House of Cedar

Smart Kitchens – a “kitchen incubator” located in Irvine near John Wayne Airport – is kind of like a food court minus the mall, spacious communal seating, and foot traffic: like Costa Mesa Kitchens, it’s just a space where multiple food service businesses can prep and hand off freshly cooked meals to delivery drivers or customers, expecting that their consumption will happen elsewhere. After spending two years in relative obscurity, the Lebanese-owned House of Cedar exited Smart Kitchens in fall 2025 and relocated to Lake Forest, transitioning into something close to a full-fledged restaurant. With one cook in the back and two people providing service as of early February 2026, there technically aren’t enough people to handle the massive dining space, but it’s clear that they’re both trying hard and punching well above their initial staffing level in culinary quality.

Previously occupied by Malta Mexican Seafood, House of Cedar’s dark, TV-filled dining room seats 100 people in the front and 50 more in a dark but nice private space, its large kitchen almost entirely closed off on one side next to a cash register. Rather than offering paper menus, the new restaurant has a digital iPad-based menu that’s not yet fully reflected on its web site, featuring expected Middle Eastern favorites ranging from hummus to grape leaves and salads, falafel to shawarma, shish kabobs, and a handful of desserts (baklava, kunafa, and rice pudding). However, while roughly 85% of House of Cedar’s menu items are guaranteed to be familiar, some choices and preparations are anything but typical.

Take, for instance, their combo shawarma plate ($23), where the chicken was still wet with a wonderfully spicy, paprika-based sauce, and the beef was equally tender and intensely flavored – neither typically the case with drier, oilier shawarma meats. Or the hindebeh ($8), a sizable plate of cooked dandelion leaves and onions, served with a half lemon to optionally punch up its sourness, not needed in our view as the fresh, better-than-spinach vegetarian place was disarmingly compelling as served.