Category: Thai Restaurants

Kin Saep (Chollas View)

Lao Restaurants, Thai Restaurants

For some reason, warm weather always has me craving Lao/Thai food….along with the other usual suspects. On one recent hot summer day, I decided to check out a place I’d had on my “list” for a while; Kin Saep. One thing that drew me here was the location….4710 Market Street. Folks who’ve been reading this blog forever will recognize the exterior.

Yep, this used to be Asia Cafe, which I first posted on back in April of 2006! Asia Cafe was the place where I developed my love of Lao Cuisine…which culminated in our wonderful visit to Luang Prabang! Eventually time passes and Asia Cafe changed ownership…Cathy even did a post back in 2017. Asia Cafe then closed and became So Saap, which eventually moved to University, in what used to be Ban Lao and before that Que Huong. Man, I’ve been doing this blogging thing for too long!

Ok, returning to real time, I arrived a few minutes after the 11am opening time and the parking lot was empty…….something that really wasn’t common here in the days of Asia Cafe. The open sign lit up and I walked on in.

For some reason, this tiny restaurant seemed even smaller than before? The nice woman brought me menus, then turned on the music videos while her son watched his own personal tablet.

Looking over the prices, I was shocked at how inexpensive things seemed. I ordered three items off the menu…all predictable dishes for me these days.

First to arrive was the Peppered BBQ Pork ($10.95)…which was pork neck.

While I expected chewiness, this was really bland…whatever marinade they used was quite weak. No caramelization….so not my definition of “BBQ”. That Jeow Som was spicy enough for my taste, it had a bracing sourness, but lacked a savory-umami component.

Of course I got the Lao Sausage ($10.95).

This was pretty good. I enjoyed the “tight” casing, giving things a bit of snap. The filling was adequately moist and tender, with good savory tones, though I like a hint of sour and a more herbaceous flavor.

I had ordered the spicy version of the sausage, but this wasn’t spicy in the least. Still, this was not bad.

And of course, I got the Nem Khao Tod ($14.95). First to arrive was a plate with a huge amount of lettuce!

And then the Nem Khao.

I ordered this medium spicy…but should have gone for more! I liked the amount of sour sausage and herbs in the nem khao.

But there was one short coming. I think you can see it clearly.

Yep….there were no crispy-crunchy bites of rice in this! What the heck? It could have been a winnah!

I took leftovers home and when I heated the nem khao it got really mushy. And when I looked at the receipt I saw that the woman had ordered my sausage “mild”.

But check out those prices! Did I just go back in time to the days before Covid? The owner is very sweet and I enjoy supporting these mom-and-pop places. If we lived closed I’d do a revisit. But unlike the food prices….we’re still in those days of crazy gas prices….so maybe one day. After having my leftovers; the Missus wanted to head back to So Saap….so I guess we’ll be there soon.

Kin Saep
4710 Market St.
San Diego, CA 92102
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 730pm

Khao Mun Gai from Kin Len – Thai Street Eats

Dog Friendly, Thai Restaurants

In the comments section of my post on craving and getting some Khao Mun Gai from Me Sen, “FOY” ST mentioned that his sister enjoys the Khao Mun Gai from Kin Len. Which I found interesting since I don’t recall seeing Kau Mun Gai on the menu there. But since ST is of Thai heritage….well, I just needed to do a revisit since it’s been a while. Plus, they have a covered patio so I could bring JJ. Looking at the hours I noticed that they are open to 1am on some evenings……I guess they’re looking for that post “North Park night” population, huh?

So, we found parking fairly close by and walked on over to Kin Len. I peeked in and the nice young man told me to sit wherever I wanted, so I took the covered corner table. He soon came out and brought me a menu and water for both JJ and I. When he saw me giving JJ ice cubes; he was so nice and proactive and brought JJ an entire cup of ice just for him!

So JJ was immediately on “team Kin Len”!

Looking at the menu I realized why I hadn’t noticed the Khao Mun Gai here before.

While many of the dishes feature the Thai name for the dishes….Khao Soi, Pad See-Ew…..many dishes feature English names and the KHao Mun Gai here is “Sous-vide Chicken & Rice”. Which is what I ordered ($17.95).

Soon enough my plate arrived.

Man, those pieces of chicken were gigantic! Of course, the first thing I went for was….the rice! It was on the hard side and not quite as rich and “chicken-ny” as I like.

The bowl of soup that came with the dish was quite large; scalding hot….nice chicken flavor, strong white pepper tones.

