Category: Filipino Restaurants

Here’s a couple turo-turo revisits to places in Mira Mesa.

R&B Filipino Cuisine:

I thought the Sisig at Lumpia House on my recent visit was pretty good. It had me wondering how an old favorite; R&B was doing. And would you believe it, it’s been almost two years since I last visited.

There’s now some signage in the front of the place that says “Best Sisig in SD“!

A two item combo was $14.99 at the time of my visit. They just brought out the Beef Mechado….so, in spite of my experience with that being a bit mixed over the years, I decided to go with that.

The portion size was enough for two meals for me these days.

The rice was steaming hot, though on the mushy side.

I’m thinking that it had just finished cooking.

The Beef Mechado had a very sharp acidity and was tangy, though it had a greasy tongue feel.

The pieces of beef were really large and unwieldy, but not as tough as what I’ve had on previous visits. I would have enjoyed the addition of more savory-pungent tones to balance out the tartness.

The Sisig did live up to what I’ve had on previous visits.

Nice varying textures for the lechon; some crisp pieces, some crunchy, some meaty pieces, some a combo of all three. Good sour tones; though I’d like a bit more spiciness for my taste. Pungent – mildly sweet onions. I still think it’s one of the better lechon kawale based versions of sisig in SD. Of course I’m always open to suggestions.

It looks like I might be switching to just a single item plate here…..

R & B Filipino Cuisine
11257 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

My visit to R & B had me wondering how Nanay’s was doing…..

Nanay’s Best BBQ:

So, I went and paid the place a visit a few days later. Like R & B, it had been nearly two years since I last visited.

Man, I remember when this was Tem’s like over a decade ago now! Though the food has stayed nearly the same.

Anyway, the food was just coming out. Most of it is pork and chicken based; mostly grilled or stir fried here.

I went with the “sisig like” Spicy Chicken and the BBQ Chicken looked better than the pork on this day; so I got that as well. A two item combo here goes for $14.25 now.

A nice sized portion.

The rice was on the mushy side but passable.

I thought the BBQ Chicken was better than what I’ve previously in terms of flavor. Yes, it skewed to the sweeter end; but I could make out fish sauce and some savory components.

It was a bit tougher and chewier than I prefer though.

The Spicy Chicken was anything but spicy in the least.

This wasn’t as tough as the BBQ Chicken, but it needed more assertive acidic – sour tones and other than the single whole pickled pepper I found (which got my attention), it lacked spice.

It was quite a mild dish overall.

I guess I’m done here for a while.

Nanay’s Best BBQ
6715 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92121

I hope everyone managed to avoid the power outages and managed to stay relatively cool over the weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Recently, I was wanting some Sisig….so I naturally thought of one of my favorites when it came to that dish. Which I hadn’t been to in a while. But then….I thought I should try someplace I hadn’t been to before and Lumpia House came to mind. I’m trying to remember who mentioned the place to me. I think it was Calvin, but am not sure. II also wasn’t too sure about the drive….which looked to take over 30 minutes…..on a Saturday. Still, the place opens at 10, so I decided to make the drive up. The shop is in a very low keyed strip mall off of Poway Road right next to a location of Su Pan….the parking lot is pretty small, but heck, this was 10 on a Saturday so there were no parking issues.

Walking in and taking a look around made me smile. This really looked like a typical, humble turo-turo shop….

Snacks stacked about, trays of food coming out of the back kitchen…..

Their “signature” lumpia under the heat lamps…..

Nothing hipster about this place….that’s for sure!

I got a two item combo ($16.99)…of course with Sisig….but they also had a version of Tokwat Lechon – basically lechon with stir fried tofu that I don’t see around much; so I got that as well. And because this place is named Lumpia House – I got 6 meat lumpia ($1.15/each).

Man, this was a lot of food! Enough for two meals….one of which was for both the Missus and I!

So, how was it? Well, let’s start with the not so good….the rice was terrible, some parts hard, other parts super mushy…photos don’t lie; check this out. It was almost like porridge!

As for the Sisig? Well, it was a bit different as it had a good amount of red and green bell peppers, which I kind of enjoyed in terms of texture and a hint of vegetal and sweetness.

I enjoyed the texture of the lechon; some nice crisp pieces, good porkiness……enjoyed the pugent-sweetness of the onions. It had adequate sweetness, but was really lacking in terms of spiciness. In fact, when heating up, which it did adequately I added in a couple of chili de arbol from our garden which really enhanced things. Still, this was pretty good for turo-turo sisig.

As for the dish that was like Tokwat Lechon….well the tofu had kept shape nicely throughout the cooking process. The pork skin was quite crunchy and I used the air fryer to heat which restored the texture.

