[Irvine] [Chinese] Spicy City

Spicy City
雲川園
14310 Culver Dr #F
Irvine, CA 92604
(949) 733-9200

We were in the mood for spicy Chinese, but thought we went to Chong Qing in Irvine a bit too often. We haven't been back to Spicy City for a very very long time. We thought the food at Spicy City is way too spicy, and like Chong Qing's flavor better. But we haven't been back for so long, maybe the food would taste better now?


風味涼菜 Cold Table Appetizers ($5.50)

We started the meal by going to the counter to pick our 3 item cold appetizer. We got spicy beef, spicy pork skin and seaweed. Everything was good. My favorite was the seaweed. I like the vinegar, cilantro, and slightly spicy sauce of the seaweed a lot.



湖南扣肉 Steamed Pork Hunan Style ($9.99)

Steamed Pork Hunan Style came out 5 minutes after we ordered. Usually steamed dish would take way longer than 5 minutes. I think the kitchen probably already had bunch of it prepared in the back. I love this dish! The pork belly was very tender and flavorful. I like the skin and the fat the most. The sauce was slightly spicy, and it tasted so good when eaten with white rice.


酸辣湯 Hot & Sour Soup ($6.99)

Hot and Sour Soup was tasty. Lots of veggies. The only thing I didn't quite like was the carrot. The carrot was still raw and crunchy. I preferred soft and cooked veggies in my soup.


水煮兩樣 (牛魚) Boiled Two Kinds w/ Hot Sauce (Beef & Fish) ($10.99)

Dr. P ordered his favorite dish from Chinese spicy restaurant. He didn't like the Boiled Two Kinds with Hot Sauce form Spicy City though. He thought the sauce was too sweet. It did tasted sweeter than the flavor that we were used to at Chong Qing. I didn't mind it too much though.


毛血旺 Mao Xue Wang ($11.99)

If you like internal organ meats, you would love Mao Xue Wang. There were lots of intestine (my favorite), pork blood (Dr. P's favorite, tripes, black ear mushroom, and thick glass noodle in the spicy sauce. Dr. P loved the sauce. It had a very strong Szechuan peppercorn taste to it. I could eat two bowls of rice just with this dish.



Oopsy! I just realized now after looking at this photo that they forgot to charge us the cold appetizer. I also noticed our server's name is Boss. How funny! The food at Spicy City was decent, but we still like Chong Qing slightly better. It's good to have different option in Orange County when we're in the mood for Szechuan Chinese. Spicy City also offers lunch special that range from $5.99 to $7.99. We would be back to try their lunch soon.