As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! A San Diego based food and travel blog. An Ex-Pat Kama'aina and Friends explore food, restaurants, and travel from San Diego and points beyond.
Here’s a bunch of updates that I’ve noticed or heard about in the last week.
K Bakery Scheduled to Open August 10th:
While heading to Nijiya to do some shopping; I noticed the “Gae-Up”……a typical grand opening gift next to the door of K Bakery which I first noticed back in June.
Thinking the place might be open, I walked on over and saw this sign.
So, it looks like they are set to open on Monday, August 10th!
3860 Convoy St. San Diego, CA 92111
Fujiyame Ramen Appears Closed:
So, “FOY” Matt sent me an email saying he and his friends were curious about Fujiyame Ramen, which I posted on back in April. When they arrived the place was closed.
So, last Sunday I dropped by at noon and the place did indeed look closed. Just to verify, I went again today at 1130 and it was still closed.
I didn’t notice any signage or anything……..so perhaps they just “disappeared into the night?”
4310 Genesee Avenue Suite 108A San Diego, CA 92117
We recently did some revisits to the Missus’s current favorite Chinese Restaurants here in San Diego. I did manage to take a few photos and in one case we tried a new dish. So, I guess we’ll just “Clear Out the Memory Card” (COMC) on this one!
Anyway, the Missus was wanting the La Rou with Bamboo and I always enjoy the Xiangxi Style Beef Entrails, so we headed on over.
And both dishes delivered!
We also decided to order an item we hadn’t had in a while.
Last time we had the Braised Intestines was back in summer of 2024 and it was priced at $18.99! Now it’s $21.99!
This was actually much better than what we’d previously had. The intestines, while on the chewier side, was quite savory with mild offal tones; nicely flavored with soy sauce, and hints of sour tones. Check out the whole garlic! I think it could have been more spicy; but it was enjoyable.
Since I’m doing this quite a bit these days…..here’s what the dish looked like in August of 2024.
Looks like a totally different dish, right?
Taste of Hunan 9880 Hibert St. San Diego, CA 92131
I know “FOY” Dereck enjoys the food here. Hopefully you’ve had some good dishes recently Dereck!
Eastern Dynasty:
I know I just posted on the place a few weeks for the Roast Duck compare. But, on this visit we didn’t get the roast duck….so here goes…..
The Missus was craving one of Her favorite dishes from Eastern Dynasty; so we stopped by. Instead of going “full force” and getting 4-5 dishes; we stuck with just three.
Speaking of intestines….well, I got my favorite dish here the Sauteed Intestines with Chinese Pickles.
Man, the preserved vegetables had a wonderful sour, umami-ness…good crunchy textures to contrast the rather rich-tender intestines. Onions…a touch of Black Beans all add to the dish.
We got some Soy Sauce Noodles….which even the Missus enjoyed!
We hadn’t had this here in years and it was much better than we recalled. Evenly coated with soy sauce, some crunchy bits……
The Missus was craving the Steamed Blue Diamond Shrimp with Garlic Sauce.
These Blue Diamond Shrimp were a bit larger than on previous visits. The flavor is slightly sweet and mild….if I recall; Blue Diamond Shrimp are of a fresh water variety. The flesh is moist and tender….though it’s quite a challenge to eat them properly with shopsticks….so we just end up going “full hands on”…..
And the Missus really enjoyed this….I guess She got Her fix, right?
Eastern Dynasty 4690 Convoy St. San Diego, CA 92111
We were pleasantly surprised at the roast duck from Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum on our last visit. It was our favorite dish of the meal. Though we had a short wait for the duck to be “finished”, it was definitely worth it. This had me wondering how the duck would fare as take out. Was this typical of the roast duck at Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum, or had we just hit the lottery with our timing of the meal?
So, the Missus and I decided to “duck around” and do a take out comparison. Between the roast duck from Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum and our current favorite roast duck from Eastern Dynasty.
So here the half roast duck from Eastern Dynasty, now priced at $23.
Nice color, I enjoyed the texture as the skin was still a bit crisp, decent rich fat content. The fat nicely rendered so the skin wasn’t overly chewy.
Meat was pleasantly moist and toothsome and the flavor of five spice and seasonings had penetrated the meat.
Here’s the half roast duck from Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum, priced at $20, so three bucks less than Eastern Dynasty.
While not bad, this was not as good as what we’d had dining in for lunch. While the fat was decently rendered, the skin had become quite chewy.
The meat was on the chewier side as well and was lacking in flavor. That container of sauce and drippings was sorely needed.
So, I’m guessing that it’s all about the timing with regards to the roast duck here?
