Category: Thai Restaurants

The recent warm weather has the Missus craving Thai food again. It seems that our options with regards to Thai Restaurants, whether to change in ownership or a not so great recent visit has been whittled down a bit. After a bit of probing, I found that what the Missus has really been missing is the food from Sovereign Thai, which presents its own set of issues. First off, the location is "interesting" and also presents issues with parking and also trying to get there before Padres games on off days. Over the last 3-4 months, the Missus and I have been using the trolley more; to get to places in Old Town and Little Italy for our date nights. So why not stretch it a bit and take the Blue Line to Park and Market, then walk the two blocks or so to Sovereign, right?

As we were walking to the restaurant, after having to resist a couple of "folks with issues", we walked into Sovereign which was empty.

I also realized that the Missus had never dined in at Sovereign! I wanted to say "hi" to Jumi, whom I've known since the days of Thai Papaya but she wasn't in.

We placed our order, three of our "standards" and one new dish to try.

The first item out was the Spicy Stir Fried Pork Belly ($19) an item from the "Specials" list.

The skin of the pork belly was still crisp when this was served; the flesh buttery and tender. Not very spicy though and really salty, the Thai Basil was incinerated and had lost a lot of the anise flavor.

Rice ($5) was then provided.

The rice was not fragrant and hard, like it had been sitting for a while.

The Missus and I looked at each other and wondered if coming here was a mistake.

But things were soon back on track with one the Missus's favorites, the Eggplant with Basil ($13).

While this was also slightly high on the sodium scale for us, ginger helped to cut things back. The eggplant had been cooked perfectly, first at first touch, then uber-creamy! The cilantro and Thai basil add a nice, one-two punch of sweet anise and citrusy-peppery-pungent tones to the dish.

Of course I had to get the Northern Thai Spicy Sausage ($12) which is made inhouse.

With the wonderful herbaceous tones, the "snap" of the sausage, the light filling with sneaky spice, this is my favorite version of Issan Sausage.

The Missus's favorite dish from Sovereign is the Hat Yai Fried Chicken ($23).

While it holds up quite well doing takeout and is even pretty good the next day; having it fresh to the table really highlites the wonderful moistness of the meat and the crispness of the exterior of the bird. As always, we love the fried shallots, the hint of sweetness with wonderful savory tones.

Overall, this was a nice meal. Strangely, we were the only customers in the place during our whole meal. 

As for using the trolley to return….well, I think going past America Plaza might be an issue for the Missus. 

I guess I'll have to drive down for takeout again in the future. Too bad, because this is by far our favorite Thai restaurant in San Diego.

Sovereign Modern Thai Cuisine
1460 J Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Current Hours:
Mon – Tues 5pm – 9pm
Wed – Thurs 12pm – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm
Fri – Sat 12pm – 930pm
Sunday 12pm – 9pm

Thai is usually a spring-summer kind of thing for us. But, upon returning from our trip "home", the Missus was craving some Thai food. We thought it would be nice to do some takeout from Soi 30th. We'd place our order then take a walk and pick-up our takeout on the way back to the car. Man, Soi 30th was pretty busy, but as usual the folks working were quite nice. We placed our order, then went for a short walk before circling back to pick up our food which was ready as I walked thru the shop's doors.

We got back positively famished and unpacked our order.

Something struck us right away, one of dishes was missing an ingredient, the dishes didn't seem as fragrant as what we'd had befor.

The Larb Moo Krob has always been a favorite of mine, but this was really disappointing.

I ordered this spicy but it was really mild, it lacked rice powder which adds a nice nutty flavor to the dish. The pork was hard and tough, not good eats. Man, this was really dry overall and it lacked savory tones….almost like they forgot the fish sauce. 

After the larb, I was kind of worried about the Chinese Broccoli (gai lan) with Pork Belly.

 This was a shade better than the larb, at least it had a bit more heat to it. The gailan was crisp and nicely stir fried. The pork belly suffered the same fate as the previous dish; it was hard. We were left wondering what was going on with the usually crisp and tasty pork belly.

The last item we ordered was the Chicken with Holy Basil.

