So more than a few months back, there I was having a nice brewski at the usual place, when "that pair" of folks, you know, they thought Moment Sushi was soooo good (it wasn't), even though they had never heard of Tadokoro, Soichi, Kaito, etc walked in. They didn't remember me; which was actually a good thing. And of course, being the nosy old man that I am, I started listening in when they started talking about….well, sushi again. If anything, just for laughs. Well, the Instagrammable young lady said she had just had the "best sushi meal of her life at a place called Kokomo". Kokomo?? Wasn't that a song by the Beach Boys from the movie Cocktail?
And then it dawned on me; she must mean Kokoro! Well now, when did I last dine in at one of the old favorites of the late Ed from Yuma (hope you are eating well where you are Ed!)? Checking things when I got home; I did takeout during Covid 3 1/2 years ago, and the last time I dined in was in spring of 2019!
I had always enjoyed the lunches at Kokoro, so of course it was finally time for a revisit.
I arrived right at the 1130 opening time. The nice older woman, who is the wife of the Itamae and co-owner greeted and seated me at the bar. I quickly noticed that the Itamae for this day wasn't the owner.
I did know he was present; because even though this was right in front of me, I'm sure it wasn't my obanzai…..
Seriously, the owner peeked out of the kitchen doorway and saw that he had "forgotten" something on the counter and swooped in to remove it!
I ordered the Sashimi Lunch ($27.50). And my scaldingly hot miso soup soon arrived.
I had always enjoyed the miso soup here; this was a bit thinner than what I'd dined on here before and the miso flavor was much fainter. It was still not bad though.
And then of course my Sashimi lunch arrived.
First off, let me say that the rice was perfect, just what I'd expect from a good sushi bar. The wasabi bright, fresh, sinus clearing.
As for the seafood; the highlights for me was the tako, tender-yet-toothsome, with a mild sweet-brininess. And the hamachi, nicely sliced, fairly buttery in texture, went really well with a touch of soy and the wasabi.
The Maguro was disappointing; sliced super thin, on the chewy side, with a slight metallic tinge to it.
The Ika and Salmon were decent; the salmon was decently fatty and the texture of the ika was quite good, not overly chewy.
This was pretty good overall; I'll definitely return and get my usual chirashi for lunch next time.
There was one additional problem though. During my entire time at Kokoro, that darn song was playing in my head, damn earworm!! Now it's going again while I'm doing this post! Yikes!
Well, in order to exorcise it, I need to do this so please forgive my "Weird Al" (or perhaps "Kimyona Kirk") moment……words to the tune of…well Kokoro Kokomo:
"Hamachi, Maguro,
Time to "holoholo"
Tako and Hirame
kinda yummy, yummy
Off of Sandrock Road
There's a place called Kokoro
That's where I wen' go
Lunch at Kokoro….."
Sorry, needed to get that out of my system!
What do you mean "no fishing"!!!!
Kokoro
3298 Greyling Dr.
San Diego, CA 92123
Current Hours:
Wed – Sat 1130am – 130pm, 530pm – 10pm
Sunday 1130am – 130pm, 530pm – 9pm
Closed Mon – Tues
Thanks for indulging me, hope you have a great week!
You could make out the scent of truffle. If you took a look at the broth, you'd notice little flecks of black. The more flecks, the stronger the truffle flavor. The broth was very light and in my mind could have used a bit more richness. The savory flavor of shoyu was barely evident. More of a mushroom broth to me. 
The chashu had been grilled before serving; which totally changed the texture and taste. I like a nice "buttery" chashu and the grilling had made it rather tough and stringy. The flavor was on the lighter side as well.
I must say; this was fairly good, at least in terms of how moist, tender, and for the basic marinade/seasoning. The coating could have been a bit more crisp or crunchy as it deteriorated quite fast. Much of that was probably due to the overly sweet and sticky glaze used.
There were some definite improvements on this visit. The noodles were firmer, the menma and tamago were not iced cold.
Overall, the service was unobtrusive, the young lady working the front was very sweet.
The bowl was delivered nice and hot. The tamago was now provided on the side. The yolk was adequately soft, the marinade a bit weak….but of course…my pet peeve, these were ice cold….sigh.
The broth seemed more full-bodies then on my previous visits and while still a bit on the saltier side, I found the added richness more enjoyable . It's still seems fairly straight forward in flavor, but I think that might be a good thing in this case.
Unevenly coated, not crisp or crunchy enough for my taste, on the blander side. The flesh was fairly juicy and tender though. Not a big fan of the sesame like dressing provided either.
 I will say upfront that my favorite item were the fries, which had been dusted and were perfectly seasoned and still crisp after the 15 minutes drive home.
 The rice was on the drier, harder end of the scale. I was asked if I wanted “spicy” sauce with my lunch and I said yes, but I think they forgot it. It’s ok, I’ll leave that to the “soft” opening.
 
 The “pot stickers” were like a very bland, chewy, fried mandu. This was not terrible; very fast-casual in nature, though not my kind of thing.
Santouka has been fairly consistent over the years. Of course that consistency is a two way street. Santouka has probably the worse tamago. And yes, it's always been terribly overcooked. But hey, if you want consistency, that egg was just as bad at 
I prefer the savory, somewhat salty, barrel aged shoyu broth to the tonkotsu here. It has nice soy-savory complexity and the broth has a decent velvety tongue feel.
The chashu was porky, with a nice shoyu flavor. It was so soft and buttery; the best I've had here to date! I decided to get the noodles katame; firm, and the woman working nodded in approval. The noodles were indeed firm, slippery, but also did a great job "picking up" the broth.
Ok, the beef in the meat jun was nicely marinated, if a bit on the chewier side; sweet-salty-hint of garlic, very bulgogi-ish, the batter was a bit thicker and gritty than I prefer and it had been over-fried a bit. But, the Missus enjoyed the mild eggy-ness and the combination of flavors. She liked the meat jun dipping sauce which also had a hint of vinegar, some spice, balanced sweetness.
Think of this as Daikon no Nimono crowned with a sizeable piece of seared foie gras and caramelized onions. As 
The fragrance really got my stomach growling. In terms of portion size, this was way bigger than the takeout I'd had from 
It usually has Sriracha drizzled on the egg, but the gentleman nicely asked if I'd prefer to have it on the side. I really didn't even need it. The egg was slightly crisp and quite fluffy. Nice savory tones; the ground meat used, I'm thinking it may be ground chicken was moist and tender. Nice savory tones; quite "eggy" without any off flavors. Quite nice!
In the end, I settled with the Cayenne Pepper seasoning as it had a nice bit of heat, mild smokiness, a bit of a "bite" if you will, with a touch of sweetness. I actually tasted the seasoning by itself! 
