Category: Chinese Restaurants

I try my best to go into any new eating establishment with a "good" attitude, a blank slate, always hoping for the best meal possible given the price, food, and service. That doesn’t mean that I’m always successful. Sieu Sieu BBQ is such a case. When we first relocated to San Diego, Sieu Sieu BBQ occupied a small space on Linda Vista Road. Being curious about the Chinese BBQ offered at the tiny shop, I sampled the Roast Duck, Salted Chicken, and Roast Pork, and found all three to be severely lacking…in flavor. I had never had bland Chinese BBQ before, until that day. Needless to say, I never returned. While driving down Linda Vista Road last year, I noticed that Sieu Sieu BBQ was gone……and I felt bad, perhaps a bit of guilt. I really never gave them that "third chance", that I could have.

And then, one recent morning, I drove by one of the multitude of strip malls on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. And there it was; Sieu Sieu BBQ, back from the dead!

The first thing that went through my mind, was "nice sign, but couldn’t you afford some paint?" As you can tell, this is the location of the now defunct Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ. At that point, the "two little men on my shoulder went into action". The "good Kirk" whispered, "hope springs eternal" in one ear, while the "bad Kirk" murmured "see…bad pennies always show up." Good Kirk, "the third time is a charm". Bad Kirk: "Three strikes and you’re out." What to do? My solution? I opened the window and let the breeze blow the two "Kirks" out the window…my way of taking my mental "Etch a Sketch", shaking it, and clearing off all of the haphazard mental drawings. In essence, starting with a clear slate.

One of the things I noticed about this version of Sieu Sieu BBQ, was the new dining area. Tables, many of them large and communal, all lined up. And on the morning I passed by, there were several older couples eating in the restaurant. All "good signs". In spite of this, I started slowly. On the first day, I ordered something from the menu. A simple Wonton Egg Noodles Soup ($4.95):

The noodle and soup menu is quite reasonable; all the dishes are under $7. And for under 5 bucks this was a pretty good "deal". In the exact opposite of what is usually done in restaurants, the bowl looked quite small, but there was a good amount of egg noodles in the "just about average" (at least not too salty) broth. The wontons were also just okay, there were 6 of them in the soup. Not much soup, but a ton of noodles. To me, worth the 5 bucks.

And this was good enough for me. Good enough for what you may ask…..good enough for a "meat-fest"! First, let’s go to the Roast Duck (1/2 Duck $7.99):

Dry and bland…this was the Sieu Sieu BBQ I remembered. It did not bode well, but I also ordered other stuff.

The BBQ Duck (1/2 Duck $7.99). You can tell the BBQ duck from the Roast Duck, because it is cooked split and hung in a "spatchcock" position. You can easily tell the difference.

We had never tried this at the "old" Sieu Sieu. It is much more meaty, moist, and tender, than the Roast Duck. On the other side of the coin, this duck was suffering from "bean paste overload", as the beany flavor overwhelmed all else except for one thing; it was very salty.

The Roast Pork ($8.25/lb):

You’ll find something interesting at Sieu Sieu; it’s the 2 ladies who chop and handle the meat. They are both really nice, and after checking out the pork, have some decent "chops"(pun fully intended) as well. Each piece had just a little sliver of bone. Again, the meat was moist, though the fat was a bit "hard"…it had not been cooked enough. The "skin" was on the hard side, though Da’ Boyz didn’t complain very much.

The BBQ Pork (aka Char Siu $6.55/lb !!!):

Hmmm, that’s a bad photo…..it looks sort of radioactive. How about this one?

The Char Siu wasn’t bad. The pork was moist, had a decent amount of fat, and was fairly tender. Unfortunately, just as the BBQ Duck, it suffered from bean paste over-load, and the flavor was too salty, lacking in a balancing sweetness.

Lest you think it was just a (BBQ) meat-fest, here are a few more dishes:

The Beef Stew on Rice ($5.25):

Man, there was a ton of rice (not a bad thing) provided. The beef was just mediocre, though the piece of tendon had that wonderful buttery texture.

I’m thinking that my assessment rally wasn’t 100% accurate during this meal. I saw something that I hadn’t seen since we moved from LA. In the San Gabriel Valley, it is, or at least was, quite common to see someone eating, say chicken feet, and upon completion of eating, spit out the bones and inedible parts right onto the table. The thing I’ve always found humorous about the whole thing was, that after spitting and dumping all the bones on the table, that the person in question would grab a toothpick in one hand, and cover his mouth(it was usually men) with the other, in what was almost a gesture of modesty. Not good, not bad, just ironic in a twisted way. And yes, I was sitting across from a "spitter", who ended up "depositing" a bunch of duck bones on the table. The nice woman, who a minute ago was chopping this very bird, now came up to clean up. She looked at me, and simply smiled and shrugged. And though I’ve seen this many times, I’m still not used to it.