   Well, the first thing the Missus said when I opened this was "where's the fried egg"? We had ordered and paid for the "fried egg option" but they forgot to put it in this dish. Bummer. And I wasn't about to drive all the way back to 30th street for a $1.75 egg. This dish needed more basil and the overall texture was on the greasy side. At least the chicken wasn't hard and dry as we'd experienced before.

This meal left us scratching our heads, as a whole we had enjoyed our meals from Soi 30th, so we weren't quite sure what was going on here. Perhaps it was just a bad day, but going oh-fer-three is not good.

Soi 30th
3442 30th St.
San Diego, CA 92104

I was a bit later than usual on one of my shopping forays to Nijiya. It was almost 11am, so I thought I'd get some lunch to go for myself. It had been over a year since I'd done takeout from Koon Thai and I thought it would be nice to have the Khao Karr Moo…actually my first pick would be the Pad Cha Pork Wing, but that hasn't been on the menu for a while. It must have been my lucky day; it was ten till eleven and Koon Thai was already open.

So, I just sauntered in, placed my order and paid my $15.50…..it had only gone up 50 cents since my last visit and then headed off to do my shopping. 

When I headed back to the restaurant, the young man working saw me thru the window and actually handed me my food on the sidewalk! Very nice as there were several people standing in line at the entrance of the restaurant.

I headed home and unpacked everything.

This actually looked a lot better then what I had last time. It looked much less greasy. I went and plated half the rice, which was fragrant if just a bit on the dry side, and the khao karr moo.

     The eggs were decently cooked, much better than the over-cooked boiled eggs I'd had last time. The sauce was nicely flavored, not overly sweet, good anise-soy sauce tones.

Like before, I wish there was a bit more preserved mustard greens as it really helps to cut the salt and richness of the pork leg.

As for the pork, even though there were some dry and tough parts and perhaps a bit too much fat for my taste, it wasn't bad at all. At least I didn't go hungry. Overall, it was better than what I'd had the last time, the price wasn't too bad, and I'll take that.

Koon Thai Kitchen
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Last week I managed to grab lunch with my buddy "JV". Man, we really hadn't chatted since before Covid! JV has had a pretty tough couple of months; knee surgery followed by appendicitis…..so I really wanted to know how he was doing. Since he lives in the Serra Mesa area, I thought it might be nice grabbing some lunch from a place I hadn't been to in over a decade; Thai Pepper Cuisine.

In these times, the tables in the restaurant are nicely spaced. Also JV and I met right when the place opened at 11 in hopes of avoiding a crowd.

There was only one other table occupied during our meal, though a bunch of folks started coming in as we were leaving.

The menu has changed a bit since my fun meal here with Mr & Mrs Zompus in 2009. Most of the interesting "specialty" dishes featuring duck and wild boar are no longer on the menu. In keeping with neighborhood Thai restaurants there was that collection of "choose your protein, choose your sauce" items on the menu.

JV went with the Green Curry with Pork ($11). I chose the "Special Menu" item of the Crispy Basil Chicken ($12.50). Heat level of 5 in respect for JV and we told the nice gentleman working that we'd be sharing.

The lunches came with jasmine rice which was nicely prepared and fragrant and really bad eggroll which was all filler and no flavor and a standard issue salad.

The curry was very watery and bland, not enough coconut milk and curry paste.

The Crispy Chicken wasn't bad.

Perhaps a bit on the sweet side; the thin chicken strips were nice and crunchy, there was a nice collection of chilies in this which gave it a decent "kick", and good anise-citrus tones from the basil. I'd have this dish again.

Beyond the food, it was great catching up with JV, it seems that the last 2 1/2 years just slipped away.

After lunch we went over to JV's house and he showed me the upgrades they've done and I also got to meet his two pooches and his chickens!

He even gave me a dozen eggs for the Missus!

Man, how I've missed my friends…….

Thai Pepper Cuisine
3361 Sandrock Road
San Diego, CA 92123

If you read my post on the Linda Vista Farmers Market, you know that I did takeout from Zab Linda.

I'd read that the staff at both the front of house and the kitchen were retained from TOSEL. Well, unlike my takeout visits from TOSEL, I didn't recognize anyone working. Of course this was pretty much all of the restaurant I saw. The menu however, at least to me looked the same as SEL.

