*** Lee's Deli has closed
I was doing some shopping at Minh Huong Market recently, when I noticed that a new shop had opened up in that always packed to the gills strip mall across the street.
Curious, I crossed the street and walked into the tiny little take out place.
And I do mean little. There are three tiny tables in the place, that look like they could barely hold a cup of espresso.
The woman running the place was very friendly and chatty, telling me what were the best sellers on the menu in between the stream of take-out customers, almost all older men. When she handed me the menu I almost fell down…….
Three-fifty? For bun? For Beef Sate noodle soup? She told me that I could have regular or broken rice (which is ironically usually more expensive)for the same price. I just had to find out what a $3.50 Char-broiled pork with Com Tam would look like….. ready?
Here it is.
It was actually not bad. In terms of portion size, this looked like what I grew up eating…..some protein, lots of starch. The pork wasn't too bad either, good flavor, it was actually better than what I had recently had at the San Diego location of Com Tam Thuan Kieu. The rice was decent, not too dry, the nuoc mam cham wasn't watered down……a nice deal for $3.50. It's not going to win any James Beard awards, and I'll for the inevitable ridiculous comparison of "it's not as good as xxxx" which will be three times the price and supposedly specializes in Com Tam. You know what I mean, right? Talk about lack of perspective…..
Anyway, I think this was worth $3.50, what do you think?
Lee's Deli
4748 University Ave #B
San Diego, CA 92105
Open Daily 8am – 10pm