Donburi Rice Bowls (National City)

I was recently in the National City area and decided to get something to eat. 8th and B Poke came to mind. I hadn’t been there in a while, but it was just past 10am and they don’t open until 11. I could have driven to Poke Etc, but decided to see if there was parking on the Market on 8th. I’d been meaning to check the place out before, but could never find parking. On this day, I kind of lucked out. I say “kind of”, because I did find a parking spot, but it was just a 60 minute stall. Which meant this would be a take out visit. So, I walked on over.

Not much open at 10am…..and there were locations of places like Kiko’s whose truck I’ve been to Morena several times. The cuisine is mostly Mexican here and most places were closed, but I did have one in mind. If only I could find it!

I checked out the map and was still a bit confused….

Though finally, I came upon the destination.

Donburi Rice Bowls was the place….I kind of knew that this would probably a Westernized fast casual kind of place. After all, “donburi” does literally mean rice bowl in Japanese….so Donburi Rice Bowls is kind of redundant in my opinion.

Anyway, I took a look at the menu; the prices seemed pretty reasonable for these days.

Not being able to make up my mind…and with the clock running on the parking, I decided on the Sumo Bowl ($17) which means you can have two items. I went with the Yakiniku and the Karaage. After placing my order, I was given one of those “buzzer” thingamajiggies. I then went to check out the market hall a bit more. Things seemed a bit cramped and thoughts of bringing JJ went out the window when I saw the pets weren’t allowed in may places…even the patio.

Eventually, the buzzer went off and I picked up my hefty feeling package and headed home. Once home I unpacked. Knowing that I’d be doing takeout, I made sure to get the Sriracha Mayo for karaage on the side.

The container was indeed hefty…there was a sumo sized portion of rice to be sure. In fact, I could only finish half of it and saved the rest.

The rice was fine….quite typical, not very fragrant, but fine.

The karaage seemed like the frozen stuff, like you’d get from Ajinomoto, or the like. The chicken was on the drier side, the thick batter kind of mushy. The flavor very generic, pulling to salty.

The Beef Yakiniku was the better of the two items. The beef had been sliced thinly and griddled nicely.

Quite a bit of gristle, but because it was sliced thinly, it didn’t bother me too much. I enjoyed the pungent-sweet onions. The marinade skewed to the sweeter end of the scale but was not bad at all. Pretty much by-the-book Yoshinoya-ish.

Overall, the beef was pretty good, pass on the karaage, fits the mold of fast-casual, food hall dining. The amount of rice was huge and the prices reasonable for these days. Not worth a special trip, but I’m glad I tried it.

Donburi Rice Bowls (In the Market on 8th)
41 E 8th St.
National City, CA 91950
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm