The most expensive but most crowded restaurant I've ever been to at the Irvine Spectrum Center. it's because the food is delicious, the staff is friendly, and the antique decorations and music are very good. We booked a room for a group meal, but even if we’re full, didn't meet the minimum guarantee, so it would be a good idea for big eaters or alcohol lovers to come together. Fried ice cream was so good for me that definitely worth trying for dessert.

Celebrated my friend’s and my birthday here and had the best time! The food was great, the staff were so sweet. I tried La Tablita for the first time — the portion was generous and it was so good. And of course, the shrimp tacos were absolutely the best! It was such a happy and memorable night!

This is an upscale trendy Mexican food restaurant. It gets super busy on the weekends. Make reservations if want to be able to get a table, even for the bar area.

Update: 6/10/2025 Talked to the Supervisor over the phone. She handled the situation very professional and all I had to do was return to the Javier’s Irvine location for my partial tip refund. Update: 6/3/2025: After leaving a review on Facebook, I received a comment on my post to respond with my info on Javier’s instant messenger. I posted the photo of that exchange. Now, I finally talk to an employee on the phone, the employee is telling me, that she has to get my refund from the waitress. Update: I’ve emailed and sent direct messages on social media without any response from Javier’s Irvine. This review is for a heads up on the 20% forced gratuity. So you know in advance. Update: I just noticed the forced 20% gratuity added to the bill. Server didn’t not tell me about that charge. The bill was $258, so I gave the server $300, thinking I was only giving a $42 tip, when actually I gave an $82 tip. I’m very concerned about this forced tactic without the server letting me know. Great food, great ambience, waitresses and waiters are very friendly and efficient. Very nice, high class restaurant. The whole meal was great, everyone at my table liked the food and had a great time!

Husband made a mistake by thinking he made a reservation at their Newport Beach location. He didn't realize it until we arrived. He called the Irvine Spectrum location to explain the situation & they were very accommodating, keeping our reservation open to allow us the time to travel from Newport to Irvine. There was a line when we arrived, but because they kept our reservation open, we were sat almost right away. Five stars given for this reason. Otherwise, my food was good but not spectacular. However, my husband did enjoy his pork chop & said it good. He's a "foodie," so that means it was probably pretty good! Our waiter was simply okay. He did his job; nothing like the great reviews I read about & hoped to receive.

Jagadeesh Kovi

I get my regular, "California Chicken Bowl", awesome food. Sometimes it'd get really busy, you can find a table, but takes long for the food to come.

Edward Kim

This is the perfect place to get a health conscious meal. The chipotle bbq chicken and seasoned veggies came perfectly seasoned and complemented each other very well. Not overwhelming in any taste! Highly recommend

Jessica Delgado

Love the spectrum location in Irvine. Everyone is friendly and it is very clean. Food is always good. My go-to meal is the pacific bowl with salmon!

tina montanez

The food was delicious the service was impeccable sweet down to earth attentive people. Thank you for making an enjoyable meal and even better experience. We haven't been here for a long time we don't even know why but it is so yummy. A green tea simply to die for must come visit them they're sweet people here. We ordered a large tomato soup to share they even split it for us and we didn't even ask and the bowls both full

Robert Agar-Hutton

Never been before, never even heard of them,total impulse to go in. Really happy that we did. Lovely food. Would definitely go again.

Gladys Ignacio

Healthy, whole food offerings that were satisfying and delicious. I got the Pacific bowl with salmon. I appreciate the higher than typical ratio of vegetables to starches/proteins. For someone who has to watch their diet due to chronic health issues, this place made it easy to enjoy a meal with a friend.

Marc Rillera

We had a quick dinner at Tender Greens in Irvine Spectrum before watching a movie next door at the Regal Cinemas IMAX. It's a beautiful space where Tender Greens is located. Here's what I recommend: - Chipotle BBQ Chicken Salad ($14.85): this was a delicious salad and you could really taste the marination of the meat. There was avocado, queso fresco, tortilla strips, and a cilantro lime dressing. Highly recommend. Huge serving as well. - Bolognese pasta: this is a new item on the menu so we gave it a try and it wasn't bad! Tender Greens has been branching out to these other kinds of dishes other than just salads and sandwiches and they're doing pretty well. Pasta was slightly undercooked but the Bolognese sauce was delish with all the cheese on top. If you're in Irvine Spectrum and want something a little healthier than all the other options available in the vicinity, go check out Tender Greens.

