Taiko Japanese Restaurant - Irvine, CA

The other night I was suppose to have a salad for dinner because I am trying to watch what I eat this week since I am tapering. But by the time I got off work, I no longer felt like eating a salad. Thinking back I should have just had a salad. The Honey and I debated on where we should go eat instead. This is a nightly occurrence since neither he nor I ever know what we want to eat. Various options were thrown in the hat including The Curry House and Thai Cafe but somehow we ended up here.

Taiko, I've only been here one other time many years ago and I didn't remember liking it much then. I agreed to come here again to give it another try but after this visit I doubt if I will come back again. On any given day there is a line out the door. I never understood why and I still don't. It is terribly overrated. There are so many other places even in Irvine where you can find better and less expensive Japanese food. Maybe I am just missing something.

Although they did serve complimentary hot green tea which was nice.

And this pickled cabbage that my date thought was just nasty but I liked it.

I got a bowl of miso soup even though I had not ordered a combo meal. The soup was sweeter than any other miso soup I've ever had. It wasn't bad but weird and different. There were a couple of flimsy pieces of bean curd floating around in there but not much seaweed or anything else to speak of.

This Tako (Octopus) Sashimi was just a travesty. I mean just look at it. Even I could cut it like that. Obviously this was chewy as heck since they had sliced it so thick. The trick to this dish is interlacing thinly sliced octopus and lemon so that you get a piece of both in every bite. This was just wrong in so many ways. They must not have liked me very much because all I got was tentacles. WTH?

Salmon Roe Sushi - this was good but not amazing and as I mentioned before this is one of those things that is really hard to mess up on.

Shrimp Hand Roll - pretty plain and disappointing. Sigh.

The Honey got the Teriyaki Chicken plate which came with steamed green beans and mayo dip and an iceberg salad. Lots of chicken but this was pretty pricey for what it was. Date mentioned that this dish is way better over at Fukada. Yeah, my date gives me commentary and feedback on his meals now so that I can mention it here on the blog. You don't know him but that is just too funny to me.

We shared an order of Shrimp and Veggie Tempura. Too much batter and extremely oily. I felt like I had fallen into an oil spill after eating this. Yuck!

And since I was dissatisfied with my meal, we headed next door to Yogurtland to make it all better. Because Yogurt makes everything better.

...or you can go into Kitty House next to Yogurtland and buy yourself a nice plush Hello Kitty or Angry Bird toy if yogurt if not your thing. I'm just sayin' that you can.

Taiko Japanese Restaurant
14775 Jeffrey Rd # K
Irvine, CA 92618-0403
(949) 559-7190