San Diego has the wonderful year 'round weather to support al fresco dining; but it's been an interesting challenge finding Asian restaurants that are dog friendly. With JJ, we've made a commitment to do those things that we wished we did the with Sammy and taking him to have a meal with us is one of those things. Here are two recent meals we had.
Soi 30th:
Yes, I just did a revisit post on Soi 30th back in November. Funny thing about that post. I didn't mention that we actually took JJ with us and ate on the patio. This was JJ's first week with us and he was amazing for an 8 week old puppy. So, after a walk around North Park, which always includes a stop at Dexter's Deli, we stopped back in at Soi 30th for an early lunch.
We got a table on the empty patio. I've mentioned before that I think there's a difference between "dog friendly" and "dogs allowed"; Soi fits in the "dog allowed" category. JJ was allowed to hang while we ate.
The Missus wanted the Som Tum on this day and ordered the Thai version ($10.95) medium heat.
We loved the obviously hand shredded, crunchy-crisp papaya; though there seemed to be quite a bit of cabbage this time around. The shrimp were plump and tender. The heat level was on the milder side for our taste and while I think it could have used a bit more umami-savoriness; this was quite refreshing with a good meld of textures.
Of course we got our usual; the Chinese Broccoli with Pork Belly ($16.95).
Just like our last visit, this was a winnah! The gai lan was nice and crisp-crunchy, with a pleasant earthy-bitterness tempered by the sweet-savory notes of the sauce. The pork belly was pleasantly toothsome, wonderfully sweet-savory; the rice perfectly cooked. The one thing we decided NOT to get with this was a fried egg; which now costs $3 to add! This is obviously our go-to dish here and we've filed one bad visit away.
JJ did fine as usual; though he was rarin' to go once we were done eating.
Soi 30th
3442 30th St
San Diego, CA 92104
Current Hours:
Mon – Fri 11am – 3pm, 430pm – 9pm
Sat – Sun 12pm – 930pm
EE Nami:
I was looking for a place serving Asian food a bit closer to home….it was an interesting challenge, but EE Nami showed up as being dog friendly. Hmmmm……we had kinda put lunch at EE Nami on the back burner, much preferring dinner, but heck, dogs seemed to be allowed on the patio…so why not?
So JJ and I cruised on over arriving right at the 1130 opening time for lunch. We were greeted with smiles and seated at one of the four tables on the patio. I'm glad we arrived at opening, since the patio was filled up within fifteen minutes of our arrival.
The woman working was so sweet, especially to JJ…whom she called "handsome"…..which cracked me up!
The positive vibes and cool covered patio set JJ at ease. As did the wonderful bowl of water the woman brought out for J.
Of course I was having tonkatsu here, I decided to go with the more fattier Loin Katsu ($23.50). Of course I needed rice, so I made it a combo ($3.50) which included rice and miso soup.
Well, this was quite a hefty lunch! The miso soup was fine; not watered down like many other versions these days.
The finely shredded cabbage with sesame dressing was a nice crunchy "refresher" between bites.
The rice was moist, tender, and fragrant; though the portion size was a bit too large for me. I think if I go solo again I'll make sure to get a half portion of it. I was really heading into "kanak attack" territory here.
As always, the tonkatsu was moist and tender. The panko breading nice and crisp; and not falling away from the pork.
I waffle between getting the filet or loin cut….after this meal, I guess I'm back on "team loin"? I really like the meaty texture, fat content, and the porkiness. The sauce tends to the sweeter side in my opinion, so I use it sparingly.
I really enjoyed this meal and they treated JJ so well! I do want to return; though at over thirty bucks for lunch it's hard to justify. I think it'll be the Missus, JJ, and I for dinner next time. The nice woman who JJ really liked advised me to make reservations for the patio ahead of time because they are usually quite busy for dinner. Advice I'll be sure to follow!
EE Nami
4706 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117
Current Hours
Wed – Sun 1130am – 2pm, 530pm – 10pm
First off, I actually thought the basic “wagyu” (heavy on the quotes) beef, while rather scarce was cut thinner, thus seemingly more tender. I liked the thin slices of oyster mushroom, which added a nice sweet-earthiness to the plate. To me, that egg is a must.
Which smelled heavenly. It came with a bowl of broth that had decent cilantro – white pepper tones, but was quite salty. And the dipping sauce, which did have a bit of spice was not my favorite as I prefer the Hainanese style white, ginger-garlic, pungent style sauce.
As for the chicken; well it was deboned, making it easy to eat, while being very moist and tender. It was a bit on the milder side in terms of flavor though. Again, if I had that ginger-garlic based sauce, I’d have been really happy. I ended up making sure I had some “chicken soul stealing” rice and chicken in each bite.
The hard boiled egg was nicely cooked, no off colors or flavors.
The curry was a bit "thin" for what I think of with regards to panang curry, which is usually quite thick. I was happy that it wasn't overly sweet and a nice, restrained touch was used with coconut. There was a faint kaffir lime flavor as well. I would have enjoyed it a bit richer and thicker. It also was not very spicy; but I noticed that you can chilies at the counter.
It came with a variety of "cuts"; I went for the chicharron right away. 
The Server recommended I get the rice noodles with this which reminded me of pho. It was perfectly prepared with a nice stretch to them.
I was happy to note that they actually use the appropriate noodle, the curly-rolled rice noodle sheets known as kway chap in this. Nice and chewy! 
The broth didn't have any spice, seemed a bit more porky and rich than the boat noodles. I ended up using the chili oil, which also had some nice acidity, and some chili flakes to help cut the richness.
The rice and egg were the same on this dish as well. The Missus loved the crisp, earthy-vegetal gailan. The spice was quite good for just a "medium". The sauce was closer to the saltier side of the scale, but was quite enjoyable. The hints of garlic, sweet, and the spice balanced things out nicely.
The fragrance really got my stomach growling. In terms of portion size, this was way bigger than the takeout I'd had from 
It usually has Sriracha drizzled on the egg, but the gentleman nicely asked if I'd prefer to have it on the side. I really didn't even need it. The egg was slightly crisp and quite fluffy. Nice savory tones; the ground meat used, I'm thinking it may be ground chicken was moist and tender. Nice savory tones; quite "eggy" without any off flavors. Quite nice!
From the funky, savory salted crab, to the deeply fermented savory tones, to the pretty hot chilies, this was very spicy and refreshing. Even better than versions we've had here in San Diego! To make things even more fun, this was served with pork rinds!
This was much better than what we'd had here during our previous visit. Though still a bit short in the sour sausage department, the rice had a good ratio of crisp to regular rice. Each bite had a nice variation of textures. We could even make out a hint of coconut, though it was still quite mild in terms of spice.
I appreciated the way things were packed though I told the woman I'd be eating this close by. There were containers of spicy vinegar and a decent chili oil (which I used) included in my package.
Which led to an interesting concoction. The duck was breast, quite lean, a bit more chewy then I enjoy, with a touch of five spice seasoning, not bad at all. The fried shallots added a nice savory and crunchy texture. The broccoli really gave off "Panda Express" vibes but at least I got some veggies.
