Jun 09

Eight Korean BBQ – Buena Park, CA

6681 Beach Blvd

Buena Park, CA 90621

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Located in Buena Park, Eight Korean BBQ serves up Korean BBQ with a focus on pork, specifically pork belly. Their most popular dish includes a combination of pork belly marinated eight different ways. When we entered the restaurant, there were plenty of tables available, and we were seated quickly. The server provided us with menus and took our drink order. After a quick review, we were ready to order.

Today, we decided to order the combo A, which included the eight different marinated pork belly strips, seafood soybean stew, kimchi, bean sprouts, mixed salad, and mozzarella kimchi fried rice. We also received a 9th flavor of pork belly by checking in. The original eight flavors of marinade include wine, original, black sesame, garlic, herb, curry, miso paste, and red pepper paste. The 9th flavor was galbi. Unlike the all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurants, this restaurant is full service, so the cooking is done in front of you by the server. Not long after we ordered, the tray of pork belly arrived along with a large bowl of soup. While waiting for the meat to cook, we munched on the spicy salad and side dishes. The soybean seafood soup arrived next, which is a very popular Korean soup that we never tried before. The soup did not take long to be ready to drink after it started to boil. The spiciness of the soup was perfect and had a lot of peppery flavors. There was an abundance of seafood along with the cabbage and tofu. It was nice to eat each type of seafood in the dish including shrimp, clam, and crab. Soon, the first batch of pork belly was ready to eat. The wine-infused pork belly was delicious and you can really taste the wine flavors. The original flavor was really good too, and went very well with the sesame oil salt dipping sauce. The black sesame flavored pork belly seemed to be more tender and delicious than the last two. The garlic flavored pork belly had the most flavor from the first batch and melted in your mouth. From the next batch, the kalbi pork belly tasted like traditional Korean BBQ flavors, which was nice and savory. The herb pork belly was heavily infused with herb, which was very tasty. The curry pork belly had heavy yellow curry tones and tasted good, but the other flavors were better. The miso paste pork belly was on the saltier side, but was still flavorful. The red pepper paste pork belly had just enough red pepper paste to not be overpowering and held onto a nice spicy Korean flavor. In the end, the server took the kimchi and bean sprouts and cooked the fried rice in the soup pot and added mozzarella. The fried rice was very tasty and became a nice end to the meal.

Overall, Eight Korean BBQ serves up some delicious pork belly in many innovative ways. Service was impeccable as she continuously came by to check on us and work on the grill. All of the pork belly was tender and juicy, but there were some pieces that were overly-fatty, which cannot be helped. There was plenty of food to two people to finish for this combo order. After eating so much pork belly, we probably won’t eat much of it for a while. There are currently two locations, which includes this Buena Park location as well as their Little Tokyo location. If you like Korean BBQ and love pork belly, then you must give Eight Korean BBQ a try!

Jun 05

Kura Revolving Sushi Bar – Irvine, CA

2700 Alton Pkwy #133

Irvine, CA 92606

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Located in the extremely busy Diamond Jamboree shopping center in Irvine, Kura Revolving Sushi Bar serves up fresh sushi in a fun environment with a rotating food transportation system as well as a conveyor belt system to make getting food easy.  Parking can be a challenge in this Asian shopping center with so many restaurants and shops around, but there is also a garage around back to help alleviate the struggle of finding a spot. When you arrive, you check in at an iPad by entering your party size, seating preference, and cell phone number. There was a short wait when we arrived, but we were seated in around 15 minutes. We were seated in a bar-like area where we had access to two iPads and disposal slots. The slots were built-in to the table for us to slide our dirty plates into.

A server came by to take our drink order and to explain the system. After the quick explanation, we were ready to order. We grabbed a variety of items from the revolving system as well as put in multiple orders into the iPad to be delivered via conveyor belt. Many of the items that we can order also show up revolving around as well. Some of the highlights of the sushi included the seared beef with yakiniku sauce, umami oil seared beef, and garlic tuna steak rolls. The tonkotsu ramen was the only disappointment of the meal since it tasted more like packaged ramen you can pick up from the grocery store. The entire process was extremely fun, and you can easily get carried away by ordering too much food.

Overall, the sushi was very tasty, but at $2.50 a plate (for the most part), you can easily rack up a substantial bill with the small portion sizes. Coupled with the fact that you can start inserting the dirty plates into the disposal slot and causing various animations to play on the iPad also drives you to order more food, since once you reach 15 plates, you have a chance to win a prize that is dispensed from above. We ended up ordering all 15 plates and got some toy tape (although I was hoping for a key chain). If we happened to be in the area of a Kura again, we would definitely give them a try, and suggest you do so as well. There are plenty of these restaurants in the Southern California area, so eat up!

