So, what would you consider a decent price for lunch close to work that's not a sandwich these days? Maybe under $14? Yeeesh, I never thought I'd ever be typing that. So, since we've gotten back from our trip, I thought about a couple of places……GyroGrill came to mind, but then I recalled that the "Gyro Combo" was $15 bucks when I last visited back in May.
After thinking over things a bit I came up with three places last week and I tried them all in a row. So here goes.
Chung Hing:
I'm not sure why Chung Hing came to mind. I'm not a fan of Chinese fast food, but I drive past the place quite often. Last time I visited; a whole 16 years ago a plate at Chung Hing was barely over five bucks! I was wondering how things were now, so what the heck…..
Chung Hing opens at 1030 and I got there at around 1045. Walking up to the shop, I noticed that "combination plates" are now $10.75, which in terms of the area is dirt cheap.
The woman working was all business. The only item I've found being close to edible here is the char siu; which is kinda their ahem, "claim to fame". So, I got the Chicken Wing – Char Siu plate with Fried Rice. They chopped the char siu fresh for me; I paid and was on my way.
Yes, that's what the plate looked like. Man, those…in very loose quotes "won ton" were like a cardboard gau gee, time didn't do the wrapper any favors as it was quite chewy.
The fried rice was on the mushy side, but decent coated and on the salty side.
The chicken wings were still a crisp-crunchy when I got back to the office, but had way too much MSG and had me gulping down water in no time at all.
The char siu is still the best item here, though I think it has slipped a bit over the years. It's now a bit leaner with many pieces on the chewier side. The pieces that aren't incinerated and bitter have a decent savory-sweet porkiness.
Well, at $10.75 these days I guess I got what I paid for? I have eaten at Panda Express in nearly two decades, how much do they charge now? And in that vein, we may have to wait another 16 years before I eat here again.
You can read about Soo's visit here and Mary's visit here.
Chung Hing
7160 Miramar Rd
San Diego, CA 92121
Chicago Fire Grill:
Man, had it been a year-and-a-half since I last visited? I think part of the problem is all the crazy road construction in the area with ever changing traffic patterns. Still, it had been a while since I'd seen George, so I decided to return to Chicago Fire.
The Chicago Dog, which comes with fries is now $9, up a buck since my last visit; but still under ten bucks. The young lady working the register was quite nice and George was busy working the back.
It seems that I had a "shift" in the tomatoes on the drive back to the office. I was just happy to have tomatoes on my dog which were MIA on my last visit. The fries, which were crisp on my last two visits, were soggy and dry this time around; though I kinda liked the pieces that had celery salt on them.
Other than the roll being on the soggy side, it was pretty much status quo, snappy dog, sport peppers, neon green relish, and all……
Still, under ten bucks……
Chicago Fire Grill
8935 Towne Centre Dr.
San Diego, CA 92122
Tenkatori:
Well, Tenkatori is an interesting one. I will usually order the Mix Bento Box. But never online. Just for kicks I went and checked how much it was online….$16.30! I will usually call, but this time I drove down and got there right at 1030.
So, would Tenkatori's Mix Bento make the $14 cut-off?
Well, look at the price on the menu; $12.50. Can you believe a $3.80 upcharge just for ordering online, not even delivery? Sheesh…..
All the chicken, both the karaage and the wings were nice and crisp and very moist; nicely seasoned, a hint of soy, but not overly salty. The best I've had from Tenkatori thus far.
The mashed potato was consistent with other visits; though a bit too cold for my taste.
The one item not good on this day was the rice. Holy cow, it was so mushy and sticky, like it hadn't finished steaming. Look at how it stuck to the piece of karaage in the photo above. Maybe I should have been like FOYs Derric and Junichi, just ordering a bunch of chicken and just forgo the starches.
Perhaps next time! I will say that Tenkatori seems to have really "hit their stride" at least with regards to the chicken.
Tenkatori Miramar
6780 Miramar Rd Suite 104
San Diego, CA 92121
When it comes right down to it. For a $1.75 more, I'll take Tenkatori over Chung Hing any day of the week……
At first blush I found the broth to have mildly porky – savory tones but was on the salty side; though it was fairly fatty – rich and nicely coated my tongue. I really couldn't make out any garlic flavor, probably because the broth was too salty.
As much as I enjoy spiciness, I didn't care for the "Nagi sauce" in this bowl of ramen as it really heightened the saltiness and distracted from the flavor of the tonkotsu style broth.
These pieces were quite large; in fact Calvin and I could only finish one piece each and ended up taking the rest back to JeffP as a "consolation prize" since he couldn't make it. The batter was quite crunchy, almost edging on hard. The meat as on the chewy-dry side. It was covered in an overly sweet sauce. I don't think I'll order these again.
The chashu this time around looked to have an almost "red" tinge to it; but was perfectly fine. I had ordered the broth to be "heavy" in terms of richness which it definitely was. So very rich, but not greasy, in fact the texture reminded me of the 
The boiled egg was every bit as good as on the previous visit….good consistency displayed here.
The shredded beef was quite tasty. The broth had some nice spice, but was quite "flat" and one-dimensional in flavor. The glass noodles were too mushy. There was a rather greasy "mouth feel" to the dish and as a whole I felt it was quite mediocre.
So, the wrappers were on the tough and brittle side. The filling for the pork and chive was bland and chewy, though the pork and kimchi had the advantage of some good savory-fermented flavor and was definitely the better of the two.