The weak point was the flavor…which was bland overall and the sauce was really watery and thin. I had expected good soy sauce, perhaps a hint of sweetness, savory tones….but this was watered down soy sauce.

And then there was the lumpia. I guess lumpia is going for a buck or more a piece these days?

I liked the very savory filling, but the wrapper seemed over-friend and was on the chewy side. Though, when heating the leftovers, I put it in the air fryer which helped things. And the Missus ended up enjoying the leftover lumpia.

If nicely fried the lumpia here would be really good.

The woman working was very nice and friendly. The portion sizes are very generous….and that sisig was pretty good. If they were in my ‘hood, I’d visit every so often. It’s a nice, unpretentious neighborhood Filipino restaurant….which was just what I wanted on this day. Also of note; there’s an 3.85% charge for credit cards, so cash is king here.

Lumpia House
13160 Poway Rd.
Poway, CA 92064
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 10am – 6pm
Sunday 11am – 6pm

After my visit to Tambayan, I had a “FOY” contact me via email and mention Jax Chibugan in National City. She recommended the Crispy Pork Kare Kare. So recently, I was in the National City area, it was on a Tuesday at around 930am. I had missed breakfast on this day and was quite hungry. Being on Plaza just East of the 805, I naturally headed on over to Tita’s, which I hadn’t been to in a while. But, as usual, the parking lot was totally psycho and to be perfectly honest….I think it’s more about quantity than quality there these days and of course those “Tita’s” there don’t mess around….. Then I recalled that “MG”, whom I used to work with and used to pick up up stuff form Tita’s for lunch for me had recommended Jax as well. I knew from doing a bit of checking earlier that they open at 9 in the morning on weekdays, so I headed on over. Located further East on Plaza past Ma Noodle House, right before the “Plaza turn”, in the strip mall next to the Jack in the Box is Jax Chibugan. Man, I haven’t been to this area since maybe my visit to Kujo Eats back in 2024. I quickly noted that Ichiban Sando has moved to this little strip mall as well.

Walking in and the place was already doing some pretty good business on a Tuesday morning.

Jax Chibugan is not one of those “turo turo” (point point) places, rather they so silogs, which I think of a garlic rice bowls with egg and ulam…various main courses. I really didn’t pay attention to the various baos and such.

Being that I take direction well; I ordered the Kare Kare with Crispy Pork ($14.59). Taking no chances; I ordered it packed as take out even though I’d be having it in the restaurant.

I went and had a seat in the corner to wait for my order.

Then the most amazing coincidence happened. I looked on over and saw “CC” (aka pcarh13) and a friend of hers waiting for their “brunch”. It had been a while since I’d seen her! I walked on over and she was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her! She introduced me to her dining companion and we decided to grab a table and hang out. It was such a nice time! They were having silogs…..

Meanwhile, a short time later my Kare Kare arrived.

As anticipated, this was more food than I could consume in one sitting these days…especially at 10am in the morning.

The rice was a bit hard but decently cooked. The kare kare was nice and creamy, decently thick, but a bit on the sweeter side and could have used a bit more salty-savory tones….I probably should have asked for some bagoong, but was too busy enjoying chatting with my dining companions.

The eggplant was nice and creamy; the lechon was slightly chewy side with some crisp edges, but not hard, much better than what I’d had at Tambayan, and I rather enjoyed it. It was nicely seasoned, but retained the nice porky flavor.

I thought it was pretty good…you couldn’t complain about the portion size, that’s for sure. I enjoyed this meal, though that was probably due to my dining companions!

A few days later I was again in the area and decided to get one of silog to go. Having thought the pork was pretty good on my previous visit, I decided to try the Sisigsilog….you know me a sisig, right? Like the kare kare, it was nicely priced ($13.99) and the portion size was generous.

Though when opening my container I quickly noticed something…..

Where’s the egg? Maybe their sisigsilog doesn’t come with egg?

Well, I dug on in….I expected garlic rice, but this was kinda mushy, mainly soy sauce based, rice.

The “sisig”…notice the quotes was not good, decently sour, but missing spice altogether. It was also very salty and lacked decent pungent tones as well. But the pork was the most disappointing item as it was super hard….not tough….not crunchy…hard.

It had obviously been twice fried….but I think they chopped everything into small pieces before frying, thus the pork lost all moisture and became leather like in texture. You can just look at the photo and tell.

Well, so much for that, perhaps there’s something else on the menu I need to try?

I was so glad to check out Jax Chibugan, as I got to run into CC!

Jax Chibugan
3142 E Plaza Blvd.
National City, CA 91950
Current Hours:
Tues – Fri 9am – 7pm
Sat -Sun 8am – 7pm
Closed on Mondays