Unfortunately, Scootz has closed. It will be missed. The only place to get boasted chicken in Santee is Jimmy's.
Hi. mmm-yoso is not on vacation, its just Cathy writing about what she and The Mister ate the other day. Kirk just doesn't feel like writing…I'm sure he has eaten, though…
The Old Boll Weevil is gone from Santee, and I will miss it. They *would* cook the burgers medium rare and the prices were cheaper than at, what is apparently the only Boll Weevil left in the county… I immediately called The Mister when I saw the sign for the new place go up, and told him to check out the website. Scootz Eatz. Funny spelling. Sign says BBQ, Chicken, Salads, Pizza. It opened in December, we found a coupon on get one free dot com, so we went.
They are re-doing the facade of the whole mall, so there is not much lighting, just the plastic banner. Its right across the street from the Santee Post Office, if you don't know the area. 
Ah, scooters. Suspended from the walls…the decor is kind of old fashioned Service Station, with metal moldings and stainless lamps and the concrete floor is a kind of swirly stained brown, like maybe oil was spilled on it. Clean. A lot cleaner than the old Boll Weevil.
So we walk in and there is a counter, where you order, pay, get a number and then your beverages, condiments and utensils. The food is brought to the table. While you are ordering, someone from the kitchen brings you a piece of freshly made bread, coated in a butter with chunks of garlic topping. Oh yes, good, not too yeasty, a nice crust. Turns out you get some with your meal. With refills, if you ask. (The people working there were way attentive, asking how the food was, being very helpful).
The coupon was for a free 1/4 chicken, your choice of white or dark meat (reg $7.25) with purchase of another meal…a BROASTED chicken. Oh, the best place we have had broasted chicken is at Jimmy's the next block over. You have to use a special broaster contraption to call it broasted chicken….oh yes. 
Crispy thin browned crust, juicy meat. (There is an addendum at the bottom of this post explaining what broasted means.)
It came with the aforementioned bread and a choice of one of two salads. This one is the "San Diego", which has a variety of lettuces, feta, grape tomatoes, cucumber, olives, onion slices, and a slice of green and red pepper in a "zesty"balsamic dressing. There is a *lot* of salad in that bowl. The flavors worked very well together.
For our other meal, we chose the 1/4 rack of ribs ($8.75) with the Caesar salad.
To be honest, I did not expect much.
Wrong. 4 baby back ribs, meaty, a good smoky meat flavor, light BBQ sauce coating that was not overpowering. Excellent. We asked the Owner and he said he smokes it in the oven. He also asked us if it was too smoky or not, a nice touch. The Caesar salad was all romaine, fresco cheese and topped with tortilla strips and had a very nice creamy lime Caesar dressing. Again, a lot of salad in that bowl.
We were curious about the honey baked beans ($4.25) as a side dish and ordered it.
It was in a large bowl, same size as the salads came in, and so there was a lot, but the price was steep. We did fill out the comment card and that was our only complaint-the price was too high. The flavor was excellent, the beans not mushy, I could taste the honey.
Also on the menu, for only 95¢ were in store made potato chips. Oh, yes. I am from Detroit, where the largest amount of potato chips are consumed per capita. I would eat a bag of chips with chocolate milk for lunch on days when I did not bring a lunch to school. 
Still, to this day, both my brother and I give out small vendor size bags of chips to the Trick or Treaters on Halloween because we remember how good it was to not get all candy.
These chips- not hot, but oh yes, freshly made that day, crispy and not thin..nicely burned. Salted, but not too much. Excellent. So much that we took the extra home.
This was a nice surprise and right on Mission Gorge Road. They also smoke a tri-tip, which I will get next time…oh and they have pizza, burgers, wraps, gourmet sandwiches …that also next time, and the next time. There is a menu on the website and they are available for catering. It was surprisingly excellent!
