Tasty Zone

1) the dishes are always so dirty, I have to send them back twice cause they are greasy and stained.
2) the attitude of the waitress and waiters are so bad, I have never encountered such bad service in the States! They must still think they are in China — we are paying costumer, not street baggers

Been eyeing this place for some time. I was finally able to convince the Spicy Souls in my life to come try it with me. We came on a Tuesday just before the «Noon Rush» All of the tables were open. The restaurant has a narrow dining area, all booths accommodate 4 guests. The individual tables were for parties of 2 or 4. You can also dine outside in the common food center shared by the neighboring restaurants. We dined inside since it was a bit chilly and windy on this day. We came with 5 in our group so they pulled up an extra chair but it was very uncomfortable for anyone sitting on the end of the table as the aisle was very narrow. The waiters/​waitresses kept bumping into our poor friend. Now to the food. We all opted for their «Lunch Special» menu items. We assumed the food portion is like any other Chinese «Lunch Special» portions. Boy, we were all stunned and shocked how much food they gave for Lunch. Keep in mind, their «Lunch Special» prices were $ 7.50/$ 8.50/$ 9.50 which comes with Steam Rice, Soup of the Day and your entrée. Here’s what we shared:
Appetizers:
01. Spicy Wonton (8 Piece) $ 7.99 — 4 Stars
— This was so good and savory, the chili oil was NOT spicy at all. We slurped up the Chili Oil Sauce… YUMMY!!!
02. Onion Pancake (10 Pieces — Cut up) $ 3.99 — 3.5 Stars
— We were surprised how good this was. It was not oily at all. It was crispy and flaky-​ish.
Lunch Special Items:
03. Hot & Sour Soup (Complimentary w/​Lunch Special) — 3 Stars
— This soup was not very sour but more peppery. They put a lot of white pepper in it so it definitely had a kick. IMO this soup was decent for a freebie!
04. B11 — Mongolian Beef $ 8.50 — 4 Stars
— Probably one of the best Mongolian Beef I’ve ever had in OC. Usually this dish everywhere else is very starchy and has loads of onions and green onions as fillers and you don’t get much meat. Theirs was packed with meat and tasted so good. Not spicy but peppery!
05. B1 — General Tso’s Chicken (Crispy Orange Chicken) $ 8.50 — 4 Stars
— If you like ORANGE Chicken, this is your dish! The chicken was crispy EVEN with the sauce on it. Don’t let the spicy symbol on the menu fool you, it’s not spicy AT ALL! But it is really crispy and yummy. Orange Chicken fans, a MUST TRY!
06. C1 — Fish Fillet in Szechwan Hot Garlic Sauce $ 9.50 — 3 Stars
— We had 2 fish orders and this wasn’t my fave but it was definitely tasty and good. The sauce was good but I didn’t like it with the fish. It was more sweet than spicy. Everyone thought it was okay.
07. B4 — Sweet & Sour Chicken $ 8.50 — 3 Stars
— Our least fave item of our lunch. Crispy chicken, YES! Saucy goodness, not really! The sauce was a deep thick red sauce. A bit too gooey and jelly-​like for us. Rounding up for the crispiness.
08. C2 — Fish w/​Black Bean Sauce $ 9.50 — 4 Stars
— Out of the 2 fish dishes we ordered, this was the WINNER! We all enjoyed this dish and the triangle tofu was a great add. The Black Bean sauce was so full of flavors and it absorbed in the tofu well. Probably now one of my fave Tofu dishes. If you are a fan of fish, black bean sauce and like savory things, you’ll love this dish. I’ll be ordering this on our rotations.
VERDICT:
Location — Tucked in the corner of the food plaza on the ground level next to Inka Mama and a yogurt shop. Tiny restaurant so don’t come with a big group, you’ll definitely be split up. Max 4 people is best.
Service — Not at all the best, they are not attentive but after a few requests, they will help you. Don’t come for the service, it doesn’t exist but the food is amazing.
Food/​Portions — Food is amazing. Don’t believe that everything is SPICY, it’s really not. There is a kick but not a chili firey burn! They use a lot of dry chilis but it doesn’t add heat, it’s the chili oil that gives it a kick. Portions are HUGE. Best Chinese «BANG for your BUCK» in OC. My photos really didn’t scale it properly for you to see. We were so happily surprised when the food came out. We couldn’t believe it was a Lunch Portion!
We will come back for sure, this is a GEM in OC. Who knew??? We’ve eaten at every restaurant in the plaza except here. So glad we finally tried it out. Winner Winner Chinese Dinner!!!

