mmm-yoso – Page 554 – As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! A San Diego based food and travel blog. An Ex-Pat Kama'aina and Friends explore food, restaurants, and travel from San Diego and points beyond.

Ohana Hawaiian BBQ

February 6, 2006 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

It’s been a while since, I’ve done a plate lunch post. I’ve been mainly sticking to Da’ Kitchen, but I decided that I needed to branch out a bit and took a drive down to National City and dropped by Ohana Hawaiian BBQ.

Ohana Hawaiian BBQ resides in the same busy mall as Seafood City, Golden Chopsticks, and Asian Noodles. Whenever we’re able to find a parking spot on our first go-round, the Missus will say, "hey, it’s your lucky day, did you buy a lottery ticket?"

The interior of Ohana seems very lively with splashes of green and orange to go along with the bright lighting. The word "Ohana" in the broadest sense, means "family". So I would guess that I would be treated as extended family by eating here. So as I walked up to the counter I was greeted with a "Yeah"…….no hello, no can I take your order, but just "yeah"…… Well if you think about it, we actually do greet each this way in my family. So maybe Ohana is trying to make me feel right at home. What was interesting was that the entire time I was waiting for my food, a Gentleman and a Young Lady were hunched over a calculator, intensely "crunching numbers"! I guess he was trying to figure out how feed His "Ohana".

Of course I ordered a Loco Moco($5.95):

The first thing I noticed when I opened up my Loco Moco was all of the little grains of black "stuff" on the eggs. Now what causes that? Answer! A grill that hasn’t been cleaned! Believe me, Wok Hay is great stuff, but I’ve never heard of wok hay from a griddle. The eggs tasted of burnt soy sauce.

So the grade on the Rubio Scale? Here goes:

BURGER: Pre-formed mass production burger, bland, dry as heck, cold, and obviously been sitting around for a while. – 1.0
EGGS: Over cooked, the yolk was solid, any respectable Loco Moco should have soft cooked yolks. Crunchy, bitter, charred black bits all over the egg. Terrible! – 0.5(The only zero is if they forget the eggs all together, or I get food poisoning)
RICE: Well cooked; I also enjoyed the placement of rice under the eggs, burger, and gravy. – 3.0
GRAVY:Dark and smooth, but under seasoned and on the bland side.- 2.5
STUFFS: Good macaroni salad. – 3.0

Overall score; 10 points, the lowest so far.

I also ordered the BBQ Chicken all Rice($5.99):

As I opened up the container, I knew where the black crunchies came from. I think the eggs had been cooked on the remnants of the chicken. Not good eats! The chicken was well seasoned, though on the dry side, but nicely caramelized, and though the outside was nice and warm, the interior was quite cold. In summary; an average Hawaiian BBQ chicken, no better, no worse then what I get from any other Hawaiian BBQ.

Ohana Hawaiian BBQ, is pretty much an L & L knock-off. Though there are some interesting items on the menu like Mochiko Chicken, Volcano Chicken, and Spam Loco Moco. I don’t know if I’ll be returning though.

Ohana Hawaiian BBQ
1430 E. Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950

Pho Ca Dao – El Cajon Boulevard

February 5, 2006 mmm-yoso Bun Bo Hue, Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

I had attempted to have some lunch at Pho Ca Dao’s El Cajon Boulevard location several times. But each attempt had been aborted due to a line of people waiting outside the Restaurant’s doors. But recently, after reading Jenne’s comments recommending Pho Ca Dao on my Pho Hoa Hiep post, I decided to make another attempt to get through Pho Ca Dao’s doors.

For some reason I had thought that Pho Ca Dao was a fairly large restaurant. But after parking I found that Pho Ca Dao shared half of the building with a coin laundry, so the restaurant was actually half the size I thought it was. Now I understand the "lines".

I was silently seated, and ordered the Combination Large Bowl(Dac Biet – $4.95) of Pho. The garnishes quickly arrived, and as Jenne informed me it did contain Ngo Ngai:

Though the quantity of herbs and garnishes was rather small; the Ngo Ngai was very fresh. I tasted a small bit and the peppery-cilantro flavor was quite strong.

The Pho arrived in a large bowl, hot and steaming.

The broth was light brown in color with a large amount of green onions, cilantro, and thin sliced onions floating in it. Much like Pho Hoa Hiep, this was a very balanced and well flavored broth, though perhaps a bit richer then the version at the afore mentioned restaurant. The "hits"? The tendon was perfect; as you initially bit into the tendon, it was soft, and the resistance gradually increased as you bit through it. So nicely gelatinous, and yet somewhat smooth, unlike the crunchy, tough, almost inedible tendon that I often encounter. The brisket was also fairly good, though there was too much fat. There was one piece of brisket that belonged in the Guinness Book of World Records. As I unfolded the slice, it extended from one side of the bowl to the other, and almost covered the entire bowl of Pho!

