Tasty Garden (Irvine, CA)

I have been looking for a Hong Kong / Cantonese style cafe in Irvine for awhile, but there doesn't seem to be too many in this area.  I saw there was previously a KoKo's Cafe that has now been closed down.  After some searching, I stumbled upon Tasty Garden (which also has locations in Arcadia and Westminister).  

True to the typical cafe environment, Tasty Garden was loud and bustling.  It is a fairly large restaurant with tables set up closely next to each other (with no defined wall barriers). Many different conversations mingled together as groups of families and friends energetically went about their discussions.

I ordered a two very popular dishes - beef chow fun, black pepper fish fillet and a veggie dish. I also ordered a standard cafe drink, lemon ice tea which comes with free refills.

Lemon Ice Tea (with free refills), $1.75

With Chinese cuisine, a meal usually consists of a few dishes that is shared by the family.  Following this tradition, the dishes came  out in large portions in a family-style size for sharing. 

Beef Chow Fun ($8.50)

However, much to my disappointment, the chow fun turned out to be quite bland and oily.  Each strand of noodle ended up coating my lips with a thick gloss of oil.  Adding some hot sauce did enhance the flavor a bit.  

Black Pepper Sole Fillet ($10)

The sole fillet also came with some steamed vegetables and black pepper sauce.  The fish was pretty well cooked, but the main flavor of the sauce failed to deliver the black pepper taste.

Ong Choy with Bean Curd Sauce ($10.50)

The veggie dish I ordered - ong choy with bean curd - was okay. Surprisingly (since veggies should cost less than fish or beef, right?), it came out in a much smaller portion.  It tasted alright with some bean curd flavoring,  but did not look as fresh as I would have liked.

The main dishes were reasonable priced considering the large portion size.  The vegetable dish turned out to be more expensive than either one of the main dishes.  After this meal, I'm not sure if I will be returning unless I had a strong craving for a Cantonese cafe dish.  Perhaps I didn't order the right dishes that day.  Luckily for this restaurant, they do offer a large variety of menu options and it is the only true cafe  I have found so far in this area.  But with the demand for HK style cafe (considering the popularity and large groups of people there), I wonder... why are there so few in the Irvine/OC area?

Rating:  2.5 out of 5
Service: 3 out of 5
Price: $$ 
Recommend: No