*** Seafood Island has closed.
Sometimes the third time is a charm. Seafood Island is located in a bit of an odd location amongst all the home furnishing stores. When they first opened, the Missus and I dropped by for lunch and the place was half full, but it looked like the employees were running around like crazy. We were told at least half a dozen times that our table would be ready in "just a while", meanwhile half the tables in the place were empty, and the food coming out of the kitchen looked like pseudo Chinese fast food fare, a la generic Kung Pao Chicken. After 15 minutes or so, we told the folks, "that's ok, we'll be back next time." And left. I returned on a Sunday for lunch, and was seated. The young lady who served was very, very nice….but when I tried to order, first the Bun Mang Vit…negatory, then the Bun Bo Hue…sorry not today, Banh Mi Bo Kho….we don't have that today, Bun Rieu……sorry it is not ready yet. Yeow! I know the menu is huuuge, talk about "Vietnamese menu overload", this one is probably the largest I've seen. I ended up ordering a Com Tam(broken rice) dish, with Grilled Pork and Bi (shredded pork skin), and really ended up with just the grilled pork. Too bad, the grilled pork was pretty tasty, if a bit on the sweet side, and since this place also serves "Korean BBQ", I could make out the flavor transition. This place also goes pretty easy on the fish sauce. The broken rice was nice and fragrant, and the price was not bad – $5.25. And the Server, whose name if I recall was Desiree was fantastic, and was amazed that I like Nuoc Mam. She also told me that weekday lunches are the busiest, and gave me a flier with $4.99 Chinese lunch specials…..Orange Chicken and such. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, my photos didn't come out….memory card malfunction. So I recently decided to check them out again. this time for a weeknight dinner.
Based on the "specials" sign, I knew that today I'd be getting something other than Com Tam, Kung Pao Chicken, or Orange Chicken.
Like my previous visit, my Server today was a total joy. And I started with the Bun Cha Hanoi ($6.50), the wonderful grilled pork meatball and grilled sliced pork in a broth dish. The Bun and Garnishes arrived in a flash.
The Bun had been chopped into shorter pieces, and was on the soft and mushy side…..which amazingly was just like what we had in Hanoi! The herbs and greens were the appropriate purple perilla, mint, and lettuce, which was just North of wilting, but fine overall.
The Bun Cha was interesting….
The broth was quite sweet, the patties hard, and the sliced pork…in this case pork belly, was quite tough. There was a shortage of pickles, with daikon in place of the standard papaya and carrots. I hadn't expected this to be even close to what we had at Bun Cha Dac Kim(aka #1 Hang Manh) in Hanoi, or even Ha Noi Restaurant in Westminster, and I knew it wouldn't even approach what FOY Beach makes. I was just looking for a fair to middling Bun Cha, and I think this fell a bit short of that. Still, for $6.50, not too bad.
I also ordered the Goi Xoai Ton Thit (green mango salad with pork and shrimp – $9.99).
This looked lovely, thinly sliced pork, a bit on the bland side, but tender, a good amount of shrimp over shredded green mango and carrots, topped with chopped mint and basil. The dressing was again, a bit long on the sweet, and short on the savory, but it had a nice, not too strong, sneaky heat. In this instance, the usual sesame crackers were replaced with Chinese Shrimp Chips.
It was a decently put together dish, and quite refreshing. It may just bring me back again.
I like to think of the Vietnamese dishes at Seafood Island as being sort of Que Huong "light". The dishes I've had are on the sweet side, and seem to lack a savory-pungent punch. It is the "safer" choice if you are a bit hesitant to try out some of the more interesting Vietnamese dishes. For more on the Chinese dishes at Seafood Island, check out Kirbie Cravings, post, which you can find here. The service can be a bit disorganized, but all of the folks I've had contact with have been very nice. The restaurant is large, new, and clean.
Seafood Island Restaurant
7580 Miramar Road
San Diego, CA 92126
(619) 838-0571