A revisit double dose of places with "Café" in their name.
Island Style Café:
It had been over a year since my last visit and I wanted some time away from the office for lunch. So I decided to head over to Island Style Café. Looking at my earlier posts, it's hard to believe this place has been here for nine years already! Time sure does fly.
The place was almost full when I arrived. Seems like business is doing quite well.
Of course I got the Kaloko Moco…..I'm still fascinated with the sweet-savory interplay of flavors with that crepe.
This time around the hamburger patty was nice and moist, the gravy not too salty, though the eggs, like a couple times before were over-well instead of over easy like I requested. The fried rice was nice and moist.
Man, nine years….though the food here has been fairly consistent over those years; my appetite has not and I was only able to finish half of this…..
Island Style Cafe
5950 Santo Road
San Diego, CA 92124
Hours:
Tues – Fri 9am – 2pm, 430pm – 8pm
Sat 7am – 8pm
Sun 7am – 3pm
Katsu Café:
Wanted to stay close to the office for lunch, so I decided to head back to Katsu Café. I wanted to check out how the Chicken Katsu was doing here….well, at least now it's actually called Chicken Katsu. For a long time it was "Chicken Cutlet" on the menu; though the name of the place was Katsu Café. The place filled up very quickly; the young lady manning the register was kind of surly, but the two Server were really nice.
If I had to note one thing that improved since Teri Café became Katsu Café, it would be the miso soup. Which, while still not great is decent and has enough miso in it.
Man, the portion sizes here seem to be getting larger.
But, just as on my previous visit the panko coating on the katsu just crumbled right off and the chicken was dry. I'm thinking either these guys overcook this stuff, the chicken is way too cold when they bread it, or the oil temp is off. The rice was also subpar; dry, with hard bits. The best items were the standard issue green salad and the potato-mac salad, which was nicely seasoned, cold, and pretty darn good.
It's still more about quantity….or even more quantity, than quality. I finished the two salads and left most of the katsu and just about all the rice.
Katsu Cafe
7305B Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111