It's not very often that I read about a plate lunch place opening in Eater, but back in June I noticed an entry for a place named Dalu. So, doing the Google Maps thing, I noticed it was located in Rancho San Diego; man that's over a 20 mile drive for me. And yet, I was intrigued. I also noticed that the place opened at 10am, which fit fairly well into my weekend schedule. So, I decided to head on over.
I arrived at the CottonWood Plaza right past ten am. I guess I shouldn't have been worried since there was basically only one other car in the part of lot where Dalu is located.
It's quite a large space. The place has a full on, almost kitschy, stereotypical Hawaiian theme. A bit over-the-top.
There's even a sort of tiki-ish bar in the place as well.
The young lady working the counter was very nice and friendly. I inquired about the ownership, to see if it has roots "back home", but was not given a straight answer, so I'm figuring not? The two guys working the kitchen were conversing in Spanish. But what the heck, I was here, right? I decided to try a mix plate, to get a taste of more than one item and I selected the Katsu Mix ($18.25).
I as kindly given a cup some H2O and passed this quite different teriyaki sauce warmer thingy????
I had a seat and the young lady actually brought my order to the table. I had totally thought I'd have my name called and would pick up my plate at the counter. Very nice. Not so nice, I noticed there was no katsu sauce. I waked on over and asked if they had katsu sauce and was given some. So, please note; if you get the katsu here, I think you might have to ask for the sauce. I don't think it would be fun doing takeout and finding no sauce with your katsu.
As for the plate; well, it was good sized.
As I figured it was typical "LA Kalbi" – flanken/cross cut ribs. First thing I hit up was the mac salad. It was quite plain , with a few strands of carrots. It needed some salt and pepper and was kind of "watery" as the mayo hadn't really coated the macaroni well.
The rice was moist and fluffy.
The breading on the katsu had adhered well to the chicken, which was fairly moist, but on the tough side and in need of seasoning.
At most places, the chicken would be tenderized to an even thickness, but this was not, thus some bites were pretty thick and tough.
As for the "katsu sauce"; sigh. Just take a look. This was weird, like ketchup watered down with vinegar.
A for the rest of the proteins; well the Ribs were teriyaki style, not kalbi, so the sauce for both that and the teri beef were the same. A thicker glaze and on the really sweet side.
The teri beef, though on the thicker side and not coated thoroughly actually handled the sweet soy better. The ribs were really tough and chewy.
Hmmm……not quite what I expected. Nice folks though. After this meal, I contemplated doing a post or perhaps not doing one at all. After some thought, I decided that in cases like my maiden voyage to Dalu, and because prices were not crazy, it would be better to do a second visit, in spite of the distance. I guess if I had enjoyed this visit, I would have had no problem with a post. I know…..I'm kinda weird.
Anyway, a couple of weekends later, I drove back east, arriving again right after the ten am opening time.
There was a different young lady working this time; but she was just a nice and friendly. As to what to order? Hmmm…..it had been a while since I'd had a decent loco moco and Dalu's made a "mini loco" which was priced nicely at $11.25; yep over ten bucks, but considering that I'd recently had an avocado toast for $12, this seemed a bargain.
Of course I ordered my egg easy-over. Again the young lady delivered my plate to the table. She asked me if I wanted some teriyaki sauce….what???? I asked for Tabasco, but was told they didn't have any.
On this visit, it seemed like the gentleman who I believe is the owner was working the kitchen, so I was interested to see how my food would turn out. The first good sign was the mac salad, which while still in need of more salt and pepper was evenly coated and the mayo not runny like on my last visit.
And as I was about to "dig in", the young lady returned to my table, handing me a bottle of Tabasco! She told me; "I asked and they had a bottle in the back". So nice, yeah?
And a thought came to me as I prepared to dig in. I hadn't used the Modified Rubio scale in ages. For those who don't recall, it's a scale originally developed by James Rubio who had the now defunct Big Island Grinds blog that I modified and have used many times in the past. Funny thing, I haven't used the scale since 2019…another thing that Covid seems to have derailed!
