Category: Chinese Restaurants

My visits to Marugame had me wondering how Qin West was doing. They are basically neighbors at UTC. On both of my Marugame visits, I noticed how empty Qin West looked. Or perhaps it was just that Marugame was so busy? Since it had been over 2 years since my visits to Qin West, I made a mental note to do a revisit. And then proceeded to forget about it! Until a couple of weeks ago, when "M" was in the office. We were talking about Marugame, "M" lives in the UTC area and is originally from the Shanghai area. She mentioned Qin West, telling me their family gets takeout from there on a weekly basis! When I asked her what her favorite dishes were; she didn't mention any of the Shaanxi style dishes, but instead named some of the spicier, Sichuan leaning dishes. Quite a surprise for me! The next day I decided to order takeout from Qin West and looked online since the place is pretty much a fast-casual restaurant. I took a look at the online ordering options; and even though "No Service Fee" is indicated, things seemed somewhat expensive. So, I decided to drive on over and place my takeout order in person.

Walking in, I went and tried to use the QR code ordering process, but it didn't work. The guy working the counter told me to come over and place my order. And yes, I was correct about the prices. Each item was over $2 more expensive when ordering online!

I was told to return in 15 minutes to pick my order up. So, I took a loop around the mall, then returned. Qin West has an interesting way of announcing when your order; whether doing takeout or dining in, they use a megaphone to announce your number. The one issue being, is that sometimes they only announce the number in Mandarin! Which is what happened in the case of my takeout order. After waiting around ten minutes after returning to the restaurant, I walked over and displayed my receipt. Guess what? One of the items that arrived at the counter while I as waiting was my order! You gotta love it!

Anyway, I got the Stir Fried Spicy Chicken and the Liang Cai Combo.

When "M" described the Stir Fried Spicy Chicken ($16.25 – $18.75 with online ordering) I thought it was going to be like La Zhi Ji, but this was indeed stir-fried.

As you can tell, the portion size was pretty large. It was indeed spicy with both dried and fresh chilies used to deliver the heat. The chicken was on the tougher side, but what we (the Missus tried leftovers)  didn't enjoy was how salty this dish was. It was sodium overload.

I had recalled enjoying two-thirds of the Cold Dish – Liang Cai Combo before, so decided to order that as well. Man, two years ago, this was $14.75; it's now $19.75, what is that, like over a 30% increase in price. And just think, if you ordered this online for pick-up, it would be $21.95!

In case you don't believe me.

 It was a very large portion! Though you can see how thick the kitchen is slicing the tendon and pork ear now. Eating some of the pieces of tendon was like trying to bite into your flip-flops! The pig ear was crunchy and manageable. The smacked cucumbers were better than what I'd had here previously, with a decent amount of salt. The chili oil based sauce wasn't quite as spicy as I recalled and it had a hint of sweetness and more soy sauce, which wasn't a bad thing.

The Missus enjoyed the cucumbers.

This was an interesting visit, especially when looking at prices. I know that folks have recommended the fried rice and the shredded potatoes ("tudou si"), and I did enjoy the Yang Rou Pao Mo, so I'll probably return in a couple of months.

Though I'm wondering what prices will be like then?

Qin West Noodle
4353 La Jolla Village Drive (In UTC)
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 845pm

A few weeks back, Calvin and I were chatting. I don't see him much these days as he does that WFH stuff. Calvin mentioned that Crazy Duck had closed and had been replaced by another Chinese restaurant. It had been a while since we last had lunch, so we decided to check the place out.

So, I made the drive up to Poway, parked and saw the sign for Little Kitchen.

Though there was still Crazy Duck stuff around.

As I walked up to the place Calvin was already waiting. He laughed and told me "look at the menu, eating here might be a mistake." The menu had all the usual Chinese dishes…..everything from Orange Chicken, to Mu-shu Chicken, to Cream Cheese Won Tons! Welcome to "AB-Cee-DEee" (American Born Chinese Dining Establishment) town! But, there was also "Cold Spicy Beef – Tendon – Tripe", which sounded Fu Qi Fei Pian; Lamb with Pickled Cabbage, which seemed to be Suan Cai Yang Rou, and Lamb with Cumin (Zi Ran Yang Rou?).

Plus, I'd already driven all the way over here. So, we decided to see what was going on; which would prove to be somewhat amusing in retrospect.

The place is set-up just as Crazy Duck was; not many changes. Then we were provided menus. The "salad menu" kind of threw us off.

So, I asked the gentleman who was serving us, who was Asian, where the owner and chef were from and he said "China"; whew……

Then I asked where in China what area and his reply was: "Mandarin" Calvin almost spit out the water he was drinking….

