Road Trip: A & J Restaurant - Irvine(OC)

Don't you just hate it when you drive 80 miles to your destination, and find that the restaurant is unable to serve you because of a water pipe break? Well, it's no one's fault, just one of those things....but here we were in Irvine, trying to think of a plan B. The only place that came to mind was A & J, right off the Jeffrey Road offramp.

I thought it was going to be my lucky day when I immediately found a parking stall in the packed to the gills mall.

When we got to A & J, I knew my luck had run out...there was a wait, which lasted about 20 minutes...

When our number was called we were hustled to our table, and a paper "order sheet" was flung on the table...I guess we weren't that far from San Gabriel after all! The Missus was looking over the sheet, and the Server came by again, and impatiently asked the Missus if she understood Chinese...while the Missus was reading the Chinese order sheet. By this time we'd been waiting for a while, and really didn't feel very hungry any longer, so we just ordered a few things.

We started with the Si Xi Kaufu(aka Szu Hsien Kaw Fu - Four Happiness Wheat Gluten - $1.95)

Unlike a few people we know, we don't mind the spongy texture of wheat gluten, which has the ability to absorb flavor, well, like a sponge. The four items included lily buds, soy beans, tofu, and carrots. We both thought this was fairly good, nice sweet-soy flavor. But I don't think it was much better than this stuff:

The Jiang Niu Rou($3.75):

This wasn't quite as dry as it looked, but fell far short in flavor...except for the over-powering flavor of sesame oil that was drizzled on it.

Deciding to share a noodle soup, we got the combination Beef and Tendon Noodles Soup($5.75):

First the good, the tendon was perfect, soft, and full of flavor. The Beef was okay, soft, but with a bit less flavor. We opted for the thin noodles(you have a choice of the thin or thin noodles), which were pretty good, with a decent pull, and slight chewiness. Where this bowl fell really short was the soup, it was super oily. Now if you've read other posts of mine, you know that I like a decent amount of oil in my broth, but this layer of oil must've been a half inch deep. You can see the sheen of oil covering the noodles in this photo:

The broth lacked depth with only the bit of spiciness, and almost no beef flavor. We finished the meat, tendon, and noodles, and left all of the broth.

I dunno about this place.....check out the crowd as we left.

While writing this, I kept wondering what ChubbyPanda thought about the Beef  Noodle Soup at A & J. I didn't recall seeing a post. So I did a quick google search, and found a mention of the NRM at A & J on another post, which you can read here. To quote;  "I've eaten niu rou mian at every Chinese place in Irvine that serves it. I know whereof I speak. The only contenders that are close are A&J across the street, their's is too oily and thick...." Good ol' CP got it right....though I didn't think it was that thick. So remember to trust your inner Panda!

A & J Restaurant
14805 Jeffrey Rd Ste D
Irvine, CA 92618

Comments

[nhbilly]

Boy I sure missed out on a lot, [email protected] work keeps me so busy and not enough time to read. :-(
Interesting choice of restaurants. Don't have to be in SG to get the best customer service it can be in OC ;-)

[Beach]

Kirk,
I ate here before. My memory of this place is nothing special. Most of their food is like a snack rather than a meal. I like intestine, ear , stomach and tribe ( All that is bad for you but taste so good). I agreed that their soup is too oily but I prefer the thick noodle. There is a Sushi bar that is well known to most Vietnamese name Taiko. Try that some time. It is decent. It is not Shibucho or Sushi Gen but good enough to be very busy.

[elmomonster]

What restaurant were you originally going to try?

[Andy 食神]

An observation… what I find interesting about your Chinese food choices is that many are northern Chinese foods, which makes sense, since your wife is from the North and you are probably influenced by your wife. At this point, some may point out and say Shandong is not the north. However, it is northern in comparison to Guangdong in the south and southerners will call the north even if they don’t speak with tongue curling “nars”.

Although I love Niuroumian, I would crave Wonton noodles over Niuroumian most of the time. It’s just a matter of being close the food we grew up with. To satisfy the tastes of southerners, there is a little restaurant on every other corner of Hong Kong that sells such. By the same token, I’d expect traveling towards the north, Niuroumian can be found on every other corner as well to satisfy slightly northern palettes.

