[Irvine] [Chinese] A&J Restaurant

A&J Restaurant
半畝園
14805 Jeffrey Rd #D
Irvine, CA 92620
(949) 786-3585

It was the end of the year, and we were on a tight budget after spending way too much on shopping for the holidays.  The weather was cold, so we want something hot and soupy.  Beef noodle soup!  We headed over to A&J Restaurant on a December night for some Chinese comfort food.


泡菜 Pickled Cabbage ($1.25)

We started the meal with some Pickled Cabbage.  It was sour, not spicy, not sweet, and not a whole lot of flavor.... just sour.  At least the cabbage was crispy.



花素餡餅 Pan Fried Vegetarian Bun ($1.50)

We both ordered their pan fried bun.  Dr. P ordered the beef bun, and I ordered the vegetarian bun.  My vegetarian bun was marked with a red dot.



The vegetarian bun was made with egg, Chinese chive (韭菜), and glass noodle.  The flavor was light, so I made my own dipping sauce (made with soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and chili sauce).  It was very good, and I enjoyed it a lot.  Dr. P's beef bun was super juicy.  He also enjoyed his bun a lot.  I forgot to take a picture, but you can see it in my next picture.


紅燒各半麵 Spicy Beef & Tendon Noodle Soup (Szechuan Style) ($6.95)

There's Dr. P's beef bun in the background.  Yum!  This was what we came to A&J for, Spicy Beef Noodle Soup.  We ordered it half beef and half tendon.  Love the soft tendon.  The beef noodle soup was good, but somehow I still felt it lacked something.  I can't really describe what it was missing though.  The broth was salty, but not savory (有鹹但是沒有香).  Maybe I'm just being too picky.  I mean, this was a a great bowl of beef noodle soup in Irvine.  It's just that Beef Noodle King still has my favorite beef noodle soup.


排骨菜飯 Chinese Style Fried Pork Chop on Rice ($6.25)

We also ordered Pork Chop Rice.  The pork chop rice we had before was really good.  But this time, it was a little different.  Let's compare to the old photo....



This photo was from our first visit to A&J in August.  It was the same bowl.  So obviously portion has gone done a lot.  There were so much more pork the first time.  Also I think they make the pork chop with a different recipe now because it just tasted different.  The pork chop now was more of a deep fried one (炸排骨).  We both prefer the old style better.



I know I am being a little picky.  It was still a good and cheap dinner for under $20.  I wish they would make the pork chop rice the old way because we really enjoyed it the first time.

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