Never been to a Sichuan (EXXXXTREMELY SPICY) restaurant and had no idea this was it, until I sat down to order and read some reviews on here. Unfortunately I was not able to handle my Noodles and had to cancel the order and walk out. My waitress, Nancy, was super friendly and understanding of my situation. She told me a bit about the variety of spice level I can order the next time I come. I told her I couldn’t handle the regular noodles I ordered and she canceled my order and only charged my drink. I tipped her well for the effort and kind waitress she was for me. I now know for a fact what a Sichuan restaurant is now ;) The place is popping on Saturday and there’s a waiting list. Asian EDM music and happy people enjoying their EXXXXTREMELY spicy dishes.

The best pig ears that I ever have. Not cheap but super tasty. Service is good too. They provided water for my dog.

Good food. Bad service. Called in an order and they said it would take only 10 minutes. Gave them 25 minutes but when I came to pick it up, they seemed surprised that I was there and then started to make my order. I’m still waiting for my order, its been an extra 15 minutes.

This is a authentic Sichuan restaurant.
This statement is both a compliment and a warning. For those who do not know, Sichuan cuisine is known for its extreme spiciness even for Chinese people themselves. So if your spicy food tolerance is limited within Americanized kinda-​spicy-​but-​not-​really foods, tread carefully here!
That being said, I’m very satisfied with the food here. This spot is definitely among the top 10 Sichuan restaurants in LA and OC county, which, considering there are so many of them out there, is quit a feat.
Tip: order the rice pudding (forgot exact name) dessert. This warm, sugary dessert is very comforting to eat after a feast of spices.

This place caught my eye because of it’s Szechuan menu which is not too common where I live. My family and I looove Szechuan food so we decided to try this place out. Szechuan cuisine is known for its incredibly spicy dishes (so if you’re not a fan of spicy foods, this might not be the place for you). The food tastes very authentic and portions here are huge and definitely worth the price! I knocked off one star because of the service. The employees aren’t exactly the nicest people, but the food here is really good. Definitely will come back.

Not your american chinese spot. I love this place partially because its constantly crazy packed with zero white people inside. Dan dan noodles are a repeat order. Won ton soup is a winner, tooth pick lamb was spicy af but good, pork fried rice was good, pan fried chicken was pretty standard. This is a place to go to get legit chinese food — no orange chicken here. Everything is spicy.

I ordered one of their recommended dishes and couldn’t eat after few bites because my tongue felt tingly and didn’t like that feeling at all! It wasn’t from being spicy, it was weird feeling, I won’t go back again.

Truly authentic Szechuan food in OC. It’s spicy! But everything is addicting! Our favorites are the toothpick lamb and the Szechuan spicy noodle with pork. So delicious. Portion is huge, too. Can’t’ wait to go back again!

Everything is spicy!
It’s not a spacious place so you may have to wait for half an hour or so during rush hour.
I really liked there dandan noodle and sour spicy rice noodle.
Overall, good Szechuan food and definitely come if you love spicy as I do!

For the people who can’t eat spicy food: Omg… seriously don’t come here and complain about how spicy it is if you can’t eat spicy food and all you know about Chinese food is just simply Kung Pao Chicken… Just don’t even come and bitch about it… It is Sichuan Food and it is supposed to be spicy! If you just want your usual Chinese food experience, go to restaurants like PF Chang’s where you can get your average americanized fake-​ass Chinese food or even panda Express. It’s almost like if you don’t like raw food then don’t go to a Japanese restaurant and order sashimi and complain about it.
Recommendations:
Boiled Fish水煮鱼 Very Large in Portion!!!
牙签羊肉：Lambs on sticks?!?: super spicy but authentic
伤心凉粉：Sad Noodles…我真的无力翻译了…
…You can go to the restaurant and show the waiter my comment lol I seriously don’t know what the English names for the dishes are…

