I'm not sure why this place only has three stars. The food here is absolutely delicious!! The staff is very friendly and accommodating. We were greeted with warm smiles upon arrival. The atmosphere is pleasant with nice decor on the wall. The food is absolutely phenomenal! Dumplings were definitely some of the best I've had. We will definitely be coming back soon. I highly recommend this place. It's great.
Kenny M.
Food was good, customer service was meh (good by Asian restaurant standards I guess). No old ladies pushing dimsum carts, so it didn't provide that nostalgic dimsum feel that is a big part of the experience. I would not be opposed to going back if a friend/family suggested, but I doubt I would have a craving to initiate a visit there.
Helen T.
We came to Irvine CA to visit family and were looking for an upscale Chinese restaurant for dinner. This restaurant is located in a shopping center in Tustin CA. The decor was elaborate and beautiful. We ordered a dish of braised abalone with stewed goose feet. They were tender but did not have the rich taste that I come to expect for abalone. We also ordered a stir-fry Dungeness crab dish with ginger and scallions. One big crab dish costs about $150. We also ordered some cold cut dishes of jelly fish and garlic cucumber. I was expecting these dishes with stronger tastes but they were pretty bland. For the prices that they charge, I was hoping their food would taste better.
A L.
This place has terrible service. We ordered over $100 in dim sum and they would only guve us 2 packs of chili sauce.
Rick G.
Not sure why this place only has 3 stars. We've been here now 3 times for Dim Sum and have never been disappointed. Just be prepared to wait - it's always busy
Steve O.
Staff: They were nice. Very attentive to us with regular check in and refills. Quality/Quantity: The food here was really good. Lots of options and all were good Value: Not sure as our friends kindly treated. Overall: The food was really good. I'll be back for sure.
Lowell J.
This is one of the few authentic Chinese restaurants in OC. Most of the best ones we found in SOCAL are located in the San Gabriel/Pasadena area but we don't like the long drive up there from where we live so we were so happy to find this place. We usually go for dim sum. They have a great variety of beef, pork and shrimp dishes. We like a variety of their dumplings although if it were just dumplings were were after we would probably go to one of the OC dumpling house restaurants. The sticky rice wrap is very good. We had the steamed rice paper with beef. It was very good. We had several green vegetable dishes. All were awesome. Chives culture is so much better at preparing vegetables than typical American style. They actually make the vegetables taste good. Quite a concept. I'm not a big chickens feet guy but my wife loves them and usually gets an order when we are here. We had the egg yolk buns. More of a dessert item in my opinion. We had a couple of other items I can't remember but all were great. If you are looking for a good quality Chinese restaurant in the OC, this should be one that you try.
Maggie P.
The food is solid. When it comes to your dim sum restaurants it's definitely a contender for top 10 in Orange County. However, what's with the attitude guys. You definitely get your stereotypical bad attitude from the staff. I've come here at least 5+ times and every time it's the same sour disposition from all the staff members. Unhelpful, forgetful, and just lack of enthusiasm. Alright, to the important part: the food! The dim sum is great, favorites being the har gow, shui mai, and rice rolls. The short rib with eggplant is excellent. Parking is pretty hard, the district is so Gosh darn popular so you may have to walk a bit, but you'll find a spot. Reservations are not available, it's first come first serve. Come in and sign up on their tablet (10AM) and you should be good. I've seen people there before they're even open, so weekends and holidays they may be a little packed. Bonus is this is located at the District, so much else to do without having to get in your car. Catch a movie, get a boba or make that Costco run!
Linh M.
J Zhou serves authentic and quality dim sum in OC. Although, it does come with a pricier menu. There aren't many good options around so it's nice to have this restaurant within a short driving distance. The interior is modern and spacious. The service is hit and miss but today it was much better than usual. Upon arriving around noon, the wait was only 15 minutes for a party of 4. They provide a menu sheet to check off your items. We ordered some classic and signature dishes: siu mai, har gow, steamed rice paper with mince beef, fish paste stuffed in chili pepper, bean curd roll with shrimp, house special baked bbq pork buns, chicken feet in black bean sauce, taro cake with preserved meat, and fried vermicelli with beef and egg, imperial osmanthus cake, and egg tart. We enjoyed our dim sum and all dishes were very tasty. The only issue was that some of the items were brought out luke warm. They were also on a slow pace with the flow of our order. This is one of my top picks for dim sum outside SGV!
Tina P.