Too much "net-like" fat though. The noodles were the status quo; a large clump in the bottom of the bowl; though it was a very generous amount of noodles. The bowl was lacking in tripe, and the rare steak was dry, flavorless, and tough. I enjoyed this rather substantial bowl of Pho, and would have it again in a heartbeat.

Of course, I had to check out Pho Ca Dao again, and have one of my favorite soups; Bun Bo Hue. I went earlier this Sunday morning and had the Large Bowl of Bun Bo Hue without Blood($5.10):

And before I knew it; this large bowl of bright red red soup arrived at my table. Actually, I could smell the Bun Bo Hue, before I saw it. As I’ve noted, every version of Bun Bo Hue that I’ve had has been unique. Versions from Convoy Noodle House and Pho Hoa Hiep included a little dish of fermented shrimp paste and chili oil/paste. In the case of Pho Ca Dao, the shrimp paste and chilies are already in the broth, and I’m not complaining. All that I needed to add was a few squeezes of the lime that was included with the garnishes, to smooth out the flavors.

The garnishes with this Bun Bo Hue included shredded cabbage which I dip into the well flavored broth and ate. The mint added a touch of sweetness, and I even threw in couple of slices of Jalapeno to take the heat up a bit. This by far was the best Bun Bo Hue broth I’ve had thus far, the generous amount of spaghetti like noodles were also good, al dente, with a bit of "pull". The pork foot was totally inedible, just rubbery skin and bone, I enjoy a bit more meat. The well done beef was fine, though maybe bit too fatty. The tendon though, was again excellent.

I knew from the first sip of the broth(I always taste the broth before adding anything), that this was the best Bun Bo Hue I’ve had thus far. Spicy, rich broth, and a generous amount of noodles, made for a satisfying dish. Approach this dish with caution though, if you can’t tolerate spicy, or do not care for fermented shrimp/fish sauce, I would order something else.

Pho Ca Dao is worth a try, and the prices are in line with most other Pho restaurants. The portion sizes are good, I left full after each visit. Service is status quo, the norm for Pho restaurants. Thanks for the recommendation Jenne!

Pho Ca Dao
5223 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

The Greek Cafe

February 2, 2006 mmm-yoso Greek Food

**** The Greek Cafe has closed

Located in the same Mission Valley strip mall as Tandoor Indian Cuisine and El Portal is The Greek Cafe.

More of a “casual-fast” style restaurant, the Greek Cafe serves everything from Lamb Shank to Spanakopita. But the item I usually order is the Gyros Sandwich($4.85)

Though I can get a pretty decent sandwich with salad and fries for $4.95 at Mediterranean Cafe in Hillcrest, the Gyros Sandwich at the Greek Cafe is not too bad. The sandwich is served on a large toasted pita and I enjoy the really thick and creamy tzatziki that is slathered on the sandwich. On this visit the roma tomatoes were especially ripe and added a nice sweetness to the Gyros Sandwich. Other then that, it’s a purely routine Gyros sandwich, whose taste faded into memory almost as soon as I devoured it. Not good, not bad, but still better then any of the fast food options available.

On a recent visit I decided to order something different and had the Beef Souvlaki Sandwich($4.85).

Same toasted pita; though the tomatoes were not as ripe. But what threw me off was the lack of Beef Souvlaki. As the old commercial used to say; “Where’s the beef?”

Here have another look. Can you find it? Seems more like a veggie pita, doesn’t it?

But after some digging, I did discover some beef. The Beef was very mildly flavored though very tender, but totally “lost” in all of the slightly bitter iceberg lettuce. What a waste.

I did learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes it’s really not worth trying to find a “hidden gem”, in an environment that really wouldn’t seem to support such efforts. After all, it seems that The Greek Cafe is just Casual Fast Food, nothing wrong with that. At least there is another option that adds some variety in the “Fast Food – Chain Restaurant Purgatory” that is Mission Valley.

The Greek Cafe
5618 Mission Center Road
San Diego, CA 92108

Bully’s East – Carnivore’s Feast

February 1, 2006 mmm-yoso American/New American Restaurants, Burgers, Steakhouse

Every once in a while, maybe once or twice a year I get a major red meat craving. And for me, the best way to quench said craving is to get a nice piece of prime rib. If we’re having steak, unless it’s something along the lines of Fleming’s or Ruth’s Chris, I’d rather make it at home. But prime rib is another story. I just want one meal, so making a whole prime rib roast just doesn’t make sense. So last night we headed over to a real "old school" San Diego establishment; Bully’s.