So, while the roast duck we got as take out from Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum was decent, it was definitely not as good as what we get from Eastern Dynasty, which is our current favorite.
This was actually a fun comparison! Hope you enjoyed the post and thanks for dropping by!
Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum 5375 Kearny Villa Rd. San Diego, CA 92123
Eastern Dynasty 4690 Convoy St. San Diego, CA 92111
Ok, ready for some interesting “stuffs” on this Monday?
Taste of Hong Kong is Now Grill N Malatang, or is it?:
Well, I knew that Taste of Hong Kong had closed and become yet another Hot Pot (of course) place. But this gets more interesting. Back in May, Taste of Hong Kong started a pseudo “all-you-can-eat” program. Of course the cynic in me thought this was the start of desperate measures by the business. I remember telling the Missus, “when they start doing hot pot, I know they are really desperate.” Well, guess what? A few months later I heard they were doing hot pot! Yikes! But like that sales pitch goes “but wait, there’s more!” After an interesting comment on one of my posts, I decided to head on over to check things out.
And yes, the signage clearly states “No Longer Taste of Hong Kong”……strangely, it does say to go the side door…I think it’s for unit 320 to enter whatever restaurant it is. Also, note the notice of application for ownership change!
So, what about the hot pot? Well, I found this on IG:
OK, so it’s now Grill N Malatang, right? But strangely, I saw this follow-up post.
It seems like Grill N Malatang is closed for a couple of weeks?
“A single mother named Kayo Iwasaki moved to Hokkaido in 1903 with her daughter, Kimi Sano, but their life there turned out to be so hard that she could no longer raise the girl on her own. Eventually, she decided that she had to leave Kimi in the care of American missionary Charles W. Huett and his wife, who promised to take her back to the United States and raise her there.
However, what awaited the girl was a tragedy. Before the Huetts could sail for America, Kimi caught tuberculosis and had to be taken in at an orphanage in Azabu, where she died shortly after at the age of nine. Kayo never found out about her daughterâs death, believing for life that Kimi grew up to be a fine lady and had a good life abroad.”
And if you go to Shelter Island, there’s a red pagoda housing the Yokohama Friendship Bell.
And, if you look to the left of the Pagoda….well, guess what?
It the Girl in Red Shoes by Japanese artist Munehiro Komeno.
In the comments of her post, I promised Kat that I’d take some photos and post, so on my most recent visit to Tunaville, I stopped by to take these photos. So there you go Kat!
I was driving past Hong Kong Kitchen & Dimsum a couple of weeks ago, when I noticed a new banner posted. Apparently, they now feature $5.99 Dim Sum during weekdays. Now, if you had mentioned $5.99 Dim Sum to me, say two years ago I would have laughed……but with prices these days…well, it’s now a relatively good price.
So, when the Missus was wanting some Chinese food recently; I talked Her into a revisit.
We arrived a bit after the 10am opening time and the place was quite empty….but it did fill up pretty quickly.
We were provided several menus, along with the dim sum laminated one, where you indicated what dishes you wanted. I quickly noticed that the dim sum item I thought was the best, the Scallop Dumplings were….I guess obviously not listed. We marked off the items we wanted to try.
We also got the Two Item Chinese BBQ ($24) as well.
And soon enough, items started arriving.
First off, the Jellyfish Salad.
This was nice and crunchy, rather refreshing, but was severely under-seasoned. After a few bites we ended up taking this home, chilling it well, than added black vinegar, chili crisp, and sesame oil which helped it a lot.
The Shrimp Cheong Fun was on the chewy side.
And the sauce seemed watered down. The shrimp was plump and tender though.
The Missus was looking forward to the chicken feet.
And you can tell by the color, right? While the texture, decently tender with crunchy cartlidgey parts, was fine, it was also quite bland.
Other than the now defunct Scallop Dumplings, the Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai were our favorite dim sum item we had on previous visits. And while it was on the chewier side, this was still the best dim sum item we had on this visit.
You could actually make out a light shrimp flavor, good porkiness as well. Pretty dense overall and the wrapper was a bit chewy, but the overall umami reigned supreme.
What was probably our least favorite item was the Shrimp Har Gow, which had also shrunk in size from we’d had before.
The wrapper was really thick and chewy and the flavor was on the fishy side as well.
We had made our way thru all the dim sum and even had to wait a bit longer for the two item barbeque plate. The woman working was very nice and apologetic, telling the Missus that we’d be getting the roast duck made “fresh”.
We tried the Char Siu first. Man, it was so hard, dry, and chewy….almost like jerky.
You can tell by the photo. It was also lacking in flavor, just a bit of sweetness, no five spice tones, weak savory flavor. Not good.
