These days I want to spend as much time with JJ as possible…he'll only be a puppy once! So, I'm continuously scoping out dog friendly places. I've quickly noticed that as a whole, Asian restaurants are not dog friendly, and in places like City Heights and Convoy District places are few and far between. And some of them; like Woomiok have simple tables set-up on the sidewalk, and places that do have outdoor tables like Okan do not allow dogs. So, after looking around a bit, I noticed that Cross Street Chicken and Beer on Convoy pop-up several times. I also remembered that they had a fairly spacious patio. So JJ and I were off. We arrived a few minutes before opening time. When the open sign went on, I peeked in a inquired about dining with a pooch and was told just head on over to the gate for the patio.
I instantly realized that I had never eaten on the patio here before. I also did a quick check and noted that the last time I had dined in at Cross Street was back in 2019, though I did takeout during Covid, but that was over 4 1/2 years ago! My how time flies.
The young lady who served us was so sweet and wonderful; she instantly brought JJ some water without me asking!
And JJ seemed to enjoy her as well. When she went to serve another table he started barking jealously! When I apologized for that, she laughed and told me "no worries, my boyfriend has a schnauzer. I know they have an opinion about everything!" So true!
I decided to retry the Soy Garlic Wings again (5 piece – $12.95), could you have imagined that wings would be priced at over $2.50 each back in the "oughts"? I was somewhat hungry so I also got the Kimchi Fried Rice $14.85.
The wings weren't overly sticky as before, though it was still more sweet, than savory and I really couldn't make out any garlic. The wings were again much more moist and tender than the drumettes which were on the tough and dry side.
The chicken seemed a bit over fried with dark patches and was rather unevenly coated as well. The areas not battered were on the rubbery side. I will say that it was not overly crunchy as before.
As for the Kimchi Fried Rice.
The egg was quite nice, the yolk on the edge of being too cooked, but still runny, the edges crisp, with no off flavors. But it pretty much ended there as the rice was really mushy, with not enough fermented-spicy-savory kimchi flavors. I liked the Spam, but there was more frozen peas and carrots in this than I would care for. I was hoping for something along the lines of what I had got at Kuljem, but that was not to be had here.
Lovely service, quite dog friendly, as for the food, well, not so much on this visit. Though JJ did enjoy the attention, if anything that might get me to return again soon. And when we got home, he got his weekly "newspaper" delivered. And of course since it said "Open Me for Deals & Steals" he was more than happy to oblige.
Cross Street Chicken and Beer
4403 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 1130am – 945pm
These were those jumbo sized wings; the batter was really thick and more hard-crunchy than crispy. The seasoning was a good amount of salt and black pepper. The wings were moist, especially the flats, and looked to be of good quality. As whole, just way too much batter for me, but decent wings. It threw the entire proportion off and I really needed that cabbage with dressing and the mul kimchi, which hovered on the sweeter side of things to reset my palate.
The batter for this seemed a bit different; it was thinner, more lacquered, but still on the crunchy end of the spectrum. The menu says "aromatic and slightly spicy", I'd go with barely spicy and teeth rattling sweet and sticky. The wings were, as before moist and tender, but this was too much for me. I ended up needing the cabbage a mul kimchi to recover! Also, I had to request extra napkins, because of that sticky sauce. Perhaps they'll stock some wipes in the future?
My goodness; this consisted of six slices of akami maguro! Fresh, nice texture, no off flavors, refreshing. The young lady asked me if I wanted some wasabi and grated ginger and I answered with an affirmative. This just added another layer of enjoyment. The maguro was seared nicely; the fried onions adding a nice sweet-pungent-crispness; there could have been more ponzu, but this was quite good.
I also loved that the wing tips were attached; I just love gnawing on them, even though the sticky-sweet sauce got all over my hands. The batter was on the crunchy side, almost lacquered, and it held up for the entre meal. The meat was moist, had no off colors or flavors. The sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste though, but still, well worth the price.
The wings came with a rather large order of Mul Kimchi, crisp, not overly sweet, a good palate cleanser for fry-o-lated foods.
The batter was somewhat crunchy, but it really got soggy quickly. The seasoning seemed quite mild, but I had a raging thirst after eating 6 of these wings. I took the remaining wings home and even tried to revive in the air fryer, but that didn’t work too well. I’m thinking that if I tried this again it would have to be with some kind of sauce; but based on experience with other KFC chains of this ilk, I’m going to assume it’s going to be too sweet and heck, it already gets soggy-mushy too quickly anyway.
As you can see, the chicken took up only two-thirds of the sandwich surface area, so there were "fowl-less" bites and with all that bread and mayo, it was hard making heads or tails of the flavors. So even though that label said "please enjoy it as soon as served" there was no way I could finish this. I put half in the fridge at work and took it home. During dinner that evening, I brought out the remainder of the sandwich and the Missus and I took out the piece of chicken. Even though the batter had sloughed off, it seemed like the chicken thigh meat was nicely seasoned and fairly tender. 
The wings were on the larger end of the spectrum and were lightly seasoned. The sauce was much too sweet for me. 
So yes, this was scalding hot. Did I notice a difference? Well, 6 wings were now $9.99 and it seemed to have much more black pepper and was even saltier than I recalled. Also, the coating got soggy quite quickly. Not sure if it was just my imagination, but it seemed that way. The wings were of decent quality, it was moist, but again really high on the sodium scale for me.
It was loaded with meat. The beef rib, their version of Xí Quách Suon Bò had also been seared a bit before service. The sliced "short rib" (as defined in the menu) was cut too thick, super tough, and lacked flavor. Strangely, what is usually not my favorite item in a bowl of pho, the squeaky meatballs was the item I enjoyed the most. Of course, there was no option for tendon or tripe. The rib meat came off the bone cleanly, was decently tender, but seemed to have had all the beefiness cooked out of it. Yes, it was a large portion of meat.
The huge clump of noodles were mushy and over cooked. The broth was super bland….I do complain a bit about how pho broth in San Diego seems to be on the sweeter side of the scale….well, you know what, I would have gladly accepted that here! Much like the Niu Rou Mian broth at 
Since I arrived before 11, I took a stroll around the strip mall. It was quite interesting. Back in 