Not overly salty….I enjoyed it.

As for the boneless chicken; in terms of texture it was tender, though not falling apart, which I liked. Mild chicken flavor….more moist and tender than the version at Me Sen. The sauce was a lot stronger in terms of sour-tangy fermented soy bean paste, though not as spicy as I enjoy.

I do enjoy hints of ginger and slight herbaceous tones, but this was pretty much straight forward. And yes, those pieces of chicken were quite wide and thick.

Overall, a decent version….though I’m pretty much into the rice and so for that I’ll stick with Me Sen, which is like $4 cheaper as well. Still, this was not bad and service was very friendly and nice…so perhaps we’ll return (if we can find parking) to try some other dishes. It gives us another option to Soi 30th in the area for Thai food..

Kin Len – Thai Street Eats
3934 30th St.
San Diego, CA 92104
Current Hours:
Sunday 12pm – 9pm
Mon – Wed 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm
Thursday 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 1am
Fri – Sat 12pm – 1am

The Pad Thai Stand Revisited

Dog Friendly, Thai Restaurants

Recently, on the way home from one of JJ’s “excursions”, I was feeling a bit hungry. We were passing Carnival Market on Ashford Street when I suddenly remembered the Pad Thai Stand, which I hadn’t been to in a while…..like 5 years! Since they have a covered patio, I thought that JJ could relax while I had some lunch.

As I walked in; I quickly noticed that the place is looking a bit run down.

The woman working actually came out from the counter to take my order. Based on my previous visits, I got the Boran (old style) Pad Thai with Tofu ($15) Medium Heat. My order took about 20 minutes….which was strange considering I was the only customer…..I quickly noticed that they don’t do the noodles over high heat here…..more on that later.

It was a rather large portion.

The chunks of tofu was fine; my favorite item in this version of Pad Thai are the pork rinds. The egg was chopped into pieces and overcooked for my taste. Enjoyed the crunch of the bean sprouts.

I liked the spice; it was hot enough to get my sweat glands going. A bit on the sweeter side for my taste, a bit lacking in in savory tones……which was one of the reasons I got the Boran. Usually the more traditional version has much more umami-savory tones than other versions.

The most “interesting” thing were the noodles; which were super chewy and rubbery. In fact, I took a good amount of the Pad Thai home with me. When I went to heat it up it was all stuck together in a giant clump. I needed to keep heating and mixing to try to get the noodles separated. Then I remembered….I saw the young man cooking the dish over a rather low heat. This would often cause the noodles to clump together.

Kind of a bummer, though JJ enjoyed hanging out.

The Pad Thai Stand
3520 Ashford St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Sunday – Thurs 11am – 2pm, 4pm – 11pm
Fri – Sat 11am – 2pm, 4pm – Midnight

Me Sen Revisited

Thai Restaurants

In the comments of my post on Arbor Sushi & Grill Express, “FOY” Loren asked if there are any decent Grocery Store Food Stalls in San Diego. Junichi answered with an excellent example; Santouka. But, I also had an example of what I thought was a pretty good Super Market Food Stall; which was also located within 99 Ranch Market; though the Clairemont location. I had thought the food at Me Sen which had taken the place of the banh mi shop Sau Voi Deli was decent. I thought the Khao Mun Gai was pretty good….and I found myself at 99 Ranch Market at around 10am……and Me Sen, which has gotten a bit of “influencer visits” was open. I thought I’d drop by to see if that’s had any effect on the food.

It was quite chill when I got there, though it filled up fast. I ordered the Khao Mun Gai and sat at a table.

Soon enough, my order arrived.

It was pretty much the same as on my previous visit. The soup was white pepper forward, piping hot, though not particularly “fowl-ly”, it was as salty as on my previous visit.

The chicken was pleasantly toothsome and very moist. I kind of appreciate that it’s been deboned as it makes it easy to eat. The flavor is quite mild though. As with my previous visit; my favorite part of the dish was the rice, which had so much savory-chicken flavor. Like I said before it like the broth used for the rice “had stolen the soul of that chicken”. Man, that rice is so good.

This time around, I appreciated the Khao Mun Gai sauce, which had a nice “kick” to it, along with savory tones….though I’m thinking that it could use a bit more fermented bean paste and pungency. Still, it did add a lot of flavor to the chicken.

Overall, a decent meal. Which I’d be happy to repeat again in the near future.

Me Sen Thai Noodle Shop
7300 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm

So, my good “FOYs”, what are your stand by Grocery Store Food Stalls in San Diego? I’m excited to read all the responses!

