Ah yes, BoujieMana. Like would you actually go to a place with "Boujie" in the name? Not quite sure how I heard about the place, but what fascinated me the most was the location, off Aero Drive. You basically go to where there's massive construction happening on Aero Drive, then head on down Aero Court to where the street ends at a office park. The restaurant, is in what looks like a business complex, on the other side of the Mira Bella Apartments. Shades of Green Acre, but not in Torrey Pines/Sorrento Valley/East Village.
I had looked at the menu online and thought that it would make for an interesting lunch excursion.
It was quiet during our lunch visit on this day. It was before the heatwave and we decided to have a seat in the deck area.
The large restaurant serves lunch and dinner during the week and brunch during weekends. The menu has some variations for each dining option and we were told that there are monthly changes to the menu.
Being the nosy customers we are, we spied what the other two tables were getting and determined that the sandwiches and pizzas seemed a bit hefty. In keeping with how we like to dine these days; we find that appetizers sometimes give a better outlook into the restaurant as the chef can take more chances with food, we ended up ordering three starters and a salad.
The Missus saw Smoked Deviled Eggs ($9) and made sure to try that.
The Missus usually enjoys deviled eggs, but this wasn't a favorite of Hers. I think it's the sourish salsa verde which was intensified with the pickled jalapenos that took this over-the-top. Too many sour tones, which really seems unappetizing on eggs to us.
The Roasted Octopus ($19) was interesting as it was "almost there" for us.
The octopus was pleasantly tender, the bean puree was nice and creamy, potent acidity…….it was just a bit too salty. I'm thinking that some bread would go really well with this; tempering the saltiness and complementing the savory-acidity well.
The portion size for Wild Chicory Caeser ($16) was quite large. Instead of bacon, this featured crisped prosciutto which added a nice layer of salty-savory sweetness.
We enjoyed the bitter tones and the fact that the salad wasn't over-dressed. In fact, the leftovers did well with dinner. The salty-cheesy parmesan added another layer of flavor to the salad.
We were both curious as to how a Mediterranean restaurant would interpret an Aguachile. So, we ordered the Shrimp and Scallop Aguachile ($21) and this turned out to be our favorite dish of the meal.
As we figured, this wasn't an aguachile in conventional terms. It wasn't overly acidic, but quite mellow. Though I will say the seafood, especially the bay scallops were sweet and tender, so were the shrimp. Both of which weren't over-cooked and tough. The sweet and ripe avocado and the briny cucumber added another layer. But what clinched it all was the nicely toasted and salted sour dough, which was the perfect foil for the dish. Yes, it's not a conventional version of the dish, but we enjoyed it. We both wished that the octopus had that nicely toasted sour dough with it as well.
So, a few weeks later we decided to return; again for lunch.
This time, it was during the heatwave, so we sat in the large interior of the restaurant.
Of course we got the Aguachile.
This time it had a bit more acidity and "oomph". Still, the sweet and tender seafood was still present.
We decided to order the Mediterranean Pita ($19) as well. As with our experience with previous dishes, the portion size was quite large.
The highlight of the dish for us was the pillowy and warm pita. After that, well, everything was way too sour. Man, that chicken might have been ok, but the puckery-tartness overwhelmed things. Same with the green salad. Yikes, the sharp sourness just took over. Kind of a bummer.
In the end, we really enjoy the not-so-aguachile here, while not a true Mexican version of the dish, it is quite pleasant and the quality of ingredients here seems good. Service is welcoming, though things do take time getting to your table. I'm sure the folks in the new developments in the area appreciate the place and with all that is going on in the locale that it will keep being "boujie".
I need to return to try the chicken wings and the crispy squash blossoms.
Things have sure changed since my office was in the area way back when!
BoujieMana
3545 Aero Ct. Suite B
San Diego, CA 92123
Current Hours:
Tues – Fri 11am – 9pm
Saturday 9am – 9pm
Sunday 9am – 2pm
Closed on Monday
Like before, the bowl was delivered with a huge portion of iceberg lettuce. The soup on the side looked like a bowl of water which had some slices of green onion fall into it. It was very salty and other than a hint of white pepper really lacked flavor.
First off; I quickly determined that the simple squirt of sate sauce over the beef was all that was provided. There was nothing at the bottom of the bowl of the bowl. This meant that it was difficult, nay impossible to coat the noodles and even all the lettuce evenly. The basil was nice and fresh; but still attached to the thick and basically inedible thick stems. Now, I can imagine having this on the side and then one would tear off the leaves as necessary. Heck, even at the top of the bowl like this is ok; but having that all to precious sauce squirted on it. The customer would have to reach in and tear off the leaves and get sauce on your hands?
Because of the lack of sauce; I ended up dumping the whole bowl of "soup" into the bowl to moisten the noodles; which kind of defeats the purpose of getting this with soup on the side? The noodles were decently cooked, nice and al dente, and the beef fairly tender, but the lack of the flavor producing items in the dish was it's downfall. 
Which arrived to my table steaming hot. The soup had a bit more savory tones this time around, but was again, other than being a bit heavy in msg was fairly plain. The noodles were on the crunchier side overall, but not bad. The char siu was lean, tough, and though it had some decent porky tones, lacking in the sweet-salty-savory profile of said pork dish.
From the funky, savory salted crab, to the deeply fermented savory tones, to the pretty hot chilies, this was very spicy and refreshing. Even better than versions we've had here in San Diego! To make things even more fun, this was served with pork rinds!
Which turned out to be true…at least for me. Man, look at all that pork! The pork was nicely seasoned; though, at least for me, I'm all about proportion and balance of flavor and frankly, this was just too much pork, and where's the jamon? And the bread was just not up to the task as it got really mushy plus all of the pork muted the pickles. And was there even mustard on this….I do like a good counter-point to the rich pork. Still, if you want a very porky sandwich, here it is….. It's just not the kind of Cubano I enjoy.
This was much better than what we'd had here during our previous visit. Though still a bit short in the sour sausage department, the rice had a good ratio of crisp to regular rice. Each bite had a nice variation of textures. We could even make out a hint of coconut, though it was still quite mild in terms of spice.
Though it looked over-baked, the exterior wasn't flakey and crisp. The interior was on the doughy-bready-chewy side and the croissant, in my opinion really lacked butteriness. This was mediocre at best and was the same as what I'd had before from their stand. Well, at least they're consistent, right?
But the Missus cut into it and took a bite and made a face. She made me have a taste. The crust was doughy, gummy, and lacking in crispness. It was on the thick side. The filling was too sweet for my taste as well.
It was soft and doughy, lacking in that flaky-crispness that I enjoy. I'm not sure why they call this a "Butter Croissant" as sorely needed more butter flavor. The interior was a bit too "moist" for my taste as well. 
It was quite interesting, the skin was separated; the one's that were fattier were on the upper and left hand side; these were crisp with a creamy finish. The skin on the right were more crisp. The leftover skin with fat heated up super well in the air fryer later! The meat was slightly gamey and earthy. All of this went so well with the perfectly made tender, but up to the task pancakes. Which also heated up well using my microwave tortilla warmer.
We saved the two legs for home and they crisped up perfectly. This was so delici-yoso once you create your little "roll-up". In fact, the Missus said this was better than what we'd had at 
I walked up to the counter, the place had just opened, but there seemed to be a couple of folks waiting for their orders already. The young man working was really nice, though he looked a bit overwhelmed. I took a look at the menu….even though the portions looked pretty large, I went and ordered the Mix Katsu Combo ($19.99), which included both pork and chicken katsu and curry. 
The katsu had not been fried evenly and there were some darkly colored spots, the texture of the panko was kind of mealy, at least the breading wasn't separating from the proteins, but it was easy to tell which was the pork and chicken. The pork was on the left; it was thicker, had a more spongy texture, but was fairly tender, if a bit on the dry side. The seasoning was one dimensional being quite salty. The chicken on the right side was thinner, dry, and chewy. It was also quite salty. I'd take the pork any day of the week.
I'm pretty sure the curry had been made with "cubes", it had a nice spice, but was barely lukewarm….and I was eating in the food court. It was quite gloppy and was also on the salty side. Dipping the katsu in this was just too much sodium for me.
