Qua Contemporary Chinese Cuisine

Long before it had a name – back when Gem Dining was transitioning into Kei Supper Club – Qua was the most mysterious of Kei Concepts’ future plans, established by managerial whispers as a Chinese dim sum and seafood parlor viewed through a Vietnamese lens. Subsequently touted in Kei’s website, social media, and email newsletters for around a year as “Sea,” its name and focus shifted around April 2025, when construction signs went up in a large space at the same Fountain Valley Town Center plaza housing Kei’s earlier Ini, Kin, Rol, and Vox restaurants. For various reasons, dim sum and seafood were deemphasized in favor of a looser concept “inspired by Saigon’s historic Chinatown, Chợ Lớn, and rooted in Chef Viet Nguyen’s family history… Chinese dishes shaped by a Vietnamese backdrop.” Kei’s pre-opening social media posts alternately touted Qua as three or eleven years in the making – the former number likely referring to restaurant design and construction planning, versus initial concept exploration.

Since it’s been in the works for so long – and also considering Kei’s incredible run with the aforementioned restaurants, many of which are among our local favorites – it’s a little surprising that Qua feels somewhat unfinished during its soft opening, specifically in the culinary department; as at all Kei restaurants, service ranged from friendly and attentive to flawless on both of our visits. Granted, Qua’s social media cautions guests that “during this soft opening period, our menu and service will continue to evolve as we find our rhythm,” and yes: Having visited multiple new Kei concepts in their earliest days, we’ve learned to trust that they will indeed improve as time goes on. So consider this article a non-final draft, just like Qua’s initial menu.

That menu loosely fills two sides of one large piece of cardstock with roughly 28 savory dishes, three desserts, and a la carte condiments canvassing cold and hot appetizers, a handful of dim sum, then overlapping categories of rice, noodle, “hot” and house specialty dishes. Of note, seafood is neither absent nor particularly emphasized here, and there’s very little obvious Vietnamese connection in most of the offerings. Unless you have personal familiarity with Chợ Lớn in Ho Chi Minh City, you may struggle to answer “what’s different?” between Qua and any upscale non-Americanized Chinese restaurant in Orange County.

As just one frame of reference, guests might feel like they’ve entered a parallel universe version of Din Tai Fung without dumplings: The dining room’s frosted glass, tile, and marble accents have a similar level of class, though the cavernous space feels less intimate than the typical DTF, say nothing of Kei’s other restaurants. A central bar with a limited initial cocktail menu is similar to one at the Irvine location of Nep Cafe – seemingly the focal point of the space, but without anything initially wow-inducing. On our first visit, we ordered two soft drinks that turned out to be Chinese sodas served from cans, including a decidedly olive-scented sarsaparilla, an apple soda, and a Melon Ball cocktail that was less distinctive in flavor than looks, then only for the ball of lightly melony granita that briefly sat atop a perfectly clear, glass-height block of ice. Our second visit kicked off with a nice Hong Kong Milk Tea, which arrived with a lightly toasted creme brulee top and jelly cubes inside, and a Lucky Cat mocktail that looked and tasted cocktail-class without any booze.

Over these two visits, our group tried items representing most parts of the menu. From the “cold appetizer” collection, we began with the Sichuan pig ear ($12) and bang bang chicken ($19), which turned out to be the same dish but with quality sliced pig ear in one, and chunked chilled chicken in the other. Each was good – lightly spicy, well garnished with peanuts, and only moderately oily – but in no way distinctive compared with versions we’ve enjoyed at many other places locally. Perhaps our favorite cold appetizer was the chili surf clam ($15), a very ample portion of sliced, chilled red fin-shaped clams with a similar chili-soy dressing, while marinated cucumber ($8) offered a DTF-sized, entirely pleasant portion of chili-vinegared small cucumber slices, onions, peppers, and garlic.

Turning to dim sum, we felt obliged to sample the four-piece shrimp hargow ($10), which offered at least aesthetic differences from the norm. Each crystalline dumpling sported a thinner, more delicate wrapper than typical storebought versions, though the steamer arrived without chili paste or another dipping sauce. Cheung Fun-style shrimp rice rolls ($8.50/3) were underwhelming, served atop a pool of thin, oily soy sauce with two medium-sized shrimp inside. Our immediate reaction was that Seafood Cove 2 has nothing to worry about.