K Bakery Replacing Sage French Cake, Kanna Thai Kitchen Replacing Di Chan, Ma’s House has Closed, and the sign for Tang Huo Kung Fu Spicy Hot Pot is up

Bakery, Chinese Restaurants, Thai Restaurants

Just a couple of things I saw during my shopping trips.

K Bakery Replacing Sage French Cake:

Saw this during one of my shopping excursions to Nijiya last week.

So, I did some digging and it seems that Sage’s owner has decided to retire. Man, it seemed like Sage had been there forever! Though I believe it was a one man operation and he worked really hard. Hope he has a great retirement!

3860 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Kanna Thai Kitchen Replacing Di Chan:

Remember that I noticed that Di Chan had closed last month? Well, driving past the strip mall I noticed a sign posted.

I decided to take a look and it seems that Kanna Thai Kitchen will be taking over that spot.

5535 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

While checking that location out, I noticed all signage for Ma’s House was gone, so I walked over.

Ma’s House has closed:

The windows were covered, but one corner was open and all the furnishings are gone.

5537 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

And the sign for Tang Huo Kung Fu Spicy Hot Pot is up:

I guess we haven’t hit critical mass for Hot Pot in the Convoy area yet?

I believe that Tang Hou is a chain. I know they have locations in LA.

It just seems that only chains can afford to operate on Convoy these days!

4344 Convoy St,
San Diego, CA 92111

Friday Findings – Potato Powder Love Noodle, Di-Chan Thai, and Makai Sushi Closes

Asian Fusion/Pacific Rim/Hawaii Style Fusion, Chinese Restaurants, Poke, Thai Restaurants

Man, there seem to be so many places closing recently….all the rising costs and such. I saw these three in just the last week….

Potato Powder Love Noodle Being Re[;aced by Arbor Sushi & Grill:

It seems that the food court at the 99 Ranch Market in Balboa has become a revolving door. There was Dao Xiang Noodle, which replaced Mama Lin’s, which replaced Saigon 5. Dao Xiang that didn’t last a year and was replaced by Wang La Ya in February. Back in August of last year Potato Powder Love Noodle, another chain with locations in the SGV, replaced the rather long running Shann Xi Magic Kitchen.

Imagine my surprise when I took a peek at the food court and noticed that the place is gone!

Sheesh…another place that didn’t last a year. I only made that one visit and was meaning to return…but I guess not now! I think it’s kind of how things might go with regards to chains?

So, it’ll be interesting to see how a sushi and “grill” does in this space.

5950 Balboa Ave (In the 99 Ranch Market Food Court)
San Diego, CA 92111

Makai Sushi Being Replaced by La Rotonde:

Now this one was another surprise which I saw when driving down 5th Avenue.

I know I was really intrigued as to why a fellow from Kauai would open a poke/sushi place here. During my visit the really friendly owner, Matt, who is from Poipu explained that the place kind of found him. I’m guessing that it was perhaps almost a spur of the moment kind of decision? So perhaps I shouldn’t have bee overly surprised at this?

I did a little searching and found that Matt is currently back on Kauai…..hmmm……I’m wondering if he’ll return?

3968 5th Ave.
San Diego, CA 92103

Di-Chan Thai Closes:

Now, both of the previously noted closures were short timers. This one however, is for one of those businesses that has been around seemingly forever. On Tuesday, I went over to Leilani’s Attic to get some “stuffs”. Man, that strip mall….Madison Place has gone thru some major renovations and the businesses looked empty. I did notice that Ma’s House was still open. But Di-Chan Thai seemed closed so I drove on over.

And I quickly saw the sign on the door, “after 25 years we’ll miss you all”.

Whoa….though I’ve never been a huge fan of Di-Chan; I know quite a few folks who enjoyed eating there, so this is kind of a sad one!

5535 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Time’s seem to be hard on businesses right now…..I think I need to head to some of my favorites to give them support!

Yuk Dae Jang and Zab Linda Revisited

Korean Restaurants, Thai Restaurants

Two recent revisits the Missus wanted.

Yuk Dae Jang:

Out of the blue; the Missus requested Yuk Dae Jang. So, we headed over for an early dinner. I was quite surprised when She didn’t want what we usually order; the Premium Bossam.

She said she wanted to try something different. And so we got the Prime Beef Bulgogi with Glass Noodle ($33.99).

The panchan was pretty much like it was on our last visit; the Missus enjoys the buchu muchim (chive panchan). The baechu kimchi is still on the milder, less fermented side of the scale for us.

