Like anyone who lives in South Orange County, I've been going to Irvine Spectrum like a lemming since it first opened in 1995.
I've got my reasons: The theaters are good for when you want opening night rowdiness and enthusiasm, even if the movie ends up sucking.
But Irvine Spectrum food? That's a different matter entirely. To put it kindly, I usually ate before I came. But much to my surprise, Irvine Spectrum's restaurant selection seems to actually be improving lately.
Fish Market, Ling N Louie's, and FOX Sports Grill are long gone and easily forgotten. In its stead, there's Tea Station*, Izakaya Wasa, and Veggie Grill. And soon, there will be Boneheads, a chain from the South that currently only has one outlet in O.C., a few exits south in Lake Forest.
On a review of the Lake Forest branch, I wrote that the fire-roasted chicken “is moist to the bone, even the breast; and every inch of its rendered skin glistens with a thin veneer of that red piri-piri glaze–a liquid which can also double as Mace.”
Now if only George Lucas and Steven Spielberg can put out a decent blockbuster…..
*Chococakeluvr has updated me that Tea Station is also gone. 🙁
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.