Category: Mediterranean Restaurants

Midweek Meanderings – Junior’s Mediterranean Eats Replacing Fujiyame, Recently Consumed, and a Dolly Parton Story

Cookbooks, Cooking, Mediterranean Restaurants, yoso-silly

I saw this sign a few weeks back in the former location of Fujiyame:

A few days later; Tanje of the always informative guide Explore Clairemont mentioned the place in a post on IG. Unfortunately, I’m not able to find that post. Anyway, to sum up what I read; it’s the owners of PB’s Shawarma Shack that is behind this upcoming business.

4310 Genesee Avenue Suite 108A
San Diego, CA 92117

Consumed by the Heat:

Right? Been hot and humid enough for you all lately? At least it seems to be cooling off for the moment. Anyway, I’ve noticed that a lot of what we’ve been eating looks like this:

Yep, tofu with okra and mizuna from the yard, with pidan. And of course, the Missus just “needed” to have some ohitashi…..this one I made with kale from the yard.

I picked one of my chilies which gave it a good kick!

I made this tofu dish with watercress.

Based on one of the recipes from Aloha Veggies cookbook.

I deviated from the published recipe a bit; but it turned out good. Quite refreshing.

And since yesterday was “Meat Day” at Nijiya and the weather had cooled down a bit; the Missus wanted some Soboro Don. So, I complied.

Of course, we just “needed” some fukusai…..so I made two side dishes.

The Missus enjoyed the meal and was satisfied…..for now….

What have you been eating during this recent heat wave?

And Finally……

I was sad to hear of Dolly Parton‘s passing last month. I’ve read that She really loved the islands and even had a short lived restaurant there.

I even saw her having dinner one night in Kapahulu. Yes, that’s right. Back in the late 80’s, I was having one of my “date night” dinners at one of my favorite restaurants at that time; Keo’s which was located at the corner of Kapahulu and Mo’oheau Avenue at the time. My date and I recognized the tiny woman with the big hair seated at one of the discreet tables in the place…it was Dolly Parton! Of course we couldn’t help but stare. Instead of giving us the “stink eye”, she gave us the warmest smile, which immediately made me feel guilty for staring. So, we tried not to keep staring over our “Evil Jungle Prince”. As she and her entourage left she turned to us and said “enjoy your dinner darlings!” You gotta love it!

That photo above is from Vaquero Bar in Solvang. I remember seeing the photo the first time I visited during Covid. I recall telling the bartender that story about running into Dolly back in my old neighborhood of Kapahulu. And of all the interesting coincidences; the other bartender told me that Dolly Parton had a house in Solvang! You can see more on that here! Funny thing; I also remember seeing Steve Perry and Journey having dinner at Keo’s as well.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share this! Hope you’re having a great week!

Bacari Revisited

Mediterranean Restaurants, Middle Eastern Restaurants/Cuisine

The Missus had enjoyed our meal at Bacari so much, that when the heat wave hit recently, guess where She wanted to go? Yep, back for an early dinner at Bacari. Though this time, it was just to hot to have JJ along……

We again had 430pm reservations, so the patio was nice and chill…though once 5pm came along, the place filled fast.

We got our two favorites from our previous visits, along with trying something new from the massive menu. The Oyster Mushroom Shish Kabob ($16). The Missus loved the salty-tangy-savory-earthy flavor of the rather crisp oyster mushroom prep. The pita for this dish was also on the more firm and crisp side.

Loved the rather refreshing sauce and the veggies. Our only complaint was how small the portion of oyster mushrooms were….it kind of got lost in this dish.

Of course we got the Salatim! That hazelnut beet muhamarra is probably my favorite item here.

It has some nice earthy spice, with a light sweetness. Goes so well with the pillowy pita.

On a really nice note….the manager working the front of house noticed how much I enjoyed it….and when we got our leftovers to go he gave us a little container of muhamarra since I had finished all of it! Such a nice touch!

We got the Lamb Pistachio Kebab again. Though this time we ordered it on pita ($3 upcharge) and this is totally the way to go.

Mainly because that sauce, that can be somewhat overwhelming is placed in a container on the side. You can choose which sauce you prefer and control the amount as well.

We enjoyed this meal and can’t wait to return again. It was even better than our first visit with really wonderful service.