[clayfu]

my GF loves the beef noodle here. I actually find it a little bit spicy and not overly oily.

The thick noodles are also delicious when combined with the broth opposed to the thin noodle.

Of course none of the been noodle can compare to my grandpops =P

[Chubbypanda]

Kirk,

Ah aims ta please. Your review is also spot on. Like Ay Chung, A&J (Bun Mu Yuan) is a popular "small eats" chain from Taiwan. The food reflects its origins. If Ay Chung is the Taiwanese equivalent of Carl's Jr., then A&J is similar to Denny's. There's nothing really special, but nothing is terrible either.

I think I'll write up my A&J review next week and expand on my thoughts a little more there.

- Chubbypanda

[Klug]

Hey, is there a big sign near the cash register that says "Cash Only" that's red and white?

Is there a 'boardwalk' in the little complex and a fountain/pond that's squarish? I think I've been to this place.

If so, the fried bread (dunno what to call it) isn't bad.

[Kathy]

oooh thanks for the reminder! it's been a long time since by last bowl of NRM! hehe :)
i love eating wheat gluten with jook for breakfast! though they should probably give it a different name...'wheat gluten' doesn't exactly sound appetizing...

[daimyo]

i used to eat here quite a bit when i went to college up there. it was the first spot i tried niu rou mein and never really cared for it. i always thought the broth tasted like pepperoni which may be because of the oil. i've always liked their fried chicken (served with relish), scallion pancakes, fried beef buns, and cucumber in garlic and chili oil.

[Passionate Eater]

We had a water main break up here in San Francisco and the water in our entire work building was shut off. Me and my co-workers went to Chevy's a few blocks down to eat lunch and use their bathroom facilities. Well, Chevy's apparently felt the effects of the water main break too. You should have seen the riot we caused when they told us that we couldn't use their bathrooms! But, we ended up eating there anyway, but not drinking anything!

[howie]

I used to eat here a lot too with my parents. This was our goto NRM place for a while. It's been a while, but I didn't remember it being overly oily, but I guess I have a high tolerance for fat :-)

At some point, we switched to a New Shanghai across the street so we could order XLB.

Kirk, now that you're visiting OC more frequently are you going to do a pho or BBH crawl in Little Saigon? I recently tried Saigon Deli/Pho Cong Ly's bun bo hue, and I thought it was great. Best BBH broth I've had (though the beef was just a bit tough).

[Kirk]

Hi Billy - I feel your pain! Really....

Hi Beach - Sometimes the best food can be found in these little shops, but not in this case.

Hey Elmo - That post is coming up, so hang in there!

Hi Clayfu - The broth only had some heat, and just about no other flavor......Also, I konw you're a price hound - this little, itty-bitty bowl of NRM was $5.75...and you didn't complain about that?

Hi Andy - We kinda fluctuate....for Cantonese/Hong Kong style we have our favorites, and usually end up going to the same places. Also, I find that most HK type fare is really, very, very, over priced in San Diego. I grew up eating Won Ton Soup, and such...so I'm kind of the opposite, I enjoy new tastes and flavors.

Hi Klug - Yep, you've got the location correct. Thanks for the recommendation, but I don't think we'll be going back.

Hi CP - Okay, well that explains the mediocrity.....

Hi Kathy - Funny, you're right about that wheat gluten, it just doesn't sound very appetizing...even with "Four Happiness" in front of it!

Hi Daimyo - Pepperoni? Wow, I never would have thought of that....

Hi PE - I guess floods happen.....nothing can throw a wrench into you're plans like a little disaster.

Hi Howie - You know that I enjoy a good oil content...but you shouldn't be able to feel and taste it.....

[Marlin]

In response to the comment that Beach made:
Not sure about the sushi bar at Taiko, but if the regular food is any indication of the quality of their sushi its not worth trying. I went there for lunch a while back and had the teriyaki steak. While the portion size is huge, the quality of the meat was very poor and it lacked flavor. My GF had sukiyaki which was very mediocre as well.

[kris]

we used to go to A&J alot when i lived and worked in Irvine. i love their spicy wantons.