Oak & Coal

Usually I never leave reviews but this experience was terrible. The meat skewers were extremely cold, hard, and were obviously cooked hours ago. They are supposed to be known for their meat skewers, but it was a big disappointment. We got salmon sashimi which was extremely rotten and smelly. Thankfully, they took it back and refunded the salmon, but we still got food poisoning from it immediately after. (Only ate 1 piece with my friend but we both got food poisoning/stomach pain for 2 days afterwards) We tried many food items, and the only good things were the dumplings (which are likely store-bought) and bao buns. Both were 3/5 good, not amazing - but the only two items that were not 0/5 The service was also atrocious. I have been a server myself for 10+ years at several restaurants so there is no excuse. After we were seated, it took way too long to come get our drinks/order (about 30 minutes with an almost empty restaurant). On top of that, they FORGOT our drinks after taking so long to take the order. We had to ask for our drinks 3 times before finally, our server said someone else forgot it. When we ordered more food, we again had to remind and ask multiple times - with only 2-3 other tables in the entire restaurant. We went on 3/1/2024 at 9pm. I assume that probably the service and food are not regularly this terrible. But on this night, it was a really terrible experience, such that someone who never leaves reviews was prompted to do so.

WOW! This place is phenomenal! We tried several dishes and I wanted seconds of every single one. Staff was friendly and informative, and the atmosphere is cool and cozy. Definitely worth checking this place out.

More like a 3.5 star rating, overall a solid find! We shared a lot of small dishes between three people and everything was enjoyable. The place is fairly busy, and the parking lot also fills up. We particularly enjoyed the skewers

Great place, professional staff, tasty food and fine selection of Japanese whiskey

Pretty cool ambiance here. Nice and chic. Food was decent at best based on what I’ve tried. Tsukune - the meatballs were quite dry even with the sauce. Overcooked. Crispy unagi - probably should’ve skipped this. Karage - actually pretty tasty. But nothing special. Kurobata sausage - average Garlic noodles w/ shrimp - way too mushroomy. They might as well just call this mushroom noodles. All in all, it was quite pricey for what it is and the portions weren’t even that big. Compared to other izakayas I’ve been to in oc, they overcharge by a good amount. Granted, it’s a cool ambiance for a night out but strictly food-wise, it could be so much more.

We had a late dinner at the bar seats, great food and atmosphere! Although we seated 15 minutes before the kitchen closed, the server and bartender were really friendly and helpful, they made sure that we ordered enough food and checked periodically.

Great mocktails

Way over priced and below average service.

Excellent food and really friendly service. The garlic noodles were super delicious. Highly recommended