**** Common Table has moved to Coin-Op and is now known as 86’d
I had to head to North Park to do some shopping and found parking on Illinois Street and was walking west on University when I noticed some new signage on what was Rising Sun Collective. Looks like the place is named Common Table.
Well, looks like Rising Sun didn’t last for even a year? Look, I’m not going to belabor the point….but being from Hawai’i, I do believe in “Bachi“. And I can’t help but think that having a place named Rising Sun and determining that your Grand Opening is on December 7th….well, you get it, yeah?
Anyway, I decided to have a look and quickly noticed this sign out front.
Hmmm….Katsu Sando, huh? The place looked like it was open so I took a step inside. And the place pretty much looks the same. Well, I decided to give that Katsu Sando a try. The place is one of those order at one of the kiosks, get a number, grab your utensils, and have a seat. The menu, which is very Asian-“Fusiony”, think Adobo Tacos, Bossam Spring Rolls, Longanisa Burger, is quite limited right now and they were out of several items as well.
There a list of beers on tap; but heck, this was lunch, you know?
Soon enough, the very friendly young man brough my Katsu Sando ($16) over. He introduced himself as Nate and was super nice. As for the sandwich.
This was an interesting; “two fisted” sandwich. The chicken was super moist and the crunchy-crispness held up thru the entire meal. The seasoning was good, not overly salty, and in fact would have just been great without that “Nanban” Ketchup, which was gloppy and overly sweet. Nate later told me that it is based on what he had with tori nanban in Osaka. Of course, to me, it wasn’t even close to being the tartar sauce like versions I’ve had here, in Japan, and other places around the globe.
There was just too much sauce and the light, brioche like roll, which goes well with this type of sandwich, didn’t stand a chance. I did enjoy the pickled cucumbers, thinly sliced, it had a nice vinegar flavor, with a hint of sweetness, sort of like Asazuke. The cabbage was great, but again way over-dressed for my taste.
This ended up being a hot mess.
I will say that I’d gladly have this again; but would probably want the place to go easy on that overly sweet nanban ketchup. I need to figure out how to do that from the order kiosk.
That sandwich wasn’t bad, so I decided to head on back. Again, I arrived right after opening time. They were still out of several items, but I decided to try a couple of things.
No Adobo Tacos, so I went with a Chashu Taco ($5).
I needed something else to go with this, so I noticed they has Shishitos on the menu….I did crack up when I saw how they spelled “shishitos”.
Nate saw me and remembered me, thanking me for returning. Like I said, such a nice guy. We had a short chat and he told me he used to work at Koubou and Animae.
There was one other young lady sitting at the counter; busy taking photos with her phone in various angles and poses. Could it be that I’ve just seen an “influencer in the wild”!
First up was the Chashu Taco. Now this was made with beef, not pork. It was fairly mild in flavor and I really would have wanted more of the meat to really make a statement.
I really like pickled onions, but here it made too large of a “statement” as it over-powered the beef. I do think that pork would be better in this. The Queso Oaxaca was nicely melted, protecting the tortilla, mild in flavor, but great texture. I couldn’t make out the wasabi crema. The tortilla was nicely griddled and was almost crisp.
I do want to try the Adobo version of this.
As for the Shishitous Shishitos.
I like my Shishitos to be a bit more charred; but the peppers were very tender. And as bonus; I got to play “shishito roulette” as every once in a while I’d get a spicy one. The fried shallots were a nice touch, crisp and almost sweet. I really like the sour and acidic sauce, which had a touch of spice. Nate told me it was Calamansi Ponzu. Now this is some “fusion” I can get behind.
As I always say; coming from the home of Pacific Rim cuisine; there’s a fine line between “fusion” and “con-fusion”. For now, it seems that Common Table is trying to honestly meld the culinary styles, products, and flavors. So, hopefully they’ll have more of a complete menu when I return. Nate did ask me if I had anything I wished for and I said……”sisig tacos”!
What do you think?
Common Table
3914 30th St.
San Diego, CA 92104
Current Hours:
Tues – Sat 12pm – 8pm
Sunday 12pm – 6pm
Closed on Monday