Korean Restaurants – Page 16

COMC: Never made the cut edition

Just C(learing)O(ut the)M(emory)C(ard) time again. Here are a bunch of dishes that never quite made the cut for one reason or another.

Along with not making the cut for a post, these were rather "undelicious" if there is such a word.

Anyway, here goes……

This Banh Xeo looked plastic……

And pretty much tasted it……

Since folks already know I'm not a fan….I don't feel like rubbing it in.

Even one of our favorite Korean Restaurants is not immune. This Kimchi Pajun was greasy, soggy, and tasted off.

So is our favorite Thai place…. This Spicy Shrimp Fried Rice was indeed spicy; more like 10 then the 5 I ordered.

It was like the rice had just been passed quickly through oil….though the shrimp were very nice.

They called these "Italian Ribs".

They were as tough as they looked……

This Combination Egg Noodle Soup cost eight bucks………and was quite bad.

Even beyond looking like stuff was just thrown into the soup, the broth was lukewarm and the noodles strangely mushy.

Meet a $7 TJ Hot Dog.

So much stuff!

This Bo Luc Lac, was Beef no luck….tough and really salty.

Well…..that's it…..not much, I know.

I hope everyone had a great week!

I think it's time for a "guilty pleasure" run.

H Mart Food Court- hot pot and soup

January 8, 2013 Cathy Korean Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, What Cathy Eats!

Well here you are, back at mmm-yoso!!!, the blog o' food. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are busy today, finding places to blog about. Cathy is writing because she found a place.

Now that San Diego finally has H Mart, the Mira Mesa Boulevard location has probably been visited by a lot of you. There are only two other businesses located within the store, Paris Baguette and the "Food Court"- to the right when you enter the store.

It's really only one business with a limited menu, fairly large seating area and food that hits the spot, especially on cold days. Walk up, order, pay, grab chopsticks, water, some kimchi find a seat and wait for your number to be called.

It opens at 11:00 and gets crowded fast. Everyone always has large bowls of good looking food.

Even though we were here on a Friday before noon, we got the last two seats available. Just a note to whomever designed the counter- two people can't sit at the inside corner seats at the same time; one of those will always be empty.

When our number was called, The Mister brought the tray of bowls to our barstool seating area and the smells emanating were wonderful! This is #14- the soybean paste vegetable stew hot pot ($6.99). It was still bubbling in the heavy cast bowl. The mild saltiness of the soybean paste complimented all the vegetables in the bowl-a variety of squash, a lot of tofu, some onion and carrot, one piece of potato as well as the sliced jalapeño with the rice all combined into a deep rich flavored wonderful, satisfying meal.

The #5-Noodle soup with seafood ($7.99) was served in a very large bowl. Shrimp, squid, mussels, clams and a random piece of white, firm fleshed fish was served in a wonderful broth with noodles and vegetables.

Here's a better photo after a lot of the broth had been consumed while waiting for everything to cool down.

These were both refreshing and filling and so very fresh. Since the menu only has 11 items, everything will be tried in due time. I'm looking forward to it. If you are here and see a seat, grab it and order something.

Food Court at H Mart 9440 Mira Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92126 (858)577-0060 Open 11:00-8:30 daily

Sunday Stuffs: Eater San Diego, Two more places opening near Morena, and Zion has a sign.

November 18, 2012 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants, yoso-silly

Just a couple of things for a lazy Sunday.

Welcome to Eater San Diego:

I've had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know quite a few great folks during my time doing our humble little blog. One of the nicest by far is Candice Woo. Who I'm happy to note is now the Editor-Writer-Jack of all trades for the newly launched Eater San Diego. It's nice to see the Eater expand to San Diego, I often read and even link to Eater LA. So take a look when you have a chance.

Two new restaurant/lounge/bars coming to the Morena area.

This morning I was driving back from my weekly tank filling ritual at Costco, when I noticed that the taco shop on Avanti Drive right off of Morena was now something called, Oasis Restaurant and Lounge. It's in the same strip mall as Boll Weevil.

I took a peek inside and I'm pretty sure this ain't a taco shop. Interesting location.

