**** This location of Crispy Chicken n' Tomato has closed
Back in the comments of my "Rebuilding the Rotation" post FOY "Peter" mentioned that the La Jolla Village Square location of Padadak was being replaced by something called Crispy Chicken n' Tomato. Peter kindly included a link which indicated that the chain was the #1 Korean Fried Chicken Chain in Japan. Is that something to brag about? Hmmm…..sort of like saying Ajisen Ramen is the #1 Ramen Chain in China?
Anyway, a couple of weeks back, not sure on what to grab for lunch I decided to check the place out. I did the Google search and found that all the Padadak locations in San Diego, save the San Marcos location, though some would say that's not really San Diego had been replaced by Crispy Chicken.
The one good thing about this mall is that since the trolley stop was built there always seems to be ample parking. I arrived right at opening and sauntered on in.
The friendly young lady was an absolute joy. I placed my takeout order and was told there would be a 15 minute wait. The young lady mentioned putting in an online order, making sure I knew there wasn't any additional charges.
Of course, I couldn't help but notice the #1 Korean Fried Chicken Chain in Japan sign.
One quick note. Since when is Hiroshima in "China"? Last I heard, Hiroshima was in the Chūgoku region of Japan? Did I miss something in Geography class?
Anyway, I took a short walk and returned to pick up my order.
I had wanted to just see how the wings were without all the various sauces just to get my bearings, so I ordered the 8 piece wings Original ($14.50). A look at the fries had me thinking that they would not hold up well, even on the short trip back to the office, so I got the Onion Rings with Truffle Salt ($7).
That's what things looked like when I opened up the boxes back at the office. I did a quick taste of the tomato topping which was super bland, you couldn't even really taste tomato. The version of Mul Kimchi provided was weird as it had a real strong anise/clove flavor that wasn't very pleasant.
As for the Onion Rings with Truffle Salt….well, the color was very dark…maybe black truffle salt??? Ahem, no, it was burnt, the breading bitter.
And not a hint of truffle flavor to be found.
As for the wings; well, they did not hold up real well during the 10 minute trip back to the office. I found the batter to be thicker and the wings were fairly evenly coated… the pieces that weren't overly soggy were more crunchy than crisp, the seasoning also mild, apparently you do need some kind of sauce on this. The wings were on the larger side and were quite moist.
Looking over the website, I noticed that Crispy Chicken had lunch specials where you could order a bowl, yakisoba, bulgogi, or like I did the Chicken Plate, which comes with both the boneless chicken and chickens wings, corn slaw, veggie fried rice, and one of three choices of sauce for $14.50. So, I went with the Soy Honey I ordered online and my lunch was ready when I arrived.
Of course you know what what stated on the takeout box, right?
I gotta say, the price to portion ratio was quite good for these days of inflated prices.
The wings had held up better this time. I tried the sides first. The corn slaw was terrible, the "dressing" was really watery and this lacked flavor. Very little corn, you might as well just give me raw coleslaw mix.
The fried rice on the other hand was not bad. The rice was nicely coated, decent, simple, straightforward soy sauce flavors. It was my favorite item of the day.
The boneless chicken was served in fairly hefty chunks.
The batter had peeled away from two of the pieces, which had been turned face down in the box. The sauce was not overly sweet, but I still would have preferred a bit more saltiness, this was much milder than the versions at other places. The chunks of chicken were on the dry and tough side.
I'm not going to beat a dead horse about that Mul Kimchi. I just don't care for the flavor.
The wings had held up much better this time and definitely did better with a sauce. Though the wings weren't evenly coated really paring down the impact of the already mild soy-honey. Perhaps I should have ordered the "Monster" sauce, after all, from my experience Japanese don't like super spicy food and you know…this is the #1 blah, blah, blah, blah……
In the end, this might be my least favorite of the four KFC chains in San Diego. Though I'm wondering what it would taste like in "Hiroshima, China"?
Crispy Chicken n’ Tomato
8657 Villa La Jolla Dr.
San Diego, CA 92037
Current Hours:
Open Daily 11am – 10pm
Man, this location of Boston Market had been here forever! I decided to walk on over to see what was up….hoping that perhaps an interesting eating establishment was coming to this location. I should have known better. It's a chain swap out. At least it's California Fish Grill which claims serve only "Responsibly Sourced Seafood". You can read about 
Each location has a Jolly Bee greeter at the door. 
There are some specials near the ordering area as well as online if you pre-order. 
A salty brown gravy is included with each chicken order. That's a pineapple juice drink ($3.49) on the tray, which was filled from behind the counter.
A three piece meal with one side -adobo rice- and beverage from the machine ($11.99). Adobo rice is fried rice with pork.
The two piece combination with palabok ($11.99). Palabok is rice noodles topped with a garlic-pork-shrimp sauce topped with sliced hard boiled egg; a really nice side dish.
