It seems that about every couple of years I write about a new restaurant going into the same spot at the Big Lots plaza on Redhill near the I-5 in Tustin. Five years ago the place was called HK Tofu & Grill, a Korean restaurant. Then Kami Sushi took over around October of 2010 with big flapping signs out front.
Then in 2013, when Kami went belly up, a new sushi joint called Monster Sushi came in. Like Kami, Monster Sushi also offered all-you-can-eat sushi.
Now Monster Sushi itself has closed. And like that Lion King song, the circle of life continues—the space has now returned to becoming a Korean restaurant.
The new place is called Tani. It bills itself as a “Korean Japanese Restaurant + Pub” and it appears it may still be owned by the Monster Sushi folks. But from what I've seen of the menu, it's mainly Korean. There's fried chicken served with those familiar daikon pickle cubes; samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) in those thick iron pots; even beondegi, silkworm pupae.
So drink up, eat up, and hopefully it'll be a few years before I update you again on what's next at this spot.Â
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.