Month: September 2025

Super Dumpling (Carmel Valley)

Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants, Xiao Long Bao

A few months back, I heard about a new XLB/Jiaozi restaurant opening in Carmel Valley named Super Dumpling. After doing a bit of research; I found that these were the folks who owned Sunny Noodle on Clairemont Mesa, which has since been replaced by Spicy Noodle. This kinda dampened the excitement a bit since I wasn’t overly impressed with my meal there. Though the jiaozi was ok, it was definitely not in the same league as Ju Feng Yuan or Lucious Dumpling (both of which I need to return to) in my opinion. Still, a couple of weeks passed and curiosity got the better of me (doesn’t it always?) and I had some time….even with the “crazy boy” at home to head on over to check the place out.

It was an interesting drive as I really don’t get to this area off the 56 very often. It was actually a pretty quick drive. The restaurant itself is located in a large mall with a good amount of parking available.

It was just past opening time as I entered and the simple, but spacious dining room was empty.

The two folks working were really friendly and I was led to a table. There’s also the very typical dumpling making area near the counter as well.

Of course I ordered the Pork and Cabbage Jiaozi ($12.95) and was wondering about the Popcorn Chicken ($10.95) as well since I find it hard to get a good version of that here in San Diego.

The dumplings arrived in a few minutes. This was actually better than what I’d had at Sunny Noodle; though the wrappers were on the thick and brittle side thus tearing easily.

The filling was on the dry – chewy side of the scale, fairly porky, with hints of sesame oil.

Overall, not bad; though I still prefer what Ju Feng Yuan and Lucious Dumpling serves. It does seem like jiaozi is stepping up here in San Diego. My good friend “YZ” had warned me that when she visited, you could tell the jiaozi were frozen. I’m thinking that the filling might indicate that.

As for the Popcorn Chicken. Well, it was quite a large portion.

More like chicken strips than “popcorn chicken”, the batter was mealy – crunchy and somewhat hard, on the salty side with a strong pepperiness.

Though the meat had nice soy sauce – seasoning tones; the chicken itself was really tough.

Still looking for some good Popcorn Chicken here in SD.

Really nice service and the prices were not bad; so I decided to return.

This time I got the Garlic Fried Chicken Wings (6pc – $12.95). They should have called with “Sodium Bomb” chicken wings….good lord and if the chicken wasn’t salty enough, the wings were topped with even more salt! There was a chili based powder provided as well.

The batter was fairly crunchy and fell apart easily. The flesh was moist, but had so much blackish meat. It was hard getting past how salty this was.

Every so often, I get distracted by those “shiny things”…..I had meant to try the Xiao Long Bao here. And I did get XLBs…but while I should have acted rationally; like I did trying the basic jiaozi, I ended up ordering the “Signature” Xiao Long Bao ($19.95). I haven’t had much luck with these “variety” XLBs; if it be locally at Facing East or even in Taipei at Dian Shui Lou. But still, here I went and ordered it.

Yes, quite colorful. And I took some comfort knowing that all the coloring was “natural”, even the blue on the Chicken and Corn XLB, is supposedly made by red cabbage…..why it’s blue…well, you got me?

And which was the best? Well, obviously what I should have gotten in the first place; the Pork XLB.

It didn’t have a whole lot of soup and the wrappers were on the firm and brittle side; like the jiaozi…I prefer my XLB to have a more “pillowy” wrapper. But the filling was quite porky, with hints of what seemed like ginger.

The Chicken and Corn XLB was also not bad – even though that neon-ish color seemed a bit disturbing.

My least favorite were the Korean BBQ Beef XLB which had no soup and was really tough and the Black Truffle; I really couldn’t make out truffle flavor.

The two crab versions were not bad; but nothing to write home about.

I’m glad I got to check out Super Dumpling. Though now I really need to head back to Ju Feng Yuan and Lucious Dumplings.

Speaking of Ju Feng Yuan; I’m wondering if my two “FOYs” who recommended JFY; SD Julie and RD have checked this place out; and if so, what are your thoughts?

And for another view on Super Dumpling, you can check out Soo’s post as well.