Bacari
3823 30th St.
San Diego, CA 92104
Current Hours:
Mon – Wed 430pm – 1030pm
Thursday 430pm – 1230am
Friday 430pm – 1am
Saturday 1030am – 230pm, 4pm – 1am
Sunday 1030am – 230pm, 4pm – 1030pm

If you’ve recently visited Bacari, what dishes did you enjoy?

Modern Kabob (Bay Park) – A Grand Opening Visit

Mediterranean Restaurants

I was driving on Morena when I noticed that Modern Kabob, which replaced Greenhaus had finally opened. I’d first seen the sign for Modern Kabob back in August of 2025. Man, it took them over a year to open!

So, looking over the hours, I headed on over for a weekend lunch at 1030. The parking lot for this little strip mall; you know, the one where JV’s is located can be a horror show. Which it was on this morning….even at 1030! On the other hand; I was glad to see JV’s doing some good business.

Entering the shop, I noticed that the interior looked pretty much the same white washed interior, though a counter had been built out in front of the kitchen.

The prices seem kind of inline with Pita Grill right down the street. The young man working was very nice, though he was still getting used to things and got my order wrong twice….before getting things straightened out. You know, grand opening jitters and all that.

I ordered the Chicken Shawarma Wrap ($9.99) and even though it seemed a bit over priced; I was curious about the Falafel, so I got a 3 piece side order, which was $5.95…..now that seemed a bit expensive. Like two bucks a falafel?

I think they are still going thru some of the grand opening shakes as my order took over a half an hour. I was the only customer in the place the whole time. I took my order to go.

The Shawarma Wrap was quite long.

The pita-ish bread, much like a Khobez was nicely heated, but really hard and chewy.

The chicken was tough, and unlike what the menu said was not thinly sliced, though it was decently seasoned, good sour tones, savory, almost leaning to a bit too salty. The supposed “garlic sauce” seemed really runny and bland. There wasn’t enough pickles in my opinion.

Kind of lacking in my opinion.

The Falafel was a non-starter. Check out the different shades of falafel.

This was not crisp on the exterior, the interior was mushy. You can tell how it kind of collapsed when I bit into it.

Honestly, I’m not expecting Falafel Ratzon or even the now closed Mister Falafel….but this was not very good at all. The tahini was runny, watery, and lacking in flavor as well.

Well, I think while the portions are a bit smaller in terms of protein than Pita Grill, this place might be a hair better at this time. I prefer supporting what seems to be more local focused businesses….so I’ll probably return in a few months. I’m hoping things get better in the future because I don’t want this to be “Modern” versions of this type of cuisine.

Modern Kabob
1118 Morena Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Daily 1030am – 9pm

Bacari (North Park)

Mediterranean Restaurants, Middle Eastern Restaurants/Cuisine

The Missus was having Her hair done in North Park and I was passing time with JJ. We were walking on 30th Street when I noticed the host stand outside what used to be Urban Solace which was a favorite of the Missus.

I recalled hearing of a restaurant with several locations in LA taking over that spot a while back…it just kinda seemed like a hipster-chain so I really didn’t pay much attention. But while waiting for the Missus, I took a look at Bacari North Park on my phone and it was both dog friendly and the patio was covered. They also open at 430 for dinner service….so I figured why not? I made reservations for patio seating and once the Missus was done we walked over for an early dinner.

The patio is nicely covered and JJ was quite comfortable.

It was quite relaxed and empty when we arrived, but the place filled up quickly after 5pm.

The service was quite friendly and the gentleman, who I believe is the manager was super nice and even brought J some water.

We were brought menus, which are just a single sheet, but it’s just crammed with dishes.

All the dishes are designed for sharing and we were told that 2-3 dishes per person is the norm….so we went ahead and placed our orders and the Missus got a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

The first item to arrive was the Salatim ($16.50), a term I actually remembered from when we visited Israel as meaning something along the lines of salad and similar items. This was an interesting array of vegetarian style “dips” which mimic items like pate and muhamarra. The pitas were almost fluffy, seemed so fresh, arriving hot, and were quite good.

