Here are a couple of revisits to places that have recently opened. One was a revisit to try a dish they were out of on previous visits; the other a couple of coworkers wanted to check out.
Sizzling House & Noodle:
**** Sizzling House has closed
So, Calvin and Richard wanted to meet up for lunch. After going thru some of the newer places in the Convoy area; they decided to meet up at Sizzling House & Noodle.
Well, one thing was for sure….I wasn’t going to have the A5 Wagyu again! I had fully intended on getting the rice with pepper sauce and shrimp. But, I ended getting what Calvin and Richard ordered; the basic beef with pepper sauce. ($17.99) I did get it with udon to see how the noodles held up and of course an egg ($1.99 upcharge).
Of course, the friendly neighborhood robot delivered our plates.
Which were “shielded” by the cardboard crown to prevent splatter.
First off, I actually thought the basic “wagyu” (heavy on the quotes) beef, while rather scarce was cut thinner, thus seemingly more tender. I liked the thin slices of oyster mushroom, which added a nice sweet-earthiness to the plate. To me, that egg is a must.
The standard gravy boat of pepper sauce was provided. For some reason, it seemed sweeter than on my previous visit. To me, the tangy-sweet flavors overpower the pepperiness.
As for the udon, well, the texture was decent, good pull, mild chewiness, though some of the noodles were stuck to the pan, which I guess wasn’t “oiled” enough.
And like before, there just didn’t seem to be enough sauce to coat the starch…at least to satisfy me.
Well, at least I got to try this place out again, without spending over $40. I’m kind of done with this “fad” for now.
Sizzling House & Noodle
4698 Convoy St. Suite 107
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 930pm
Friday 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 10pm
Saturday 11am – 10pm
Sunday 11am – 930pm
Me Sen Thai Noodle House:
I found myself at 99 Ranch Market on Clairemont at around 945 or so and once I’d finished shopping, I looked over to Me Sen, which was still quite empty, and decided to see if they had the dish that they had been out of on my visit back in April.
And yes, they had the Khao Mun Gai ($13.95) available. So, I took a seat and placed my order to the very nice woman working.
It was a short wait, but soon enough my Khao Mun Gai arrived.
Which smelled heavenly. It came with a bowl of broth that had decent cilantro – white pepper tones, but was quite salty. And the dipping sauce, which did have a bit of spice was not my favorite as I prefer the Hainanese style white, ginger-garlic, pungent style sauce.
My favorite part of the dish was the rice, which was so fowl-ly delicious, as if it had stolen the soul of that chicken! It had just the right amount of salt and was cooked perfectly. The portion of rice was rather large, which I actually appreciated in this case.
As for the chicken; well it was deboned, making it easy to eat, while being very moist and tender. It was a bit on the milder side in terms of flavor though. Again, if I had that ginger-garlic based sauce, I’d have been really happy. I ended up making sure I had some “chicken soul stealing” rice and chicken in each bite.
To me, it’s hard finding a good Khao Mun Gai/Hainan Chicken Rice in San Diego and this comes pretty close. Along with the friendly service…..even in the face of some kinda rude “typical 99 Ranch” customers, and the decent price, I’ll definitely return for this, and even the noodle soups I’d had here before.
Me Sen Thai Noodle Shop
7300 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm
This came with two poached eggs….I would have preferred sunny side up with nice crisp edges; but the eggs were fine, with the yolks still runny.
Well, this was a miss in my book. The "dumplings" seemed like fried frozen chicken gyoza you'd get at the market. Cardboardish wrappers, salty – chewy filling.
To me; the best part of this dish was the consomme, not because it had the complex, beefy-savory tones of a good consomme; but because it at least had some decent flavor. Though, it really tasted like "San Diego sweet" pho broth with some birria and beef flavoring. Perhaps this is what the "Birria Pho" on the menu tastes like?
The broth had an abundance of cilantro and scallions which was good. It was very clear, though not seriously defatted. It did lack a definite beefiness and the anise tones I enjoy. As is typical of much of the pho in San Diego, it had that somewhat sweet background to it, in addition to being a bit too salty.
This was comprised of five pieces; two huge drumettes, and three "flats". The seasoning was quite good, some spice, perhaps a bit too much MSG, but I enjoyed it.
Not to belabor the statement; but the color is totally different! As for the dish itself? Well, the sauce/stew was super thick; way too thick, lacking in the nice smooth creaminess of kare kare. Coconut milk had been added and this was overly sweet for my taste. Think of getting a jar of peanut butter and throwing in some coconut milk…..this lacked a satisfying savoriness for me.
The portion of rice was quite large there was corn and edamame scattered about the hot plate. The beef, supposedly four ounces was topped with a small scoop of butter, which I thought wasn’t necessary.
This was interesting. The katsu had been sliced lengthwise and were as long as my fork. Rather unwieldy to eat.
The katsu sauce was very "local", being ketchup based, tangy and perhaps on the sweeter side of the scale. The mac salad was quite "local" tasting as well, having a touch of vinegar and some shredded carrots. The macaroni was nicely cooked, but unevenly coated. This was probably my favorite item on the plate.
One big minus was no mac salad, which I kinda liked on my previous visit. One big plus; they have Tabasco! Tabasco sauce has been the condiment I've used for loco mocos since small kid time!
The bread was very crusty…it was indeed quite fresh, though it didn’t hold up real well because there was a bit too much mayo. The menu said the banh mi has pate in it; but I could not find, nor taste any. There was a good amount of pork, in chunks, fairly chewy, but decently savory-sweet-salty.
I had noticed that it was toasted, which was a clue that the folks here weren’t using Shokupan, the classic Japanese Milk Bread; a must for a egg salad sando, which this was definitely not. I missed the light, fluffy texture and the slight sweetness that the proper bread brings to the sando.
This was a bit different than what we'd had before. The baechu kimchi didn't taster fermented this time around; though the Eomuk Bokkeum, the fishcake panchan had a bit of spice and sour tones and was much better. The heukmi bap was on the mushy side.
The cayenne did bring some decent heat to the dish, but I also did the "typical" loco moco move…..I added a touch of Tabasco; the acidity-spice bumped things up even more. Old "loco" habits die hard I guess?
The hamburger patty was quite lean and chewy, but the beefiness did come thru and completed the dish well.
This was actually not bad. The soup could have used more anise and beef flavor for my taste, but it had a mild peppery spice, a balanced sodium content, good soy sauce tones, and was not bad at all. In fact, I've definitely had 
I will say upfront that my favorite item were the fries, which had been dusted and were perfectly seasoned and still crisp after the 15 minutes drive home.
The rice was on the drier, harder end of the scale. I was asked if I wanted “spicy” sauce with my lunch and I said yes, but I think they forgot it. It’s ok, I’ll leave that to the “soft” opening.
The “pot stickers” were like a very bland, chewy, fried mandu. This was not terrible; very fast-casual in nature, though not my kind of thing.
I'm glad I ordered my dish in this fashion as it was a heck of a lot of JaJang! While it still has a bit of that greasy mouthfeel, this wasn't overly sweet, had some decent umami tones, and some interesting pungency. It was definitely better than what I had experienced at Hong Kong BanJum in the Zion Food Court.
