Third Time the Charm at This Address?

Asian Kitchen

30271 Golden Lantern Suite D

Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

I know I've been doing this restaurant blog for a long time when I have reviewed three different restaurants at the same address. My trifecta of visits to this address started way back in 2010 when we had a pretty unforgettable meal at Chaparosa Grill. We then ate here again in early 2018 when it became breakfast spot Stacks and Yolks. They lasted only nine months, as they were plagued by mediocre food and some scathing reviews about their service on Yelp.

Fast forward to September of last year and there's a new restaurant that opened up to try to break the curse of this address, Asian Kitchen. From what I've been able to find out online, this place is owned by a couple who used to manage Little Kitchen Asian Cafe in Dana Point. Although they have similar-sounding names, they are not related. The couple, Lauren and Chris decided to branch out on their own and try their hand at ownership.

Asian Kitchen is located at the corner of Golden Lantern and Marina Hills, in the same shopping plaza as Albertsons, CVS, and McDonald's. We had made reservations for our party of five at 6pm on a recent Saturday evening. Good thing we had made those reservations, as the restaurant was pretty full when we arrived.

The dining room was nice and spacious, with a higher than I remembered ceiling. The center of the restaurant has a u-shaped bar in the center, with tables scattered around it. The chairs are not the most comfortable, as they are hard metal, but we made them work. The menu at Asian Kitchen is pretty much what you'd expect to see at any mainstream Chinese restaurant in OC. Fried rice, pork, beef, poultry, and noodle dishes dominate, but there are also house specialties, soups, and salads for lighter eaters. We were excited to see if Asian Kitchen would become one of our favorite Chinese spots in south OC.

Starting things off on this evening is the equivalent of chips and salsa in a Chinese restaurant, Fried Wonton Strips with Sweet and Sour Sauce. Yeah, chips and salsa are way better, but I can never resist eating more than my fair share of these before the food arrives. I wish the fried wontons were in bigger pieces, so you could get more of the sweet and sour sauce across more of the surface area of the wonton. They also offered spicy mustard, but I forgot to snap a shot of it.

We started our culinary journey at Asian Kitchen with some Eggrolls ($11.50). These were filled with veggies only, were fried really well, and lacked the greasiness that you would expect from your typical eggroll. They were, however, very bland and even the provided sweet and sour did not help out too much. To be honest, I've always thought of eggrolls as a placeholder before the real food hits the table, so I was not expecting too much here.

As is our custom when eating in a Chinese restaurant, we eat family style, with everyone choosing one dish from the menu. I'm pretty sure this was my uncle Jerry's choice, Orange Chicken ($13,50). This was a good version of one of the most American of all Chinese dishes. The chicken was nice and crispy, while the orange-tinged sauce was sweet and tangy. The green onions and chilis did a great job of cutting the sweetness a bit. Not an overly thick sauce on this either. Way better than the version at Panda Express.

My first time having Chinese food as a kid, I can remember being blown away by Sweet and Sour Pork ($12.95). It was like nothing I had ever eaten before. That was at the now-departed Yen Ching in Orange and is still my benchmark for this dish. This version was fine but not as good as the one from my childhood. The pork cubes could have been a little crisper and the sweet and sour sauce was not as striking as others.

Not usually something that I'd order, but my aunt Hiroko has shied away from meat the last year, so she opted for this Garlic Eggplant ($10.50). This had a whole bunch of veggies in it, red and green bell peppers, onions, bamboo shoots, carrots, mushrooms, and of course eggplant. The vegetables were fine, even though I'm not the world's biggest fan of eggplant, but what made this dish was the very good brown garlic sauce. Very flavorful and I found myself poking around the eggplant near the end of our meal.

This Black Pepper Steak ($16.95) was my selection this evening and ended up being the best dish of the night. I'm not sure what cut of beef they used to make this, but it was very tender. The mushrooms, bell peppers, and black pepper sauce rounded this plate out wonderfully. I ate more than my fair share of this. I hope no one noticed.

Katie is always down for a good time, so it was no surprise that she selected the Vegetable Chow Fun ($11.50). This big pile of flat rice noodles was joined on the plate by a lot of veggies and a light brown sauce. It was good, but I tended to leave it for the meat-centric dishes that we had on this evening.

I left Asian Kitchen pretty full and content. I'd say this is in the upper echelon of Chinese food we have had south of Irvine, but I think nearby China Moon edges it out as the best we have had around these parts. Everything was freshly made and came to the table very hot. The service was very good during our stay on this evening. This is definitely the best restaurant we have been to at this address, and it should be around for a while. If not, then maybe they should just turn this building into another Chase Bank. There seems to be one of those on every corner.

Out of five shopping carts, (because four of the top 10 biggest employers in Laguna Niguel sell groceries), five being best to zero being worst, Asian Kitchen gets 3 shopping carts.

Asian Kitchen has a very bare-bones website, but you can check out their menu and hours by clicking here: https://asian-kitchens.com/