I placed my order and went to check out the farmers market. My order was ready when I returned and I headed off home.

For this visit; I went with the Yum Neua, Som Tom Lao, and Issan Sausage. It was a pretty warm day and this sounded perfect.

The Yum Nuea was definitely not quite what it used to be. While the heat level at a "4" was quite spicy, it lacked good sour tones.

 I'm used to toothsome beef in yum neua, but this was particularly tough. It also hadn't spend enough time in the sauce. Yes, this was spicy; but where were all the other flavors that make a good beef salad……lemongrass, shallot, enough fish sauce? Maybe I should have gone with the duck larb or nahm tok, but my strategy on this day was to start with the basics.

Like the Lao Style Papaya Salad; which was indeed a solid-spicy "5" on the heat scale.

 Man, my tolerance is getting low in my old age. Like the beef salad, we felt this was off in terms of flavor. It lacked the funky fermented tones of a good Lao Papaya Salad. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what we recalled was made by the Sab E Lee of our memory.

The one dish that was exactly like we recalled was the Issan Sausage.

  Except I'm wondering what the deal is with the Sriracha? No way I'd add that to the sausage; it would ruin the flavor. This was solid and we enjoyed it. It had always been a favorite in the "old days" and even though this version has been surpassed by others in recent years, it's still decent.

Maybe our tastebuds were colored by nostalgia, I won't start whining about how much we miss "the original" Original Sab E Lee or how much the Missus misses the Som Tom Khai Kem and other dishes from Thai Papaya……or even the Salted Fish Fried Rice from TOSEL.

With the weather warming up, I'm going to have to do my rounds and hit up TOSEL PQ and Santee….and some other places. And then return to Zab Linda to see how things are then.

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

**** You can read a post on Zab Linda here.

In my recent post on Da Kine's reopening in La Mesa, "FOYs" Junichi/Denver/Young mentioned that the Original Sab E Lee was undergoing an ownership and name change. And then yesterday I saw this post in the Eater San Diego. I went and dropped by on the way home and indeed there was a ABC ownership change notice and a banner with a new name on it….."Zab Linda".

   This was indeed a sad moment for me. Even though I thought TOSEL wasn't quite the same since Koby sold SEL, the Rancho Penasquitos location opened, and TOSEL moved to this location. Still, I have some great memories of meals from Sab-E-Lee which quickly became part of our rotation. Over the years, the menu seemed to have moved from the wonderful Issan flavors and heat, to a more standard Thai menu.

The Sab-E-Lee empire kept me as a regular customer at Thai Papaya, where the Missus absolutely loved the Som Tom Kai Khem. Sadly, Thai Papaya shut down during the pandemic, closing in 2021. And was replaced by Sushi Yorimichi.

TOSEL was originally part of our takeout rotation at the beginning of the pandemic, but after a couple of not so good takeout revisits we started going elsewhere.

Still, having been a customer back in 2008 and even getting affirmation from folks I really respected, TOSEL holds a special place in my heart. And like other places that have closed during the pandemic, it seems like the end of an era.

On an interesting note; the Eater post states:

"Called Zab Linda, the new restaurant is also serving Thai food; Runowski shared that it will keep much of Sab-E-Lee’s menu."

And a couple of folks I know have told me that the initial transition has already occurred, so perhaps Zab Linda is in a soft transition mode.

Anyway, I'll drop by in a few weeks.

And thanks for all the wonderful meals and memories Sab-E-Lee!

6925 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Back at the end of last year, a new Thai restaurant opened on 30th street, if I recall this used to be a pizza shop? Boy has North Park evolved over the years!

For some reason, I had to work to convince the Missus to check the place out. First, parking is always an issue, second, the Missus really hasn't found anything She enjoyed eating on this strip of 30th north of University and of course prices have gone up quite a bit over the last couple of months. But we finally found some time, on a Tuesday at 530pm, eating outside.

The only other party in the place finished up as we entered and other than a single diner who sat at the bar, we were the only folks eating here. The interior is quite charming with wood paneled walls, Thai knick knacks and vintage signs on the walls….and of course the ever present televisions; in this case two of them.