My favorite item hands down was the Hazelnut Beet Muhamarra. I really do enjoy traditional Muhamara, the roasted red bell pepper – pomegranite dip…but man, this was so good…it was slightly spicy, tangy, somewhat earthy, with savory tones, and seemed to have a slight butteriness to it. The Tahini Hummus seemed almost ordinary in comparison, but was still good, very rich, not super acidic. The cashew pate was vegan, but still quite savory and nutty. But that Muhamarra was so delici-yoso!

Next up was the Lamb Hummus ($16) which featured ground lamb in what was called a Lebanese Stew placed in some of that nice Hummus.

It came with large crudites….which were kind of unwieldy, the carrots being somewhat past their prime. The lamb stew was quite gamey, nice savoriness, not as spiced as I expected.

The one dish that we really didn’t care for was the Flat Iron Steak ($18), which, while done to a nice medium rare was really tough, lacked seasoning.

Look at the size of those zucchini slices! The bearnaise sauce was creamy, but really lacked that “rich zip” and herbaciousness that I like.

The Missus really enjoyed the Lamb Pistachio Kebab ($17), though I thought the three sauces (kale, tumeric, and beet tahini) were a bit of an overkill.

The texture of the kebab was really good, so tender, while still being slightly gamey. The pistachio added a nice textural contrast and an almost sweet nuttiness to things. Like I said, the Missus really enjoyed this.

We did order a bit too much food for us and had leftovers. Though the lamb kebab in the sauce didn’t heat up well.

We both enjoyed this meal and the Missus wants to return soon. We’ll probably do an early dinner again as the place was getting quite busy and loud as we left. A lot of folks were headed upstairs to the bar. Great service and some delicious dishes. We’ll be back.

Bacari
3823 30th St.
San Diego, CA 92104
Current Hours:
Mon – Wed 430pm – 1030pm
Thursday 430pm – 1230am
Friday 430pm – 1am
Saturday 1030am – 230pm, 4pm – 1am
Sunday 1030am – 230pm, 4pm – 1030pm

Circling Back to Alforon

Lebanese Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants

Man, the recent hot and strangely humid weather has got me craving some rather strange things. Typically, I be wanting maybe some Zaru Soba or Chirashi or perhaps some Thai Food during warmer weather. But this time; I was wanting some Garlic Paste? Of course Mama’s came to mind, but I’d recently been there….and boy do I miss the Garlic Paste from Mister Falafel. And then I suddenly realized that I hadn’t been to Alforon in a while. So, I went to the “Big List” to check and oh my……has it really been over 9 years since my last visit? Where does time go????

So, I made it a point to head on over to that crazy parking lot on ECB….which was, of course full. But I found parking close by on 60th Street and walked over.

I was greeted as I walked in by one of the owners; Samia who is a hoot. She pointed me to one of the four tops and told me, “you should sit there…the AC in the other half of the dining room is not working right”.

And she brought me some water and handed me a menu. It had been so long since I’d had my favorite here; the Chicken Tawook, it’s now $16.95….which sadly, is not an expensive price for these days!

Then the ever present Samia told me, “since you sit in the AC, maybe you should try it with the peppers!” Well now…..when did they add that option to the menu? I decided to get the peppers on my Tawook ($2). I then made the mistake of mentioning that the last time I was here, they didn’t have that option. Which made Samia shake her head and say “oooh, you haven’t been back here in a long time, huh? We added that to the menu several years ago!” Yikes; I was so busted!

Soon enough my Chicken Tawook with Peppers and Jalapenos arrived. It smelled so nice and yeasty.

You know, this is still a winnah! The garlic paste here is pungent, though not overwhelming, I really enjoy it with the pickles. I mash the blob down, before folding a slice and have at it. The chicken is mild, with a bit of lemony acidity and more moist than I recall. Nice yeasty, slightly crusty bread.

I did enjoy the spice the pickled jalapenos and sweet-spicy red peppers brought to this as well.

Strangely, I was stuffed after two slices….getting old I guess. Meanwhile, the two young men sitting on the table next to me finished three flatbreads and some falafel! Whoa……

Anyway, as I packed the two slices of the Bajeen, Samia went into full mom mode and gave me instructions on packing….”keep the cover closed so it doesn’t dry out!” You gotta love it!

I really enjoyed this and need to return more often! After all, I don’t want to disappoint Samia, right?

Alforon
5965 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
Current Hours:
Wed – Sat 12pm – 8pm
Sunday 12pm – 7pm

And lastly, I’d like to thank ChristinaC, who first recommended Alforon to me way back in 2010! I hope you are doing well Christina!