The woman working wasn’t lying when she said we’d enjoy the roast duck though. As the fat had been nicely rendered, the skin crisp, great flavors.
Nicely aromatic, decent anise and savory tones.
The meat was quite tender, full of that duck flavor. This was a nice surprise and as far as we’re concerned was worth the wait. We only regretted that we didn’t order a a half duck!
So, this was an interesting visit. The dim sum was, as a whole, meh…..but that roast duck was probably the best we’ve had in a while! So, we’ll probably return to have the regular menu and some duck. It’ll be interesting to see if having it just done fresh makes a difference if we come later in the day!
Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum 5375 Kearny Villa Rd. San Diego, CA 92123 Current Hours: Daily 10am â 9pm
Just a couple of things I saw during my shopping trips.
K Bakery Replacing Sage French Cake:
Saw this during one of my shopping excursions to Nijiya last week.
So, I did some digging and it seems that Sage’s owner has decided to retire. Man, it seemed like Sage had been there forever! Though I believe it was a one man operation and he worked really hard. Hope he has a great retirement!
3860 Convoy St. San Diego, CA 92111
Kanna Thai Kitchen Replacing Di Chan:
Remember that I noticed that Di Chan had closed last month? Well, driving past the strip mall I noticed a sign posted.
I decided to take a look and it seems that Kanna Thai Kitchen will be taking over that spot.
5535 Clairemont Mesa Blvd San Diego, CA 92117
While checking that location out, I noticed all signage for Ma’s House was gone, so I walked over.
Ma’s House has closed:
The windows were covered, but one corner was open and all the furnishings are gone.
5537 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. San Diego, CA 92117
And the sign for Tang Huo Kung Fu Spicy Hot Pot is up:
I guess we haven’t hit critical mass for Hot Pot in the Convoy area yet?
I believe that Tang Hou is a chain. I know they have locations in LA.
It just seems that only chains can afford to operate on Convoy these days!
In the comments of my post on trying out the Lu Rou Fan at Bei Yuan Tea & Boba, “FOY” Franklin mentioned enjoying the LRF at Facing East. Facing East? Well, that’s interesting since I’d really not enjoyed any of my meals at Facing East, seeing it as a gimmicky Asian fusion kind of place, with those multi-colored XLB, serving everything from Ramen and Karaage to BiBimBap to Kushiyaki……. Still, I felt I should give the place a try since it’s been over 7 years since my last visit! It would be interesting to see if things had changed.
Checking out the hours online was interesting as the place did open for lunch on Fridays to Mondays, but only from noon.
And yes, looking at that menu….it’s still all over the place. Though I did a laugh seeing that they served “Dumlings”……well, I hoped that I wouldn’t be a “dumling” for revisiting the place!
I walked in and was given the opportunity to pick my own table. Ordering was done as is kind of the norm these days….via QR code.
I went and ordered the “Braised Pork Rice”, unlike what the posted menu listed, it’s priced at $14.50, which is still a decent price. Based on that price, which was even cheaper than the ramen, I was not expecting the size of the bowl that arrived!
Those chunks of pork were cut quite large, but were decently tender. The sauce was quite salty; with a bit of a greasy mouthfeel, and lacking in any sweet-pungent-wine tones. It wasn’t bad, just a bit one dimensional with regards to flavor. Also, the pickled vegetables tasted like Takana-zuke; Japanese pickled mustard greens. Which I do like, but not with my Lu Rou Fan.
I ended up using the chili oil to help cut the saltiness of the pork.
The rice was decently cooked, fairly moist. The boiled egg was adequately done, no gray-green ring, perhaps a bit overcooked for my preference, but totally fine. It wasn’t cooked in soy sauce though.
Man, this was quite a large portion.
Perhaps this might be better for a late night meal with a couple of beers. Not too bad, but I think Bei Yuan is a bit better. Still, I appreciated the recommendation Franklin. It’s great to get out of my “comfort zone” and revisit those places I hadn’t been to in ages.
Facing East 4647 Convoy St Suite 101C San Diego, CA 92111 Current Hours: Monday 12pm – 4pm, 5pm – 930pm Wed – Thurs 3pm – 930pm Friday 12pm – 4pm, 5pm – 1030pm Saturday 12pm -1030pm Sunday 12pm – 930pm Closed on Tuesdays
And I’m still looking for “that bowl” of Lu Rou Fan!
