Gen - Irvine

3957 Irvine Blvd.
Irvine, CA 92602
714-508-1668

Alternate Location:
4143 Campus Dr.
Irvine, CA

I recently went down to the new Gen in Irvine to take advantage of some of their grand opening specials. This seems to be the second location of Gen, the first being in UCI Town Center. Gen is a casual, counter service, Japanese restaurant. They have a large selection of hot food and sushi. They also serve beer and sake.

I went down to Gen around 6:00 on a Wednesday night. The restaurant was fairly empty. V and I met R and J for a quick casual dinner. J and I both ordered a Sesame Chicken bowl ($3.99 on sale $5.99 reg price). R ordered a combo plate with teriyaki chicken and shrimp tempura ($7.49). V and I also ordered a spicy tuna roll ($2.99 on sale $5.99 reg price). R and I also decided to each get a large hot sake ($1.99 on sale $6.00 regular price).

J and I both liked our sesame chicken. The chicken was fresh and crispy and had a pretty good flavor. Of course it wasn't as good as the sesame chicken I had made a week earlier for New Year's, but it was still good.

V and I also liked the spicy tuna roll. It was about what you would expect from a spicy tuna roll. There was nothing special about it but it was definitely better than a lot of spicy tuna rolls that I have had from fast food Japanese places. I would definitely order this again.

R liked his combo plate and said that the teriyaki sauce was pretty good.

Overall, I think that Gen is a great place to go for a quick, casual Japanese meal. The food is pretty good and the sushi seems fresh. Since this place is really close to my house, I have a feeling I'll be stopping in here a lot.

**********UPDATE 1/14/2009**********

I stopped by Gen for lunch today because I forgot to take a picture of the sign. This week they had regular udon on sale for $2.99. I ordered that for lunch and added a 4 piece spicy tuna roll ($1.50 extra with purchase of entree). The udon was pretty good, but nothing special. I still enjoyed my spicy tuna roll. My only complaint about this restaurant is that both times I have been there, it has been extremely hot inside. My first visit was on a chilly evening, so maybe they might have had the heater on. Today it was about 92 degrees outside and I don't think they were using their air conditioning. Therefore, if you're going to get food at Gen, I'd recommend you get it to go.