Mei Zhou Dongpo Coming to Irvine

I was slightly upset that the Marie Callendar Restaurant in Culver Plaza, Irvine was closed down.  We loved to get the dessert pies from there during their pie-month sale (Feb and Oct).  Unfortunately, they had to go.

The other day, as I was going to have lunch at Little Sheep, I walked past the empty shop.  Quickly, my eyes noticed a poster on the front door.  From it I found out there is a new restaurant coming to Irvine - Mei Zhou Dongpo!



It is all covered up, I am assuming they have having renovation inside the shop.  As I visited the website listed on the poster, I found that it has another location in Santa Monica Century City Westfield Mall.  There is not much information about it on the website beside the menu and the location.

Farther researching online, Yelp reviewers rated the restaurant in Santa Monica with an average of 3 stars.  From the name of the restaurant, probably their signature dish would be Dongpo meat.  This restaurant may have only 2 locations (including Irvine) in US but has 110 locations across China since 1996.  They serve Sichuan / Szechuan cuisine.  

Guess you all have to wait till its opening to find out more about this place.  I am interested to find out how this restaurant will do with the ever high competition among the many restaurants in Irvine.