Two more places put their sign up at Diamond Jamboree.
First, there's Greek Islands Cuisine. If the name sounds familiar, it's because they already have a food stall at the Main Street Plaza Food Court, also in Irvine. Their new store in Diamond Jamboree will be significantly bigger. It will be a bonafide restaurant and neighbor to BBQ Chicken.
The other is called Balcony Grill and Bar. Not “bar and grill”, but “grill and bar”. More specifically: a yakitori grill, since they will serve those ever-popular skewered sticks of meat — a staple at izakayas Honda Ya, Kappo Honda and Shinsengumi.
But here's where it gets kind of odd: According to their parked website, it will also serve English afternoon tea and will be open late, serving cocktails until 2 AM.
I only mention the last part because it's located on the second level of the shopping complex, with a flight of winding steps that lead down to the courtyard. Last call will be interesting to watch.
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.