I’ve had Chef Zhu, which reopened in Torrey Highlands back in 2023 on my “list” for a while. I used to be a fairly regular customer way back when he owned Shanghai City, with that original post dating back to 2005! And then when he opened his namesake restaurant (well, sort of as it had a “dual identity” as Double Happiness and Chef Zhu) in Del Mar, well, I did several visits there as well. In 2021 the location became an outpost of Chin’s…though I believe Chef Zhu stayed around cooking there for a while. The Missus, who is not a fan of Shanghainese style cuisine or even Su Cai…well, I worked hard to convince Her to take a drive up to Torrey Highlands Village to try the reincarnated Chef Zhu. Well, we did the 20 mile or so drive up and they were closed! Sigh…..I had actually checked their online hours before heading up…..and even the sign on the door said that they were supposed to be open (it was a weekend!). But no….. Well, the Missus wasn’t amused and She would then refuse to even have me suggest heading on back up to eat at Chef Zhu! And it was probably for the best as I contacted former coworker “YZ” who lives in North County, she is originally from Shanghai, and we’d even dined at the “old” Chef Zhu before to see what she thought of this location. Well, even though she lives fairly close by….she’s not a fan. Hmmm……. Well, perhaps it was for the better that they weren’t open on the day I brought the Missus?
Still, I did want to try Chef Zhu…if only for old times sake. And I finally found some time to drop by for lunch, even though it took almost a year to finally make it.
There’s abundant parking in the strip mall where the restaurant resides, along with Von’s, Peets, a Thai Restaurant, and a Shabu Shabu place. The exterior looks very clean and modern.
Though the interior looks very “old school” Chinese!
Speaking of “old school”, there were several large parties who came in after me….all of them older folks. Made me feel young for a change! On a funny note, all of them got paper menus, I could hear only Mandarin being spoken. Me, the one obvious non-Chinese customer was told to order using the QR code!
And then, when the won ton chips with sweet and sour sauce arrived; I suddenly thought I was in the wrong restaurant?
I ordered three dishes…the prices were actually not bad and as it turned out, the portion sizes were humongous!
The first dish out was the Mei Cai Kou Rou ($21.95). My goodness, this looked like a solid block of…well…something.
The sauce was, as expected a bit on the sweeter side, but also quite greasy.
The slices of pork belly were thick and on the chewier side. Some of the flavor of the pork came thru, but this was still a bit sweeter than I prefer for this dish.
I dug around for the preserved vegetable. Turns out it was a mushy mess below all that pork belly. I took most of this home….the Missus had one bite and it was no bueno after that!
Next up; one of my favorite dishes that I hadn’t had in a while Chao Nian Gao ($18.95). Another huge portion!
The texture of the rice cakes were good, slightly chewy, not mushy, flaming hot! But this dish seemed wrong. Where was the Ji Cai, that wonderful peppery-sour-sweet vegetable. Or even pickled mustard greens, another option I’ve seen with this dish. It was just napa cabbage…..cutting costs I guess? Though I prefer the sauceless version, I didn’t know how to order it that way via the online system. The sauce was on the saltier side, but ok. I was just missing the appropriate veggies!
Last out was the Tea Smoked Duck (half duck – $22.95). The duck they were using was very meaty, which wasn’t a totally good thing as you can see, it’s super dry….and tough.
Very earthy-smokey flavor, not overly seasoned which was fine with me. But man….how long had this been sitting? The skin was flaccid and rubbery, that meat was so tough and dry….. I brought most of this home and even trying to make it a clay pot rice dish was kind of a failure.
So…in the end; I’m glad the Missus didn’t accompany to Chef Zhu….She would have not been happy having to sit around and deal with disappointing food. This was quite sad as we used to enjoy Shanghai City and Chef Zhu. It seems like the quality and execution has been sacrificed for large portions here. Though based on the large groups of Chinese dining, I guess this formula is working out for them. As for me….well, I’m moving on. Anyone been to Hometown Taste yet?
Chef Zhu 7845 Highlands Village Place San Diego, CA 92129 Current Hours: Mon, Wed – Fri 11am – 830pm Sat – Sun 10am – 830pm Closed on Tuesday
Back in my post on the Niu Rou Mian from Zen Modern Asian Bistro, “FOY” Dereck mentioned that the NRM from the “original” location of Zen was still quite good. So, during one of our local sessions of “May Gray“, I decided to check out the restaurant that had replaced Zen; called Mein St Asian Kitchen. Which, I believe had moved from the Little Italy Food Hall? Since it was a Sunday, the restaurant wasn’t open until 11am….they open at 10 during the week and I was somewhat concerned with finding parking. But much to my surprise, the parking lot was qutie empty at five to eleven. Heck, that location of March & Ash always seemed busy to me!
