Island Boy Grille

Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

*** Island Boy Grille has closed…..

You could say Island Boy Grille and I have had a star-crossed relationship. No matter how hard I tried I could never make it into the front door of Island Boy. When I was doing consulting work in San Diego in the late 90’s I’d heard of two "Local Kine" restaurants. One being Da Kine’s, and the other being Island Boy Grille, at that time located in the Gaslamp Quarter. But try as I might, I was never able to make it to Island Boy Grille, the one time I tried, I couldn’t find any metered parking, and wasn’t about to pay $5 or more for parking to grab a plate lunch. Once we moved to San Diego, I tried to find Island Boy, but had found that the Gaslamp location had closed down. I did find out that there was a Sorrento Mesa location, so I checked out my Thomas Guide (what we used before Mapquest), and drove up. But alas, it was a Saturday, and they were closed on weekends. On another occasion I drove up after work to find….them closed. They had changed hours and were no longer open until 630pm.

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Finally, I recently took a vacation day, and had an opportunity to make to Island Boy Grille during their regular business hours, which are 11am til 230 pm. Talk about Lunch Wagon hours! I arrived at about 1pm and looked over the menu.

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During which time the Gentleman behind the counter impatiently waited for me to make up my mind. Talk about pressure, I felt forced to blurt out what I wanted. Funny thing is, right next to the menu is the usual "Please Be Patient" sign; I guess patience goes only one way in this case.

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I placed my order and took a seat, and had time to admire the cool Primo Beer memorabilia.

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I had ordered the "Wasa" Plate($8.99), essentially a mixed plate with two menu items. The plate comes with rice (of course!), a green salad, and a choice of one "side". I ordered Chicken Katsu and Grilled Teriyaki Chicken as my entree items.

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I had forgotten to tell them to not include the pineapple ring on my teriyaki chicken. Those pineapple rings bring back all those negative connotations of when Hawaiian Food was ham with a pineapple ring on the top. Anyway, the Grilled Teriyaki Chicken was very dry and leathery, and was not well marinated, as it also was quite bland. I felt like the chicken was sitting around in a pan for a while. The Chicken Katsu was fine, moist and tender, but because the "katsu sauce" was applied when the plate was put together, the panko crust was soggy by the time I managed to eat it. (20 minutes) This doesn’t really make sense since a container of katsu sauce was included with the plate.

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Thankfully, this was Japanese-style Katsu Sauce, not the lousy, gloppy sweet sour stuff that many Hawaiian Barbecues serve.

The best item on the plate was the "side" I ordered, the Chicken Long Rice:

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Though short on chicken, the long rice(bean thread) was well flavored. Nice poultry flavor, with a mild ginger taste.

I of course also ordered a Loco Moco($6.95):

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If you are a regular reader; you know of my love of Loco Moco’s. I’m also sure you would like to know how this "Loco" measures up. Even though Bruddah James of Big Island Grinds is in the Islandboy09 process of modifying His Loco Moco Scale, I’ll use my tried and true "Modified Rubio Scale."

BURGER: The Good; hand formed and grilled patty. The Bad; very dry and bland, also tasted "old" like it had been sitting around for a day or two. 2.0

EGGS: I really "dug" the heart shaped styling, but the eggs weren’t seasoned and were overcooked, with the yolks solid. 2.0

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RICE: Good, and cooked perfectly. Sorry to say this was the best part of the loco. 3.0

GRAVY: Nice and dark, but almost totally tasteless. 2.5

STUFFS: The macaroni salad wasn’t bad, the green salad along with the dressing was unremarkable. 2.5

TOTAL: 11.0 Funny thing, this was almost a splitting image of the Loco at Da Kine’s, though the portion size was larger(and priced higher).

In the end I felt like all of the energy expended in my quest to have a plate lunch at Island Boy Grille was for naught. But I’d never had known if I hadn’t tried, right?

Island Boy Grille
10066 Pacific Heights Blvd
San Diego, CA 92121
Hours: Mon – Fri 11am-230pm

For those that don’t want a somewhat irrelevant and silly story; it’s time to leave.

