Gui BBQ Restaurant and Bar

Two of Southern California’s greatest assets are its culinary diversity and entrepreneurial spirit: it’s possible to find virtually any type of food you can imagine here, since someone (or multiple people) decided to see whether a concept would work. As the second location of a two-restaurant group started in Rowland Heights, Irvine’s Gui BBQ Restaurant & Bar makes its intentions clear from its name – it’s Chinese barbecue plus street foods and a drinks menu, effectively serving as the Beijing-style counterpart to Fountain Valley’s Shin-Sen-Gumi.

As contrasted with Irvine’s late Sam Woo, this is the sort of Chinese BBQ that relies more on cumin and salt than sweetened soy glaze for flavor, and you order by the skewer or set of skewers rather than by the pound. Many items – say, beef tendon – come in sets of four for $6, while others go for $15-16 per set of $10. This is the perfect place for an adventurous eater to try otherwise obscure meats such as lamb kidney, beef aorta, pork intestine, and duck tongue, but it’s also home to more common choices, including regular lamb, beef, chicken, pork, bacon, seafood, and vegetable skewers. Each table receives a basic portable grill to cook skewers to the preferred degree of doneness.