Karina Larson

The food here is so bomb, definitely my favorite spot to eat at the spectrum. You have to try the mint lemonade. The longevity bowl is my favorite ever, I don’t know what they put in the lentils but it’s so so good! PLEASE don’t ever get rid of it!!

Ron Deo

Straight to the point of healthy choices and delicious taste. Ordered their Pacific bowl and the salmon came out to my liking of crispy, savory and furikake seasoning compliments the sauce that came with it. The staff was helpful and were able to suggest several choices that are on the menu. The food came out to our table in a timely manner and the staff checked in on us during dining.

Rudy Ornelas

Had their pepper chicken if I got the name right 😁 The chicken portion ain't all that to write home about for sure. A little stingy but the food is great especially the tomato soup was prob one of my favs. Try to get there on weekday around 11:30 or face a long line which isn't that bad given they have ur plate ready at the end. Oh, yeah, get the carrot cake NOT the lemon powder cake which according to them it's their fav.

+17

Great energy and lots of seating...enjoyed the view of the fireplace. Table chips were inconsisitent...some undercooked...little too much salt for my liking. But salsa was fresh and a nice way to mask the saltiness. Shrimp and crab enchiladas were outstanding! Plenty of flavor, loved the filling, and the sauce was delicious...but for over $30 it would have been nice to include a small salad or a side of rice.

Hi Everyone (who sees this review & Javier’s Management) : We visited this restaurant today at lunch to celebrate a birthday event. Overall, the experience was amazing and we enjoyed thoroughly. Ambiences were really nice and great exp. to be there. Food was fantastic! We ordered following items : (1) Guacamole (2) Quesadilla (3) Empanadas De Camaron (4)Pollo Chipotle (5) Churros (6) Flan (7) 2 Drinks (Tamarindo Margarita) Overall food was very tasty but Guacamole, Quesadilla and Pollo Chipotle need a special call out — deserts were amazing too. Food and Atmosphere I have rated 5. Reason I have rated 4 in “Service” — team really need to work in this area! They need to be bit more friendly and serves customers with smile and real good behavior. Overall, I might call them “rude” as well in some occasions to be honest. Overall, our experience was very nice!

Nathy’s favorites

Glad to have a healthy restaurant choice at the Spectrum. Food is ordered at the register and brought to your table fairly quickly. The steak was delicious. The Salmon was a bit bland but it mixed well with the California bowl. This is a great healthy option at the Spectrum.

OC Reviews

Food has changed so much since the “beginning” days. It’s still good but not “amazing good” like it used to be. The chicken is a bit dryer now, the salad is not as fresh and the vinaigrette is more sour. The dressing used to be more perfectly balanced and so good, I wanted a bottle of it at home but it’s just overly sour. The bread was burnt. I hate when good restaurants don’t stay consistent. Either case it’s a healthy good lunch, just miss what it used to be… (Irvine Spectrum location)

Michelle Bartolo

I tried Tender Greens for the first time. The menu had soups, salads, bowls, and plates. Very healthy and simple. I went with an entrée which comes with two sides. I selected the panko crusted eggplant, arugula salad, and mashed potatoes. When the plate was served, I noticed there was no sauce for the eggplant and no gravy for the mashed potatoes. I'm a gravy and sauce kinda girl. I proceeded to eat my meal without any sauce and gravy, and it was delicious. I have no complaints. The eggplant was perfectly crusted with the panko and perfectly fried. The eggplant was perfectly sliced, not too thick, and not too thin. After that first bite, it didn't matter that I didn't have any sauce. The arugula salad was perfectly dressed with parmesan and fennel shavings. There was a piece of toasted bread drizzled with olive oil and herbs. The mashed potatoes didn't have gravy, but they tasted great. I'm not sure if the restaurant had gravy or sauces. I enjoyed how everything tasted so much that I didn't even bother to ask if they had any. My daughter tried the Thai bowl with shrimp and coconut sushi rice. I loved it. The vegetables were fresh and crisp. It had that great Thai peanut sauce with a hint of refreshing lime. My son had the buttermilk fried chicken entrée with fingerling potatoes and arugula salad. The chicken was moist and perfectly breaded and fried. For drinks we had the watermelon Aguas frescas, the greens juice, and mint lemonade. Every juice was delicious and refreshing

+5

Abdullah Riaz

Bread and crispy fries were burnt, but the salmon plate was good. Packaging was amazing and couldn't have asked for anything more. They also added a note showing that the order was double checked, but I wish they had swapped my burnt side dish and bread with a good one. Probably they were just checking if everything has been added to the order and may be it was not really a quality check.