4033 Avanti Drive – Right off Morena Blvd.

Further down the street construction is going on at this place.

Dan Diegos? It's good to see new places popping up…….soon this will become Morena's restaurant row. So far, I haven't been too impressed with a couple of the places that have popped up. Hopefully, this will be a winner…..

2415 Morena Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110

And now to give Zion Market sort of equal time:

I drove by and saw the Zion Market sign is finally up….and on the week of H Mart's grand opening. Must just be a coincidence, right?

I heard they are opening early next year.

7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

H Mart opens in San Diego

November 17, 2012 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants, Markets & Grocers

I'd gotten quite a few emails from folks since the post about H Mart opening in San Diego. It seems to have created a bit of a buzz……..which was enough to actually get my crowd-o-phobic rear end down to H Mart today….opening day. Predictably, the place was packed, so I'm going to do mainly photos with this post. It'll be easier to see what this location of H Mart has to offer once the masses are gone.

We managed to pick up some prepared food which was pretty bland….especially the Japchae. The kimchi station wasn't ready yet upon this visit, probably by design.

They use all the marketing tricks in the book, from misting…….

To open prep stations……

To my disappointment, there's only a tiny little food court with looks like a single booth in the market.

The Missus was really impressed with the availability of organic and vegetarian products….. She's really into tempeh now and told me the selection and of course the prices were much better than Whole Paycheck. I wouldn't know…..

Decent seafood department…..

There was a nice selection of meat, with American Wagyu chuck roll and ribs available. I'm going to have to spend a bit more time here when things normalize.

We didn't even bother with Paris Baguette as the line was crazy long…….

In spite of the masses, every cashier station was open, so it was really fast once you got past the logjams at produce, the food court, meat, and seafood. I'm sure folks are happy to have another option in San Diego. Though not everyone looked thrilled……

As could be predicted, parking was an absolute nightmare….we parked on the street and walked into the mall. I'll do a folllow-up post in a couple of weeks when things slow down a bit.

H Mart
9440 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Midweek Meanderings: Goodbye Seoul BBQ and Paris Baguette coming soon

November 7, 2012 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

Just a short post for this post-election Wednesday.

Goodbye Seoul BBQ, hello Roadem BBQ:

I'm thinking the writing had been on the wall for a while at Seoul BBQ. I drove by the other day and saw this sign.

Am I the only one who thinks this name is a bit too close to "roadkill"? The kiss of death for Seoul was when I saw they were doing AYCE Korean BBQ, basically trying to compete with Manna. So now it's being replaced by another AYCE joint? For some reason the line, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" came to mind. you know the song, right? Won't get fooled again……..

4344 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Paris Baguette:

Driving past the location for the upcoming H Mart, I saw the sign for Paris Baguette posted.

For those who haven't heard of them, this is a chain of Korean-French Bakeries that are sometimes in Supermarkets. From what I heard, there are going to be two of them. One in this H Mart location and one in the new location of Zion Market. I guess they're covering all bases, huh?

9440 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

and

7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Midweek Meanderings: Is Nam An Closed? What about Luong Hai Ky on Convoy? And other stuffs…..

September 19, 2012 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

So, is Nam An Closed or What?:

Was the question posed to me by "Peter" on my original post on Nam An. I was kinda surprised, I know that Nam An had gotten away from serving lunch, but didn't know they had closed for the always ominous "renovations". So I placed a call to a very reliable source who told me that even though the sign says under renovation, the placed has closed down. Sad, this place had potential, but the folks running it had really no restaurant experience and though we enjoyed some of the dishes the service was spotty at best.

We visited a couple of months back and the signs were already there. It seemed that prices had gone up a bit, not a terrible sign in this economy, but we had also noticed that the portion had gotten noticeably smaller.

For me, it wasn't the regular menu of noodle and rice dishes that I enjoyed at Nam An. Rather, it was the appetizer menu that really made things interesting. Sadly, it now seems that there's no good Vietnamese in the area bordered by Aero Drive, the 52, the 15 and the I-5.

Personally, I hope Nam An gives it another shot……but things just don't look promising.