Do you like spicy? Like burning, nose dripping, sweat pouring, face becoming red spicy? Well, you won’t find that here. Tasty Zone serves authentic Sichuan/​Szechuan food and Szechuan just screams out SPICY. But be warned that this is a DIFFERENT kind of spicy than you’re probably used to. It CREEPS on you. It’s like a ninja. I swore I did well with spicy food because apparently since I’m Korean American, it’s in my blood to handle spicy food. And I still swear by it. Kind of. Szechuan spicy, if you haven’t had Szechuan food yet, doesn’t actually taste spicy on the first bite*.
A couple bites into our food and Ben Y. was telling me how he can definitely taste the spicy-​ness (and he usually handles spicy better than I do).
Me: Really? I don’t taste any spicyness. It’s just a bit oily but they’re both really good!
(Naively continuing to eat, unbeknownst to me, my tongue had become numb)
Ben: put your teeth together and breathe through your mouth
Me: *breathes* WHAAAT THEEEE??? My tongue is numb!!!
Ben: try drinking your water
Me: *sips* WHAAAT THEEE?!? What is going on?! (The water tastes FUNKY at this point. I drank from the same cup before and it was fine earlier)
And that, my friends, is how I had my first experience with Szechuan food. I have initiated. Now I feel like I deserve some kind of Unilocal badge for spicy food.
In all seriousness, this restaurant is fairly small, with at most eight 4 people booths. Now, you must know that when a lot of Chinese folks are at a Chinese restaurant, it must be good. Just like if there were a lot of Indian folks at an Indian restaurant, the food must be good. And it’s good! Service was typical and expected of an Asian restaurant.
FOOD:
Boiled two kind with hot sauce (fish and lamb) l 13.99: You can also choose to get beef or pork I believe. And I also believe they increased the price for this dish by quite significantly in the last year. The protein is in this oily, spicy sauce (NOT SOUP) and has tender slices of lamb and chunks/​cubes of fish. Unless you want to make your poor digestive organs work harder than they have to by feeding it oily food, dab the oil out on your plate before eating it. Loved this dish. Brought it home and finished the leftovers today.
Spicy cold chicken l $ 13.99: I absolutely loved the peanuts and scallions in this dish. The dish is overall more salty and soy sauce-​y and less spicy than the boiled two kind with hot sauce dish. The chicken appeared to have been marinated and tastes auh-​mazing.
Rice l $ 1: Now, they do charge for a bowl of rice, so don’t get upset to see it on your bill! I warned ya.
SERVICE l 3:
You see your waiter when they take your order, to bring you water, to bring your food, and to give you your check.
PROS:
+ good Szechuan food. How do I know it’s authentic? I don’t, to be frank with you. But my Taiwanese boyfriend recommended we come here and I trust his palette and taste with my life. Hahah. Jk. Kind of. But I know when a food is good, and the food is good. That, I can tell you.
+ decently large portions
+ since the water tastes funny after your tongue goes numb, they sell this Asian milky drink and since milk based products can counteract spicy by the magic of science, it’ll help reduce the spicy flavor on your tongue
CONS:
— mediocre service
— pricey
TIPS:
— take the leftovers home and it magically tastes not as spicy! Or make your own rendition of the dish with the leftovers
*WARNING: Obviously, this review is given from my own personal experience with my own background of spicy food in my somewhat youthful life thus far. Everyone may have their own experience depending on what kind of spicy food one may have had and how s/​he can handle spicy.

Really good Szechuan food. If you like spicy food this place is very good. Some great dishes are the toothpick lamb, and green chili fish if you like the numbing feeling typical of Szechuan style food. I also really like their deep fried shrimp, and spicy sour eggplant. Most people probably give this place bad reviews because it was way too spicy for them or they had bad service. If you don’t speak Chinese you probably will get worse service.
If you like Szechuan, I’d say this is the best spot for that around this area. Thanks tasty zone you guys are great.

Based on their name alone, I would’ve never found/​tried this place, so don’t let that fool you.
This is your typical Asian restaurant, meaning poor service, no water refills, waiters/​servers aren’t smiling when taking your orders, etc, but their food, however, is great — just know that you’re here for the food, not the service. Also, given that this is a Sichuan restaurant (Sichuan is known for their spicy foods), make sure you factor that in before choosing your hotness level.
The restaurant is pretty small, only about 7 – 8 tables, and is also really popular among the natives, so expect a wait during rush hours. The positive is that most people eat and leave pretty quickly, no chit chatting, in fact, most people are on their phones while they eat.
Overall, great Sichuan food and I will definitely be back.
Lastly, thank you, Brian, for calling an audible so we discovered this place.

