Hello. Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! on this holiday week. Cathy is writing today.
My most recent post about Niban was about 18 months ago. This is part of the 'rotation' for The Mister and myself and I could write about meals at Niban every month, but have found restraint.
Not much has changed here other than the prices, so here we go!
The soft shell crab roll ($11) is a filling five piece meal. Soft shell crab, real crab and avocado are the main ingredients.
The fried calamari appetizer ($9) is always a good choice. Four pieces of sliced calamari steak breaded in panko, crisply fried and served with (always too much) spicy sauce.
The Vegetable Delight ($13.50) seems to be a regular choice for me; I found photos from nine different visits. Consistently the same presentation.
Eight pieces of vegetable tempura (potato, carrot, zucchini and onion), salad, eight pieces of Garden Roll, edamame, cold noodle salad, rice and tempura dipping sauce. This is a very satisfying meal with so many varied flavors and textures.
The Combination Bento ($13.95) with pork teriyaki and egg roll is also a good choice.
The Stamina Udon ($13) was a nice meal on one of the (many) cold and rainy days we had early this year. The broth has a light mushroom flavor and the ingredients (chicken, krab, fishcake, shrimp, dumplings, sweet tofu, egg, broccoli) along with the springy udon make this a very filling meal.
The Shrimp Tempura Bento ($13.50) has five shrimp tempura, lightly fried and served with a house made tartar sauce and a portion of the Seafood Salad (bottom right) which is on the appetizer menu for $5. A nice addition to this bento.
When you first walk in, before turning to the cash register, look at the wall ahead. Daily Lunch Specials from 11-2:30.
Bento Lunch ($9.75) Six pieces of California roll, one piece Inari, three pieces of fried seafood (fish, squid, shrimp), pickled vegetables and rice. This is a very pleasant lunch and good for the budget minded.
The Gyoza Lunch ($9.25) is also really nice. Six meat filled dumplings steamed or deep fried. Salad, rice and (a very good) miso soup. You might notice that miso soup is no longer included with the bento meals; it is $2.50 on the appetizer menu.
I do prefer the gyoza being steamed then quick fried 'pot sticker' style. The deep fried is a nice, crisp texture but I think overwhelms the filling.
This longstanding (first Yelps are from 2005) eatery is consistently serving good food at reasonable prices. They have started charging $1 for hot tea, which, considering how much 'free' tea we had over the years, is not a complaint. It's a good green tea.
Niban 7801 Clairmont Mesa Blvd., Suite 101, San Diego 921110(858) 268-0465 Open Lunch: Mon-Sat 11:30-2:30 Dinner: Tue-Thurs 5:00-9:00 Fri-Sat 5:00-9:30 Sunday 4:30-9:00
The building housing Rose D'Amour has reincarnated itself several times over the years. It is now owned by a friendly husband and wife and serves breakfast, lunch and various coffees and juices. The ordering online system seemed to be well in use during the time we were here on a Tuesday morning.
Just a portion of the menu.
The interior is small but there is additional seating on an outdoor patio.
cc ordered the Simple Breakfast ($12.99) with scrambled eggs, sausage, country potatoes and corn tortillas. I had a bite and this was very good.
I ordered the Molletes ($14.99) which I always like to try at new (to me) places. The toasted telera was topped with plenty of wonderful flavored refried beans, pico and Cotija cheese. A fresh made Chile de arbol based salsa was served on the side. This was a great savory breakfast; the telera was fresh and soft, even with the toasting. 
cc ordered an iced brown sugar something ($6.75) and I got a regular coffee ($3)
When the Tom Cat first opened, Miramar Naval Air Station was the military base nearby. Close to the Pacific Ocean, the base housed aircraft and squadrons which were assigned to aircraft carriers stationed in San Diego. Among those aircraft was the F-14 Tomcat, hence the bar was initially a hangout for Active Duty and Retired military. The base also was home to TOPGUN, the nickname for what was the Navy Fighter Weapons School. (There was a base realignment in 1993 and in 1996, TOPGUN moved to Fallon, Nevada, while the various Naval aircraft, squadrons and training were relocated to several bases and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was made official.).
So now, the Tom Cat is a Sports Bar.
A simple, two sided menu is available. We did notice a chalkboard with some specials, at the bar.
We decided to order the fried mushrooms ($9.25) from the appetizer menu. The serving is quite large and very well made- light cornmeal based batter, surrounding large, meaty mushrooms, properly fried. It's served with an excellent Ranch dip.
Then we ordered the Tom Cat Signature Wings ($13.25). There are eight flavors to choose from and "Tom Cat Style' (grilled green onions and fresh jalapeño slices) has the highest spice level, three chilis, but the nicely crisp wing breading was not spicy if you didn't eat the fresh jalapeños. Four large flats and four large drums and a lot of carrots and cucumber, this was certainly a meal in itself. 
The Cobb salad ($14.95) was nice to share. Bacon, turkey and Blue Cheese crumbles, a hard boiled egg along with other vegetables and lettuce (as well as a squaw roll) in this deceptively large (deep) bowl made this also a quite large meal. 