Jun 02

9th Snow and Snack

8144 Delta Shores Cir S Ste 110

Sacramento, CA 95832

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Located in the Delta Shores shopping center, 9th Snow and Snack serves up Taiwanese hot pot with an array of drinks and sides. When we entered the fairly busy restaurant, we were quickly seated and provided with menus. It did take a while for a waitress to come by again to provide us with drinks, and even longer before they took our order. We noticed other tables who were sat around the same time as us who encountered the same service issues. Eventually, we were able to order.

Today, we decided to order the beef hot pot, pork pot sticker, fried chicken wings, fried chicken skewers, honey lemon tea, and honey milk tea. Within a reasonable amount of time, our beef hot pot arrived with dozens of ingredients over a burning flame that eventually brought the pot back to a boil. The imitation crab meat was extremely fishy, but the beef was tender. The broth was fairly flavorful, and the variety of ingredients was interesting. We were able to share the pot between the two of us while eating the other items we ordered. The drinks surprisingly took longer to arrive compared to the pot, and they tasted pretty basic with nothing special. The skewers were very juicy and fresh, but they didn’t have any flavor. It would have been nice to have a dipping sauce accompanied with the skewers. The fried chicken wings were also very crispy and juicy, but also had no flavor at all. The pot stickers took an extremely long time to arrive. We basically received and ate all of the other food and even had to ask the server what was going on before we received the bland pot stickers with extremely salty sauce. I would definitely advise against ordering the pot stickers.

Overall, 9th Snow and Snack serves up decent Taiwanese hot pot, but their sides and drinks are lacking. Their snow items were not available at the time when we visited, so we cannot comment on that. While eating, we noticed some other tables were experiencing the same service issues as us, and there were multiple occasions where guests did not receive their food. Prices are reasonable, but this facility definitely needs some work on the service department. In its current state, there is no way I can recommend anyone to visit unless you just want to try their hot pot.

May 29

Selland’s Market-Cafe

915 Broadway

Sacramento, CA 95818

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Located in a renovated building on Broadway, Selland’s serves up local American food in an open welcoming setting. As you enter the restaurant, a line has already formed leading up to menus and staff waiting to take orders on a tablet. I reviewed the paper menu and quickly decided on what to eat. Today, I ordered the Crab Cake Po’Boy. After ordering, you head to the cashier to make your payment and take a table tent. The food actually took quite a while to arrive, and others who ordered after I did actually received their food first. When I finally received the sandwich, I noticed that the sandwich was fairly small, but did have a total of three crab cakes inside. The crab cakes themselves tasted fresh, but I was expecting more crab inside since there seemed to be more filler instead. The arugula and lemon-basil aioli was quite refreshing and went well with the crab cakes. For dessert, I had a caramel brownie that was extremely decedent and delicious. The top layer of gooey caramel chocolate compliments the soft brownie below. Overall, Selland’s serves up some decent tasting food, but you definitely do not get a lot of food for what you pay for. All of the sides seem to be extra, and the order-taker staff could have been friendlier. If you wanted to try something local and different from chain restaurants, then you should give Selland’s a try, but just make sure you know that you will get small portion sizes.

May 26

Saigon Street Eat

1827 Broadway

Sacramento, CA 95818

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Located at the former site of Hoa Viet on Broadway, Saigon Street Eat focuses on Vietnamese cuisine with a much smaller menu and colorful decorations. After we entered the restaurant, we were brought to a table and provided with menus. As we reviewed the menu, a server provided us with two empty cups and a carafe of citrus-infused ice water. After looking through the menu, we were ready to order.

Today, we decided to order garlic noodles, grilled pork skewers, pork sausage skewer, beef pho with beef ball, and Vietnamese crepe. Unfortunately, after ordering, we were informed that they ran out of garlic noodles, so we will need to try that another time. The grilled pork skewers were very flavorful and savory and went well wrapped in lettuce. The pork sausage skewer was also very flavorful, but had heavy hints of black pepper, which also went well wrapped in lettuce. The pho broth was fairly clear, but also blistering hot. This had to be the hottest broth I have ever received. The flavors of the broth were more subtle, which is nice, but I would have liked more flavors. There was an adequate amount of beef and noodles in the bowl. I would have liked the beef to be more tender. The Vietnamese crepes were made very well. It would have been better if the crepes were smaller instead of being in two large pieces so that they would be easier to wrap in lettuce. They were quite flavorful and it was very nice to have the shrimp and pork included.

Overall, Saigon Street Eat serves up some very nice authentic Vietnamese dishes. Their small plates seem to be a great value and taste very good. The pho was just OK, and it was quite a bummer to not try the garlic noodles. While eating, we did hear that the servers did mix up giving food to other tables, which is not acceptable, but they were lucky that the customers did not make a scene. Prices are reasonable for items like small plates, but pho is quite overpriced. If you wanted to try some real Vietnamese food, then give Saigon Street Eats a try!

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