Chef Tian

After a number of years that saw little improvement in Orange County’s Chinese restaurant community – and some noteworthy closures – the mid-2020s have seen multiple regional specialists open either all-new or chain outpost locations here, including quite a few in Irvine. Hailing from Richmond, British Columbia, Hunan specialist Chef Tian (known in Canada as Chef Tian’s) first crossed into the U.S. with a City of Industry location in July 2025, followed one year later by an opening at Irvine’s Heritage Plaza, replacing long-time Mexican comfort food spot Super Mex next to ROL Hand Roll Bar, Súp Noodle Bar, and Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai. This new restaurant offers an authentically Chinese menu that overlaps similarly young, Hunan-focused HN Chiliking and rustic Sichuan-based Spicy Master, but requires less spice tolerance to enjoy.

(“Less” is a relative term here. Like both of those restaurants, Chef Tian makes a fairly big deal out of its seasoning: There’s a yellow and red pepper mascot immediately outside the front door, and a freezer inside so guests can take free chocolate ice cream popsicles to help soothe their burning tongues. As marketing goes, these gestures might draw some attention away from the plaza’s earlier Chinese restaurants Spicy City and Kirin Noodle House, but based on our experience, fans of spicy Chinese food won’t find Tian’s dishes to be particularly hot.)

With seating for around 50 people, Chef Tian’s new dining room is clean and modern without much flash, notably sporting a large bar near the front with a collection of surprisingly premium Asian liquors. Wooden tables have their own napkin and silverware drawers facing aisles, and though ordering is primarily handled with QR codes and smartphones, traditional laminated menus and servers are available as alternatives. Dishes range from $8 to $129, though the vast majority of items are $20 to $25, with fish ($46), market-priced seafood (lobster, geoduck, tiger grouper) and soft-shell turtle ($129) representing the higher end of the scale. Beef, pork rib, chicken, and veggie dishes are all in the $15 to $25 range.

Across two visits, all the dishes we tried were good rather than great, including items Chef Tian’s menu recommends or calls “specialties.” The first meal’s highlight was the signature Hunan stir-fried baby abalone and sliced pork ($20), served in a presentation wok above a Sterno-flamed grill to keep the temperature high. Though the dish’s spice level was only a step or two above mild, the dual proteins and green peppers were fresh, plentiful, and lightly crisped at the edges by the flame and an oily sauce. Red chilis shown in Chef Tian’s official photography where nowhere to be found, however, leaving us wondering whether the restaurant could actually deliver any heat.

During our second meal, we ordered spicy stir-fried sea conch slices ($24) – a dish reputed at Chef Tian’s City of Industry location to have stronger heat levels. While the heat level here was a little higher thanks to a mix of peppers, minced garlic, and hot oil, we were more impressed by the uniquely paper-thin slices of conch, a shellfish that managed to become noodle-like in this presentation, hiding a large bed of bean sprouts that were used to make the protein portion look larger. Spicy or not, this is a true showcase for conch, and we really enjoyed it.

Tian used a similar plating trick on another dish, hand-shredded beef tripe with fresh chili ($20), to wow with an initially huge-looking pile of black and gray tripe. While this place used matchstick-thin cucumber as its base, and wasn’t actually “cold” as described on the menu, it was fun to eat, lightly spiced, and a larger portion (all elements considered) than initially expected.