This is not Li's Kite anymore. It's been replaced by a Xiang style (from Hu Nan region in China) restaurant. I have no idea what their English name is called and nobody speaks English there. So do not go unless you have a friend that speaks mandarin. That said, I think it's probably the best Xiang style food I had in awhile. I've ordered the stir fried pork with green pepper, stir fried pork with tofu steak, and mutton noodles. All very tasty. Their menu is written on a white board located on the right hand side when you walk in. Will post the pic later. I spoke with the owner and she said that if you call ahead, you can order things that are not on the menu. They also do take out.
Angela L.
This place is the worst. Just terrible. I wish I could give them an even lower rating. On my first visit, I ordered the fried fish dumplings. I asked the waitress if it was only fish and she said it was just fish and vegetables for the filling. They were ok the first few bites, but got really oily and gross feeling fast. I didn't want to come back ever afterwards but a few weeks later, my sister wanted to go again. I wanted something besides those lard tasting dumplings, but I am pescetarian so I asked if there was any meat besides fish in a few dishes I pointed out. All of them did have meat so I gave in and decided to just order the fish dumplings again. But then, the waiter said that there's meat mixed with the fish in those dumplings too. Unbelievable!! I was appalled that on my first visit, they either lied or they were ignorant of their menu. What the heck! It's unbelievable that service can be that bad. So I ended up ordering this "vegetable and noodle soup" sort of dish of the very limited vegetarian options. It wasn't very good, and I barely ate the dish. The courteous thing the waiter should have done would be to notice and take back the food and offer something else or take it off the check. But nope. And that's fine, it was my mistake for coming there in the first place. They just stood there in the empty restaurant staring at my table with a blank expression and open mouth.
Garry H.
Looks like they just opened. No formal menus printed yet - just a whiteboard posting today's selections. We stopped for a late lunch. Very good flour noodle soup with pork and spicy rice noodle soup with beef. The service was courteous and patient and prices were very reasonable. Tip: If you don't read Chinese, - just ask for what you want.
Rob D.
Was originally told about this restaurant by a coworker who stumbled across it one day while driving through the neighborhood. It was difficult to find since there were hardly any outward signs indicating that it is a restaurant - would probably have not found it without his very specific instructions regarding where it was. Spoke to someone with very limited English comprehension and told him I wanted to place an order to go - it took him a few minutes of back and forth gesturing before he figured out what I was saying. I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken lunch special and had it within about five minutes. I enjoyed it and was impressed by the size of the portion relative to the price (definitely enough for 2-3 people.) I have been back a few times since and have tried various lunch specials. I have enjoyed everything I have tried so far - I give their portion sizes an 8 average and their flavors a 5 average. Unfortunately, there are many other factors involved that are deterring me from returning any time soon. My biggest complaint is the service - they do not seem to have a consistent approach to serving their customers. One time, they will give you a free cup of tea while you wait for your order - next time, you will wait for 5-10 minutes before finding anyone to greet you, seat you and/or take your order. I have personally had problems having an order for one person taken both over the phone and in person. Like other reviewers, I was also thrown by the fact that the place rarely ever has more than one or two customers at any time - generally, not a good sign. I am certainly willing to be patient while the recent changes have a chance to take hold and will visit again sometime soon, but guess that most new patrons may be "one and done" at this establishment if they are being served as I have been recently. There are too many other great places to choose from that will take better care of you every time you give them the chance.
Christopher L.
I've been to this restaurant several times over the past couple of months. I really enjoy the food, the service, at times, can be another matter. I always order meals to go and, for the most part, it's pretty quick to order and go. I've even been given water while I've waited and, up to today, I had no complaints about the service. Today, I stood 10 minutes by the waiting to be seated sign, not once acknowledged or recognized as staff went about their business. Finally, I just walked out. This location is very close to our office and the service has been spotty for coworkers. Once, someone called to order ahead and they refused to take any order in English. I have to agree with a previous reviewer who mentioned the staff changing frequently, I'm not sure that I've seen the same person there twice. Review summary, I really like the food, service is spotty if you get served at all.