When that “open” sign lit up, I walked on in. While the furnishings look much the same as before; the place seemed a little more worn with “stuffs” stacked everywhere.
The nice older gentleman handed me the menu. While Mein Street has everything from Kimchi Fried Rice, Sushi, to ABC (American Born Chinese) Dishes on the menu, I immediately located what I wanted.
I was here for the NRM, while $19 for a bowl of noodle soup seems kinda steep, the version at Zen is $22 (+ $1 for suan cai), so this was quite a bit cheaper. So, I placed my order.
Soon enough, the absolutely steaming, molten bowl of NRM arrived.
Strong anise fragrance danced in the air! Trying not to singe my tongue, I cautiously took a sip of the broth.
Huh…..pretty light in terms of richness and beefiness, though the flavors of soy sauce, the aromatics, white pepper, and a bit of spice came through quite cleanly. Making the broth acceptable.
Like what I’d had at Zen, the noodles weren’t very springy, a bit overcooked, and the relative thinness of the broth made it not coat the noodles very well.
The highlight of this bowl was the beef….and there was quite a bit of it.
It had been nicely prepared. Tender, but not falling to shreds, it had been cooked well and had retained a wonderful beefiness and some of the aromatic tones as well. It was delicious.
This was the one category where I think Mein St was better than what I’d had at the new Zen location. Though I think the version I’d had at the “old Zen” was better than this.
The two folks working were nice; especially the woman working who quickly told me she “didn’t speak English”…she was so sweet and using Google translate I managed to let her know my wife is from China; but I only know “bad words” in Mandarin. She cracked up! I then busted out “Kuà i diÇn, kuà i diÇn” (hurry up, hurry up) and “Bì zuÇ” (shut up) and she really laughed.
To put things into perspective, I do think that Mein’s NRM is better than the versions I’ve had on Convoy or Mira Mesa. Though with gas prices these days….I need to take the 45 mile round trip (Zen is “only” 26 miles) into consideration when thinking about future visits!
Mein St Asian Kitchen 13510 Sabre Springs Pkwy Suite 103 San Diego, CA 92128 Current Hours: Mon – Thurs 10am – 9pm Friday 10am – 10pm Saturday 11am – 10pm Sunday 11am – 9pm
Thanks for reminding me about this location Dereck! Hope you get to try the NRM at Zen’s new location to compare!
Man, there seem to be so many places closing recently….all the rising costs and such. I saw these three in just the last week….
Potato Powder Love Noodle Being Re[;aced by Arbor Sushi & Grill:
It seems that the food court at the 99 Ranch Market in Balboa has become a revolving door. There was Dao Xiang Noodle, which replaced Mama Lin’s, which replaced Saigon 5. Dao Xiang that didn’t last a year and was replaced by Wang La Ya in February. Back in August of last year Potato Powder Love Noodle, another chain with locations in the SGV, replaced the rather long running Shann Xi Magic Kitchen.
Imagine my surprise when I took a peek at the food court and noticed that the place is gone!
Sheesh…another place that didn’t last a year. I only made that one visit and was meaning to return…but I guess not now! I think it’s kind of how things might go with regards to chains?
So, it’ll be interesting to see how a sushi and “grill” does in this space.
5950 Balboa Ave (In the 99 Ranch Market Food Court) San Diego, CA 92111
Makai Sushi Being Replaced by La Rotonde:
Now this one was another surprise which I saw when driving down 5th Avenue.
I know I was really intrigued as to why a fellow from Kauai would open a poke/sushi place here. During my visit the really friendly owner, Matt, who is from Poipu explained that the place kind of found him. I’m guessing that it was perhaps almost a spur of the moment kind of decision? So perhaps I shouldn’t have bee overly surprised at this?
I did a little searching and found that Matt is currently back on Kauai…..hmmm……I’m wondering if he’ll return?
3968 5th Ave. San Diego, CA 92103
Di-Chan Thai Closes:
Now, both of the previously noted closures were short timers. This one however, is for one of those businesses that has been around seemingly forever. On Tuesday, I went over to Leilani’s Attic to get some “stuffs”. Man, that strip mall….Madison Place has gone thru some major renovations and the businesses looked empty. I did notice that Ma’s House was still open. But Di-Chan Thai seemed closed so I drove on over.
And I quickly saw the sign on the door, “after 25 years we’ll miss you all”.
Whoa….though I’ve never been a huge fan of Di-Chan; I know quite a few folks who enjoyed eating there, so this is kind of a sad one!
5535 Clairemont Mesa Blvd San Diego, CA 92117
Time’s seem to be hard on businesses right now…..I think I need to head to some of my favorites to give them support!
