After several years; I finally made it to Chris' Ono Grinds in North Park. I'd been meaning to ever since, sadly, a couple of years after visiting the Mission Gorge location, it was consumed by fire (here's a video). I'd actually been thinking of revisiting the Mission Gorge location about the time of the fire. I put the North Park location on my "list" and well, call it old age, promptly forgot about it. Until recently when one of the guys at work, "BigD from Georgia" told me how much he enjoys the place. Well, even though "BigD" wouldn't know a plate lunch from a slate lunch, I thought it was about time.
It was a nice weekend morning, about eleven-thirty-ish, when I parked and crossed the street into the tiny shop.
The folks here are quite friendly, very hospitable. It was close enough for breakfast for me to order the Loco Moco ($11).
Well, other than the perfect easy-over egg (it was overcooked last time), this was basically a replay. The burger had some nice beefiness, but was really tough and rubbery. The gravy had a sour-bitterness to it that I found rather unpleasant. The rice was fine.
That mac salad was the best thing about this meal. Edging on a bit too sour, it was served nicely chilled, the macaroni was perfectly cooked, the amount of mayo was hitting that top end, but was still within parameters.
Too bad about the gravy, because that egg was lovely.
A couple of weeks later, I was in the neighborhood, so I decided to drop by. This time I went with the Huli Huli Chicken – Teri Steak ($12). One thing you can't complain about is the portion sizes at Chris's.
Well, be it ever so humble, once again, that mac salad was my favorite thing about this meal.
I gotta give it to Chris's though, the beef, while cut thicker than usual for teri beef was fairly tender. I just wish it was better marinated and had less of the salty-heavy ginger glaze.
The Huli Huli Chicken was as before, too sticky sweet for my taste and this time it was really charred to death.
Nice portions, nice people, not my kind of loco moco or plate lunch. In thinking about things; Chris's has the potential to be something along the lines of Diamond Head Market and Grill. Man am I missing home right now.
Chris’ Ono Grinds Island Grill
4506 30th St
San Diego, CA 92116
Open Daily
1130am – 9pm