Recently, while finishing up on some errands on a Sunday, I was craving a Cheesesteak. I decided to had to the Wise Ox since I was in the area. I thought it would give me some other options in case I changed my mind….yes, I still remember the recommendation for the bologna EW and Dave! I should have known better; it was close to noon on a Sunday and of course, there was no parking to be found; sigh. So, I needed a plan B. I had recalled reading that a pizza shop on the corner of ECB and Louisiana named Gnarly Girl that served up cheesesteaks. So, I decided to see if I could actually find some parking. Which I did rather easily on Mississippi…there's some huge building going up on ECB, but there was a ton of parking right past it.
I walked over to the colorful shop, it was five til noon, and there were a couple of groups; all with kids in tow waiting outside. I thought about doing an about face, but in the end, I decided to stick it out. Apparently, there were two large parties, one with reservations for 20 waiting! So actually getting in a placing an order was a breeze because all the pizzas had been preordered.
The interior is quite colorful….Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rule one wall, this guy is on the fridge.
I walked up to the register and the friendly guy, who was soon overwhelmed with kids running around took my order.
There's an interesting sign at the register.
And then I walked over to the corner and watched the action!
My order took about 15 minutes. The woman, who I think runs the place handed me my sandwich and I wished her "good luck"……which cracked her up! She replied, "yes, thanks, we're going to need it!" As another party of at least 8 walked in with kids in tow!
The cheesesteak ($15) was quite hefty and long. And this is what it looked like when I opened it up.
A lot of meat. Which had been chopped too finely; it was headed toward "hamburger land". It had been seriously mixed with the White American Cheese. Didn't care for the mushy-mealy texture, though the flavor was ok…..mostly beefy, couldn't really make out the cheese or the onions.
The bread, faced with a daunting task of surviving all the mushy-damp protein had held out quite well.
I prefer my cheesesteak to have thinly sliced beef, not chopped too finely like this was. One could not complain about the portion size nor price. Looks like a great neighborhood place to take the family for some slices and maybe enjoy the art, but perhaps not for a cheesesteak. Looks like I'll be headed to Evans or Wise Ox soon…..boy do I miss Monkey Paw and Pop's. And if you'd like a good laugh, you can check out this this old cheesesteak collection from almost 15 years ago! Man does time fly!
Gnarly Girl Pizza
2302 El Cajon Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92104
Current Hours:
Sunday, Thurs 12pm – 9pm
Mon – Wed 3pm – 9pm
Fri – Sat 12pm – 10pm
Soon enough my lomo saltado arrived. Quite a bit of onions and papas frita in this. The rice was fairly dry and chewy, but edible, and seemed to have been seasoned a bit.
The presentation was lovely; though the boiled egg was overcooked. The chicken was fairly bland, stringy, and there was a bit too much mayo. The potatoes were nicely done though.
Loved the crust of the empanadas. Even though it wasn't slightly flakey, it had a nice crunchy texture. I didn't care much for the dusting of sugar as I think it detracted from the overall flavor. Like I mentioned earlier, the sauce did well with the pastry, deflecting some of the sweetness and helping with the texture of the beef which was pretty chewy.
This was a lot less stuffed than the version at The Peruvian Spot. It had a drizzle of Mama G's sauce which did a pretty nice job of adding a creamy, mild spice to things. The ratio of camote and salsa criolla to meat was quite balanced.
The young lady working asked me if I wanted to try the spicy versions of Mama G's sauces and brought some over when I said yes. The verde was quite nice, not overly spicy to me. I added a tad more to the sandwich and used it to dip the very dry and limp fries.
It was too delicate; a bit over baked, the laminated exterior just falling off. You know what was going to happen when I actually bit into it, right? A certain song by the Rolling Stones came to mind:
First thing I noticed was how "clear" the broth was. Second thing was how the basil was starting to brown. Well, at least there was some ngo gai, a rarity these days it seems. I enjoy the more intense the peppery-cilantro-ish-slightly bitter flavor it provides. Even this leaf was starting to go south as well; I could use most of it. 
As for the broth…can you say MSG water? With a dose of that sweetness that has been pervading pho in San Diego over the last decade or so. The soup was quite thirst inducing; or perhaps I'm just more sensitive to the stuff as I get older?
There was a good amount of meat in this "small bowl". So perhaps that's the calling card?
The soup, while being a bit overly defatted had some beefiness, mild anise-oniony tones, while it still had that "San Diego" sweet flavor. It wasn't overly salty. This was better than I recall having on previous visits.
The proteins, while not as well prepared as "da cow" were fine, though there was no tendon to be found! The flank and brisket were cut a bit on thicker side, but the beefiness came through. The tripe was a bit more "hard" than crunchy.
The texture of the baozi dough was not as fluffy as I enjoy; but it had a hint of sweetness and was not bad. We enjoyed the pork version more….pork here is mighty tasty. There were hints of sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce….not sure how easy it is to get it in Genoa, but this was pretty good overall.
The portion of rice was quite large there was corn and edamame scattered about the hot plate. The beef, supposedly four ounces was topped with a small scoop of butter, which I thought wasn’t necessary.
This was interesting. The katsu had been sliced lengthwise and were as long as my fork. Rather unwieldy to eat.
The katsu sauce was very "local", being ketchup based, tangy and perhaps on the sweeter side of the scale. The mac salad was quite "local" tasting as well, having a touch of vinegar and some shredded carrots. The macaroni was nicely cooked, but unevenly coated. This was probably my favorite item on the plate.
One big minus was no mac salad, which I kinda liked on my previous visit. One big plus; they have Tabasco! Tabasco sauce has been the condiment I've used for loco mocos since small kid time!
First thing I noticed was how foamy the broth was, like it was kept at a rolling boil instead of a simmer. It was also on the thin side and seemed more like a thickened, slightly bitter, shoyu based broth. Like the tonkotsu I had here before, it also had a slight "metallic" tinge to it.
The chashu was a bit on the chewy side and lightly flavored, but not bad. The noodles were actually cooked decently and had a nice "springy pull" to them.
The pseudo tonkotsu bowl arrived seaming hot. There were some…well, interesting things about this bowl. My least favorite was the "impossible chicken karaage". It seemed to be sort of soybean based; but the texture was not to my liking; it was spongy and super chewy…think thick nylon sponge and had no flavor.
Not quite sure what to do with the slice of tomato? How much acidity, sweetness, will one slice of tomato provide for a bowl of ramen? The cabbage added a slight sweet-bitterness and was blanched. The corn also added some nice textural contrast and sweetness to the bowl.
