My wife and I were up making our way up to Universal Studios to pick up our son from an overnight trip with his friend. We were a little ahead of schedule and had time to grab lunch on the way.
While driving I told my wife to go to my blog on her phone and check out my page Food Blogs – Things I Tried. I knew I had a couple of Orange County blogs on there.
She found the OCfoodies – The Latest & Tastiest for foodies blog, and read this review “Pepper Lunch Sizzles With Second Orange County Location“.
We saw that it was in the Irvine Spectrum Center, and that location alone was enough to pique my interest.
Now, I know… it’s a mall. But it’s a mall I have driven by a gazillion times and never stopped. Plus, we had a lot of driving to do, and I wasn’t really in the mood to go exploring for some cool foodie hood.
My main goal was to get the timing right with traffic to pick up my son in Universal City. My second goal was to be comfortable, and my third goal was to try someplace I’ve never tried.
I’m happy to report, we accomplished all three.
When we got to the Spectrum Center we drove around a little and saw a few restaurants, including a dim sum place that looked like they might be ok, but parking was tough. We cruised to the open air lot and some nice couple walking pointed to their car.
I am not a fan of waiting for someone to pull out, but they were so nice, and there were no cars behind us.
From the vantage point of this lot, we could start to see that there was a lot more to the Spectrum Center than those first few restaurants. We got sucked in.
We were surprised how lively the mall was as we used technology to guide us to Pepper Lunch.
BTW, I should mention that I have a habit of selecting a destination, but absolutely not being committed to it. The entire point of the destinational navigation—I think I just coined that phrase—is to have a direction to travel that you know will get you to at least one option, and you suspect will take you past other options.
It was a good little walk through the mall, and we did indeed see other options, but when we arrived at Pepper Lunch, there was a long line.
I’ll be honest—I was skeptical that this long line was because they are so great. This location had opened very recently, as mentioned in OCFoodie’s post. Oftentimes when a place is new, they get a lot of business, and the food and service can be off.
I really don’t like reviewing places that are brand new. It’s almost unfair.
But the smell was tantalizing, and I can’t really resist a crowd. To me, the crowd is where I want to be. I hate it when my wife and son refuse to wait in a long line. I always tell them that some of the best stuff requires a wait. I also remind them that we aren’t really in a rush, cuz we usually aren’t. They just seem to think we are.
My son can be super hungry sometimes, so that can be the cause of the impatience. I like to have healthy snacks on hand, so I’m never so hungry that I can’t wait a half hour for what I want or walk around for an hour and a half looking for something good.
My son usually turns down my healthy snacks, so that can be a problem. He’s getting better about it. We’re working on it.
So waiting in line at Pepper Lunch, it was good that my son wasn’t with us. He never would have made it. I think we waited like 40 minutes. And my son would have definitely commented on how there were empty tables (so why won’t they seat us?) He also would have surely noticed something else nearby that would have been less interesting and quicker.
My wife and I patiently waited, noticing some of the waitstaff muttering about being out of curry and other things.
Yep. They definitely seemed to be having some of those Grand Opening kinks that are so common.
The order kiosk was overwhelming. So many options, but add-ons add up. We managed to order and found a delightful table. There was a round spot in the middle of the table that said to put your electronic order tracker on that, presumably as a high-tech way of identifying where you are seated.
So that made it surprising when they brought me someone else’s food—sizzling salmon beef. It looked good, but it wasn’t mine.
They had cool music playing, such as “How It Feels” by Barry Can’t Swim.
When they brought my Kimchi Beef Pepper Rice, I asked for and received chopsticks. It was on a sizzling plate that you use to cook your meat. I jumbo-sized my beef and paid to add green beans.
This brings me to a major point. I completely agree with the OCFoodie review, where they mention that they upsized their protein and added a few addons, but were disappointed that their dish was like $36, and still didn’t have enough meat.
That was my experience, and having gone in already having seen that review, I must admit, it slowed me down on the addons at the kiosk. I didn’t want my dish to be $36.
I will say, in my past life, when we were a little more flush with cash, that would be fun though. Add freakin’ everything. That could be a fun way to waste your money.
Anyhow, I really appreciated the green beans, and the corn was hot, sweet, savory and delicious.
My wife ordered the Beef Aglio Olio Pasta. When it arrived, she was disappointed that there was no kind of sauce she could detect. We asked and learned that the pasta was served as it should be, in an oil. She had a sizzling plate to cook her beef as well.
While she hadn’t intended on ordering what looked like a boring pasta dish, she was pretty impressed. I think she developed as a pasta connoisseur that day.
This is another point where I agree with OCFoodie. The food is delicious, even if the prices are high and the protein portions are paltry.
Oh yeah. We also had the onion rings. My wife thinks that bigger, thicker beer battered onion rings are superior, but I have to say I really appreciated the slightly more delicate sweet batter. I loved ’em.
It was a fun meal, and we weren’t in a hurry. We wasted just the right amount of time.
Having gone easy on the add-ons, we got out of there with a bill for two under $55.
Here is their website:
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