Super Dumpling
3870 Valley Centre Drive #301
San Diego, CA 92130
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 830pm
Fri – Sun 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm

Sushi Yorimichi 2 Opens (Linda Vista)

Japanese Restaurants

Just getting back from our most recent road trip (yes….I know, waaaay behind on travel posts) and running all those errands it looked like Sushi Yorimichi 2, whose signage I noticed a couple of months back , replacing White Rice Morena, which didn’t last very long, had opened. A quick check and it looked like they opened on the 17th.

Checking out the hours…..even though this location has much more parking than the original on the corner of Ulric and Linda Vista Road, with all of the businesses in this strip mall, parking can be a premium. I noticed that they opened for lunch at 11am….so of course I decided to head on over.

I arrived just as the open sign was turned on and walked on in. The nice woman offered me a table….I told her I would be ok with the bar; but she said “it’s ok, it’s early and I think a table would be more comfortable”. Very nice.

They’ve done some work on the interior…at least in comparison to White Rice as it’s now full of booths and dark wood. There’s also a large table with ten seats in the back of the place in addition to a small sushi bar area.

I was handed the menu which looked exactly the same as the other location’s as well as a “monthly specials” edition.

There was one item that interested me. Along with that item; I ordered a favorite dish from my previous visits and one that I had enjoyed, but seemed hit-and-miss. Of course, based on my visits to the original location, I preferred the Izakaya type dishes to the sushi, ramen, etc…..

First up was that month special; the Spicy Jellyfish ($6) aka “Chuka Kurage”.

This was quite good; a generous amount of sesame oil, good savory flavors; though not a crunchy as the version at Izakaya Masa, it was quite refreshing and satisfying. I’d gladly get this again.

Over time, my favorite item at Yorimichi has been the Kawa-su ($6.25); the chicken skin.

Love the toothsome texture and the nice savory tones of this dish. A light bit of spice, good savory soy sauce, sourness from the ponzu. A good balance of flavors. I did find the fact that the skin was stuck together in large chunks kinda strange though.

Still, it was bit spicier than what I’d had here before and for some reason I do enjoy the texture of the chicken skin.

My final dish was the Tuna Tataki, which I think is a bargain these days at $12. I’ve had this a couple of times at the OG location and it has wavered from good to mediocre. What I received was decent, though I think it was seared a bit too long as the “cooked” area was a bit too deep in the flesh for me.

Still, no off flavors, the centers had a wonderful texture. I did find the supposedl “black garlic” ponzu to be a bit weak for my taste, but the Server had kindly brought me wasabi.

Which, when mixed well with some shoyu and drizzled over the tataki, combined with the drenched onions below and the crisp onions above made the dish quite enjoyable. I also really enjoyed a slice of the tataki wrapped in the shiso leaf. I may try to get an order of that the next time I get this dish….

Yes, you read that right….I’ll be coming back. As much as I’m not fond of the mega-rolls and sushi hear; or the ramen and stuff; it’s the more Izakaya like dishes I enjoy. I know that “FOY” Junichi really used to enjoy the Tamagoyaki at Yorimichi; though I recall him commenting that it was much too salty on his last couple of visits.

The prices are quite affordable for these times….I’m sure the USD and local resident population will keep rolling with the rolls-ramen-bowls. I’m just glad that they have dishes like the Chuka Kurage and Kawa-su.

It’s a nice neighborhood Japanese Diner/Izakaya…one I wish we had here in Bay Park.

Sushi Yorimichi
5299 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Fri – Wed 11am – 230pm, 430pm-930pm
Thursday 11am – 930pm

**** Quick note – so this is my first “real” post using WordPress. As long time readers know…I like to keep things simple. But I do want to know what you all think? Thanks for stopping by and keeping me posting!

Welcome and Pardon the dust!

yoso-silly

Hi folks; thanks for dropping by!

Yes, this is the new mmm-yoso!

It’s a whole new world and learning curve for me,……with posts still uploading along with images.

I’m hoping to be able to start doing new posts by September 26th!

I need to thank Jean-Yves of https://savemyblog.com/ who has really worked long and hard on getting my 5,600 posts and over 110,000 images uploaded to the correct format from Typepad. It’s a long story and perhaps I’ll go over it in a future post.

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