Tania S.
My mother in law emailed us saying this place was pretty good and we ought to try it. Sunday came around and we were looking for a place to grab lunch so we decided to try it out. We got there around 12:45 and the place was pretty empty. Not a good sign for a new restaurant on a Sunday. We ordered potstickers, beef noodle soup, roast beef roll and salt and pepper chicken wings. Everything was good but nothing fantastic. My favorite was the chicken wings, they were deep fried, slightly salty/peppery and the skin crisp but not too hard like KFC's wings. The noodle soup was a bit bland for my taste, I've been going to A&J's for years and their soup base is definitely tastier. The noodle is supposed to be made fresh so that had a nice chewy texture. The potstickers were also on the bland side. Couldn't taste too much of the meat inside, tasted mainly the flour skin. The roast beef roll was good, but again too much dough for my taste. Ended up overpowering over the beef. The waiter was probably a college student, he was young and you could tell he worked hard. He was attentive and every time you asked for something he would run to go fetch. Good service/average food. On the fence if I would go back with so many other options in Irvine.
Andrew K.
I've been here 5 times so far. I typically get the Beijing Zha Jiang Noodle (aka jha jha myung or noodle with black bean sauce) with beef, and either the boiled or pan fried dumplings. I've also tried the kung pao chicken. 3 times its been awesome. One of the best jha jha myungs I've had, and different from what you find at typical Chinese/Korean restaurants. The noodles were hand made, with bigger chunks of quality meat, squash, and other vegetables. Solid, solid dish. The pork/shrimp dumplings are great. I've had the boiled and pan-fried. You can't go wrong with either one. The other 2 times, it wasn't good at all!! I heard that there was a brief change in chef for a while, so I'm hoping the those experiences are behind us. The most recent time I've been there just a week ago it was really good. Service isn't top notch, but safe to say people don't go to Chinese restaurants for good service. Li's Kite, I hope you keep this chef.... if you do I'll keep coming back.
J C.
I've ate here before, usually sit in. The food is nothing spectacular, better than koko's cafe. Today I wanted to order to go. Walked in and asked for a to-go menu and the owner said they didn't have any. The owner asked some guy who was sitting in a booth with his feet up, if they had any in the back. The guy said they were out of paper. (What restaurant doesn't have to-go menus on hand???) so I asked to see their sit in menu. My hubby is in the car with our baby who's sleeping. I wanted to see what he would like to order but owner told me I couldn't take the menu out. I mean... The car is literally right outside of their front door! What did they think I was going to do? Run off with their menu? Needless to say, I didn't order anything and walked out. With bad attitude and crappy service like that, it's no wonder it's always empty!
La O.
Li's Kite is understaffed. However, all their waiters try very hard to provide friendly service, which is kind of rare in Asian restaurants. One more star for their effort. Their Beijing zha jiang noodle can be too salty for most people. Luckily all the ingredients come in small bowls. Make sure you don't add too much zha jiang sauce.
Justina C.
I gave them 5 stars. Though they still need some improvement, I think Irvine should keep this restaurant. Their food is great. The location and the sign are just not so appealing that makes this restaurant not as popular as others. The dumplings are by far the most delicious and authentic I tasted in Los Angeles.
