This is an update to an earlier post I wrote about a planned shabu shabu bar in Irvine's Trabuco Grove shopping center called OOii Shabu Shabu. The restaurant was to occupy the space where a Daphne's once stood in the
Kohl's-anchored complex on Jeffrey near the 5.
On this front, nothing's changed:The shabu shabu bar is still moving full-steam ahead (pun sort of intended). They've even been granted a beer and wine license by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. But OOii is no longer going to be called that. It's now going to be called Mokkoji Shabu Shabu.
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There's no word on the reason for the name change. But if I had to guess
it might be because Little Tokyo Shabu Shabu, a popular shabu shabu
restaurant in LA and Rowland Heights, is owned by one Darren Ooi, a
person I initially tried to contact thinking that he had something to do
with OOii. Mr. Ooi, it would seem, has nothing to do with the planned Irvine restaurant.
But whatever the reason, and with Shuji's post that Honey Pig Korean BBQ
is moving in to the same plaza, you'll have quite a DIY-diner's choice
when both open: Do you want to boil or broil your thinly sliced meats?
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.