*** This location of El Comal has closed.
On a recent afternoon I was rather surprised when I asked the Missus what she felt like eating. Her answer? "Hmmm, I’d like some Mexican food, maybe some soup would be good." Wow, first she went along for some Vietnamese, and now Mexican. But as with most similar opportunities in our household there was one catch. "But make sure it’s none of that, taco shop garbage, OHHKAYYY!" Yes, the Missus has an aversion to the tons of yellow cheese, gloppy refried beans, french fries in the burrito, greasy taco shop fare that is so abundant in San Diego. Bummer…… Luckily, I had a restaurant in mind, one entry in my little notebook that had been slowly fading away; El Comal. Now as fate would have it, over the course of two days we found ourselves not only breaking bread (or is it tortillas) at the Imperial Avenue location of El Comal, but the Chula Vista location as well. What really surprised us about the meals, was that even though the two El Comals share the same menus, and Owner, the food was quite different, maybe a more of a similar, but different? But then again, I’m always mentioning the differences in the quality of food between the various locations of Sam Woo BBQ, so why should this be any different?
As I understand it, a "Comal" is a clay, cast iron, or other metal skillet or griddle. So just as any well seasoned cast iron pan or wok would have it’s own distinctive flavor, no two "Comals" would be the same, right?
Enough with this, on to El Comal, located on Imperial Avenue.
We arrived on a weekend afternoon at about 2pm, and the clean and simply attired interior was fairly empty.
As we entered we were seated by the very nice and friendly Server, given menus, and had some chips and salsa delivered.
I perhaps enjoyed the crisp and grease free chips a bit too much. I plowed through them in no time. The salsas were nice and spicy.
We placed our order and in no time the food started arriving. We started with a Potato Empanada($2.75), and a Oaxaca style Chicken Tamale($2.00).
The exterior of the Empanada was nice and crisp, though the interior was a "cheese-fest" with very little potato.
The Tamale did not fare much better. Not having any experience with Oaxacan Tamales, we were surprised at the very thin tamale delivered. The interior of the tamale was a very thin and waxy looking masa and chicken filling.
After a taste the Missus couldn’t bring Herself to finish it. So I was left with that duty.
After this very inauspicious start, we started having some doubts about El Comal. That’s when our other dishes started arriving. First the Ensalada De Nopal($6.00):
I first had the pleasure of having a Cactus Salad a few years back. The Mother of a friend of the Missus had a party and we were invited. I had two servings of what I thought was a green bean salad. I was then told that the "green beans" were in actuality strips of the leaves of the prickly pear cactus(Nopal). Since then I’ve usually ordered a Nopal Salad whenever I have the chance. Most times, I’ve been very disappointed in the preparation of the cactus. When not prepared correctly, the cactus becomes very slimy, not unlike okra. Here’s a look at the nopal in this salad.
Very well prepared, and along with the tomato and cotija cheese, and very refreshing salad. The salad did need a good amount of lemon squeezed on it to bring out all of the flavors, but once that was done, it tasted pretty good.
I also ordered a Huaraches con Adobada, in this case a Huaraches with Spicy Steak($5.00):
Huarache literally translates to "sandal", and this popular Antojito(appetizer) is a slipper 
shaped piece of grilled masa, not unlike a thick corn tortilla or pupusa. A little "smear" of beans, a portion of well flavored, nicely caramelized, slightly spicy beef(yes, in this case the Adobada was beef!) is placed on the beans, and shredded lettuce and cotija cheese finishes everything off. It’s all about balance. The only thing that really wasn’t very satisfying about the Huaraches was that it was a bit on the gummy/soggy side. Other then that, this was a very well balanced, very tasty appetizer.
Yes, you heard right, appetizer. I also ordered a Torta con frijoles, nopales, hongos, lechuga y tomate. That would be a Vegetable Torta with beans, cactus, mushroom, lettuce, and tomato.($4.50)
I thoroughly enjoyed this sandwich. And in what was a very pleasant surprise; there was a layer of a mashed potato, with seasoned tomato sauce used as a "spread". The Missus loved the bollilo(roll).
The Missus got her soup, she adores Albondingas. The wonderfully helpful Server (Osiri???), suggested she get a "small" portion.($5.00)
I am not a big fan of Mexican Meatball Soup. In most cases, it’s either too watery, too oily, too salty, the meatballs are tough, or there’s some other problem with the soup. In fact, when I had asked the Missus’s friend about His favorite Albondingas, He mentioned a canned version. Even over his Mom’s!
This version came with rice, tortillas, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, and lemon on the side. Unfortunately half the tortillas where charred almost beyond recognition.
The soup itself was very good, the broth was neither too thick nor thin, and very nicely flavored,
with a slight smoky spiciness courtesy of the chipotle pepper(smoked jalapeno). The broth contained not only the usual carrots and potatoes, but pieces of chayote(mango squash), and green beans. The meatballs were melt in your mouth tender, we wondered how they managed to stay intact. The mint in those meatballs added a nice finish.
Sounds like alot of food, huh? We did take home half the salad and Huaraches. The total bill including a refreshing glass of Nuez(Walnut Shake), and Horchata came to $32.
The Service was so amazingly nice, and the Young Lady whose name I tried to write above even stopped by and started making recommendations. As we left El Comal started filling up, most people were having soup. Driving away we started talking about returning in a few weeks. Little did we know that we’d be at El Comal, but at another location the very next day.
El Comal
2822 Imperial Ave
San Diego, CA 92102
(619) 239-7101
Part II – El Comal in Chula Vista coming up next week.