The front gate is crowded just past the metal detectors at 11 a.m.
The Midway, with rides and food booths
There's Chicken Charlie, checking out a couple of his food booths as the Fairgrounds opened!
The Fun Zone, with Carnival Games, is a typical American Fair activity.
Home Made, Gems & Minerals, Design in Wood
The Paul Ecke, Jr. Flower Show,
along with the Paul Ecke, Jr. Garden Show with the entry from the San Diego County Model Railroad Museum
The Future Farmers of America were preparing to show goats..
Walking outside the Livestock Barn is an informative area sponsored by Hollandia Dairy. Dairy cows were on display and a small booth was selling chilled bottles of Hollandia Dairy milk for $3. There was signage indicating that these bottles were also being sold at 
There are three adult-only 'Specialty Booths' at the fair-The Beer Experience,
The Wine Experience,
and "Destination Unknown", a sort of Speakeasy (you need to tell the password to the elevator attendant who will whisk you up to the rooftop bar overlooking the Race Track).
The Texas Style BBQ booth offered a 'BBQ Sundae'- mashed potatoes topped with plenty of hickory smoked meat, some bark, some BBQ sauce and topped with a grape tomato. Tasting this BBQ absolutely made both of us want to order a full plate.
A 12 ounce Aqua Fresca at Ricos Manjares Mosita (cucumber lime flavor) was worth the $5 and so refreshing.
San Diego's Original Fish & Chips offered clam chowder fries. French fries topped with a lovely, thick chowder filled with clams, some potatoes and topped with crumbles of bacon. Definitely a chowder I would order if it was cooler.
The Texas Donuts offered their plain glazed donut for $5 (regular $7) and it was kind of perfect. We've always thought this booth has reasonable prices. 
OH MY! Dipping Dots 'taste' was a five ounce root beer float. Wonderful tasting root beer. Topped with vanilla Dipping Dots, it really was a different type of 'float'.
On our second visit, we saw this Rowdy's Root Beer Float booth and it was also offering a $5 taste. We had to. Ten ounces of soft serve ice cream and not as much root beer; memories evoked and well, soft serve.
This blurred out booth,'Eat At Joe's' was selling various fried items (zucchini, chicken strips, curly fries) the Taste of the Fair special was cheese curds! The curds didn't 'squeak' when biting in, but were very tasty…as batter fried cheese should be.
Maddie's Churros was offering one made-to-order churro and it hit the spot. You know, fried dough rolled in cinnamon sugar…
The Squeezers Lemon shaped booths are always part of the Fair and this year offered a 'Sour Apple Lemonade', small size (12 ounce) as a Taste. First, the color. Second- the flavors. The mix of sour apple flavor and fresh lemons was really unique. Another refreshing beverage.
The Pan Fried Chicken booth offered two fried wings, hot sauce, carrots and celery with Ranch dressing for $5! One drum, one flat and quite large. Another mini-meal.
We saw the Freeze Dried Candy booth last year but never stopped. This time we did; I've been curious for a year. Quite nice and different.
Of course, when leaving, we stopped here, as almost everyone does- always see people carrying large bags of Kettle Corn out the main gate. The small sample of Kettle Corn made it home and even lasted a few days. It was great; large, mushroom shaped popped corn coated in sugar and salt. A Perfect treat.
One thing we will pay regular price for is a turkey leg ($22). Since we seem to only find raw turkey eggs (weight about two pounds) for $9/pound, it is worth it for us to purchase a large leg already smoked.
We brought this one home, cooked some corn (3/$1) on the grill and had a nice dinner.
The generous portion fish has a mild smokiness, wasn't too salty, and wasn't fishy in the least. Think of it as "bacon of the sea". Not a big fan of the queso on the fish, but I really enjoyed and appreciated the layer of melted cheese on tortilla which ensured that things wouldn't fall apart. I do enjoy the onions and peppers and the tortilla was pliable did the job.
The fish was fried nicely, crisp, the flesh moist, no off flavors. The issue would be how skinny it was. There was so much cabbage and crema that it kind of overwhelmed the poor guppy….. Well, at least the tortilla held up, but I probably won't be getting this again.
So yes, this was scalding hot. Did I notice a difference? Well, 6 wings were now $9.99 and it seemed to have much more black pepper and was even saltier than I recalled. Also, the coating got soggy quite quickly. Not sure if it was just my imagination, but it seemed that way. The wings were of decent quality, it was moist, but again really high on the sodium scale for me.
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.
Knowing what kind of mess I'd be making, they kindly provided a knife to slice the sandwich and a ton of napkins. I truly had my doubts, thinking the flavor of the fonduey cheese mixed with beer and other seasonings might interfere with the sandwich. But, it actually made it better, adding more savory tones, and a pleasant creaminess to things.
We ended up getting a couple of gifts for folks. Downtown Los Alamos is basically a four block stretch, so we left our car parked on the street and walked on over to Bell's a block away.