Horrible first experience. I’ve had worse but I don’t think I will be back again.
I’m not too sensitive to spicey foods but they are not my food of choice. Which is a shame because the majority of the menu has the word ‘spicy’ in the title.
Usually I can handle the spicy foods at Chinese and Japanese restaurants but this place was way too much! I was in such pain: I kept coughing, never had enough water to drink, eyes watering, sinuses going crazy, it was awful.
All I could eat was the white rice and garlic eggplant which was super oily and nowhere as good as other garlic eggplant dishes I have had. We couldn’t even eat the cumin lamb as it was too spicy even for my husband and he has a good tolerance for spicy foods.
Ok, so at the end of the meal the waitress saw that we didn’t eat the lamb and didn’t take it to go and she said ‘was it too spicy?’ We said ‘yes!’ Hoping she would at least refund us for that untouched plate but instead she just said, ‘next time just ask for no spice or mild’. Great, thanks for giving us that option before we ordered… other places, that’s what they do.
We will take our business elsewhere. But for those of you that want to try it. Ask for not as much spice and let me know how it is!

Oh my yummy
Don’t get it confused with typical Chinese food its Szechwan meaning salty spicy Chinese food
On the tab (I didn’t order so I’m guessing)
Spicy dumpling
Green beans
Crispy chicken skin
Spicy beef soup
Combination fried rice
Next time I’m going to try dumpling soup and dan dan noodles
This place took over the phở banh mi shop next to mama inka
Pro
Spicy dumplings and green beans way better than din tai fung for sure!
Cons
Not sodium and diet friendly
Overall, I haven’t had that many Szechwan places but this has to be my all time favorite buy I ate 3 hours ago n the thirst is real right now.

MY FAVORITE SZECHUAN PLACE IN OC!
I probably shouldnt tell everyone about, but its just soo good! Not many szechuan places near irvine, mostly in san gabriel area. BUT this one! Is just as good as going to san gabriel. Definitely coming here for spicy food instead of driving all the way to LA~

I could have SWORN there was XLB and dumplings on the menu when passing by here… I guess not?
It’s just OK food. Just OK. The Dan Dan noodles are a little oilier than I expected, paired with the peanuts, every bite felt thicker, and the consistency of it was just too much to handle a large portion of. The taste was fine, but it’s probably my least favorite Dan Dan noodle (even below something as Americanized as Pei Wei) that i’ve tried. The prices are a little on the steep side for what you can get, especially with the abundance of Taiwanese and Szechuan places in South OC.
Service is Meh. The waitress is really nice, but it’s like she doesn’t care for it. Understandable, but I mean if you don’t like waiting on people, customer service should not be your first choice of occupation. if it’s a family thing, then you should try harder because it’s your family’s business. When you did get to flag her down, she brought whatever you needed.
All in all, I’d give it one more chance, i do want to try their noodle soups, its just a little too warm right now. If they can’t win me there, I’ll just wait until the next shop pops open when they go down.

Besides Din Tai Fung, Tasty Zone has successfully landed a new Chinese restaurant which brings new flavors to Costa Mesa/​South Coast Metro. Tasty Zone offers Szechuan to heat up the space formerly occupied by Saigon bistro.
I was surprised when walking towards the restaurant, there were tons of Chinese patrons being served outside the restaurant. Usually when I see patrons of the same ethnicity as the restaurant I get a feeling the food is good. I went in and found there was a waiting list. I think this was a blessing because my buddies and I were able to peak at all the food that people were ordering. So much food too, come with a party.
We ordered 6 items on the menu for the three of us, way too much food but it was our first time so might as well get a taste of everything. We ordered twice cooked pork fried rice, spicy wontons/​dumplings, spicy lamb, Dan Dan noodles, boiled beef chicken, and fish soup with pickled veggies. The restaurant serves spicy food, numbingly spicy, not super burn but numb. I can handle hot food no problem so not exactly sure what your tolerances are but have fun. We were all thoroughly surprised at all the food, the flavors, spices. We enjoyed everything, one thing we can go without was the fried rice.
This restaurant is not for everyone especially for those who want food such as orange chicken, I think you will be disappointed. The whole house special on the menu might not too special because it’s not Szechuan.
Have fun and be ready to eat and sweat a little.