The food here is a little hit and miss. Though it's a bad sign that this place is usually half empty, I like coming here on a typically busy night just to avoid the crowds. We ordered their Da Lu noodles with seafood ($1 extra), Gnocchi soup with pork, fried calamari, steamed 3-flavor steamed dumplings, and passion fruit slush. The noodles were surprisingly well portioned. Too many Asian restaurants seriously skimp on their seafood noodle soups where their idea of making a dish "seafood" is to have 2 shrimps, one piece of fish, a couple pieces of squid and an overabundance of imitation crab. Li's soup had clams (2), mussel(2), shrimp(2), and multiple pieces of squid and fish, all of which was decently cooked. Not great, but not bad. The gnocchi soup was a first. It was interesting, kinda like chunky porridge. Again, they didn't skimp on the protein. It came with condiments of spinach, bean sprouts, peanuts, and radish which was nice. For us the dumplings (takes 20 mins to cook, which we were kindly warned about) were meh. The edges were hard (too long in the freezer?) and the shrimp inside was quite a bit overcooked. Yet, despite this, the kiddos liked it so, what can I say? The calamari was the hit of the evening. The batter was light and crispy and not at all oily. It came sitting on a nice salty and spicy relish(?). What I appreciated about the place was that they allowed us to split one order of their slushy for our two kids. Cost has always been a hindrance for ordering specialty drinks for kids, but cut the price in half and I'll order it every time! As for the slush itself, the flavor was good, but they need a better blender cuz it came with some huge chunks of ice, but fortunately the kids didn't care. This place isn't good enough to be put on a regular rotation, but the food and service are decent enough for us to return, but mostly just to avoid crowds.
Alex W.
Wife and I have been here twice since they changed owner. So far, so good. Highly recommend their dumplings. Both times, we got the shrimp/pork combo filling boiled. You can have them steamed or fried as well. Their black been paste noodle is good, but I think their sesame paste cold noodle with shrimp is the winner here. Service can be a bit better, but this is not Ruth Chris we are talking about...go for the dumplings and leave happy!
Tiffany
Get the oxtail handmade noodles -- better than their beef noodle soup. Chef says Shandong chicken is their specialty.
Ju D.
Poor service and overly salted food. The only time the wait staff attended to our table other than taking our order was running to get the cash for our bill. We had the flour dough soup and it was a pool of salt and flour water.
Stephanie J.
Spicy cold shrimp noodle with sesame sauce tasted very good.. and 3 flavors dumplings was melting in my mouth with goodness :) honestly i didn't expect this place to surprise me with such awesome flavors. too bad i'll be leaving the area soon but this is the place im gonna recommend. on the down side, their Pork soup (comes with 4 other side dishes) was a bit bland. maybe a little bit of more salt is all it needs tho. I put soy sauce and hot sauce in it and it tasted good enough.
This is not Li's Kite anymore. It's been replaced by a Xiang style (from Hu Nan region in China) restaurant. I have no idea what their English name is called and nobody speaks English there. So do not go unless you have a friend that speaks mandarin. That said, I think it's probably the best Xiang style food I had in awhile. I've ordered the stir fried pork with green pepper, stir fried pork with tofu steak, and mutton noodles. All very tasty. Their menu is written on a white board located on the right hand side when you walk in. Will post the pic later. I spoke with the owner and she said that if you call ahead, you can order things that are not on the menu. They also do take out.
This place is the worst. Just terrible. I wish I could give them an even lower rating. On my first visit, I ordered the fried fish dumplings. I asked the waitress if it was only fish and she said it was just fish and vegetables for the filling. They were ok the first few bites, but got really oily and gross feeling fast. I didn't want to come back ever afterwards but a few weeks later, my sister wanted to go again. I wanted something besides those lard tasting dumplings, but I am pescetarian so I asked if there was any meat besides fish in a few dishes I pointed out. All of them did have meat so I gave in and decided to just order the fish dumplings again. But then, the waiter said that there's meat mixed with the fish in those dumplings too. Unbelievable!! I was appalled that on my first visit, they either lied or they were ignorant of their menu. What the heck! It's unbelievable that service can be that bad. So I ended up ordering this "vegetable and noodle soup" sort of dish of the very limited vegetarian options. It wasn't very good, and I barely ate the dish. The courteous thing the waiter should have done would be to notice and take back the food and offer something else or take it off the check. But nope. And that's fine, it was my mistake for coming there in the first place. They just stood there in the empty restaurant staring at my table with a blank expression and open mouth.
Looks like they just opened. No formal menus printed yet - just a whiteboard posting today's selections. We stopped for a late lunch. Very good flour noodle soup with pork and spicy rice noodle soup with beef. The service was courteous and patient and prices were very reasonable. Tip: If you don't read Chinese, - just ask for what you want.