Way back when, a group of "us Guys" had just finished an evening of libations and other "activities" at an establishment called "Steel Wings", does anybody remember this place?(I’m really dating myself here) We were having our "post-club" breakfast at McCully Zippy’s, when my Buddy spotted a Young Lady he had been vigorously pursuing at the nightclub sitting at a nearby table. He caught his breath as She smiled, stood up, and starting walking up to us. As she reached our table, she stuck a cigarette in her mouth, and in the worst, fingernail on chalkboard, loud high pitched squeal, asked my friend:

"AAAAY, YOU GET ONE MATCH, HUH?"
As my shocked and speechless friend nodded that he did not. She turned and walked away and concluded the one way conversation with:
"KAY ‘DEN, LATA’S"
Then unsteadily turned to her friends, and said; "AAY, TIME TO BAG OUT….."
I almost fell out of my seat, but I was mesmerized by the cigarette wobbling up and down in her lips as she spoke. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how she could talk so loud and keep that unlit cigarette in her mouth. I felt soooo bad for my Buddy, as I watched his "dream" crushed before my eyes!

Just goes to show, that sometimes the pursuit of a goal is just not worth it!

24 comments

  1. “old”, usually not an adjective i like to hear about describing something i ate… yuk
    hey kirk, not sure if you do this or its just me, but i rarely (scared to death) order the last few items on a menu… fearing those are the “SPECIALS”…
    low turnover ratio = “old” = scares the hell outta me

  3. Hi DCCF – I will order “Specials” on occasion, but am careful with “fish”.
    EDBM – They would be kawaii, if they weren’t laying on hamburger patties covered with gravy….

  4. I know exactly what you mean about people stereotyping food. I keep telling people that there is no such thing as Singapore Noodles in Singapore. I avoid ordering it like the plaque. Sadly even here in Australia, hawaiian means to add a pineapple ring too and the pizza is ham and pineapple.
    LOL good story to finish off the post. Sad that it didn’t meet your expectations but hope you find other good grindz

  5. the service there is terrible. my husband and i ordered theri teriyaki beef plate lunch. the beef had no sauce! then they seemed angry that we wanted a refund. we’ll never eat there again.

  6. I haven’t been to Island Boy Grille in years. It was the only game in the town for awhile so when you wanted some local kine food and didn’t want to go into PB, this was it. Again, it’s been years, but I remember the service being a bit cranky also.
    Funny story in Zippy’s. Not a pleasant visual with the cigarette. I was just talking to my cousin about post-clubbing nights here in the mainland. In Hawaii, it’s Zippy’s for a Zip Pack (what I would give for a late night zip pack now!). in San Diego, it’s your local take out Mex food for a carne asada burrito, rolled tacos, etc. My cousin just discovered the infamous california burrito and is now hooked on mex food.

  7. sounds like they need to put some Primo beer in the Loco Moco sauce, metaphorically speaking. Kirk, have you ever tabulated how many good vrs bad loco moco’s that’s been your experience? What’s the ratio of good/bad loco moco’s. Last year, during the Pro Bowl game in Hawaii, the football announcers were touting “Loco Moco,” so the dish received national exposure. Whether loco moco can live up to it’s reputation is another thing altogether. Perhaps, it’s a lot shangri-la.

  8. Hi Rachel – “Hawaiian Pizza” is the same here in the states. I’ll remember not to order Singapore Noodles around you! LOL!
    Hi Reynila – Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Sorry about such a bad experience, especially at a place that has “ALOHA” in capital letters on the back of it’s menu.
    Hey Jack – Sounds like the place has a specific M.O. But I’m sure I’ll be getting some interesting comments soon, because I know a few people who love the place.
    Hi RONW – The talley so far:
    1 good loco
    3 decent loco
    4 below average to lousy locos
    So the ratio is 1:1 for loco’s. Interesting, huh? So far there’s a 50-50 chance that I’ll get a decent to good loco.

