Whenever I pass by this restaurant it always looked empty so I always passed up on it but I decided to give it a try and I was not disappointed! I got the intestines braised noodles and it has good heat to it, just the way I like it! The cucumbers were all crunchy and refreshing. My friend got the beef stew noodles and she really enjoyed it too. The owners were friendly and conversed with us in Chinese. During our time there it was a nonstop stream of delivery orders so they definitely are popular for deliveries. The pricing was very reasonable especially for Irvine. The restaurant was nicely decorated and there is plenty of above and underground garage parking here. I will definitely come here again! read more

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As long as I've been seeing Chef Chuan restaurant, I've been wanting to try them out. Well, here I am a year later with the urges finally building up. I went in to try this place I've been seeing for a while now. The place was empty and that should have been my first sign. The menu was mostly all foreign with VERY minimal description. I ordered what I thought was simply a savory Braised Beef Noodle bowl which I ended up not finishing at all. I felt almost as if my husband and I offended the lady for walking in and being Latino. We asked our questions to where we were communicating with her grunts and grunting. Not one word of English came out besides "To-Go". I knew this was a very ethnic Chinese restaurant but like I said, I never finished the hot soup. The bowl had a ton of the Szechuan spices making my whole mouth and tongue numb from the spices. Had there been less, I may have just enjoyed it but it was not edible. Eating this braised beef bowl soup felt like taking a 9-volt battery to the tip of my tongue (IYKYK). I don't think I will be coming back to visit Chef Chuan. read more

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The food is the key feature. I honestly don't care about anything else for this restaurant because their food is soo good. It's the kind of guilty pleasure of eating something greasy salty and really delicious. It's very authentic Sichuan food. While I'm not native to Sichuan(I came from Beijing), my mother is native to there and praises this restaurant significantly. The service was alright. Nothing outstanding but nothing bad, just the basic. Ambiance is completely hole in the wall type restaurant, they mostly cook for takeout orders like door dash, not really meant for seating in. read more

Chef Chuan - Spicy Grilled Fish - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

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Best Chinese food in area! Completely missed this gem since living here, it's really lowkey. read more

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Placed a pick-up order online, and the restaurant accepted the order. The store hour showed they closed at 12:50pm, I arrived at 10:30pm but the store closed. Are you kidding me? You can closed on New Year's Eve, please make sure your store hour lists out correctly, and don't accept the order! read more

Chef Chuan - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

Was originally planning on going to Frank's BBQ, but they sold out of the pork so decided to check out this place. Ordered the Spicy Braised Beef noodle. Probably one of the worst dish I've had in a while. The dish looked and tasted like they just dumped half a jar of Szechuan oil in water, mixed some noodles and a couple slices of thinly sliced beef. I like spice, but this dish had no flavor at all. Def won't be coming back. read more

Not bad! It's a good Chinese lunch spot because they give it in perfect lunch containers what would have made this better is a combo with like side small soup or side refreshing vegetable since most of their dishes are quite heavy for lunch and oily. We tried the brisket with potato 9/10 We also tried the twice cooked pork 8/10 read more

Chef Chuan - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

The food is ok, food portions are small. You will need to order 4 meals for 2 adults. Servers are nice, but seems no time to greeting and don't have too much restaurant service experience. You have to ask what you need, the gentleman at the front desk was very serious , even we say thank you when we asked for a cup of water or some napkins, he was no response, that makes me feel like we are the servers, he was the clients. The bow and plates are all disposable ones, feel like order Togo food but eat in the restaurants, that's not what we expected. read more

The food overall here is pretty good but the service is spotty. I ordered the pickled minced pork noodle and the saliva chicken. I pointed at the items on the menu, which the person taking the order saw, and I still ended up with the wrong order. I ended up with the saliva chicken and a minced pork with green beans dish, no noodles. While it tasted good, I was a bit annoyed because I had specifically wanted a noodle dish. Food is very spicy here so be careful. The saliva chicken, cold chicken in chili oil topped with peanuts, was spicy, sweet, and sour so I quite liked it but the minced pork dish was way too spicy, almost inedible for me. The food also took awhile to get out. I ordered to-go and got my food about 30 minutes later, which is alright, but I was given no heads up as to how long it'd take, so I just sat there. read more

Ordered for pickup. Food is decent. However they just put the food in the back and tell you to pick it up yourself without even checking. Doesn't seem like a good idea because anyone can just come in and steal your order. Pickled mustard fish soup - so this takeout bowl isn't the greatest compared to other places I've been to and I feel like it holds much less content. There's a lot of fish, pickled mustard and vermicelli but just not enough soup. The soup tastes great and I wish there was more. The fish is swai. The vermicelli noodles don't break apart which is great but it is also not the best. It is very rigid and doesn't soak the soup. Eggplant - extremely oily. The whole container is filled with oil which spilled all over the takeout bag and into my car. I'd be careful with this one. The eggplant is cooked to perfection but on the sweeter end. Shredded potatoes - I think they put way too much garlic in this dish but it is definitely one of the better ones I've had. The potatoes have a nice crunch to it along with vinegar. Spicy chicken- can't comment on the crunch because it took more than 30 mins for the drive home. There wasn't any option for spice level and this is pretty much for beginners. It is not spicy enough. The chicken is marinated well but the portion is quite small for the price. Overall the food is not bad but not the greatest either. read more

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Tldr: If it was before today, I would've given it four stars, but the staff was smoking indoors, almost dropping cigarette ash into my food, so I'm deducting one and a half star. I've done here several times before, and the food has always been magnificent. The flavors were always on point and quick. The service has never been that great for dine in, but I normally order out. My favorite has always been the tomato eggs over rice, the mouthwatering, chicken, and the cumin lamb. I've never expected too much in terms of service, considering this is a old-school Chinese restaurant. But the food has always enticed me to come back for more. However, today, I was appalled to see the staff lighting up their cigarettes indoors. Cigarette smoke tends to get into everything and contaminate the flavor. But even worse, one of the servicer was smoking as they were placing the rice for my order in the to go container while the ash of his cigarette was precariously bouncing above my food. I fear if any of it remnants gets into my food. So before today, I would've highly recommended it to anybody. But after this, I hesitate to recommend it. Unless it is a prime time, and very busy when no one has a chance to light up their cigarette. read more

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I had the mapo tofu and rice. very good 5/5 Very friendly staff. I'll come back again and try something new for sure 我吃了麻婆豆腐和米饭。非常好5/5 read more

Chef Chuan - Mapo Tofu - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

Was craving fried rice went in they no speak English and so we used the translate app I asked for house special fried rice the guy pointed I said ok now $17 later I have pork and potatoes with white rice wtf.... Five minute update it's not even pork!?! If you are gonna sell food in America you should definitely be able to speak English. If I was living in china I would do my best to speak the language. read more

Authentic Szechuan cuisine, Fast service and delicious tasting food. Szechuan cuisine are usually spicier than regular Chinese food, so if you can't eat spicy, be sure to let them know you want a milder flavor. Bon Appetit ! read more

Chef Chuan - Whole Spicy Grilled Fish - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

Quick service. Delicous food. I got the spicy crayfish tail and broccoli with Minced garlic. The spicy crayfish is delicious and has that good Sichuan tingle. So so good and the broccoli was cooked well with a good garlicky flavor. read more

Chef Chuan - Spicy crayfish tail and broccoli with mincrd garlic - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

Small hole in the wall spicy Szechuan style. Flavors excellent! You can dine in or order takeout. 1st time eating here and will definitely come back! read more

Chef Chuan - Shredded pork with hot green pepper - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

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Seems they only let you use the restroom if you're asian. Lady gave my wife a disgusted look when she asked; will not be back.

Just came from here, my family and I were sitting down for about 10 min waiting for someone to take our order. The people that work there were just eating at a table. When my husband went to order she didn't bother trying to understand my husband. You can tell they don't want our business. We left read more

I really like their green pepper shredded pork rice bowl. I keep thinking I should try their other dishes , but I like it so much that I end up getting it every time. Service is good, and the people are friendly. read more

Chef Chuan - Green pepper shredded pork rice bowl. One of my favorite dishes anywhere. - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

Food was so good but I ordered at 1130 and someone came in right after me and got their food at 1145. I didn't receive mine till 1220. Wish the service was better I would come here a lot more read more

Small Chinese restaurant doing mostly take outs, but now allow for dine in as well. One side of the menu features rice dishes and noodle soups and the other side features Sichuan style stir fry dishes. The spicy beef noodle soup (麻辣牛肉粉) was very flavorful and not overly spicy. You can add different toppings to it as well (fried egg, quail eggs, tofu, bamboo shoots etc). We also tried Kong pao chicken (宫保鸡丁) and bok choy with mushroom (香菇油菜) - both were pretty tasty! Friendly owner & staff with good service. read more

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Holy mother. This hole in the wall no English speaking waiter was hands DOWN , THE BEST Chinese food I have EVER EATEN!

