*** Island Boy Grille has closed…..
You could say Island Boy Grille and I have had a star-crossed relationship. No matter how hard I tried I could never make it into the front door of Island Boy. When I was doing consulting work in San Diego in the late 90’s I’d heard of two "Local Kine" restaurants. One being Da Kine’s, and the other being Island Boy Grille, at that time located in the Gaslamp Quarter. But try as I might, I was never able to make it to Island Boy Grille, the one time I tried, I couldn’t find any metered parking, and wasn’t about to pay $5 or more for parking to grab a plate lunch. Once we moved to San Diego, I tried to find Island Boy, but had found that the Gaslamp location had closed down. I did find out that there was a Sorrento Mesa location, so I checked out my Thomas Guide (what we used before Mapquest), and drove up. But alas, it was a Saturday, and they were closed on weekends. On another occasion I drove up after work to find….them closed. They had changed hours and were no longer open until 630pm.
Finally, I recently took a vacation day, and had an opportunity to make to Island Boy Grille during their regular business hours, which are 11am til 230 pm. Talk about Lunch Wagon hours! I arrived at about 1pm and looked over the menu.
During which time the Gentleman behind the counter impatiently waited for me to make up my mind. Talk about pressure, I felt forced to blurt out what I wanted. Funny thing is, right next to the menu is the usual "Please Be Patient" sign; I guess patience goes only one way in this case.
I placed my order and took a seat, and had time to admire the cool Primo Beer memorabilia.
I had ordered the "Wasa" Plate($8.99), essentially a mixed plate with two menu items. The plate comes with rice (of course!), a green salad, and a choice of one "side". I ordered Chicken Katsu and Grilled Teriyaki Chicken as my entree items.
I had forgotten to tell them to not include the pineapple ring on my teriyaki chicken. Those pineapple rings bring back all those negative connotations of when Hawaiian Food was ham with a pineapple ring on the top. Anyway, the Grilled Teriyaki Chicken was very dry and leathery, and was not well marinated, as it also was quite bland. I felt like the chicken was sitting around in a pan for a while. The Chicken Katsu was fine, moist and tender, but because the "katsu sauce" was applied when the plate was put together, the panko crust was soggy by the time I managed to eat it. (20 minutes) This doesn’t really make sense since a container of katsu sauce was included with the plate.
Thankfully, this was Japanese-style Katsu Sauce, not the lousy, gloppy sweet sour stuff that many Hawaiian Barbecues serve.
The best item on the plate was the "side" I ordered, the Chicken Long Rice:
Though short on chicken, the long rice(bean thread) was well flavored. Nice poultry flavor, with a mild ginger taste.
I of course also ordered a Loco Moco($6.95):
If you are a regular reader; you know of my love of Loco Moco’s. I’m also sure you would like to know how this "Loco" measures up. Even though Bruddah James of Big Island Grinds is in the 
process of modifying His Loco Moco Scale, I’ll use my tried and true "Modified Rubio Scale."
BURGER: The Good; hand formed and grilled patty. The Bad; very dry and bland, also tasted "old" like it had been sitting around for a day or two. 2.0
EGGS: I really "dug" the heart shaped styling, but the eggs weren’t seasoned and were overcooked, with the yolks solid. 2.0
RICE: Good, and cooked perfectly. Sorry to say this was the best part of the loco. 3.0
GRAVY: Nice and dark, but almost totally tasteless. 2.5
STUFFS: The macaroni salad wasn’t bad, the green salad along with the dressing was unremarkable. 2.5
TOTAL: 11.0 Funny thing, this was almost a splitting image of the Loco at Da Kine’s, though the portion size was larger(and priced higher).
In the end I felt like all of the energy expended in my quest to have a plate lunch at Island Boy Grille was for naught. But I’d never had known if I hadn’t tried, right?
Island Boy Grille
10066 Pacific Heights Blvd
San Diego, CA 92121
Hours: Mon – Fri 11am-230pm
For those that don’t want a somewhat irrelevant and silly story; it’s time to leave.
Way back when, a group of "us Guys" had just finished an evening of libations and other "activities" at an establishment called "Steel Wings", does anybody remember this place?(I’m really dating myself here) We were having our "post-club" breakfast at McCully Zippy’s, when my Buddy spotted a Young Lady he had been vigorously pursuing at the nightclub sitting at a nearby table. He caught his breath as She smiled, stood up, and starting walking up to us. As she reached our table, she stuck a cigarette in her mouth, and in the worst, fingernail on chalkboard, loud high pitched squeal, asked my friend:
"AAAAY, YOU GET ONE MATCH, HUH?"
As my shocked and speechless friend nodded that he did not. She turned and walked away and concluded the one way conversation with:
"KAY ‘DEN, LATA’S"
Then unsteadily turned to her friends, and said; "AAY, TIME TO BAG OUT….."
I almost fell out of my seat, but I was mesmerized by the cigarette wobbling up and down in her lips as she spoke. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how she could talk so loud and keep that unlit cigarette in her mouth. I felt soooo bad for my Buddy, as I watched his "dream" crushed before my eyes!
Just goes to show, that sometimes the pursuit of a goal is just not worth it!