To quote that post of long ago:
"The original Rubio Scale measured each item on the Loco, I decided to take the "base" items, the Burger, Gravy, Egg, and Rice. To this I added "Stuffs", that include macaroni salad, Spam, or any other item that comes with the Loco. All items are graded on a scale between 1 through 5, with 2.5 being average."
Anyways, here goes:
BURGER: Thin, lean with no filler, on the tougher side, but not bad. 2.5
EGGS: Nice and runny. Would have been perfect with more crisp edges and if the eggs were seasoned. No "off" flavors. 3.5
RICE: Decently cooked, fragrant, you could make out every grain. 2.5
GRAVY: Thick, rich, on the gluey end of the scale and quite salty. 2.0
STUFF: The Mac Salad was better this time around, but man, I wish it was seasoned better. 2.0
The total? 12.5, perfectly average.
I also had an interesting chat with a customer who sat on a nearby table. Apparently, this used to be a taco shop named David's Fresh Mexican. But a few months back, the owner, his name is Luis switched it over to Hawaiian BBQ. So, I'm guessing a minimum connection with the islands?
Overall, the gals working were really nice; the food better than L&L, but below what I expect from Island Style Cafe, Homestyle Hawaiian, Leilani's, etc. I had fun visiting and getting out of my typical "range", but the drive is really not worth it for an average plate lunch.
If you check them out, let me know what you think!
Dalu Hawaiian BBQ
2451 Jamacha Rd.
El Cajon, CA 92019
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm
Man, these were a lot more hefty than I recalled. The venison, which was done medium-well, we weren't asked for a preference. had a mild gamey flavor, the Havarti was kind of wiped out by the bacon and onion jam, which added a nice sweet-pungent touch to this. I enjoyed this, but it was a bit much for the Missus.
Overall, this was quite disappointing. I was looking forward to Izola reopening. I'm thinking I'll try the place in a couple of months and am hoping that this was just an off day. And at seven bucks a croissant….man, how would Parisians react to a six Euro croissant? I can only imagine!
Wayfarer tends to over bake their croissants; but this wasn't bad, quite flaky and crisp, the interior a bit on the dry side, but light and fluffy with a decent butter-salt ratio.
The bread was again nicely toasted, the cucumbers again refreshing, I wish it had more tomatoes and I appreciated the mint. There was a generous of labneh slathered on the toast, but it was just too puckery and sour for me to enjoy, the sour Zaatar just piled on, I'd have appreciated perhaps touch of sweetness and savory to balance things out a bit? As a whole, much too sour for me. My salivary glands are puckering up just looking at the photo!
Love the tortillas here, full of maize goodness, heated on the comal with drippings, it is always up to the task. The tripas have a nice mild crunch with beefy goodness. I bet you'd never figure out what it was if you were served one of these.
My goodness; this was even better than we thought! Fried to a light crispness, the interior was light, creamy, and almost fluffy. There have been times when we've had a iodine like aftertaste when having mollejas, but this was mild with a slight offal-nutty-buttery-sweetness. We actually didn't need salsa, lime, or heck, even the wonderful tortillas.
Let's take a look at that chicken. It's a huge piece but does it look "crispy" to you? Also, it was fairly tender, but quite dry for confit, making it somewhat bland; the supposed nuoc cham edged to the sweeter side of the scale. The fried garlic was fine; but the garlic rice was super hard and dry. It was like trying to eat barely cooked rice. Now come on, how can you mess up rice?
Again the greens and tomato was outstanding. But take a look at that rice, it's the same as the "confit chicken" and the photo shows more clearly how hard and dry it was. Speaking of dry; you can add the ahi belly as well. It was dry, lacking in that rich, fatty, texture. It was also strangely fishy in flavor; the Missus had one bite and was done.