordering the Shrimp Tempura ($13 for pcs) and Vegetable Tempura ($10) for appetizers. I also ordered the Rainbow Roll ($18) and shared a Spicy Tuna Roll as the main course.
Vegetable Tempura The tempura comes with a side of grated daikon (it’s a type of radish) along with a dipping sauce (tentsuyu). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to grab any photos of the shrimp before it got devoured. But the shrimp was delicious. You’ll have to take my word about it.
The batter they use for the tempura is outstanding. Light and airy, with an incredibly satisfying crunch on the outside contrasting with the tenderness of well cooked shrimp. Best part is the lack of grease. At some places the tempura may be a tad soggy due to the excess grease. Not here!
The vegetable tempura consisted of onion, I believe shishito pepper, yam, and zuchinni. Equally as delicious as the shrimp, the batter coating the veggies really shines through again. My favorite was the shishito pepper. Definitely very tasty especially when dipped into the tentsuyu sauce.
Spicy Tuna Roll 
Rainbow Roll 
Starting with the Spicy Tuna Roll: I thought this was good. Tuna was solid with decent spice. Rice was well seasoned and tasted good.
There wasn’t really anything about it that stood out to me. It’s a solid roll and what I would expect at a restaurant like this. With Spicy Tuna rolls it’s a little more difficult to truly stand out as exceptional and unique. There’s only so much you can do with it in my opinion.
Now the Rainbow Roll on the other hand, was quite exceptional. Consisting of bluefin tuna, yellowtail, salmon, shrimp, and avocado on top of snow crab roll, the presentation was fantastic and the roll was well made. What really stood out was the freshness of the fish. This was very good quality. Some of the best I’ve eaten in Orange County. Combined with the snow crap mixture, avocado, and well-seasoned sushi rice, each individual piece was a treat to eat after a quick dip in soy sauce and wasabi.
The Verdict
Gurume Sushi offers premium sushi at fairly reasonable prices. The service was great and attentive and food came out quickly. It may be a little pricier than similiar sushi joints, but the higher prices are easily justified with the quality of the food.
Specifically talking about the fish. I really wasn’t expecting it to be as fresh as it was. Definitley the good type of surprise! And certainly not something that can be said at many sushi places in the area.
I’m looking forward to my next trip to try something else on this expansive menu!
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A&J Restaurant in Irvine, CA Offers Authentic Taiwanese Dishes in Orange County
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
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Burnin’ Mouth Brings Popular Nashville Hot Chicken To Irvine Spectrum
The Background
Nashville Hot Chicken is a spicy take on fried chicken that seems to get more and more popular with new restuarants opening up every year. 10-15 years ago I can’t really recall seeing too many Nashville Hot Chicken spots in Orange County. These days there seems to be quite a few.
Burnin’ Mouth at the Irvine Spectrum is one of the more recent Nashville Hot Chicken restaurants to open up in the area.
The Experience
Once you enter the restaurant you’re greeted by a few digital menus to order off of. The touch screen itself is easy enough to navigate through and select what you want. There’s no actual human interaction. That’s fine for most people but I could see it being problematic. If people have any questions about the menu there’s only one person manning the front.
Anytime I try a Nashville Hot Chicken spot I have to go with the chicken sandwich. I feel like that’s generally the item on the menu the restuarant is going to be most known for. Burnin’ Mouth calls their chicken sandwich the Coo Coo Sando. I grabbed the combo which comes with fries, and no drink which is kind of weird ($13.90).
There’s five different spice levels to choose from ranging from the lowest (Simple) to the hottest (Insane). I love me some spicy food but places are always different with how they define “spice”. So I played it safe and went with Ugly, which is the second hottest spice level.
The food came out pretty quickly and is a fair amount of food. The sandwich is a pretty decent size. It’s packed with coleslaw, crispy onions, a few pickles, and a large piece of fried chicken coated in spices and seasonings. The entire sandwich is oozing with a thousand island type sauce. It’s a really great presentation.
The piece of chicken had a nice crunch and had some spicy kick to it. Not overbearing heat but definitely a kick that I was a little surprised by. There were parts of the chicken that were a little dry and stringy though, which did take away from the overall enjoyment.
The brioche bun was nice and fluffy, the sauce very tasty, and the different textures with the cripsy onion, coleslaw, and pickles, all adding a diffent type of crunch and flavor with each bite. Overall a pretty delicious sandwich!
The fries were crispy with cajun seasoning sprinkled over the top. Definitely quality fries.
The Verdict
Burnin’ Mouth is a solid Nashville Chicken spot if you’re craving a spicy chicken sandwich. However, I can’t say it’s a place I’d go out of my way to go and get. While it’s pretty tasty, the dry, stringy parts of the chicken stood out to me. But if you find yourself out shopping at the Irvine Spectrum, it’s a solid place to stop by for a bite.