Speaking of which, what's going on with Luong Hai Ky?:

I actually went to check out a different restaurant in that strip mall and noticed that LHK wasn't open. Which was odd since from what I recall the place is open seven days a week from 10 to 10.

The photo above was taken close to noon when I drove by to check things out. Still not open. Well, I wouldn't be surprised, LHK was never the same after the original owner passed away. LHK opened a second restaurant in Mira Mesa and this location became the ill-fated Phat Restaurant. Which eventually failed and the location turned back to Luong Hai Ky. So now what? Well, I dunno….

Meanwhile, since we're on a losing streak:

The place I went to check out is called Apple Korean House.

MrsZ mentioned this place to me, so I wanted to check it out. The hours 5pm yo 2am made it seem like one of the soju houses, but I wanted to see. Of course, with my recent luck….wouldn't you know…..

Well, at least this one is a "small remodeling"…so hopefully they're open already.

But with my recent luck……..

Revisits to Grandma Tofu and BBQ (aka Halmouny/Hal Mu Ni)

September 13, 2012 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

It had been a while since I'd visited Halmouny, our last couple of visits were less than stellar and the Missus hated Her Seolleongtang. After over a year and a half, I wanted a dolsot bi bim bap and decided to revisit Halmouny.

The place looked virtually the same, now with a lunch menu, but I went with the Dolsot Bi Bim Bap which is not on the lunch special menu.

This was quite good; the best I'd had in a while, the rice nice and crusty after a couple of minutes in the dolsot; the cho-jang had that nice combination of spicy-savory-sour-sweet that enhances any dish. I was more than satisfied with this.

The panchan on the other hand was fairly pedestrian. The baechu kimchi was especially salty and not very pleasant.

I did enjoy the meal enough that I returned a couple of weeks later to try something off the lunch special menu.

I went with the Ttukbaegi Bulgogi something that I'd had here before. I really didn't enjoy it too much, but wanted to see if it had improved.

It was nice t see that the whole array of panchan, be it ever so humble was included with lunch specials. The Ttukbaegi Bulgogi however didn't fare as well.

When I tried the Ttukbaegi Bulgogi before, it was way too sweet. This time it had hardly any flavor at all…perhaps a dash of soy sauce and a faint sesame oil flavor. The meat and everything else was fine, but man, this was bland.

During this visit I noticed that all rice was now served in a dolsot….stone pot. There's now some nice crusting action going on here.

Which all leads up to tonight……the Missus was craving Korean food, but not really BBQ. Did I dare mention Hal Mu Ni? And yet, I thought why not?

We both ordered dishes that we'd had before….and had been very good one time and not so good another. One really funny thing is that the Missus now knows that panchan is traditionally meant to be consumed with the meal and is not an appetizer….this understanding sure has made our meals in Korean restaurants much smoother.

The Missus decided to order the Seolleongtang, a favorite of Hers, but was one of the items that had us stop coming on our last visit here together.

I usually grab for the sea salt on the table whenever we get Seolleongtang, but this was well flavored and didn't need any help. The beef was tender, with a good bovine flavor. The Missus also enjoy the dolsot bop, which She let sit until She was half done with the Seolleongtang. By this time the rice had developed a nice crust. The Missus was given water to make Nurungji, but decided to pop the crusts into the bone broth. She also saved some up because I ordered this:

Man, this was good, better than the first time I had this here. The gul, steamed pork belly was moist, oinky and mildly sweet. This almost got Ed from Yuma doing the delici-yoso dance during a visit with hime two years ago. Had he been here tonight, it would have been a full on electric bugaloo…… The jokbal, pig trotters were nicely prepared, a symphony of textures, mildly sweet and savory, with a background anise flavor. Though we prefer lettuce as the delivery system, the napa cabbage did alright. Well, Ms "I don't eat pork" developed Her own way of eating this. She'd get a piece of meat, lay on a good quantity of ssamjang, that wonderful fermented bean-chili paste they make inhouse here, place a slice of raw garlic and jalapeno on top, making Her perfect bite. I'm more of a purist using the spicy, yet refreshing mul (radish) kimchi and oyster mixture along with ssamjang and cabbage leaves. i'm not a big fan of the salted shrimp dipping sauce though. We actually went through two dishes of ssamjangand two dishes of sliced japapenos and raw garlic….needless to say, there would be no public interaction for a good amount of time after this meal.