Was originally told about this restaurant by a coworker who stumbled across it one day while driving through the neighborhood. It was difficult to find since there were hardly any outward signs indicating that it is a restaurant - would probably have not found it without his very specific instructions regarding where it was. Spoke to someone with very limited English comprehension and told him I wanted to place an order to go - it took him a few minutes of back and forth gesturing before he figured out what I was saying. I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken lunch special and had it within about five minutes. I enjoyed it and was impressed by the size of the portion relative to the price (definitely enough for 2-3 people.) I have been back a few times since and have tried various lunch specials. I have enjoyed everything I have tried so far - I give their portion sizes an 8 average and their flavors a 5 average. Unfortunately, there are many other factors involved that are deterring me from returning any time soon. My biggest complaint is the service - they do not seem to have a consistent approach to serving their customers. One time, they will give you a free cup of tea while you wait for your order - next time, you will wait for 5-10 minutes before finding anyone to greet you, seat you and/or take your order. I have personally had problems having an order for one person taken both over the phone and in person. Like other reviewers, I was also thrown by the fact that the place rarely ever has more than one or two customers at any time - generally, not a good sign. I am certainly willing to be patient while the recent changes have a chance to take hold and will visit again sometime soon, but guess that most new patrons may be "one and done" at this establishment if they are being served as I have been recently. There are too many other great places to choose from that will take better care of you every time you give them the chance.
I've been to this restaurant several times over the past couple of months. I really enjoy the food, the service, at times, can be another matter. I always order meals to go and, for the most part, it's pretty quick to order and go. I've even been given water while I've waited and, up to today, I had no complaints about the service. Today, I stood 10 minutes by the waiting to be seated sign, not once acknowledged or recognized as staff went about their business. Finally, I just walked out. This location is very close to our office and the service has been spotty for coworkers. Once, someone called to order ahead and they refused to take any order in English. I have to agree with a previous reviewer who mentioned the staff changing frequently, I'm not sure that I've seen the same person there twice. Review summary, I really like the food, service is spotty if you get served at all.
My mother in law emailed us saying this place was pretty good and we ought to try it. Sunday came around and we were looking for a place to grab lunch so we decided to try it out. We got there around 12:45 and the place was pretty empty. Not a good sign for a new restaurant on a Sunday. We ordered potstickers, beef noodle soup, roast beef roll and salt and pepper chicken wings. Everything was good but nothing fantastic. My favorite was the chicken wings, they were deep fried, slightly salty/peppery and the skin crisp but not too hard like KFC's wings. The noodle soup was a bit bland for my taste, I've been going to A&J's for years and their soup base is definitely tastier. The noodle is supposed to be made fresh so that had a nice chewy texture. The potstickers were also on the bland side. Couldn't taste too much of the meat inside, tasted mainly the flour skin. The roast beef roll was good, but again too much dough for my taste. Ended up overpowering over the beef. The waiter was probably a college student, he was young and you could tell he worked hard. He was attentive and every time you asked for something he would run to go fetch. Good service/average food. On the fence if I would go back with so many other options in Irvine.
I've been here 5 times so far. I typically get the Beijing Zha Jiang Noodle (aka jha jha myung or noodle with black bean sauce) with beef, and either the boiled or pan fried dumplings. I've also tried the kung pao chicken. 3 times its been awesome. One of the best jha jha myungs I've had, and different from what you find at typical Chinese/Korean restaurants. The noodles were hand made, with bigger chunks of quality meat, squash, and other vegetables. Solid, solid dish. The pork/shrimp dumplings are great. I've had the boiled and pan-fried. You can't go wrong with either one. The other 2 times, it wasn't good at all!! I heard that there was a brief change in chef for a while, so I'm hoping the those experiences are behind us. The most recent time I've been there just a week ago it was really good. Service isn't top notch, but safe to say people don't go to Chinese restaurants for good service. Li's Kite, I hope you keep this chef.... if you do I'll keep coming back.
