Kaya Restaurant

Address:	14120 Culver Dr, Irvine, CA 92604, USA
Phone:	+1 949-726-9424
Rating:	4.5
Working:	11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 12–9PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 35

Jason Lum

KAYA!!! The sound that you make in Karata class. Im just kidding. I love this place. I use to always go to Koba Tofu for korean tofu, but the wait is always ridiculous and the services is very slow and servers do not want to help or work there. Well the food at Kaya is more home korean style cooking and service is just one button away. Just press the button for service dont be a fool and try to holla at a server. Location A little bit hidden in the back of the plaza. Parking is usually plentyful but it can get crazy on weekends around dinner time. Food Way better than BCD Tofu House in Irvine. Keep in mind the combos dont have a lot of meat. Koba has the most meat hands down. Kaya has the best Ban Chan side dishes and the largest claypots with delicious tofu. Tofu - The tofu will not win any awards but it taste authentic to me. Simple and not powdery like other tofu chain restaurants. And if you ask for spicy you better be able to hand it. I had to go with medium sometimes because it taste like burning. I cant stay away from the fire. Its so wrong but so right. My favorite is oysters style then followed by clams and seafood. Kalbi - not much meat. Good but Id rather make my own, because its only 5 bucks a pound at Woori market. Bolgugi - this gives more meat because there is no bone. Its still not too much if you want a lot of meat but good enough to fill you up with a combo. I always get a combo and share the meat with a friend. I just love the Ban Chan so much I refill it constantly. Maybe too much because I feel like I ate at a buffet by the time Im finished with my meal. Atmosphere Its like home! If I had a korean home that is.. Its nothing fancy but thats what I love about it. I highly recommend for Koreans that homestyle food. If you want big portions go to Koba Tofu instead. If you like all tofu places and dont care, BCD is open 24 hours but I swear to never go back. It taste like powder mixed with tofu so order extra water ahead of time. I cant wait to go back to Kaya again and again.

Alice Chang

service here is a hit or miss. so is the food. my fam and i showed up for a table of 5 thinking my boyfriend would join us for dinner if he got out of work early, but nope. so when the owner saw that the 5th person (aka my bf) didnt show she came over and said "i thought there were 5 people" and passive aggressively tried to pull the additional table away from our table... lol. uhhhhh. ok? so yeah, be prepared for some pms related korean drama-ish service experience.

Walter Chen

It has been a really long time since I ate in this restaurant. However, I can only dream this in my dream now since I left USA for a long long time. The Korean food inside is authentic Korean food. They have serveral small traditional dishes for customers. You can always refill them. Its just way tooooo delicious. I love the stone rice, the tofu soup, the pancake, the fish, the BBQ, and everything there. I miss it sooooooo much.

Jesse Evans

Pros: Great service, pleasant atmosphere, quiet enough that one could hear others at the table without shouting, which itslef is a unique experience in this town, enormous wine list. Cons: Pass on the creamed spinach, its terrible, they should relearn the recipe from any Lawrys restaurant, a little too dark, couldnt see my steak to cut it.

Andrew Kim

It was pretty good and its a mom and pop shop. The side dishes were better made than most of the Korean places I have been to. My gf ordered the stone bowl bibimbap and it was great. I ordered the cold buckwheat noodles and it wasnt that impressive. Overall I would recommend.. Just not their noodles

Cameron Greer

Amazing and authentic Korean food. I have been to South Korea, and this tastes just as good if not better that what you can get there. They give you plenty of traditional Korean appetizers, without even asking and free of charge. Also the bibimbop is an A+

ALLAN JAMES

Chicken Noodle Soup for the win!!!! Cant believe it took this long to find this place, but it was awesome if youre in the mood for a korean flavored chicken noodle soup. Perfect hand-cut noodles and once you flavor up that broth, it is awesome. Good work.

Edward Kim

Good Korean food. Good side dishes. Probably the best all around option for Korean food flavor wise in Irvine. Reasonable prices too. Only downside is its hard to find from Culver and the parking lot is the worst in terms of sizes of spots.

David Nguyen

Weve ate here a couple time and there wasnt a wait. It is located on the inside corner of the shopping center. Food is decent, service is decent, didnt find anything special about this place to recommend.

A Private User

This place is nicely decorated, but the prices are still great! The food is delicious. I highly recommend the Tofu Soup (beef). Their dishes are very authentic. I prefer this place to BCD anyday!

Patrick Kim

Ordered ahead for Soon Dooboo (soft tofu) takeout. Couldnt believe how well they packaged it. You wont be disappointed in their portions. The freshly made, crispy vegetable pancake is the Bomb.

Benjamin Favis

My wife and I have come to eat here a lot over the past couple years. The soon du bu is my favorite in Irvine. They give a lot of side dishes and Ive never had a problem with the service.

Peter Chen

Best Korean restaurant around. Everything here is good, at least everything we tried. Their tofu stew dish here is definitely better than Tofu House. The squid rice is also excellent.

Hoontaek Oh

미국에서 한국음식 제대로 맛있게만드는집은 여기밖에없음둥

Monica Kulkarni

Horrible service, they closed earlier than it said on the Internet, at 9 pm, but didnt bother to tell us properly and gave us terrible rude service.

Bernie Zhao

My kids favorite Korean restaurant! Very authentic tofu and rice with generous side dishes. Oh and the seafood pancakes are so good.

Seung Hyun

Good service and good foods. Especially, free Korean pancake appetizer is excellent. Restroom needs to be cleaned.

Jong Park

I had soft tofu soup and cold nangmyun. They have very authentic and great tasting Korean food. I loved food.

Zhang Yixing Is Bae

The dok bogi is delicious. The dok is chewy and delicious. The galbi is super flavorful and tender as well.