Lunch with JJ – Nature Forward Socal Bistro

Dog Friendly, European Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants

So, in my croissant post on Nature Forward Socal Bistro, I mentioned noticing Shakshuka on the menu. And while I wasn’t impressed with the “croissant”, I was interested in trying the Shakshuka, especially since the place had outdoor seating. Little did I know that I would have a opportunity so quickly! It just so happened that I placed a takeout order from Joyee for when the Missus got home for dinner. JJ and I went to pick it up at around 1030 on a recent Saturday. After placing our food in the car, I decided to take JJ for a short stroll and I noticed that the front patio of Nature Forward, which is usually quite busy on weekends, was empty!

Well, I guess this was a “sign”, right? I decided to have an early lunch with JJ. I got the really nice young lady’s attention and we were seated in the front patio.

In the shaded table in the corner.

The young lady brought JJ a bowl of water with the menu for me to review. Of course, I knew what I wanted….the Shakshuka ($19). I place my order and just relaxed….based on previous experience I knew it was going to take a while…and with just the young lady working the register and front of house doing everything I wasn’t going to complain.

Eventually, my Shakshuka arrived. It came with roasted potatoes.

The potatoes seemed to be seasoned with rosemary. As you can see, it was unevenly roasted, not enough crisp brown parts, it was lukewarm, so I’m thinking it had been sitting under a heat lamp somewhere?

As for the Shashuka, it had a ton of feta cheese and was really tart from the tomatoes.

The eggs had been poached in the tomato sauce nicely and were really nice and runny.

It came with a few slices of pita bread which were hard and over toasted.

Like I mentioned, a bit too tart and sour for my taste. There was supposed to be jalapeno in this, but I could not make out any spice at all. Though I prefer this to what I’d had at Flora.

I do like hints of garlic and even cumin in my Shashuka. And while this was not even close to what I’d had at Jachnun Bar in Jerusalem….I really didn’t expect that. This was really one dimensional.

Overall, not bad, good portion size, but I think I’ll stick to making my version at home.

Nature Forward Socal Bistro
8935 Towne Centre Dr. #110
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Sat – Tues 8am – 5pm
Wed – Fri 8am – 8pm

Zgara Revisited and Pita Grill SD

Greek Food, Mediterranean Restaurants

I was looking forward to revisiting Zgara again, since it had been a while. For some reason, I was missing their pork gyros. So, I headed off to grab some lunch and when I got to that area of Morena….well, there was no parking to be found….I could not even find any parking on Savannah or Vega street! So, I needed to come up with another option. I headed toward Linda Vista Road…thinking of perhaps J&T. Yorimichi2 also came to mind, but it was just a few minutes after 11 and they weren’t open yet. But instead of taking the left onto Linda Vista, I went straight ahead on Napa Street and turned into the Arrive Mission Valley center. My usual choice here would be Pho Kitchen….but it was a bit too hot for pho or bo kho on this day. I saw another place that caught my attention.

Pita Grill SD:

Pita Grill…hmmm….. So, I thought why not? And walked on in.

The interior looked very “chain like”; but doing a quick check; I couldn’t find any other “Pita Grill” in San Diego. The prices didn’t look too bad…but it seemed like one of those fast casual “concepts”.

Still, the prices were not bad.

It seems this was one of those places that makes everything from Gyros to Hummus….. All the nice women working were speaking Spanish. In the end; I went with a Chicken Shawarma Wrap ($14.95). My wrap was put together on the “line” and I picked it up at the register.

It was quite hefty. At first bite, I knew this wasn’t typical. The “bread”…this was closer to a tortilla than something coming off the “sajj”. It was chewy, not warm enough. The chicken was on the tougher side, not really Shawarma in flavor…lacking in savory-herbaceous aromatics….you could take this chicken and put it in a tortilla with some salsa and call it a burrito.

The “tzatziki” was really watery lending little of that sour-savory-herbaceousness to this. This made the stuff that Tahini and the now defunct Simsim seem like great traditional food! I’m sure this will do fine for hungry students at USD or folks looking for something not too assertive in flavor, but this really didn’t do it for me.

Unless anyone has a recommendation for this place, I think this is a “one-and-done”.