My coworkers and I came here a year ago, and it was busy and service was good. Lots of workers running around and they tried their best. Today, I came back with four other coworkers for lunch, and got terrible service. We were all seated but waited a good 10-15 minutes before we had to flag down two people to place our order. We were on our lunch so can't sit around too long. We placed our order and the food came one by one. The food was great! When we were done eating, we sat and waited to get the bill. Then after another 10-15 minutes, we started flagging down people again to get the bill. It's not an ideal place to come for lunch if you don't have a lot of time to kill. I think they are short-staffed. There was one restaurant employee that we noticed worked hard throughout the whole time while we were there...It was the guy bussing everything...He brought the tea, water, and condiments when we sat down. He covered the whole restaurant.
I hate to say that it's normal and we shouldn't expect much from a Chinese restaurant. I have been to many Chinese owned restaurants/shops with excellent customer service before. But I can't believe how terrible it can be at J Zhou and wonder why patrons should encounter this kind of dining experience. My toddlers were not having a good day and being super fuzzy, so my family told the man in charge for seatings (in grayish suit with glasses) that we were all here but 3 of them were at the parking lot. All he said was .. "which means you don't have your entire party here yet.." (with a despicable look + no eye contact) "I won't seat you until your whole party is here inside and even that, I will still have to consider whether I want to give you a table or not"... WHAT THE?????? If not because we had an elderly relative with us, we would have just leave ... can't believe this is how we were being treated at this restaurant.. We will rather travel to other areas for dim sum from now on.. this is just Ridiculous!
Starof Jupiter
I put in 3 Stars not because of anything but just staying neutral on this after reading the comments provided to this restaurant and seeing the response from the owner trying to justify the wrongs. I only been there 2 times before pandemic and hasn’t been back for 2.5 years now. To be fair, if you are not familiar with this restaurant, this is not the mom and pop Chinese restaurant with basic ambiance that you patronized in the past. This is an upscale restaurant and their pricing of food reflected that. Therefore, do not be surprised with the prices of dim sum and entrees there, treat it like you are going to any upscale restaurant and be prepared to pay.Their foods and services have always been decent or quite good whether dim sum or entrees. Therefore, am not sure any particular incident that lead to all these negative comments? For the owner or manger of J Zhou, I recommend that you get your manager yo visit each table to ensure that customers are happy. If I paid mega price to eat at your establishment, I expect the foods reasonably good but the service should be impeccable! Otherwise, your restaurant cannot live up to upscale, you get what I mean? Just like hotel have 1-5 star ranking for a reason. The expectations that when you charged higher than other establishments, you are to make sure your customers have positive experience! Word of Mouth and bad service will ruin your business as times go by.
Calvin M.
I've been in Irvine now for 9 months, and the search still continues for a good dim sum restaurant. Although I knew the prices were high going into this restaurant, I was expecting the quality to at least be the best of the 4 popular dim sum spots in Irvine. It wasn't even top 2. There were only 3 of us, so we didn't get a large sample size per say, but we ordered some traditional dim sum dishes to gauge whether we should bring other guests here for special occasions. Answer was definitely a NO. LA guests would laugh at the quality per price here. Siumai size was laughable. Fried dumplings tasted old. This place gets 2 stars for having Yelp Check-in so I didn't have to stand in front of the restaurant for 1hr before my disappointing meal, and 1 more star for having the nicest decor of any Chinese restaurant I've been to (even with its dirty carpets, just don't look down).
TianChee S.
This place was packed and had to wait maybe 20 minutes before we got seated. Presentation wise, it much more appealing to dine here than Irvine China Garden. I think they have much more options to choose from here but it definitely cost a lot more here. They don't do the cart style, you just order from a sheet and they give directly to you from the kitchen. The malay sponge cake here was not as good as Irvine China garden, it was unevenly steamed/made as there was a lot of big bubbles at the bottom half of the cake. So I would not order that again here. Portion wise I felt was smaller here. So they seem to focus more on quality than giving quantity but even so some items I felt quality was more or less parity with Irvine China Garden. The only reason I would come here over Irvine China garden is that they seem to offer more variety of dishes to eat than Irvine China garden.
Matthew M.
The dim sum at this place combined with the higher price point that neighboring places make this an okay choice for a quick meal. The service at this restaurant is much better than usual, which I appreciate. However, the food can be on the very salty end of the spectrum. I think cutting form the salt would allow the customers to enjoy the most out of this cuisine. The ambiance of this restaurant is great for hosting families. Additionally, they have a bar that is open, which seems to entertain guests frequently since it is usually full.