This turned out to be one of the better meals we've had in a while. With (hopefully) cooler weather coming up, I'm sure we'll be visiting for the soups and stews. I hope the days of inconsistency is a thing of the past here.

Grandma's Tofu & BBQ (Halmouny)
4425 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

BBQ Chicken Revisited

September 4, 2012 mmm-yoso Chains, Korean Restaurants

*** BB.Q Chicken has returned to San Diego – updated post here.

*** BBQ Chicken has closed

If you've read my previous posts on BBQ Chicken, you probably already know that I've never been a big fan. A couple years back, I got into a slight disagreement with a fellow blogger on how this was notreally B(est) of the B(est) Q(uality). I found the chicken to have a bit of a fishy smell and am not a big fan of the batter either. Still, when I saw that BBQ Chicken had new ownership and was now open for lunch, I thought "why not try it again"…..hey, maybe my tastebuds had, ahem, "matured enough to appreciate the chicken". Or maybe you just need tastebuds that are super mature, i.e. dead, to really enjoy the chicken, in which case there would be no change.

What was nice was that I was actually acknowledged when I arrived, by a very nice young lady. Looking over the menu, I noticed that the lunch specials were nicely priced. Hey, even better……so I ordered a three piece "Olive Luxury Chicken Combo" ($7.99).

One of the positives about BBQ Chicken is that the chicken is cooked to order…..the negative to that is, if things aren't right in the kitchen, it might take a while. Fortunately for me, my chicken arrived sizzling…literally sizzling to my table. Also, the server endeared herself to me……she brought extra napkins! Telling me "you're having fried chicken, I think you might need some extra napkins." Perfect…..

On the good side, the chicken was very moist…and hot! But I'm still not a fan of the bland, crumbliy, somewhat greasy batter….and for some reason, it still smells a bit fishy to me. It could be that I'm just more sensitive to it, but there is something strange in the smell.

You get one side with the lunch and I chose the "corn salad", which was really bland, but at least didn't smell bad.

As for the Chicken……well, I'm still not sold.

BBQ Chicken
4768 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Mon-Thu 11 am – 12 am
Fri-Sat 11 am – 1 am
Sunday 11 am – 12 am

COMC: Keeping Cool at Izakaya Sakura, Buga, and Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori (plus a bonus)

August 15, 2012 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants, Pakistani Food

Man, it was pretty hot and humid there for a couple of days, wasn't it? It sure does dampen your appetite. I don't know about you, but we tend to go with the tried and true when eating during weather like that. Here's places I've posted on a number of times, so we'll go the COMC (Clearing Out the Memory Card) route with this one.

Izakaya Sakura:

Well, the Missus has been cutting down on a bunch of things and Sakura is one of those places, with a la carte ordering where She can just get a couple of small items to eat. With the recent weather I'd go with something like Zaru Soba or Tempura Zaru Soba.

While the Missus can get any number of protein items like…..

Shishamo

Or a number of Shioyaki or Misozuke preparations…..

And even perhaps one of the few creatures She still eats that walks on land…..

Izakaya Sakura
3904 Convoy St #121
San Diego, CA 92111

Buga:

The other day, the Missus wanted to go to Buga, but not for Korean BBQ, even though She was craving some beef. Instead She went with the Yukkwe Bi Bim Bap.

So I guess She won't eat beef cooked, but will raw? Anyway, it was heavenly with a nice amount of Chojang…..very refreshing.

I went with the Bibim Naengmyun……

Of course there was panchan…….

Usually, there's no one at Buga before 5pm on weekdays, so we didn't have to be worried about all the essence of Korean BBQ. It was a nice meal…….and I didn't have Sammy and Frankie following me around the house afterwards.

Buga Korean BBQ Restaurant
5580 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori:

One evening, I didn't feel like crowds…..so what the heck was I doing going to Yakyudori? Well, they don't start yakitori until 530, so if you get there early, it's easy enough to get something light, like some Natto Gohan.

