Chinese Restaurant Recommendation

Awhile ago, I signed up for an account on Nextdoor, and I get notifications about new posts. Typically I do not pay that much important since nothing really important is discussed. Today, one notification popped up and it was someone asking for “authentic” Chinese restaurant recommendations. There were 97 replies so I was anticipating a shitshow in the comments.

I erased the profile pictures and names because Internet, but the OP was not Asian. Maybe his wife is Asian or even Chinese, but I am already irritated at the “I only eat authentic ethnic food” comment. In any case, there are a few authentic (not Chinese-American) Chinese restaurants in Orange County, mostly in Irvine. My expectation though was that some non-Chinese person was going to say Panda Express. I was not far off.

As you can see from the screenshot, the top reply was Orange Blossom. I have never set foot in the restaurant, but I drive by it all the time since it is locate on one of the major streets in Orange. They do not have a website, so the best I could do was a Yelp! link, which includes some menu photos. Pro tip: if you see items like Moo Goo Gai Pan, General Tsao Chicken, Chop Suey, or Egg Foo Young on the menu, 100% guaranteed that it is NOT an authentic Chinese restaurant. The food itself could be very tasty, and Orange Blossom is pretty highly rated on Yelp! and Google, but those are dishes created by Chinese immigrants to America. Instead of Moo Goo Gai Pan, which is an awful transliteration of Cantonese, a real Chinese restaurant may have Mushroom Chicken. It will of course have different ingredients and taste totally different, maybe better, maybe not. My point is that the guy asked for “authentic” Chinese restaurant recommendations, and most of the replies were for Chinese-American restaurants. Totally different.

I have fallen into this trap on Yelp! many times. When I first moved into the neighborhood, I looked for local Chinese restaurants. It was mainly for my parents, since I am fine with most cuisines and even Chinese-American food. I visited many of the more highly rated restaurants with comments like “greatest Chinese restaurant” and “awesome authentic taste.” Of course, it always ended up being a Chinese-American restaurant with cream cheese wonton appetizers and Moo Goo Gai Pan lunch specials. It was like if I was looking for authentic Mexican food and a bunch of non-Mexicans told me to go to Taco Bell or Chipotle. I mean I eat there sometimes, but no way is that authentic.

NGL, that looks kind of tasty. It will likely kill off my new kidney though with all that fat, sodium, and carbs.

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Since I talked all this trash about “authentic” Chinese restaurants, here’s where our family eats around the Irvine Area:

• Ma’s House, Laguna Hills: Islamic Chinese restaurant. Food is pretty good, especially their large clay warn pots and sesame bread. No pork.
• Tasty Garden, Irvine: Hong Kong cafe feel, with some western dishes. We like the Peking Style Pork Chops.
• Sam Woo Seafood Restaurant, Irvine: This is old school Cantonese restaurant. I have basically eaten at Sam Woo my entire life, including branches in Toronto, Cerritos, LA Chinatown, Alhambra, Monterey Park, and of course, Irvine. The quality at the Irvine location has gone way down since the COVID shutdown however.
• China Garden, Irvine: We mainly come here for dim sum. I have only eaten dinner here once. The dim sum is decent for the price, but there are better places much farther away in Monterey Park or Rowland Heights.
• Din Tai Fung, Costa Mesa: Super expensive Taiwanese dim sum restaurant famous for its Xiaolongbao. Food is excellent, though the portions are small. Easily spend $30-40 per person appetizer level food. I have never ate at the South Coast Plaza location, but have been to branches in Taipei, Seattle, and Torrance.
• There are several more smaller, more specialized restaurants that we visit often, such as Kingchops, Tasty Noodle House, A&J Restaurant, and several others I cannot remember right now.
• Not that Chinese-American food is bad. I sometimes go to Pei Wei or Panda Express too.
• Places that are likely authentic but I have never been: Tim Ho Wan (Hong Kong style dim sum), Haidelao (Szechuan hotpot), a bunch of restaurants that specialize in a specific Chinese provincial cuisine such as Beijing, Shanghai, Cantonese, Hunan, and Szechuan.