I'm not sure why this place only has three stars. The food here is absolutely delicious!! The staff is very friendly and accommodating. We were greeted with warm smiles upon arrival. The atmosphere is pleasant with nice decor on the wall. The food is absolutely phenomenal! Dumplings were definitely some of the best I've had. We will definitely be coming back soon. I highly recommend this place. It's great.
Food was good, customer service was meh (good by Asian restaurant standards I guess). No old ladies pushing dimsum carts, so it didn't provide that nostalgic dimsum feel that is a big part of the experience. I would not be opposed to going back if a friend/family suggested, but I doubt I would have a craving to initiate a visit there.
We came to Irvine CA to visit family and were looking for an upscale Chinese restaurant for dinner. This restaurant is located in a shopping center in Tustin CA. The decor was elaborate and beautiful. We ordered a dish of braised abalone with stewed goose feet. They were tender but did not have the rich taste that I come to expect for abalone. We also ordered a stir-fry Dungeness crab dish with ginger and scallions. One big crab dish costs about $150. We also ordered some cold cut dishes of jelly fish and garlic cucumber. I was expecting these dishes with stronger tastes but they were pretty bland. For the prices that they charge, I was hoping their food would taste better.
This place has terrible service. We ordered over $100 in dim sum and they would only guve us 2 packs of chili sauce.
Not sure why this place only has 3 stars. We've been here now 3 times for Dim Sum and have never been disappointed. Just be prepared to wait - it's always busy
Staff: They were nice. Very attentive to us with regular check in and refills. Quality/Quantity: The food here was really good. Lots of options and all were good Value: Not sure as our friends kindly treated. Overall: The food was really good. I'll be back for sure.
This is one of the few authentic Chinese restaurants in OC. Most of the best ones we found in SOCAL are located in the San Gabriel/Pasadena area but we don't like the long drive up there from where we live so we were so happy to find this place. We usually go for dim sum. They have a great variety of beef, pork and shrimp dishes. We like a variety of their dumplings although if it were just dumplings were were after we would probably go to one of the OC dumpling house restaurants. The sticky rice wrap is very good. We had the steamed rice paper with beef. It was very good. We had several green vegetable dishes. All were awesome. Chives culture is so much better at preparing vegetables than typical American style. They actually make the vegetables taste good. Quite a concept. I'm not a big chickens feet guy but my wife loves them and usually gets an order when we are here. We had the egg yolk buns. More of a dessert item in my opinion. We had a couple of other items I can't remember but all were great. If you are looking for a good quality Chinese restaurant in the OC, this should be one that you try.
The food is solid. When it comes to your dim sum restaurants it's definitely a contender for top 10 in Orange County. However, what's with the attitude guys. You definitely get your stereotypical bad attitude from the staff. I've come here at least 5+ times and every time it's the same sour disposition from all the staff members. Unhelpful, forgetful, and just lack of enthusiasm. Alright, to the important part: the food! The dim sum is great, favorites being the har gow, shui mai, and rice rolls. The short rib with eggplant is excellent. Parking is pretty hard, the district is so Gosh darn popular so you may have to walk a bit, but you'll find a spot. Reservations are not available, it's first come first serve. Come in and sign up on their tablet (10AM) and you should be good. I've seen people there before they're even open, so weekends and holidays they may be a little packed. Bonus is this is located at the District, so much else to do without having to get in your car. Catch a movie, get a boba or make that Costco run!
J Zhou serves authentic and quality dim sum in OC. Although, it does come with a pricier menu. There aren't many good options around so it's nice to have this restaurant within a short driving distance. The interior is modern and spacious. The service is hit and miss but today it was much better than usual. Upon arriving around noon, the wait was only 15 minutes for a party of 4. They provide a menu sheet to check off your items. We ordered some classic and signature dishes: siu mai, har gow, steamed rice paper with mince beef, fish paste stuffed in chili pepper, bean curd roll with shrimp, house special baked bbq pork buns, chicken feet in black bean sauce, taro cake with preserved meat, and fried vermicelli with beef and egg, imperial osmanthus cake, and egg tart. We enjoyed our dim sum and all dishes were very tasty. The only issue was that some of the items were brought out luke warm. They were also on a slow pace with the flow of our order. This is one of my top picks for dim sum outside SGV!