As for the Bulgogi dish. Well, you can kinda tell by the color, right?

The marinade was on the weaker side; not enough sweet-savory tones. The menu says this is Prime beef, but it was pretty chewy. The glass noodles were overcooked and mushy as well.

Lesson learned; stick with our favorites here.

Yuk Dae Jang
7307 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Zab Linda Vista:

Well, the Missus enjoyed our visit back in March, so She wanted to return. Like Yuk Dae Jan, She wanted to try some other items on the menu.

She went with the noodle dish we order to see how simple dishes are executed; Pad See Eew. She ordered this version with duck. This was actually pretty good. We were asked for a spice level; something not very common when ordering Pad See Eew. We said medium spice and it did have a nice kick to it.

Nice savory to sweet balance for our tastes. The only complaint was that the noodles were on the mushier side. The duck was quite meaty and flavorful though.

Then She ordered a surprise dish. One that we seldom order unless the restaurant….usually Lao has proven to be a winnah! Mok Pa. We are quite picky with regards to mok pa….I mean, I learned how to make it at the Tamarind Cooking School in Luang Prabang and make a version at home as well.

This was was pretty good; the fish had a slight muddiness, but was very moist and buttery.

Good amount of dill, nice herbaceous tones, light savory touches.

Could have used more fish sauce, though we could make out the the earthy-smokiness that the banana leaves lent to the dish. We’d gladly have it again!

We were quite happy with this meal. It’ll be interesting to see what the Missus tried next time!

Zab Linda
6952 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Road Trip – Dumpling 85, South Lake Brewing Company (Lake Tahoe), Van Sickle Rim Trail (Stateline NV), and My Thai Revisited (Lake Tahoe)

Beer, Chinese Restaurants, Dog Friendly, Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Road Trip, Thai Restaurants, Travel

Leaving Avila Beach, it was almost a seven hour drive to South Lake Tahoe. We had enjoyed our time in Tahoma during a previous road trip, but there weren’t dog friendly places to stay or eat in the area, so we thought we’d stay in South Lake Tahoe. I had wanted to book The Landing for our entire 5 night stay, but I wasn’t able to get accommodations there until Sunday. So, for the Friday – Saturday night stay, I got us a room in Forest Suites Resort, which was basically across the street from the very touristy Heavenly Village. We arrived and checked in…our room was on like the third floor.

Since it was almost five pm, we decided to head on out and find somewhere to eat. I recalled seeing a Chinese restaurant when doing my research…and by this time, the Missus wanted some Asian food already. We walked thru Heavenly Village.

And up Lake Tahoe Boulevard and saw Dumpling 85 in the Chateau at the Village Shopping Center.

We crossed the street and noted that they were pup friendly. They led us to a table and the Missus placed our order.

We saw the XLB and jiaozi on the way in and they didn’t look real good. We had breakfast at Avila Lighthouse Suites and heated up the leftover Beef Bourguignon so we just got the Stir Fried Green Beans and the Pork Baozi.

The Stir Fried Green Beans were undercooked and underseasoned.

Super hard and in need of more savory components. Almost raw…..

The Pork Baozi was strange. The “bun” portion had almost a chalky texture, really weird, that gave way to a soggy doughiness. The bottoms were almost like crackers!

The filling was fine, if on the chewy side. At least it was porky.

Dumpling 85
4125 Lake Tahoe Blvd.
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

The Missus went back to the room, while I took JJ to the corner of Heavenly Village Way and the South Lake Brewing Company Libation Lounge.

They had outdoor seating, so I walked in, ordered myself a Pilsner and had a seat outside.

I picked up my beer when ready and enjoyed the crisp, clean Pilsner.

South Lake Brewing Co. – The Libation Lodge Restaurant & Brewery
4000 Lake Tahoe Blvd. Suite 26
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

After which we walked along Heavenly Village Way which led us back to our accommodations. I could see the Heavenly Mountain Gondola passing right over our hotel.

We slept well.

The Forest Suites Resort has a free breakfast, which is nice. We just ran over and got some yogurt and stuff, before walking to our morning destination.

One great thing about where we stayed is that basically across the street is the entrance to Van Sickle Bi-State Park. We just walked along the road, crossing the border into Nevada.

A bit further up the road was the Van Sickle Rim Trail. A nice, almost 7 mile hike, with a 1,000 foot elevation gain. And of course, JJ handled it much better than I did.

Nice views…..