The young lady serving us on this visit was so very sweet. And though it says "Thai Street Eats" in the name of the place, you are paying a bit more than Soi 30th down the street, though I must say; the portion sizes of some of the dishes are quite large.

We must have been hungry, because we ordered quite a bit of food.

At the time of this visit we had been experiencing a bit of a warm spell, so the Missus had been craving Som Tom so we got the Issan style Papaya Salad ($11.95).

We had ordered all our dishes at a "level 3" on a scale of 1-5 in terms of heat. But this was barely spicy at all. It also had way too much shredded carrots to the actual shredded papaya, which was nice and crisp. While the sauce looked quite dark, it really wasn't very funky in terms of fermented fish/crab sauce. In fact, it was too sweet and seemed quite "Ameri-Thai" in terms of flavor.

Next to arrive was the Basil Beef (Kra Pra Neua – $14.95). Which looked quite nice with the fried basil on it.

 Looks however, were deceiving as the ground beef was really hard and chewy, this was quite bland, it really needed more fish sauce-oyster sauce-anything salty and savory. The rice was a bit too wet and mushy. The egg was a wonderful sunny side up; but had that "fishy" finish we don't enjoy. This was probably our least favorite dish of the meal.

The next dish to arrive was an appetizer, I'm thinking the time for frying delayed the dish. I was looking forward to the Tom Yum Wings ($10.95).

These wings were huge! We both enjoyed the seasoning; sour-salty-savory. I do wish the exterior was a bit more crisp and these being large wings, the meat was dry and too chewy. Overall, this was the best dish of the meal.

The last dish to arrive was the Hat Yai Chicken and Curry ($18.95). The Missus loves the Hat Yai chicken from Sovereign Thai and was interested to see how this compared.

 First off, that quarter chicken was huge! It was nicely fried if on the bland side; but due to the size the meat was really dry and tough. This really needed more flavor. The rice, like on the basil beef was on the mushy side. The curry was too sweet and thin for our taste. I did enjoy the roti; while a tad on the greasy side did fine dipped into the curry.

Well, while the portions were quite large and visually appealing, we found the food lacking in flavors we consider to be truly Thai and the poultry was quite dry and tough.

I really wanted to give the place another try, but the Missus was not agreeable to that, so I decided to revisit at 3pm on a Saturday. I wasn't sure how busy Kin Len was going to be since I had to park five blocks away, but the place was quite empty. So I decided to eat at the bar.

As before, the young ladies working here are so sweet and nice.

After perusing the menu; based on my last visit, I placed my orders.

On that previous visit, Kin Len seems to go a good job with deep fried items, so I started off with the Fried Enoki Mushroom ($9.95).

In spite of being in rather large "clumps" this was perfectly fried; though it really needed more seasoning. The "sweet chili sauce" seemed a bit watered down and just give this enough "umph"….just wondering how the Tom Yum Seasoning would have done on this? I hadn't expected this large a portion and it was deep fried and I had to finish it.

So most of my Gailan and Crispy Pork Belly ($15.95) was taken home, though I did eat some of everything and finished the egg. I ordered this dish at a level "4" heat.

 Even though the egg wasn't sunny side up this time; the edges were crisp and it had no off flavors. The rice was perfect on this visit as well, fluffy and fragrant. The crisp pork belly was nicely crisp on the exterior; but perhaps a bit too hard and chewy It was also a bit on the mild side in terms of flavor. The gailan was chopped in somewhat ponderous chunks some of which hadn't been blanched enough and was super hard. It was nice and spicy, but lacked anything much of anything else in terms of flavor and definitely needed a salty-savory boost in my opinion. I prefer the version at Soi 30th down the street.

The portion sizes are quite generous and items are fried nicely. The uneven seasoning and flavoring seems to fall short; perhaps it's bit to "Hipster Ameri-Thai" for me?

I'm hoping things will get better over time and perhaps I'll check them out again. Heck, if you've been to Kin Len and had an outstanding dish let me know and I'll head back!

Kin Len – Thai Street Eats
3934 30th St.
San Diego, CA 92104
Hours:
Mon – Wed 5pm – 9pm
Thurs Fri 5pm – 10pm
Saturday 12pm – 10pm
Sunday 12pm – 9pm