My coworkers and I came here a year ago, and it was busy and service was good. Lots of workers running around and they tried their best. Today, I came back with four other coworkers for lunch, and got terrible service. We were all seated but waited a good 10-15 minutes before we had to flag down two people to place our order. We were on our lunch so can't sit around too long. We placed our order and the food came one by one. The food was great! When we were done eating, we sat and waited to get the bill. Then after another 10-15 minutes, we started flagging down people again to get the bill. It's not an ideal place to come for lunch if you don't have a lot of time to kill. I think they are short-staffed. There was one restaurant employee that we noticed worked hard throughout the whole time while we were there...It was the guy bussing everything...He brought the tea, water, and condiments when we sat down. He covered the whole restaurant.
Restaurantji Recommends
I hate to say that it's normal and we shouldn't expect much from a Chinese restaurant. I have been to many Chinese owned restaurants/shops with excellent customer service before. But I can't believe how terrible it can be at J Zhou and wonder why patrons should encounter this kind of dining experience. My toddlers were not having a good day and being super fuzzy, so my family told the man in charge for seatings (in grayish suit with glasses) that we were all here but 3 of them were at the parking lot. All he said was .. "which means you don't have your entire party here yet.." (with a despicable look + no eye contact) "I won't seat you until your whole party is here inside and even that, I will still have to consider whether I want to give you a table or not"... WHAT THE?????? If not because we had an elderly relative with us, we would have just leave ... can't believe this is how we were being treated at this restaurant.. We will rather travel to other areas for dim sum from now on.. this is just Ridiculous!
I put in 3 Stars not because of anything but just staying neutral on this after reading the comments provided to this restaurant and seeing the response from the owner trying to justify the wrongs. I only been there 2 times before pandemic and hasn’t been back for 2.5 years now. To be fair, if you are not familiar with this restaurant, this is not the mom and pop Chinese restaurant with basic ambiance that you patronized in the past. This is an upscale restaurant and their pricing of food reflected that. Therefore, do not be surprised with the prices of dim sum and entrees there, treat it like you are going to any upscale restaurant and be prepared to pay.Their foods and services have always been decent or quite good whether dim sum or entrees. Therefore, am not sure any particular incident that lead to all these negative comments? For the owner or manger of J Zhou, I recommend that you get your manager yo visit each table to ensure that customers are happy. If I paid mega price to eat at your establishment, I expect the foods reasonably good but the service should be impeccable! Otherwise, your restaurant cannot live up to upscale, you get what I mean? Just like hotel have 1-5 star ranking for a reason. The expectations that when you charged higher than other establishments, you are to make sure your customers have positive experience! Word of Mouth and bad service will ruin your business as times go by.
I've been in Irvine now for 9 months, and the search still continues for a good dim sum restaurant. Although I knew the prices were high going into this restaurant, I was expecting the quality to at least be the best of the 4 popular dim sum spots in Irvine. It wasn't even top 2. There were only 3 of us, so we didn't get a large sample size per say, but we ordered some traditional dim sum dishes to gauge whether we should bring other guests here for special occasions. Answer was definitely a NO. LA guests would laugh at the quality per price here. Siumai size was laughable. Fried dumplings tasted old. This place gets 2 stars for having Yelp Check-in so I didn't have to stand in front of the restaurant for 1hr before my disappointing meal, and 1 more star for having the nicest decor of any Chinese restaurant I've been to (even with its dirty carpets, just don't look down).
This place was packed and had to wait maybe 20 minutes before we got seated. Presentation wise, it much more appealing to dine here than Irvine China Garden. I think they have much more options to choose from here but it definitely cost a lot more here. They don't do the cart style, you just order from a sheet and they give directly to you from the kitchen. The malay sponge cake here was not as good as Irvine China garden, it was unevenly steamed/made as there was a lot of big bubbles at the bottom half of the cake. So I would not order that again here. Portion wise I felt was smaller here. So they seem to focus more on quality than giving quantity but even so some items I felt quality was more or less parity with Irvine China Garden. The only reason I would come here over Irvine China garden is that they seem to offer more variety of dishes to eat than Irvine China garden.
The dim sum at this place combined with the higher price point that neighboring places make this an okay choice for a quick meal. The service at this restaurant is much better than usual, which I appreciate. However, the food can be on the very salty end of the spectrum. I think cutting form the salt would allow the customers to enjoy the most out of this cuisine. The ambiance of this restaurant is great for hosting families. Additionally, they have a bar that is open, which seems to entertain guests frequently since it is usually full.