The servers were extremely rude, bumping into me on purpose, walking like they were zombies! The food is good but not for the price, it's way over priced, especially when you have a bad experience in the restaurant, I'm not cheap, but I want a peaceful atmosphere for the price. I wouldn't go here ever again. Go to El Coyote in LA peeps, you'll love it, and you might see some celebrities.

Eleni Pantelides

Hummus was a little bland. Tasted better the next day. Steak plate was amazing and he potatoes were seasoned very well. Chicken salad need more seasoning in the dressing and in the salad. Not pictures was chicken tortilla soup. Tasted like roasted 🍅tomato soup. Didn't even eat it.

Pretty underwhelming. The food was ordinary—nothing memorable or unique for the price point. Portions were fine but flavors felt flat, and the dishes didn’t justify the premium. The space is nice and the service was decent, but overall it’s more about the scene than the food. For what it costs, I expected much better.

Vanessa C

Disappointing…This used to be mine and my husband’s favorite place to eat, but something has changed with the service and people who work there. They constantly mess up orders to go. We’ve been customers for a year and a half, and always order the same thing. We never had issues with our to go orders until recently. The last several times they’ve consistently forgotten parts of our meals or given us incorrect sizes. Tonight, my husband ordered 2 quarts of pozole and they only gave him one. After fixing it, they sent him on his way without including any of the topping that go with the soups. The Pozole is supposed to come with a lime, cilantro, cabbage and bread on the side. That’s what makes that dish. I ordered the steak salad. You would think that’s pretty easy too, but I opened it to find no salad dressing. Idk why they can’t get it right, or why they get defensive when they are in the wrong, but they lost a consistent customer. We never had any issues with our orders before and used to order from them all the time. Get it together. If you eat Tender Greens, stay in the restaurant so you don’t have to eat an incomplete meal at home.

Zhengzheng Chen

I can only see I get what I pay. The price is affordable. But I go there for dinner, I have some expectations. The steak is hard to chew. The toast is hard. That’s a difference between "crispy" and "hard". Also, there's a reason for sides are called "sides". That's too much of them. Servers are nice. But I don't think I will visit this place again.

Kie

I had very high expectations for coming here but after I received my food I was super disappointed. I picked this place for the “healthy” aspect but looking at my dish it was filled with oil/grease…. Every time I took a bite it just squeezed out oil. After eating a bit of my meal I probably would have been fine going to get fast food probably the same amount of calories and oils lol. Definitely won’t be coming here again.

Save yourself money and go somewhere better. I went here on a Sunday night. My friend and I were sat immediately at a table right next to the entrance facing the bar, the table is bisected by a corner. We didn't want to have our backs to all the people walking, so we were sitting against the corner with the wall in between us. The other reviews are right about the music being loud, between the wall and the music, nothing could be heard unless we shouted. It was pretty awful. To make it worse, we didn't get spoken to by a waiter or staff for 15 minutes. Tables that were sat after us were waited first. To top it off, the water cups were plastic. For a place with single plates of food costing $40, I would at least expect glass cups. Save your money and go somewhere else. The Spectrum has much better options.

Pavel Fedorov

The food was a complete disaster. We ordered Chicken Cobb, kid’s steak, and kid’s chicken tenders, none of these were good. The boxed water served with the kids’ meal was bitter and tasted like tap water, which was very disappointing.

Ismagulovs Family

I’ve been to Tender Greens before and always thought it was a nice stop for a quick meal, but this time the experience was awful. The employees were extremely rude from the start. I stood at the counter for almost 10 minutes trying to get a cup of water — the staff saw me waiting but completely ignored me until I finally called someone over. Every table in the dining area was dirty. When we asked where we could sit, they said “anywhere,” but when I pointed out that all the tables were messy, they acted irritated and cleaned one in the slowest, most dismissive way. It’s really disappointing because the place used to be good, but the service was so unprofessional that I won’t be coming back. Definitely not recommending this location to anyone.