The food is authentic and so we'll flavored. Has the shredded eggplant and you could taste the char on it along with garlic slices and fresh ginger. Mmmm also had the Kung Pow chicken which Elias a good level of heat along with scallions garlic and ginger. Had to snap a pic of the name as it's not in the most visible plaza in Irvine. It will be my go to spot for Chinese food. Corner of Jamboree and DuPont. You should go, for reals. read more

I walked in to this restaurant after a long day not expecting much from the looks of the store front and shopping center. read more

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I was in town for a training class and wanting Chinese for dinner. I drive to another restaurant that was slammed packed, decided to drive around and see what I found. I didn't see this place from the road, I saw another but decided to try Chef Chuans. The menu is quite intimidating if you're not familiar with the cuisine. I ordered Spare ribs and Kung Pao Chicken with steamed rice. Not sure what to expect I was very pleased with the portion size and the flavor. Everything was delicious. Perfect amount of spice. read more

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Ordered their most popular and recommend dishes. The Potatoes and beef brisket, Cabbage Side, black pepper beef tenderloin, and braised pork. First off the potatoes with beef brisket, the dish came with barely any beef for charging 19 dollar, I basically paid for potatoes. The black pepper beef and braised pork, flavors weren't anything special or that flavorful and definitely low quality beef and pork. As for the cabbage. For 12 dollars, they couldn't even give us cabbage that filled up over 50 percent of the Togo container. Paid over 70-80 dollars for food that's worth 20-30 dollars. Absolutely disappointed. read more

Chef Chuan - Beef with potatoes. More like potatoes with some beef... - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

The food WAS decent before but they had some internal issue which cause the chef to go haywire and now the food is poorly flavored. No service is provided at this location, matter of fact the chefs and so call waiters all smoke inside the restaurant, yes where there is table being serviced. It is very disrespectful and obviously a violation, I am curious if this placed even have any ratings. Lastly, don't expect to dine in since it's dirty, no one wipes table and all dining-ware are disposable. read more

Really nice place. The cashier was a sweet old lady. The food was good as well. The lamb with cumin was good, along with the chicken fried rice. Would recommend. read more

This place is an absolute hidden gem. Tasty, flavorful, & authentic sichuan food without the frills. They speak limited English so make sure you have photos or google translate ready. Open late so great for late night dinner or pick up. Highly recommend and will definitely be a regular here. read more

Food was actually surprisingly good. I got the beef with wild peppers. Portion was very generous and flavor was delicious. I'd definitely come back here again. The workers were very nice and patient, I didn't quite know what to order at first and they were incredibly helpful with answering my questions. read more

Not a place for dine in. The environment is totally a mess since no one is cleaning table. Only one person is serving and we have been waiting 2 dishes for one hour. They are cooking for online order first and serve us with wrong dishes for three times. The food are place on paper plate and full of oil, ginger and garlic as the photos shown. I didn't write review for 2 yrs and this worth as my worst experience of the year. read more

Chef Chuan - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

Bought spicy juicy chicken.. very dry and not fresh .. no chop stick inside my order .. rice taste like a parfum

A+ authentic sichuan pickle taste! Highly recommended. Will be back to try other dishes

A good dinner choice for chinese food. The menu is not very extensive but has the basic items you are looking for. You can ask for extra hot for the noodle soup if you like spicy food. Green pepper pork was tasty. But I wish they would provide additional items of greens for the rice dish. read more

Chef Chuan - Green pepper with pork over rice - Chinese Near Me - Irvine, California

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Best Sichuan restaurant I've had in Irvine, strongly recommends to spicy foods lovers!

Everything was delicious . I honestly don't remember what we ordered , but we put in on our " return" list and " order take out " list. We live in Arizona and are here for six weeks so we have been exploring . read more

So yeah, this place isn't even really worth a detailed review. You know that book "Salt Fat Acid Heat," describing elements of good food? Apparently the chef here only read SALT and FAT. Each of our three dishes had about a gallon of oil and literally three to four times more salt than it called for. The Kung Pao Chicken was black. It's supposed to be golden, reddish brown. I gave it a chance despite the fact that I wouldn't have been able to identify it as Kung Pao Chicken in a hundred tried - it was god awful. This place had four reviews before mine in four months - apparently a lot of people were smarter than me in avoiding it. read more

If you like spicy Sichuan Chinese food you must try Chef Chuan. They have the best spicy fried chicken and noodles in OC. And they give you a generous portion. read more