Little Sister - Irvine (CA)

2 /5 Ngoc Pham: Great food to begin with but the servers forgot one of our order which made us waited almost 30 minutes with nothing. We want to try more food but got no attention from any of the servers. One said he will come back but then never come back so we lost patience on this wait. Also, no dessert menu was shown at the beginning and only suggested before we asked for the bill. The light at our table was off in the middle of our dinner but no server care to change it.

1 /5 KG: Decided to grab dinner here before seeing Wicked: For Good the day after Thanksgiving. We came in early and were seated at the bar. Little Sister operates with two separate kitchens: one for hot dishes and one for cold preparations. The cold kitchen handles items like rice paper rolls, fresh rolls, papaya salad, and other lighter fare and this area is directly in front of the bar where we sat. This is where I unfortunately need to mention a concern. The two ladies working the cold prep line did not appear to follow consistent hygiene practices. They were talking over the food while prepping, not changing gloves between tasks, and touching different ingredients, including raw meats and vegetables without switching gloves. There was also a beef fresh roll that they were pre-making in batches and stacking into a container. So if you plan to order this item, just know it may not be made to order. I wish I could leave it at that, but I ended up getting very sick several times throughout the night, and it carried into the next day. Because of what I observed with cross-contamination risk, I would strongly caution vegetarians, anyone with food allergies, or anyone sensitive to food handling issues to be careful here. I truly don’t enjoy leaving negative reviews, but if you’re going to showcase an open-concept kitchen, it’s important that proper food-safety practices are followed at all times. Based on my experience, I unfortunately cannot recommend dining here.

5 /5 Alex Ryan: We had a a great experience here sitting at the bar. Service was prompt and polite with lots of descriptions about the food and she guided us towards the best options for our party of two. Food was delicious and this is what stood out. You pay for the ambience, and food is family style so order with caution as portions are big and shareable.

3 /5 Felix G: Having been to the one in Redondo Beach previously, I was curious how the Irvine location would be. It was an okay experience with good food. Parking at the Spectrum sometimes feel like a matter of luck. I opted to just park in one of the structures after circling the lot a few times. This was a Friday around lunch hours. The place is beautiful, lots of glass, indoor outdoor seating, high and low seating. Service was nice, our waiter was very knowledgeable and helpful. Other staff members assisted us quickly, constantly topping off our waters. Food-wise, I opted for the black rice. It was good, wild/purple rice mixed with curry flavors. There could’ve been more seafood. Nice large shrimps and octopus. I was expecting bigger pieces of scallops but they were tiny. Portion is in that mix range of too small to share, too large for yourself A place like this, I’d like to share since there’s a good mix of different items, but their portions seem catered to individual portions Don’t get me wrong, the quality is there and the dishes pack a lot of flavor. But for the price and portions, I think I’d go elsewhere. It’s very difficult to choose this place over some other options.