Scootz Eatz 9535 Mission Gorge Road Santee 92071 (619) 562-4200 website
After I wrote/published this post I got a few questions about what "broasted" means. It is a combination of pressure and deep frying in a machine made by the Broaster Company of Beloit, Wisconsin. Both the equipment and ingredients are available only to the Food Service and Institutional Industry Customers, not the general public. The result of broasting is a rapidly cooked crispy skinned chicken with a moist interior and it is less greasy than traditional fried chicken.
Geesh this place reminds me of Shakey’s pizza, but of course Scootz Eatz sounds way better…
Cathy, What’s broasted? Broiled/roasted?
WC- Broasting is a method of pressure frying using equipment and ingredients provided by the Broaster Company of Beloit, Wisconsin…available only to Food Services/Institutional customers. The final chicken piece is crispy on the outside and moist on the inside…less greasy than a regular fried chicken. Its a patented, faster method of frying…with excellent results. Sorry for not explaining.
Now, Bill-no no no …its much better/higher quality than Shakey’s, although I can do a comparison… I think there may be some Pat and Oscar’s up where you live…the breadsticks and Greek salad are similar, but really this is better. Scootz also has sandwiches on the menu.
Shakey’s by no means was good…
Now Pat and Oscar’s bread stick and salad is good just not sure about the other stuff, but I have to admit there service is always up there.
Oh, OK, glad we understand each other. This is Pat and Oscar good (and its a toss up with the chicken- sometimes I love P&O’s lemon herb roasted and then there is broasted…). There seems to be a resurgence of Shakey’s down here;I have seen coupons…JoJo fries are my only good memory from Shakey’s.
Now I need to find a place that haves authentic broasted chicken in OC.
Right. They can’t callit “Broasted” if they aren’t using an Offical machine from teh Broaster Company. I know The Colonel patented His own method when he started out, so as not to have to buy ‘real’ Broasters, and the Original Recipe style is cooked in a simlar manner, but with, you know, those secret herbs and spices. Broaster chicken is ‘plainer’ in a sense… mainly skins with light flavor..oh but you can give me a plate of fried chicken skins to munch on any time.
just FYI, Pollo Campero (the south american fried chicken chain) uses this broasting technique too. They have a couple stores in LA area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollo_Campero
Thanks, Andy. That should help the people who live “way up north” of here to find out what I mean by Broasting…
Hey Cathy,
Shakey’s lunch buffet was pretty tasty when I went with my mom when I was 8. Of course I thought art class paste tasted good too.
Ooooh…I still have cravings for Art Paste, CJ. There have been an unusual number of Shakey’s coupons around lately, though. I think I have an idea for a post, subliminally suggested by Bill and CJ…
Thank you for your visit to SCOOTZ The Restaurant and most importantly for your detailed description of the service and quality of food you received! It’s this very kind of community effort that I am try to foster, that SCOOTZ may provide exactly the kinds of foods and services that our guests crave (and deserve). I am hoping you will return soon and look forward to your other ventures to great eatz!
Oh, Scoot, we have been back; you just don’t know its The Mister and I, which is how we want it to be…you treat everyone so well and serve, really, the best quality food. Its so much more fun being anonymous. I have told many people about your place, in fact, two people in the last hour…really! The Mister and I will be kind of ‘regulars’ there this summer…
was at the Lowes in Santee and recalled your post about this place. Had a good pulled pork sandwich (could have been smokier) and some of those excellent chips. The sliders were very tasty as well. Glad you had mentioned the place.
That’s exactly why I blog, james. Thanks so much for trying Scootz and commenting. Much better food than some of the chain stuff you could have had…now, back to doing that project you are working on!
We love this place and have been several times! Love the salads, rolls, lasagne and the fun people who work there. What a great find in Santee…we tell everyone we know about them. (On our second visit they remembered my husband’s name and will turn the channel and adjust the colume if you want to watch Padres games too)
Welcome, Scott & Shelley! Glad you like Scootz, too. I seem to like everything at Scootz and have tried just about the entire menu. They are very nice, community oriented, owners who also serve good food. Word of mouth is the best advertising.