Restaurant review: Aria Kitchen, Irvine

It wasn’t long ago that the very idea of fusion cuisine was considered passé. Relegated mostly to corporate chain restaurants, fusion cooking was seen as an inauthentic relic of a different era. But in Southern California today, where our diverse sprawl results in a constant culinary exchange, fusion’s multicultural inspiration feels natural. This is the case at Aria Kitchen, a comfortable neighborhood restaurant delivering fusion cuisine for a new age.

Aria Kitchen’s novel blend of Persian and Mexican cooking feels right at home in its Irvine strip mall, surrounded by regional Chinese restaurants, a hookah bar, salons, and professional services. Aria is spacious and handsome, dressed in emerald and marble. Families pack the dining room for weekend brunch, but the restaurant’s fusion cooking comes alive at lunch and dinner.

Start with an order of flaky empanadas. Delicate pastry encases a trio of intriguing flavors: shredded chicken, ground beef and barberry, and curry potato. Each is delicious on its own, but they’re even better as a flight. Crisp taquitos continue the theme with labneh, guacamole, and za’atar-flecked pico de gallo. Aria’s eggplant dip is purely traditional, a classic iteration of Persian kashke bademjan: fried, smashed eggplant drizzled with whey and showered with fried garlic and mint.

Massive, sizzling fajita plates parade through the dining room, with options of chicken, shrimp, and mesquite-grilled filet mignon. Aria best expresses its fusion focus in its burritos and tacos. Take the ingenious ghormeh sabzi burrito—the Persian stew of herbs, dried lime, and beef is loaded into a tortilla with crispy saffron rice and transformed into a rich, herbaceous guisado burrito.