*** An updated post on Emerald can be found here.
Have you ever gone to one of your dependable, favorite restaurants, and have a very mediocre, maybe even lousy meal? There are few feelings of regret and disappointment that match the trauma of finding that "your" restaurant is possibly going downhill.
About a month ago I posted on a Dim Sum meal at China Max. In that post I mentioned a lousy
meal at our favorite San Diego Dim Sum restaurant; Emerald. Emerald had just been re-opened for about a month, since being closed for several weeks following a vent fire. We figured a month would be enough time to straighten out any service and food issues, and made our way to Emerald on a Friday. We knew something was a bit "strange" when we entered at 1130 and found the place empty except for two tables!
After seated, we had to ask for tea! Talk about a bad start; things looked so very disorganized, I really couldn’t understand. Finally after about 10 minutes a cart was finally pushed in our direction from where they were parked by the kitchen.
BTW, our tea still hadn’t arrived…… But how was the Dim Sum? Well the Shrimp Ball stuffed Bean Curd was pretty lame, bland, and the frozen peas and carrots really didn’t do much for the dish. The Curry Chicken Siu Mai was well, too salty and dry. And the Shrimp Dumplings were bland, and the shrimp tough. Not a good start, but luckily the Pei-Dan Jook (Congee) cart made it’s way to our table:
Ok, but obviously over-thickened with corn starch. Only 2 pieces of preserved egg as well.
Next up, one of my personal favorites, tripe:
This was an average, mediocre, dish. The tripe had a nice crunchy texture, but the dish was lacking the former rich "brothy" taste, and if I remember, each little dish had a chili pepper in it that added a nice bit of "zingy" heat to the dish. At this point, I started doubting my own taste memory. Had it been so long since I’ve eaten here that my tastes had changed?
At that point we got finally got our Deep Fried Taro Ball:
We actually had to ask and wait for these. They came out piping hot, but were terrible! There was so much taro, that was slightly undercooked, and so very "gummy" and bitter! There was also very little pork in this.
We also got some Shrimp Cheong Fun, and favorite of mine:
I enjoyed the sauce, but the noodle was not cooked well and there was a slightly powdery texture to the noodle. Yuck…..
We also got the Sticky Rice in Lotus leaf:
Unfortunately, by this time we were both pretty disappointed and asked for a take-out container, and took this home. Ironically, this was probably the best dish of the day!
What a terrible visit to our favorite Dim Sum Restaurant in San Diego. At the time we called it quits, the tab came out to $29. I was so disgusted that I forgot to take a picture of the storefront; so this past weekend I drove by for my photo:
During this time I gave this meal some thought, and rationalized; perhaps Emerald had lost some of it’s Chef’s during this period? But the front of house staff were recognizable. The best "excuse" I got, was the "well you need to go on the weekend…", which I answered with, so if I did a lousy job for two-thirds of the time I work, and a good job for one-third, I should be considered a success? That’s weak and a load of you-know-what. I’m paying the same price as someone who eats on Saturday or Sunday.
In the end it came to this; we’re not every week type of customers, I don’t want to eat Dim Sum that often. It’s about 6-7 times a year. We’ve had many excellent meals at Emerald, and have been coming here since ’99, when I was doing consulting work in San Diego, and before we moved here. I don’t think we’ll give up on Emerald just yet, thus the Part 1, we’ll give it another shot in a few weeks and see what happens. Stay tuned………
Emerald Seafood Restaurant
3709 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111