Big goings and comings at Orange Tree Plaza on Walnut Ave. in Irvine, including the closure of my favorite Chinese restaurant in Orange County, Hometown Restaurant. Orange Tree may have been the first heavily Chinese shopping center in Irvine when 99 Ranch Market opened up there and several Chinese restaurants followed. I’ve been patronizing that center for almost 25 years. Shockingly, the two restaurants drawing the biggest crowds to the center have closed in the past year.
Hometown was so busy on weekends that if you tried to call in an order to go they probably wouldn’t answer the phone and if you ordered takeout in person they told you to pick up your order in 30 minutes. When they temporarily closed for remodeling and expansion everybody assumed it was to expand its capacity. But when it reopened the signage said Yu’s Garden, another popular restaurant at the other end of the plaza well known for their reasonably priced three item combos. The dynamics are that the same lady owned both restaurants and decided she could run only one expanded business and chose the combo place.
Meanwhile a few doors down Shabu Shabu House drew massive crowds of people waiting to get in. But they shut down last year possibly a business dispute. Anyway finally moving into the space which has been greatly expanded is going to be a branch of Momo Paradise.
And now at the enter end of the center a long vacant space shows signage that says Jiang Nan. Any relation to the Alhambra restaurant of that name that got Mama Lu’d? Probably not.