Me: "Mandarin?"

Him: "Yes, Mandarin….."

Me: "Ummm, Mandarin is not a province or city, it's the official language of China!"

Him: "Oh, let me ask…."

He returned a minute later and we were told "Shanghai." Okay.

We looked over the huge menu and on the back were some lunch specials. We decided to try a couple of items and two lunch specials.

And in a minute some standard issue hot and sour soup and a generous portion of rice arrived at the table.

Along with some Veggie Eggrolls. All part and parcel of the lunch specials we ordered.

And then some plates arrived…….and we were provided with forks, but no chopsticks. Now, this was interesting. We had to ask for chopsticks.

The hot and sour soup tasted very much like the version from Crazy Duck, gloppy, salty, heavy handed in white pepper, but not terrible. The egg roll was crisp and bland. I'm not a fan of the bottled sweet and sour sauce delivered.

The first two dishes to arrive were the lunch specials.

First the Dried Sautéed String Beans ($13.50 – lunch special)

This version was done with some black bean; but really not enough to drive the flavor. The amount of soy sauce was good and the dish wasn't overly salty, but the beans had been under-cooked and were still hard, not crisp, but hard and chewy. Not terrible, but not even close to what I make at home.

Next up was the Lamb with Pickled Cabbage (lunch special – $14.50).

My goodness, this was so bland; the pickled cabbage barely had any sourness to it; even though dried chilies were present you couldn't taste it, the lamb hadn't been seasoned enough, and was on the tough side. This is the one dish that Missus refused to taste when I brought leftovers home. She took a look and a whiff and put it down on the table.

Calvin and I had thought about jiaozi or XLB (after all the chef is from Shanghai), but only chicken versions were available. We did look for something red-cooked, but quickly noticed that pork was missing from the menu.

So, we went with a half Deep-Fried Crispy Duck ($20.95).

The skin was fairly crisp, it did could have used a good dose of "salt and pepper", five spice, and was on the dry side, but we've had worse. This wasn't too bad, leading Calvin to say "I think this is better than anything I got from Crazy Duck." Which made me crack up.

The last item to arrive was actually an appetizer, a liang cai (cold dish). We had ordered the Cold Spicy Beef – Tendon – Tripe, but what arrived was the Cold Spicy Beef ($13.95).

The beef was perfectly tender, not falling apart, but not tough. What it wasn't was spicy, not in the least bit, it was also much too sweet, perhaps this was the "Shanghai influence"? It lacked nice anise tones, but was beefy. The cucumber needed some salt, spice, and I think garlic or something with some assertive flavors would help..

Overall, an "interesting" meal. Kind of all over the place. The other customers who came in all ordered typical Orange Chicken and Beef with Broccoli, taking in mind the "salads" on the menu, perhaps that's the direction of the restaurant? A 21st Century homage to those "Chop Suey – Szechuan – Mandarin ABCDE" restaurants of yesteryear? Nothing wrong with that, I grew up eating that "style" of Chinese food.  And when done well, it's quite good. But things need to be consistently flavored and cooked which wasn't the case for our visit.

I think I'll wait a bit and do more research before I try to return.

For those that have tried Little Kitchen, tell me, what do you think?

Little Kitchen
13487 Poway Rd.
Poway, CA 92064
Currrent Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am – 330pm, 430pm – 830pm
Friday            11am – 330pm, 430pm – 9pm
Saturday        11am – 9pm
Sunday          11am – 830pm

**** Sorry to say that the Pork Lard dish is no longer on the menu at Taste of Hunan. There are some newer good dishes though. You can find an updated post here.

So, the Missus's current favorite Chinese restaurant in San Diego is now Taste of Hunan. In fact, we've already gone twice since returning from Ecuador/Galapagos. Even though it's a bit of a drive, we've enjoyed our meals.

In addition to other items we enjoyed during our previous visits, the Missus likes the Tea Smoked Duck here.

Very smoky, edging on being too salty, with a nice "duckiness" to it.

I have also found a favorite, though I'm only going to order it on every other visit or so…..well, because it's listed on the menu as "Stir Fried Pork Lard with Green Pepper". Leave it to me to find the fattiest dish on the menu!

Yes, this is pork fat, more like cracklins' that I had when I worked in the South all those decades ago. It seems to have been lightly dusted and then stir fried so when served there's a bit of solidity when biting into this swiney piece of heaven. Because of the spice, the black beans, and a good acidity this seems less "sinfull". Though let me assure you, it's worth trying. 

Like I said, perhaps once a month or so……I can treat myself.

Taste of Hunan
9880 Hibert St.
San Diego, CA 92131

So, please share with us your current "guilty pleasure"!  Hope everyone had a great weekend!