If you can judge what a city has been missing by the volume of a response, you'd have to conclude that by the crowds lining up at the newly opened Kula Sushi, Irvine should've had a revolving sushi bar a long time ago.
My friends and I tried to get a few seats last Friday night, but it required at least an hour's wait — too long on an empty stomach.
But crowds are not always a measure of future success, just an indication that initial excitement on something that is new. For instance, have you noticed how easy it is to get a table at Tokyo Table these days? It's a cinch. But then, 85 Degrees C is still as popular as ever. I guess that means Irvine's also always needed a really, really good bakery.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.