Pita Grill SD
5375 Napa St. Unit 110
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 11am – 7pm
Sunday 11am – 6pm

Now, I was really determined to head back to….

Zgara Greek Grill:

Once a upon a time Zgara was a big part of my “rotation“. I’d been a fan since they first opened in PB back in 2015! Then back in 2024, because of all our travels…I didn’t visit for about six months. I finally returned to find out that Eric, the original owner had sold the place. Folks I know who were regular customers have told me that the food has definitely changed and on my revisits under new ownership, I’ve noticed perhaps some changes.

I figured since it’s been over 5 months since my last visit, it was time…… At least there was ample parking this time around.

I quickly noticed that since my last visit in October of last year, the price of the Pork Gyros has gone up $1.60, from 11.86 to $13.46, that’s a 13% increase in less than five months!

Though they still feature a lunch combo at $16.04 which becomes $17.68 after 4pm. Me, I’m just wanting my pork gyros fix.

I have noticed that the new owner does wrap things a bit tighter and the pork seems to be more chewy these days. Also, there seems to be less tzatziki????

Still, that savory porkiness with some nice crisp bites, with a bit of acidity, pleasant pungent tones, with a background of olive oil is still there. So, while I do miss Eric, I’ll probably still be coming here for my gyros fix.

Zgara Greek Grill
1229 Morena Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 11am – 8pm
Closed on Sunday

Road Trip – Peaked Hill (Sonoma), Point Arena – Stornetta, and Frankie’s (Mendocino)

Marin, Napa, and Sonoma Counties, Mediterranean Restaurants, Mendocino, CA, Road Trip, Travel

Our next stop after Bodega Bay was the town of Mendocino. I’d heard some really nice things about the town and was excited to visit. The actual drive was set to be less than 3 hours, so I had some detours in mind.

Our first stop was right before the Russian River. I took a turn off Highway 1 onto Goat Rock Road making several stops at places like Blind Beach.

A then drove south finding some parking to the trail to the summit of Peaked Hill. Needless to say, the views were beautiful.

Loved the views of the shoreline.

I like to mix in interesting places when we travel and there happened to be a place I read about in Sea Ranch. Right off Highway 1 is a sign directing one to the Sea Ranch Chapel.

A non-denominational chapel dedicated to the memory of local artist Kirk Ditzler, it is designed to be a “serene refuge” for meditation and prayer. There were several people inside the building, so I didn’t want to bother them.

You can find some photos of the interior here.

We made a short fuel stop in Gualala and then the Missus went to check out this lovely little book store.

Right at the Rollerville Junction, we once again did a detour off the Shoreline Highway. This time up Lighthouse Road. We took a quick look at the Point Arena Lighthouse.

Before heading back down the road and parking at the beginning of the Point Arena – Stornetta Trail.

It’s a lovely coastal trail.

We only went until we could view the shore and rocks before heading on our way.

JJ did have time to stop and smell the flowers though.

From there it was just an hour to the town of Mendocino. We were instantly charmed by the village.

The Victorian style houses instantly took us to the East Coast.

In need of lunch, we stopped by a little shop steps away from where we were staying. You know why we “had” to stop here, right?

Yep, that’s right, it’s Frankie’s! Frankie’s is mainly a pizza and ice cream shop; but they also have salads and falafel…and even piadina.

There’s some patio seating, which was great on a nice sunny day.

The Missus and I really weren’t feeling like pizza, so we got Frankie’s Falafel and the Mediterranean Piadina.

The portion size for the Falafel Salad was quite generous.

This dish is actually Vegan. The exterior of the falafel wasn’t crisp enough, nor was the interior nice and creamy. We did both love the Tahini Dressing though. Nice and earthy, with a good acidic kick. The hummus was passable.

Both the Missus and I enjoyed the Piadina, which, while not being close to what we’d had in Malta, was quite refreshing.

The pita was crisp; the Tahini, like the salad was very refreshing; the Parmesan Cheese adding that salty-milky component. Crisp spinach, with olives and sun dried tomatoes as “hidden” surprises.

And while there wasn’t a “rainbow from Frankie” signifying his approval (we miss you F), this was a decent lunch.

Frankie’s
44951 Ukiah St.
Mendocino, CA 95460

Glad the lunch wasn’t too much food as it was now time to explore a bit before checking in.