And even a waterfall along the way.

It was nice to have access to a trail in walking distance from our accommodations.

Returning to our room, we decided on a return visit to My Thai which was a ten minute drive away. We had been pleasantly surprised when we had dined here back in 2023. We weren’t sure if they were dog friendly and thought we could do takeout. The host was really funny, he said we could bring JJ, but there was a “two bark” rule in place! Lol! There was an Australian Shepherd having lunch with his family there as well.

We ordered our two favorite dishes from our precious visit. The Lao Style Papaya Salad, which we got medium spicy. Just as before, this was quite legit, from the salted crab to the funky fermented flavors.

All balanced out by the acidic tones and tomatoes. The shredded papaya was crisp and refreshing. I enjoyed the chicharrons as well.

We also got the Basil Duck.

Which was a bit sweeter than on our last visit, but still nice anise-savory tones. The duck was chewy, but flavorful. There was much more “meat” this time as on our previous visit it was mostly skin and fat.

It seemed like they used an onigiri mold to plate the rice, don’t you think?

The rice was on the drier side, but fragrant.

All in all, a nice lunch.

My Thai Cuisine
2108 Lake Tahoe Blvd.
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

And after lunch…well, it was nap time of course!

Take Out Revisits – Ngon Ngon to Go and Chaba Thai

Thai Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

It’s kind of funny. I recently made some revisits to places I’ve takeout from quite a few times. And while getting this post done; I noticed that I had actually done a post on these two places together once before! There must have been something triggering this, huh?

Anyway, here goes……

Ngon Ngon to Go:

Once a regular stop for me…well, it had been a while. I dropped by to place a takeout order and noticed something “interesting”. My usual, the Bo Luc Lac ($16), no longer included rice! There’s a version with fried rice, which is not what I wanted, but if I wanted white rice, there would be an additional charge of $2.

Well, I just sucked it up and got some white rice with my bo luc lac. I ordered and went and did a bit of shopping, returning for my takeout.

That side of rice was fine, if a bit on the harder, drier side.

There was a generous amount of salad which was fine. I’d had experiences with browning lettuce and stuff before, but this was fine.

My issue was with the beef. Take a look at the color.

The beef had not been marinated/sauced appropriately in my opinion. It lacked the savorysalty-sweetness that I associate with this dish. The beef was also super tough and chewy. Just not fun to eat.

With the weird upcharge and the lack quality and execution. I guess, after all these years and visits, I’m closing the chapter on this one.

Ngon Ngon To Go
10550 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

Chaba Thai:

Or as the Missus calls it; that “Chubby Thai place”. It had been a while and the Missus was wondering about the Krapow Gai. I would usually get that along with the Khao Kluk Kapi with Honey Pork, but on my last visit, it was mediocre, so I went with another item I’ve ordered from Chaba, the Tod Mun, the fried fish cakes.

So, I placed my order, ran to do some shopping at Zion and picked up our dinner.

First off, the rice that came with the Krapow Gai was terrible. You can see the brown, overcooked spots. It was really dry and hard.

The Tod Mun was strange. It was really hard and overly chewy…I mean quite tough.

The usual mild herbaceousness usually of the addition of lime leaf was missing. This was super bland. Even the typical fish sauce based dip was not helpful.

The Krapow Gai had it’s own set of issues. And no it wasn’t for lack of pidan.

As you can see on the photo below, where I put the dish into a container, there’s a good amount of century egg in this dish.

Rather, the ground chicken was very chewy and dry. I had ordered this spicy, but it was not. The seasoning was off as this was so bland. In fact we used the dipping sauce for the Tod Mun and all the fried basil from that dish as well to try to add flavor. I usually expect a salty-savory-mild sweetness in this dish, which was totally AWOL.

This was a very unsatisfying meal. I’d like you to take a look at the photos of these exact two dishes from our takeout visit in 2020 and compare.

This was quite disappointing. I guess we’re writing this one off as well. I’m not sure if “FOY” Si O still reads the blog, but maybe he has a recommendation?

Chaba Thai Kitchen
8010 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Oh man, oh-fer-two…….