And some chicken karaage……

Which on this trip was pretty good……

And slink on away as the crowds start pouring in.

Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori
4898 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

House of Khan pop-up:

Candice had been trying to coordinate a dinner for us here….unfortunately, a crazy schedule, which included my trip home and other stuff prevented me from attending until the last evening of this Pakistani pop-up.

I'd usually do a full on post, but since this was the last evening……hopefully, these photos will do until perhaps we get another run or the really nice young lady Selina gets a permanent location for a restaurant. This one was located in the California Kebab location off College.

Sad to see that we were just about the only folks there to enjoy the food.

I've been to a couple of pop-ups, but usually go myself and after seeing all the folks with their posse's and busting out all this gear…..I just keep to myself and try to enjoy the food.

There you go….I hope you're having a great "hump" day!

Fusion or Con-Fusion Part 2: Jiggle Jiggle Korean Grill

August 6, 2012 mmm-yoso Asian Fusion/Pacific Rim/Hawaii Style Fusion, Korean Restaurants

*** Update: This restaurant has closed.

Yes, i'm finally getting around to doing this one…..which I promised with "part 1" on fuze. I had actually stopped and looked over the menu when JJ first open, some Korean standards, fad following Korean tacos……a carne asada fries knock-off, which is kind of redundant because CAFs are a knock-off itself….so what is a copy off something that's a copy? My friend Candice even mentioned the place in a text, to which I replied, the "the name and the menu makes me giggle giggle".

And yet, there were a couple of folks I knew who liked the place. My usual query would be the one where I asked whether it was a location thing (Midway) or not. Several folks assured me that wasn't the reason. They also told me the Korean tacos were ,"the bomb". And even faced with the fast-food looking facade who am I to judge. If this place could be half as good as….say Gina's BBQ in Honolulu, I would be happy. Sorry to say, it ain't quite that……so if you decide to stop reading here, I wouldn't hold it against you.

On my first visit, I did order "the trio" ($8), one each of the kalbi, dak bulgogi, and daeji bulgogi.

It was a bomb all right; a gut bomb, a lettuce and spicy mayo-fest. I gotta say, if it's pure capacity you're trying to fill, then these might do it. The tortillas were the worst this side of El Pollo Loco, as they just fell to bits and had almost no flavor. I tasted each protein separately and the kalbi was by far the worst, pale, flavorless, and really tough "LA Kalbi" type shortribs. The pork was tough, but at least it had some heat, but all was really lost in the wilderness of lettuce. The chicken bulgogi was probably the best of the trio, decent, but again just covered with "stuff". Let me say however, if you're looking to fill yourself up….this might do it.

So I figured that would be pretty much it……but, the folks running the place were really nice, so I decided to visit one more time. This time I started with the Yaki Mandu ($4).

I really liked the way these were fried….light and crisp. The dipping sauce was a bit watered down and the filling really bland, otherwise this would have been a winner.

My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try the Korean Fries, which, priced at $5.50 are really worth it. But man, this was a mess……

On the good side, I enjoyed the interplay of the kimchi and the fries. On the bad side kimchi and nacho cheese…..that's a bad partnership. I did wonder why the menu said Spicy Mayo and Korean Aioli, which seems to be somewhat redundant. Too much mayo and cheese for my taste and the bulgogi….well you could see it, but not really taste it. Though I did have sort of an epiphany while trying to eat this….if we had a category on the blog for "stoner food", this would be right up there! After all, it was salty, tons of fat, interesting textures…..hmmmm…

To me, the food at fuze is executed better, with higher quality ingredients. Still, the prices here are reasonable and if anyone could give me a recommendation that's not kalbi, spicy pork, bulgogi, chicken bulgogi, or mandu oriented, I may just check them out again. Though I might recommend Jiggle Jiggle to you at the end of a hard night of drinking a la "grease-berto's"….but JJ closes at 9 during the week and 10 on Friday and Saturday.

Jiggle Jiggle Korean Grill
3146 Midway Drive
San Diego, CA 92110