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. The initial plan for dim sum and seafood was deemphasized in favor of a looser “Contemporary Chinese” 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.

Given Kei’s incredible run with the aforementioned restaurants, and how long Qua was in the works, it was a little surprising that the new restaurant felt unfinished from a culinary standpoint during its extended soft opening period. But five months later, the menu had evolved enough that we were ready for a third visit to settle our views more definitively, and we’ve since been back twice more. On each occasion, and is typical of Kei restaurants, service has ranged from friendly and attentive to flawless on our visits, though it hasn’t been a linear progression upwards over time.

Half a year after opening, the menu transitioned from temporary card stock sheets to more permanent leather-bound pages with color photos, though the collection has remained at roughly 60 items – mostly numerous savory appetizers, dim sum, soups, and overlapping categories of rice, noodle, and house specialty dishes, plus several desserts. Separate seasonal and beverage menus are also offered, the former with a handful of additional dishes that are typically featured on social media. Of note, seafood is neither absent nor particularly emphasized at Qua, 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 this and any other 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. Ten cocktails ($16 each), three mocktails ($12 each), wines ($12 to $20), beers ($7 to $9), and milk teas ($6) make up most of the sippable options.

On our first visit, we ordered two soft drinks that turned out to be Chinese sodas served from cans (a decidedly olive-scented sarsaparilla and an apple soda), plus 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 the course of multiple Qua meals, we’ve sampled substantial parts of the menu, though some items have popped on or off the list over time. 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 had nothing to worry about. However, Qua upped the ante with a more recent addition, crispy shrimp red rice rolls ($9.50), which combine soft and crispy textures with large bites of shrimp and a nice soy-based sauce, poured tableside. Of the non-seasonal dim sum, these are probably our top pick at this restaurant on both aesthetics and texture.