Amenities: 3.5/5
Cruisiness: 1.5/5
Price: $25
Pros: Unlimited towels, nice coed area, clean, lots of parking
Cons: crowded, it's in Orange County, steam room was more misty than steamy.
What?!?! A NEW SPA REVIEW!?!?!
Hi everyone! It's been a while! I finally visited a new spa, and this is my first review of a spa in Orange County!
I went to I Spa in Irvine. Which is called I Spa in some places and Irvine Spa in others, so it's kind of confusing. It's way out of the way for me (I honestly can't remember the last time I was south of Huntington Beach) but I decided to make the trek and give it a shot.
First off, my navigation told me that it was in the shopping center with the Wal-Mart, so I turned into the parking lot and it was a clusterfuck because... Wal-Mart. I looped around the shopping center not seeing a spa. Then I decided to double check Google Maps, which told me it was across the street.
I found it, parked (there was plenty of parking), and entered the lobby. The lobby was a typical Korean spa lobby. I briefly pondered getting a body scrub, but I glanced at the sign and saw that it was $45 (which I guess is kind of typical these days, but I haven't had a scrub in a while), and decided to save my money. $25 entry, and I got my key, shorts and shirt.
When you enter, you pass a dimly lit recliner area and a barber chair before you get to the lockers. Also, the passageway to the coed area. There are a lot of lockers in here, probably at least a couple hundred, in three rows. Opposite the lockers were glass doors and window to the wet area. And past the lockers was the vanity area and another relaxation area.
I stripped and went to the wet area.
Plenty of towels in the wet area. The standing showers were split into two sections of 6 showers each, one right inside the door from the locker room, and the other after you walk past the towels. Past the second set of showers is one of the two scrub areas. It's quite visible by everyone walking into the wet area. Farther along that wall are the seated showers (maybe a dozen or so) and then a second scrub area. In front of the seated showers and second scrub area are the pools: cold, warm, and hot pools. Across the room from the scrub area are the dry sauna and steam room. The other wall is a window that looks out to a little garden. I thought the garden was a nice touch, but it also made me wish there was an outdoor sitting area in that garden. Seems like a missed opportunity.
I soaked in the warm tub for a while. It was a good temperature, and the jets were really strong. Oddly though, there were only jets on one side of the warm tub. Also, it was on a dial timer (like Spa Palace) so occasionally the jets would stop and someone would have to go turn the timer dial again.
The steam room was a disappointment. It was really more like a mist room than a steam room, and it didn't really get steamy in there, only drizzly. It was hot though, almost too hot. I couldn't really tolerate it for more than a few minutes.
The dry sauna was a good temperature, and the fact that it was more tolerable meant that it was by far the more popular room. At one point when I was there (Friday evening) it was standing room only in there, with probably a dozen guys.
Even though the saunas and pools were plenty big, the wet area as a whole was pretty cramped, as there was not a whole lot of extra space. There were a total of four chairs (cheap plastic) to sit on, and rude people would just leave their towels on the chairs. The chairs seemed like an afterthought, just kind of placed with their backs to the cold pool.
The crowd was mixed... maybe 1/3 Asian, the rest White or Latino with a few Middle Eastern guys. All ages... I saw guys that looked like college age, up to guys in their 50s or 60s.
As for cruisiness... ehhh... There were several really hot guys. There was one super hot guy (looked maybe South Asian) that had a semi and definitely wanted to get something going with me but it was just too busy to get any privacy. Another cute guy later seemed to be checking me out a lot, but again, just too many guys to establish anything. Add to that the fact that the one scrub area has a direct line of sight into the sauna, and the steam room doesn't get steamy enough to obscure anything, and it's overall not a very good place to hook up. Maybe later at night when the crowds wind down and the scrubber goes home, maybe it'd be better? But yeah, during peak hours I wouldn't go here to play. The eye candy, on the other hand, is some of the best of any of the spas.
The jimjilbang was pretty good, with a few saunas and a restaurant that looked really good. In fact, I saw that they had jjajangmyeon (noodles with black bean sauce) on the menu, which I'm not sure I've seen at a spa before and which I love.
Overall, it's a pretty decent spa if you're in the area. I'm not going to drive down to Irvine on a regular basis just to go here, but otherwise I'd recommend it.
I Spa (AKA Irvine Spa)
2332 Barranca Pkwy.
Irvine, CA 92606
http://www.irvinespa.com/