The Home Style Rice Vermicelli Noodle ($6.95):

This was very much "Home Style", quite simple in flavor (soy sauce), and though not bland, a bit like this:

The Rice Vermicelli was a bit over-cooked, though there were 5 shrimp in the dish. I did feel like I  could have made this at home. Still, for $6.95 it wasn’t too bad. More than enough food for 1 meal. But wouldn’t you know, I sat across from another "spitter"…..just my luck. This time it was Salted Chicken…I guess I can’t complain about variety!

As a whole, the Chinese BBQ at Sieu Sieu is better than what I remembered, though not top notch. The folks working here are very, very nice. The menu dishes are inexpensive, and perhaps a good diversion from Sam Woo, at least you won’t have the "attitude and parking" problems.

I did find that on every visit, I dealt with an "older" crowd.

As a last note; FOY "Fred" emailed me and told me the Sieu Sieu Chow Mein was well worth the $6.95 you pay for it. And knowing Fred, it’s a good recommendation. And for the "real" cultural experience, maybe you’ll sit across from one of the same gentlemen I did!

Sieu Sieu BBQ
7420 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

9am – 9pm Daily

*** Updates on Noble Chef can be found here and here.  

When we last visited Noble Chef, the place had just under-gone a change of Ownership. And though we thought the food to be not quite up to par, well that could be excused due to the natural chaos that ensues whenever places change hands. The "original" Noble Chef was an interesting place; at first glance the menu was full of Chinese Fast food dishes, many of them pretty bad. But after examining the menu, and frankly, just lucking out, we found a few items that were very good, and well worth the price. After that less than stellar visit, I made a mental note to revisit Noble Chef, and fully intended to do so. That was back in November of 2006! My bad. I don't know how many times I drove up Balboa, and muttered to myself(yes, I'm getting old, I'm entering the muttering phase – look out if I start scratching myself all the time), "oh, yes, Noble Chef, that's right, I gotta check them out again." So now after 18 months, I made my way back.

From the outside, not much has changed. There were newer versions of the food photos, but everything looked the same.

And inside there was still the major wok action going on. The jet-like sound of a high-BTU burner is music to my ears. And there are few things better than the fragrance of aromatics sizzling over high heat.

At first glance I thought the interior looked the same; but I was wrong. The interior had been freshened up with a coat of paint, and new tile work. The place looks a lot less cluttered and tired.

One of the nice things about Noble Chef is that they open at 9am on weekend mornings. I noticed that the menu hadn't changed much. I know many people like the turnip cake and eggs, but I can do just as well at home. I decided to get one of my old favorites, the Shrimp and Egg on Rice ($6.55):

This arrived steaming hot. The eggs were "wok'd" just right, with a nice crust. Once past the crisp crust the eggs were nice and moist if not "fluffy" enough. And lest you think there's not much shrimp in this, I counted 10 well cooked shrimp, most of which were hidden from view.

The dish could have used a bit more salt, I ended up adding a good amount of soy sauce to the dish.  Overall, a pretty darn good dish. I remember thinking, "those folks eating at IHOP a few doors down sure have it all wrong." Well worth the price.

I dropped by for lunch a few days later, and got the Shrimp Tomato Rice($6.55).

Again, this was a generous amount of shrimp. I thought the tomatoes weren't cooked enough, the skin was too tough, and a few were still cool. The tomato sauce was much too sour, and lacked the tanginess that I love when this dish is done right. Still, more than enough food to fill me up.

Which led up to us getting our old take favorites one evening. The Chiu Chow Fried Rice($7.55)

The fried rice looked pretty good, you could see that the chef now has better control over the wok. I did notice that there was a bit less pork than before, and most of all, no wok hay(Guo Chi). It lacked that serious smoky-savory flavor of the wok. The gai lan was rubbery, like it was just blanched and mixed in with the rice.

Our old favorite, the Shrimp with XO Sauce Fried Rice($7.55):

The rice had a nice color to it, and the spicy-savory fragrance was nice. But again, no wok-hay, and not enough spice, garlic, or XO sauce. The amount of shrimp was (again) generous, but we were a bit disappointed.

After the meal, I figured out what the problem was…it was us. You see, we had eaten at Noble Chef under the old Ownership, and had taken the Chef's skill for granted. Even though he seemed to move at a pretty slow pace, he was deceptively efficient. He also knew his wok. If we were brand new customers, this would be pretty good. As things stand, it is still a decent value. I'm hoping things keep improving.

The service is passable, if a bit on the "reserved/suspicious" side. The prices are good, and the portions generous. Stay away from the Chinese Fast-food dishes. The noodle soups are not nearly as good as other Chiu Chow/Mi Gia places in San Diego.

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111
(858)278-8688