Liang's Kitchen (a.k.a. Mama Liang's) opened this week to early crowds at the 99 Ranch-anchored plaza on Walnut and Jeffrey in Irvine, the reputation from its established restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley preceding it.
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Liang's specializes in Taiwanese “country” or “village” cooking, and is specifically known for their niu rou mian, beef noodle soup, in which they produce their own handmade, knife-cut noodles to swim in a spicy beef broth populated full of gelatin-rich tendon to chew on.
Other noteworthy items: wontons in spicy sauce, beef rolls, and pork chop rice.
As for Takaraya, the Japanese take-out joint that it summarily replaced? Gone and forgotten.
Liang's Kitchen, 5408 Walnut Ave., Ste 1, Irvine, CA 92618
*Thanks to Brekkie Fan for the tip.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.