Zab Linda Revisited

Thai Restaurants

The recent record heat had the Missus craving Thai food, something that doesn’t usually happen until the late spring. She was looking for a specific style, Issan to be exact, and of course we could have headed up to The Original Sab E Lee, which we do need to revisit, but did not want to drive very far. Of course some Lao food would have been great, but our last experience at Spicy Lao Kitchen, after what appears to be some changes was not very good. And then thinking about TOSeL…the “original – original” which opened where Yorimichi now is. Before expanding to locations eastward and northward; with the Linda Vista locale moving across the street to the mall which used to be Toan Ky Restaurant…sigh…guess I’ve been doing this too long? Anyway, we had visited Zab Linda which replaced TOSeL when they first opened, but had only done takeout visits, due to you remember, right? It had always been my intention to return, but things just keeps moving along…… In that roundabout way, Zab Linda came back into focus, and I thought we should revisit to catch up on things. And catch up we did! While not on the level of meals we’d had during the prime of TOSeL, we enjoyed several of the dishes and ended up doing three visits.

Funny thing, I had never gone beyond that high front counter and seen the dining room. The two lovely folks working were quite nice as well.

Since we did three visits and have reordered several dishes during our visits; I’m just going to go from our favorites downward in this post. So here goes….. One more note; we got everything Medium Spicy.

Nam Khao Tod ($15). This was by far our favorite item on the menu. We had it three times. The first time, there wasn’t even crispy bits of rice and a lack of the light flavor of coconut, but the after that, it’s been quite good.

This version has a large amount of sour sausage, which makes for a nice textural contrast to the crisp, crusted rice. Good amount of cilantro, decent sour tones, only thing missing thin threads of pork skin. But we did enjoy it.

Duck Larb ($21.95). We enjoyed the refreshing sour tones, with decent spice on a hot day.

The slices were on the chewier side, but there was a nice portion of it, and it was quite savory-“ducky” in flavor as well. Very good enrobed in cabbage! And even better the next day as the favors got more intense.

Of course we enjoy Naked Shrimp (Goong Nam Pla), though we are cautious about ordering raw “stuffs” and waited until our last visit to order it. We were advised to get the “sauce” on the side and we soon figured out why.

While the Shrimp wasn’t quite as good as the version we had during our first couple of visits to Spicy Lao, it was much better than what we had there on our last visit. The shrimp was on the firmer side; with no off flavors. The slices of pungent garlic was a nice touch as was the slices of bitter melon, which was quite interesting in terms of that numbing bitterness, in combination with the sauce.

Ah yes, the sauce….man, this was spicy, even at medium heat this had me wiping sweat from my brow in no time! The young lady gave us good advice. When I mentioned this to her, she said that she always gets the sauce on the side with this dish. This was definitely Essan in spice level

The Sai Oua ($15), the house made Essan style sausage was very different from what we’d had here before.

That dipping sauce was awesome by the way….savory-sour-spicy-herbaceous. There was a decent amount of herbs in the sausage, which was quite tender, maybe overly so, as it was almost mushy. It came with a huge portion of sticky rice as well. Sovereign still makes our favorite version in San Diego.

The Missus enjoys the Spicy Basil Pork with Century Egg ($21).

The fried basil is a nice touch as it adds the fragrant, sweet-anise flavor to the dish along with some crispness. It’s savory-umami, with an ammonia like finish pidan that makes the dish.

As I will note a bit further down.

The Pad Ped Moo Krob ($21) was a mixed bag.

The Missus enjoyed the egg, some of the slices of fried pork belly was crisp initially, ending with a nice gooey interior, which we loved, other slices were really chewy.

The red curry was a bit too sweet for our taste, but perhaps it was because we were having the potent Goong Nam Pla with this? Also, this dish didn’t keep well as leftovers.

The Nahm Tok ($18.95) was also a mixed bag.

A decent amount of roasted rice powder, not as spicy as we thought it would be, and could have used more sour tones. The beef was on the chewier side as well.

The Missus was wondering how the Spicy Basil Pork ($16.95) would be with out the other stuffs.

The pork was really chewy…and where was the basil? On the bland side and not enough savory or spicy tones. Pass…..

Of course we had to try the Som Tum Lao ($15.95). I have never had a Lao style Papaya Salad with so saturated in sauce.

The crunch was gone and there was so much fermented fish/crab in this that it was super funky….so much so, that the Missus could only eat one spoonful! I did ok, but this was not as good as other version we’ve had locally….even those with fermented crab are superior to this as a whole.

Overall, we enjoyed our visits and am glad that we decided to return to Zab Linda after all these years. The food seems to have changed (see the difference in the Sai Oua from our previous post) for the better. Even though we need to get back up to the Original Sab E Lee, it’s good to have another option that’s not a far drive for us.

Zab Linda
6952 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am – 330pm, 430pm – 9pm
Fri – Sun 11am – 9pm