  9. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to find a worthwhile loco moco since returning to da mainland after college. Usually the beef patty is loaded with filler, which renders it completely worthless. Sometimes there are other things wrong with it. Some loco mocos here have made me physically ill. Going to have to search through your blog more to see where you can get a good one from.
    BTW, “splitting image” should be “spitting image” and “avoid like the plaque” should be “avoid like the plague”

  10. Hi Christian – It’s hard to get a good “loco”, but you can get a decent one. Many of the loco’s I grew up eating(we’re talking 3+ decades) had a bit of “filler” in it to keep it moist – sometimes %100 beef patties can be tough and dry – even with gravy. BTW, Rachel is a dentist, so I think “Avoid like plaque” is appropriate. And Allwords.com states:
    “2. Someone or something that resembles another person or thing closely
    Thesaurus: dead ringer (slang), splitting image (slang).”
    I’ve been told that splitting image is acceptable by a Speech Pathologist I know, and is a very good example of “folk etymology,” whereby an unfamiliar or seemingly nonsensical phrase, often very old, is altered slightly to make it more understandable in modern times.

  11. ROFL kirk!!! If you were here I’d give you a hug. Yes I do indeed recommend people avoid the plaque 😉 they can do so by brushing twice daily and flossing.

  13. Hi Rachel – I really did think you were being “pun-ny”, you were, weren’t you? :o)
    Hi Christian – LOL! No offense taken. What I did find amusing was that of all of the spelling and grammatical errors in my posts(believe me there are many – I really don’t “proof-read” much), you’d find one that was in that “gray-area”! Please feel free to point out any anomalies in my posts, so I can correct them. I will leave comments alone though, because I enjoy the free-form, stream of consciousness feeling I get from them.

  14. Yeah, that’s cool. I understand there is loose, social talk and that there’s tight, formal, professional talk. You know the difference but many people don’t. I proofread for Hawaiian Style Magazine (http://www.hawaiianstylemagazine.com/). I’m the only person on the planet who is simultaneously laid back enough to be interested in Hawaiian culture yet pent up enough to have every little typographical mistake irk him.
    On another note there’s a 25% chance I’ll be down in San Diego tomorrow. Do you know anything about that Bali Hai restaurant? I guess I’ll search through your blog for a possible mention of it after I post this.

  15. Hi Christian – Nice magazine! But where’s the food?? LOL! I’ve emailed you our experiences at Bali Hai!

  16. Yikes, Bali Hai?
    I’ve had a nice experience at Bali Hai. This is when Sam Choy decided to “lend” his name to the place (in fact, he left the day we ate there, or so they said) which was probably the reason the food was decent.

  17. Hey Jack – We visited Bali Hai while Sam Choy was still the “name on the sign”, but I thought the food was second rate – all of his signature dishes, from the fried poke and such were very oily, and everything tasted “off”.

  18. I actually used to work @ Island Boy Gaslamp . . . a lot of things have changed since that time. The original owners moved away from San Diego, so I’m not sure how the transition has been. The existing location is right in the heart of corporate mira mesa, hence the lunch rush hour. I still have loyalty to Island Boy to this day. You gotta appreciate the choice of side dishes . . . you don’t see that @ other Hawaiian BBQ places. My favs are still the Lomi Salmon and Hot Seafood Potato Salad. I used to eat it all the time!

  19. Hi Spam – Love the monnicker, BTW! I’ve always regretted that I never made it to Island Boy when they were in the Gaslamp. Loyalty is a thing to be admired, there is so little of that nowadays. It is funny that the best items I had were the Chicken Long Rice and the Mac Salad. That said, I went there for a good plate lunch, and was sorely disappointed.

  20. The Kalua pork and Maui ribs at IBG have always been my favorite.
    The long rice is tasty and the lomi salmon like what I remember back home.
    By the way Rachel, in Singapore the noodles are known as “Bee Hoon” (in Hokkien), not “Singapore Noodles.”

  22. Island Boy in Mira Mesa is no longer. It is now a Japanse fusion/sushi restaurant (just opened a couple weeks ago, haven’t tried it yet).

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