Lunches with JJ – Cross Street Chicken and Beer (Convoy)

These days I want to spend as much time with JJ as possible…he'll only be a puppy once! So, I'm continuously scoping out dog friendly places. I've quickly noticed that as a whole, Asian restaurants are not dog friendly, and in places like City Heights and Convoy District places are few and far between. And some of them; like Woomiok have simple tables set-up on the sidewalk, and places that do have outdoor tables like Okan do not allow dogs. So, after looking around a bit, I noticed that Cross Street Chicken and Beer on Convoy pop-up several times. I also remembered that they had a fairly spacious patio. So JJ and I were off. We arrived a few minutes before opening time. When the open sign went on, I peeked in a inquired about dining with a pooch and was told just head on over to the gate for the patio.

I instantly realized that I had never eaten on the patio here before. I also did a quick check and noted that the last time I had dined in at Cross Street was back in 2019, though I did takeout during Covid, but that was over 4 1/2 years ago! My how time flies.

The young lady who served us was so sweet and wonderful; she instantly brought JJ some water without me asking!

And JJ seemed to enjoy her as well. When she went to serve another table he started barking jealously! When I apologized for that, she laughed and told me "no worries, my boyfriend has a schnauzer. I know they have an opinion about everything!" So true!

I decided to retry the Soy Garlic Wings again (5 piece – $12.95), could you have imagined that wings would be priced at over $2.50 each back in the "oughts"? I was somewhat hungry so I also got the Kimchi Fried Rice $14.85.

 The wings weren't overly sticky as before, though it was still more sweet, than savory and I really couldn't make out any garlic. The wings were again much more moist and tender than the drumettes which were on the tough and dry side. 

The chicken seemed a bit over fried with dark patches and was rather unevenly coated as well. The areas not battered were on the rubbery side. I will say that it was not overly crunchy as before.

As for the Kimchi Fried Rice.

The egg was quite nice, the yolk on the edge of being too cooked, but still runny, the edges crisp, with no off flavors. But it pretty much ended there as the rice was really mushy, with not enough fermented-spicy-savory kimchi flavors. I liked the Spam, but there was more frozen peas and carrots in this than I would care for. I was hoping for something along the lines of what I had got at Kuljem, but that was not to be had here.

Lovely service, quite dog friendly, as for the food, well, not so much on this visit. Though JJ did enjoy the attention, if anything that might get me to return again soon. And when we got home, he got his weekly "newspaper" delivered. And of course since it said "Open Me for Deals & Steals" he was more than happy to oblige.

Cross Street Chicken and Beer
4403 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 1130am – 945pm