Thanks for stopping by!

Road Trip – Treehouse Café (Carmel) and the 17 Mile Drive

Dog Friendly, Fusion Cuisine, Mediterranean Restaurants, Monterey/Carmel/Santa Cruz - Monterey Bay/Peninsula, Road Trip, Travel

After checking into our room at the Green Lantern Inn we rested a bit and then decided to do some shopping before having a rather early dinner. The place I picked; because it was just a few blocks away from where we were staying…..the sidewalks are small and traffic both pedestrian and autos are pretty bad during peak times; was the Road Trip – Treehouse Café (Carmel) and the 17 Mile Drive. It’s a very cute location.

On the terrace of a charming little building. There’s a nice outdoor eating area.

Carmel claims to be the most dog friendly cities in the US. And heck, there were no less than 8 pooches hanging on the terrace. Including these two!

The pooches were so well behaved….even more so than their two-legged counterparts, many of whom seemed snooty and demanding. And I gotta say; the service here was on the abrupt side…..though that could have been because of the customers. And quite slow to boot.

Treehouse Café has an interesting menu. There are Thai, Mediterranean, and Italian dishes on the menu. A crazy mix that I would usually avoid….but because of how pooch friendly the place was, I thought we’d just have our first dinner here.

I started with an Allagash White, clean, citrus tones. Which went well with the bread and the herbaceous olive oil.

Being quite curious; I ordered the Thai Pork Sausage.

Very porky with a good amount of rice stuffed into it. Lacking in the herbaceous tones and spice I look for though.

Because I could not get enough bread…..I ordered the roasted garlic. Which was interesting as the garlic was still hard and bitter….not soft and spreadable like I prefer.

The olive oil it was soaking in was quite good though.

And for more carbs….we got the Veggie Combo Platter. Along with the overly chewy pita included…counterclockwise; Dolmas, which were too chewy and bland, some incinerated falafel….not good eats, both the hummus and baba ghanouj were good though…nicely blended, creamy, full of flavor.

And to finish off, a basic Greek Salad.

Overall, a fairly mediocre dinner, that took quite long…..and most places were closed by the time we finished.

Treehouse Café
7th & 8th San Carlos St.
Carmel, CA 93921

So, we just walked on back to our accommodations and called it a night. I did a post; while someone totally crashed out.

As for our full day in Carmel…well, we decided to do something that we had done once before, when we still lived in LA. We decided to take JJ on the 17 Mile Drive from the Carmel Gate.

But first, I took JJ to get some coffee. Carmel is a totally different city in the morning.

Peaceful and relaxing.

Though I did find that the Seagulls here feel quite entitled as well. I actually saw seagulls taking their time crossing the street, stopping traffic three times! I managed to get a photo of one of those occasions!

When you have time to relax and stroll you notice things……I hadn’t taken notice of Carmel’s City Hall before, though we walked past it twice the previous day!

I went to the Carmel Coffee House and Roasting Company to get the Missus a latte and myself a cold brew.

The Missus enjoyed Her latte; my cold brew was quite smooth and easy to drink.

Carmel Coffee House and Roasting Company
Dolores St.
Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA 93921

And then we headed out. We paid our $12.25 fee at the Carmel Gate, then headed out to see some of the sights. We made a few stops.

Of course we had to stop at that symbol of Pebble Beach, the Lone Cypress.

It is said to have started growing in the mid 1700’s and has survived so much. Even several arson attempts. A symbol of resilience it has been declared the most photographed tree in the world.

We made a stop at Crocker Grove.

There are only two Monterey Cypress Forests in existence and this is one of them.

Bird Rock Vista Point for both the view and a bathroom break.

And JJ seemed to be enjoying himself.

There was just one more stop I wanted to make. When we did our previous visit, China Rock.

Which was once the site of a Chinese Fishing Village.

For some interesting stories and history, check out these two posts.

By this time, we’d kind of had our fill and decided just to head on out to Pacific Grove. We turned on a familiar street; Lighthouse Avenue, where we enjoyed exploring the city on the self guided historic houses tour several years back. The Missus had really enjoyed shopping here and so we stopped and the Missus got some shopping in.

And then it was time to head back to Carmel….we still had the afternoon to do more exploring.