I've ate here before, usually sit in. The food is nothing spectacular, better than koko's cafe. Today I wanted to order to go. Walked in and asked for a to-go menu and the owner said they didn't have any. The owner asked some guy who was sitting in a booth with his feet up, if they had any in the back. The guy said they were out of paper. (What restaurant doesn't have to-go menus on hand???) so I asked to see their sit in menu. My hubby is in the car with our baby who's sleeping. I wanted to see what he would like to order but owner told me I couldn't take the menu out. I mean... The car is literally right outside of their front door! What did they think I was going to do? Run off with their menu? Needless to say, I didn't order anything and walked out. With bad attitude and crappy service like that, it's no wonder it's always empty!
Li's Kite is understaffed. However, all their waiters try very hard to provide friendly service, which is kind of rare in Asian restaurants. One more star for their effort. Their Beijing zha jiang noodle can be too salty for most people. Luckily all the ingredients come in small bowls. Make sure you don't add too much zha jiang sauce.
I gave them 5 stars. Though they still need some improvement, I think Irvine should keep this restaurant. Their food is great. The location and the sign are just not so appealing that makes this restaurant not as popular as others. The dumplings are by far the most delicious and authentic I tasted in Los Angeles.
Restaurantji Recommends
The food here is a little hit and miss. Though it's a bad sign that this place is usually half empty, I like coming here on a typically busy night just to avoid the crowds. We ordered their Da Lu noodles with seafood ($1 extra), Gnocchi soup with pork, fried calamari, steamed 3-flavor steamed dumplings, and passion fruit slush. The noodles were surprisingly well portioned. Too many Asian restaurants seriously skimp on their seafood noodle soups where their idea of making a dish "seafood" is to have 2 shrimps, one piece of fish, a couple pieces of squid and an overabundance of imitation crab. Li's soup had clams (2), mussel(2), shrimp(2), and multiple pieces of squid and fish, all of which was decently cooked. Not great, but not bad. The gnocchi soup was a first. It was interesting, kinda like chunky porridge. Again, they didn't skimp on the protein. It came with condiments of spinach, bean sprouts, peanuts, and radish which was nice. For us the dumplings (takes 20 mins to cook, which we were kindly warned about) were meh. The edges were hard (too long in the freezer?) and the shrimp inside was quite a bit overcooked. Yet, despite this, the kiddos liked it so, what can I say? The calamari was the hit of the evening. The batter was light and crispy and not at all oily. It came sitting on a nice salty and spicy relish(?). What I appreciated about the place was that they allowed us to split one order of their slushy for our two kids. Cost has always been a hindrance for ordering specialty drinks for kids, but cut the price in half and I'll order it every time! As for the slush itself, the flavor was good, but they need a better blender cuz it came with some huge chunks of ice, but fortunately the kids didn't care. This place isn't good enough to be put on a regular rotation, but the food and service are decent enough for us to return, but mostly just to avoid crowds.
Wife and I have been here twice since they changed owner. So far, so good. Highly recommend their dumplings. Both times, we got the shrimp/pork combo filling boiled. You can have them steamed or fried as well. Their black been paste noodle is good, but I think their sesame paste cold noodle with shrimp is the winner here. Service can be a bit better, but this is not Ruth Chris we are talking about...go for the dumplings and leave happy!
Get the oxtail handmade noodles -- better than their beef noodle soup. Chef says Shandong chicken is their specialty.
Poor service and overly salted food. The only time the wait staff attended to our table other than taking our order was running to get the cash for our bill. We had the flour dough soup and it was a pool of salt and flour water.
Spicy cold shrimp noodle with sesame sauce tasted very good.. and 3 flavors dumplings was melting in my mouth with goodness :) honestly i didn't expect this place to surprise me with such awesome flavors. too bad i'll be leaving the area soon but this is the place im gonna recommend. on the down side, their Pork soup (comes with 4 other side dishes) was a bit bland. maybe a little bit of more salt is all it needs tho. I put soy sauce and hot sauce in it and it tasted good enough.