Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle

For nine years, Irvine’s Diamond Jamboree plaza was home to Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle, which greeted guests with a statue showing chopsticks holding long noodles and chunks of beef above an oversized bowl of soup, decorated with the cartoony image of the namesake chef. The message was clear: come here for desirably chewy, handmade noodles, and you’ll be pleased by the quality of the meats and the soup, too.

We liked the place on our first visit – everything was good except the deep-fried pork chop, which was much better prepared at nearby Taiwanese pork chop specialist Kingchops and all things Taiwan restaurant A&J –  and planned to return again. After suffering from dish quality issues, service issues, and the pandemic, Chef Hung closed permanently in 2020.

It has been replaced in the same space by Dun Huang/Noodle Nest, which opened less than a year after Chef Hung closed, and offers northwest Chinese specialties that overlap the prior menu, including handmade noodles and beef soups. The Chef Hung chain no longer appears to have any locations in the United States.