We also ordered the 'Limited Edition' fried pie ($2.99) which is coconut pineapple-large shreds of sweet coconut and chunky pieces of tangy pineapple in a flaky, buttery crust. The 'regular' pie (peach mango) is always satisfying. 
On another visit, I picked up two Deluxe Chicken Sandwiches ($5.99) with a side of 'crispy fries', which remained crispy on the drive home. "Deluxe" means the sandwich has mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato. It is served on a brioche bun. As you can see, there was also a peach mango pie. 
The chicken can be regular or spicy and regular is great-meaty, juicy, crispy and very large. Packets of 
On this corner to the right of this famous sign, is Lee's Sandwiches, which began in 1982 as a family venture with 500 food trucks in Northern California and currently is a franchise in four states with 60 Brick and Mortar locations.
The Menu Board includes six inch breakfast sandwiches (on baguette or a croissant) served all day.
Beverages and Korean Rice dogs are available; quite a variety.
Asian Sandwiches, served on ten inch baguettes as well as 
European Sandwiches ("American" fillings) served on a large croissant or baguette.
There's also a hot food display case and some offerings on the counter.
The Pate Chaud ($2.75) is offered in chicken or pork and both fillings are excellent. 
The herbs and flavoring in the ground chicken and also in the ground pork are fresh and flavorful. The pastry is crispy-flaky and each bite is quite nice. The egg rolls sold from this case (five for $6) also have the same fillings and are a crispy snack.
As mentioned, the breakfasts served all day are smaller. 
The #82, ham, bacon, egg and cheese on croissant ($5.49) was quite hearty and filling. The six inch croissant appears to have been baked in the baguette tray, so it's the dough but not the shape of a croissant. Everything on the sandwich is good. 
The #90 ($5.49) sausage, egg and cheese on a baguette was also filling. The bread/crust ratio is good, bread is fresh baked and the sausage was a better quality than I've had in other breakfast sandwiches. 
We returned for lunch. I've been choosing yogurt drinks lately and the mango yogurt ($6.25) was a great choice; just enough sweet from the mango chunks and tart from the yogurt. Of course, we had to have a Lee's Cafe original (Cafe su da)($4.49). The strong coffee and sweetened condensed milk over ice is indeed a perfected beverage.
The #1-combination ($6.99) is made on a ten inch baguette and includes house pickled daikon and carrots, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, mayonnaise and soy sauce. 
Jamon-Head Cheese-Pate are the meats. 
The #35 Roast Beef European ($9.49) included lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and cheese (I was not asked which type of cheese I wanted, but the menu shows a choice of American, Swiss or Provolone). Condiments are on the side (mustard, onion, pepperoni and pickle). Plenty of roast beef on this fresh baked, soft crusted croissant. Satisfying. 
The matcha green tea ($5.99 large) is another favorite beverage; a nice strong matcha flavor and not very sweet.
Man, this was pretty big. Crust was nicely charred. Though the first two bites gave things away. The slices weren't cut all the way thru and the resulting dough was tough and saturated and not in a good, Neopolitan Pizza way. Nice truffle fragrance, but no truffle flavor. There was a ton of tasteless mozzarella. The crust, while nicely charred wasn't very yeasty, but was too salty. I liked the bacon, that almost had a flavor of jamon, which gave the pizza almost all it's flavor, but there just wasn't enough of that to overcome all that cheese. Too little radicchio or carmelized onion to make much of a difference.
The chicken held up quite well after the drive home. This batter is more of the "laquer" type and it was still quite crunchy. Not much seasoning though, so it really needs a sauce. The sauce came in a presealed container and was like a sweet (emphasis on "sweet") chili sauce that was kind of weak overall.
The wings were somewhat unevenly battered, the pieces on the top were quite crunchy, but for some strange reason, even though I liked the fact this wasn't swimming in sauce, the bottom pieces had gone mushy. For some reason, the meat of the wings were drier as well. This soy based sauce was also too sweet for my taste.
Turning things over was a different story as it was pretty greasy. The meat was very moist, tender, and it had that flavor of dark meat chicken that I prefer. The batter was quite crunchy but the seasoning dust is pretty gritty, though quite spicy; but there’s a lack of other flavors….at Hatties, I remember the chicken being very spicy, but it still had some smokiness, most likely from Paprika and even a hint of garlic tones.
Unfortunately, the batter of the wings didn’t hold up well, much of it getting a bit mushy and flaking off. So, if you’re ordering this, it’s probably in your best interest to eat them ASAP….maybe even in the parking lot! Lot’s of burnt garlic which was on the bitter side, though I enjoyed the spice. The flesh of the wings were nice and moist.
The chicken really just tasted boiled lacking in the mild hints of anise-wine and devoid of any salt or mild ginger tones….just plain bland. The sauce provided had brown specks in it and tasted a bit rancid and off. The chicken while cooked nicely, just didn’t taste right.