BoujieMana

European Restaurants, Fusion Cuisine, Gastropub, Mediterranean Restaurants, Wine Bars/Wineries

Ah yes, BoujieMana. Like would you actually go to a place with "Boujie" in the name? Not quite sure how I heard about the place, but what fascinated me the most was the location, off Aero Drive. You basically go to where there's massive construction happening on Aero Drive, then head on down Aero Court to where the street ends at a office park. The restaurant, is in what looks like a business complex, on the other side of the Mira Bella Apartments. Shades of Green Acre, but not in Torrey Pines/Sorrento Valley/East Village.

I had looked at the menu online and thought that it would make for an interesting lunch excursion.

BoujieMana 01

It was quiet during our lunch visit on this day. It was before the heatwave and we decided to have a seat in the deck area.

BoujieMana 02

The large restaurant serves lunch and dinner during the week and brunch during weekends. The menu has some variations for each dining option and we were told that there are monthly changes to the menu.

Being the nosy customers we are, we spied what the other two tables were getting and determined that the sandwiches and pizzas seemed a bit hefty. In keeping with how we like to dine these days; we find that appetizers sometimes give a better outlook into the restaurant as the chef can take more chances with food, we ended up ordering three starters and a salad.

The Missus saw Smoked Deviled Eggs ($9) and made sure to try that.

BoujieMana 03

The Missus usually enjoys deviled eggs, but this wasn't a favorite of Hers. I think it's the sourish salsa verde which was intensified with the pickled jalapenos that took this over-the-top. Too many sour tones, which really seems unappetizing on eggs to us. 

The Roasted Octopus ($19) was interesting as it was "almost there" for us.

BoujieMana 04

The octopus was pleasantly tender, the bean puree was nice and creamy, potent acidity…….it was just a bit too salty. I'm thinking that some bread would go really well with this; tempering the saltiness and complementing the savory-acidity well.

The portion size for Wild Chicory Caeser ($16) was quite large. Instead of bacon, this featured crisped prosciutto which added a nice layer of salty-savory sweetness.

BoujieMana 05

We enjoyed the bitter tones and the fact that the salad wasn't over-dressed. In fact, the leftovers did well with dinner. The salty-cheesy parmesan added another layer of flavor to the salad.

We were both curious as to how a Mediterranean restaurant would interpret an Aguachile. So, we ordered the Shrimp and Scallop Aguachile ($21) and this turned out to be our favorite dish of the meal.

BoujieMana 06 BoujieMana 07  As we figured, this wasn't an aguachile in conventional terms. It wasn't overly acidic, but quite mellow. Though I will say the seafood, especially the bay scallops were sweet and tender, so were the shrimp. Both of which weren't over-cooked and tough. The sweet and ripe avocado and the briny cucumber added another layer. But what clinched it all was the nicely toasted and salted sour dough, which was the perfect foil for the dish. Yes, it's not a conventional version of the dish, but we enjoyed it. We both wished that the octopus had that nicely toasted sour dough with it as well.

So, a few weeks later we decided to return; again for lunch.

This time, it was during the heatwave, so we sat in the large interior of the restaurant.

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Of course we got the Aguachile.

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This time it had a bit more acidity and "oomph". Still, the sweet and tender seafood was still present.

We decided to order the Mediterranean Pita ($19) as well. As with our experience with previous dishes, the portion size was quite large.

BoujieMana 10  BoujieMana 11 The highlight of the dish for us was the pillowy and warm pita. After that, well, everything was way too sour. Man, that chicken might have been ok, but the puckery-tartness overwhelmed things. Same with the green salad. Yikes, the sharp sourness just took over. Kind of a bummer.

In the end, we really enjoy the not-so-aguachile here, while not a true Mexican version of the dish, it is quite pleasant and the quality of ingredients here seems good. Service is welcoming, though things do take time getting to your table. I'm sure the folks in the new developments in the area appreciate the place and with all that is going on in the locale that it will keep being "boujie". 

I need to return to try the chicken wings and the crispy squash blossoms.

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Things have sure changed since my office was in the area way back when!

BoujieMana
3545 Aero Ct. Suite B
San Diego, CA 92123
Current Hours:
Tues – Fri 11am – 9pm
Saturday   9am – 9pm
Sunday      9am – 2pm
Closed on Monday