While reading thru Eater's post on new restaurants in San Diego, I came across a mention of a Korean Egg Sandwich place that opened in the UTC area. So, I took a quick look online and man, unless I've been missing something it seems like Korean Egg Drop Sandwiches had finally made it to San Diego? Not that I'm really into those fads and such; but the location was quite convenient as were the hours, so I thought I'd drop by and check the place out for a "brunchy" kind of meal.
I find the location to be quite interesting, in the same strip mall off Regents that houses Leucadia Pizza, Von's, the "ABCDE" (American-Born-Chinese-Dining-Establishment) where I had ok Chicken Wings a zillion years ago. I really hadn't been to this mall in ages; the last time was when I needed some cash from the ATM probably before Covid. The name of the place sounded familiar….then it came to me; Egglettes are those silicon boiled egg cooking cups. Also, the location, wasn't this something like Yakimono Restaurant and then a ramen place and then a sushi restaurant in previous lives?
Taking a look at the interior, you can kinda see where a sushi bar used to be and a flat top in the back, all blocked by nicely lined up boxes.
There are a couple of smaller tables out front, some seating indoors, and what looks like an outdoor dining space.
The prices looked to be quite reasonable by today's standards. It's one of these modern you can use the QR code and they'll give you a buzzer for your food. I went with the Egg Double Cheese Egglet ($8) and was curious about the Truffle Hash Brown ($4.50). Soon enough the little bugger buzzer went off.
Wasn't sure what to expect with the hash browns….there were three to an order, more than I could consume. This was typical Sysco quality, fast-foodish hash browns dusted with a truffle-Parmesan powder. It had a sweet tinge to it, I later found out that it is also dusted with black garlic. Not sure what hash browns are going for these days at your local fast-food joint, but I'm guessing that it's pretty reasonable for $4.50. Not that I would order it again though.
Speaking of not ordering again; the Egg Double Cheese Egglet was quite large for eight bucks; but the brioche, while decently toasted was way too sweet for my taste.
Just having the mix of cheddar-mozzarella which made things nice and gooey and the under-seasoned egg was not enough to overcome the brioche toast. There was a lack of savory flavors to me. I'm sure that some folks might really take to this, but it was just not my kind of thing.
Still, at these prices, I was more than willing to give them another try. This time I went with something from the "sandwich" menu, rather than the egglet like I had earlier. I was told that the sandwich rolls are not as sweet as the toast by the really nice woman. I wasn't feeling like having a burger though, so I thought I'd "hedge my bets" by getting the Smoked Bacon Sandwich ($9.75) in hopes that the bun wouldn't be too sweet for my taste.
This was a pretty messy sandwich. The bacon, which almost reminded me of "Canadian Bacon" hadn't been crisped up enough and was quite rubbery. Still, the savory-saltiness…it didn't seem smoky to me, really added balance to the sandwich.
Also, I'm thinking the roll, which was nicely toasted wasn't quite as sweet as the toast, though the caramelized onions, something I would usually enjoy on a savory sandwich/burger was a bit too much for this. Also, the egg was folded over to one corner of the sandwich. I had to open it up. The cheese, once again a mozzarella blend had a nice stringiness, but really lacked milky-savory-sharpness and other than texture, didn't bring much in terms of flavor to this.
In the end, Egglet is an interesting fast-casual concept, which I think a certain demographic (which I'm not part of) might enjoy. I also think the prices are good for the location, especially in this day and age. And the prices give you a chance to try them out yourself!
Egglet
7728 Regents Road Suite 501
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Daily 7am – 2pm
I walked up to the counter, the place had just opened, but there seemed to be a couple of folks waiting for their orders already. The young man working was really nice, though he looked a bit overwhelmed. I took a look at the menu….even though the portions looked pretty large, I went and ordered the Mix Katsu Combo ($19.99), which included both pork and chicken katsu and curry. 
The katsu had not been fried evenly and there were some darkly colored spots, the texture of the panko was kind of mealy, at least the breading wasn't separating from the proteins, but it was easy to tell which was the pork and chicken. The pork was on the left; it was thicker, had a more spongy texture, but was fairly tender, if a bit on the dry side. The seasoning was one dimensional being quite salty. The chicken on the right side was thinner, dry, and chewy. It was also quite salty. I'd take the pork any day of the week.
I'm pretty sure the curry had been made with "cubes", it had a nice spice, but was barely lukewarm….and I was eating in the food court. It was quite gloppy and was also on the salty side. Dipping the katsu in this was just too much sodium for me.
These were those jumbo sized wings; the batter was really thick and more hard-crunchy than crispy. The seasoning was a good amount of salt and black pepper. The wings were moist, especially the flats, and looked to be of good quality. As whole, just way too much batter for me, but decent wings. It threw the entire proportion off and I really needed that cabbage with dressing and the mul kimchi, which hovered on the sweeter side of things to reset my palate.
The batter for this seemed a bit different; it was thinner, more lacquered, but still on the crunchy end of the spectrum. The menu says "aromatic and slightly spicy", I'd go with barely spicy and teeth rattling sweet and sticky. The wings were, as before moist and tender, but this was too much for me. I ended up needing the cabbage a mul kimchi to recover! Also, I had to request extra napkins, because of that sticky sauce. Perhaps they'll stock some wipes in the future?
The wings came with a rather large order of Mul Kimchi, crisp, not overly sweet, a good palate cleanser for fry-o-lated foods.
The batter was somewhat crunchy, but it really got soggy quickly. The seasoning seemed quite mild, but I had a raging thirst after eating 6 of these wings. I took the remaining wings home and even tried to revive in the air fryer, but that didn’t work too well. I’m thinking that if I tried this again it would have to be with some kind of sauce; but based on experience with other KFC chains of this ilk, I’m going to assume it’s going to be too sweet and heck, it already gets soggy-mushy too quickly anyway.
As you can see, the chicken took up only two-thirds of the sandwich surface area, so there were "fowl-less" bites and with all that bread and mayo, it was hard making heads or tails of the flavors. So even though that label said "please enjoy it as soon as served" there was no way I could finish this. I put half in the fridge at work and took it home. During dinner that evening, I brought out the remainder of the sandwich and the Missus and I took out the piece of chicken. Even though the batter had sloughed off, it seemed like the chicken thigh meat was nicely seasoned and fairly tender. 
The wings were on the larger end of the spectrum and were lightly seasoned. The sauce was much too sweet for me. 
And when the gyeran jjim (steamed egg) hit the table, I thought that this would be the interesting test of the service. You see, the Missus enjoys some sesame oil on Her steamed egg. I think it's kind of a Northern Chinese thing. On our 