Now Bully’s has been at this location, just South of the 8 Freeway for over 30 years, and the bar is a favorite with "locals" for Happy Hour. From the dark red leather booths to the wood paneling, to the dim lighting(please excuse the lousy photos); Bully’s screams "Old School". Even though the decor may scream staid and stuffy, the atmosphere is definitely casual. Though we thought there would be no problem getting a table without reservations at 5 pm on a Tuesday evening, we were lucky. The bar area was packed, and we snagged one of the last open tables.

Though the menu at Bully’s includes everything from King Crab and Lobster to Chicken and Ribs, there’s only one reason I come to Bully’s. It’s the prime rib.

Wanting to pay undivided attention to my red meat, we didn’t order any appetizers, or sides, and just got down to business.

The Missus ordered the Bully Burger with Bacon and Avocado($9.50). And of course I ordered a prime rib. But first came our salads.

A nice old fashioned green salad with ranch dressing on the side since we had to watch our calories….yeah, right! The salad was fine, fresh and crisp, and the croutons were very crunchy. There must have been something right about the salads, we both finished ours.

The Missus’s Burger:

The Missus enjoyed the thick cut bacon and avocado. The burger was formed into an oblong shape to fit the bun. The burger was under seasoned and lacked a beefy punch, but was so very moist and tender, and cooked to a perfect medium-well. The fries were mediocre and a bit soggy.

I had ordered a 22oz Prime Rib($28.95), the 32oz cut had tempted me, but I showed amazing restraint. My cut arrived on a platter, along with a light au jus and horseradish sauce.

Cooked to a perfect medium rare, this piece of bone-in prime rib was fork tender(I tested it), and nicely flavored. I didn’t need any of the condiments provided, and scarfed this baby down in about 10 minutes flat. I slowed down after the Missus threatened to call National Geographic. Need I say it? Very delici-yoso!!! The Garlic Mashed potatoes were slightly chunky, and very garlicky, and also under seasoned. I get the feeling that sides are pretty much an after thought at Bully’s.

The damage? Not bad $44 total. And a bone for the Boyz!

Bully’s provides decent quality, reasonably priced Steaks and Seafood, though some dishes(especially the "sides") may seem a bit dated and tired. And fills that niche, above the usual Neighborhood Steakhouse(i.e. Black Angus), and below the quality and the sometimes eye-popping prices at Morton’s and Ruth’s Chris. It’s not a bad niche to fill! Also if you’ve got a craving for a prime rib at 1130pm, Bully’s might be the place for you!

Bully’s East
2401 Camino Del Rio S
San Diego, CA 92108
Mon-Fri 11am-1215am
Sat-Sun 10am-1215am

(Won) Tons of Fun

January 31, 2006 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Last week we "hit the wall"…… The Missus and I were going over our favorite restaurants one by one, and really didn’t feel like eating at any of them. Truth was, we really didn’t want to eat out at all. It seems that "restaurant fatigue" had set in. Those moments of indecision, really disguise the fact that you really want to just stay at home and cook something. But what?

Then the Missus suggested Won Ton Soup. So we made a quick trip to 99 Ranch Market, and picked up some Shrimp, Bok Choy, Won Ton Wrappers, Egg Noodles, and somehow the Missus talked one of the "Guys" in the meat department into grinding some fresh pork loin. Amazing!

When we arrived home, I got about 8 cups of chicken stock going, and seasoned to taste, with soy sauce, the white parts of green onion, salt, white pepper, Tsao Tsing, and Fried Garlic:

I also got two pots of water going; a small pot, and a larger pot for the egg noodles. In our household we divide up the labor when it comes to dumplings and won tons. I do the prep, the Missus folds the Won Tons, and I do the cooking. This works out best for us.

Here’s the "broad outline" of the recipe for the Won Tons:

1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb shrimp, shelled, deveined, and chopped
4 pieces dried black fungus(cloud ears) cleaned, soaked, and chopped into fine strips
3 pieces shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and chopped fine
2 bunches green onion chopped
2 Tb Shao Tsing
3-4 Tb Soy Sauce
2 tsp salt
1 Egg
white pepper to taste

2 tsp cornstarch dissolved with 2 tsp water

1. Combine filling ingredients, use egg to "bind" mixture.

2. Create "test" Won Ton, place into small pot of simmering water, cook, and check flavoring.
3. Place filling into won ton wrappers, and fold; sealing with water and cornstarch mixture.

4. Cook desired Won Tons, and freeze the remainder. Makes about 75 Won Tons.

We made "One Ton of Won Ton" Egg Noodle Soup:

For excellent step-by-step instructions on making won tons check out this great post from Annie’s blog Green Beans in San Diego.

Here are some other "Links" that have caught my attention recently:

Kiki on Her Food Blog Kiki Rice, has a very good "primer" on various Vietnamese Noodles.

The so very informative Food Blog S’Cool has an interesting post with a link to an article on the Legal Rights of Photographers.

And Rachel on Her Blog Filling Good, has a photo of a delici-yoso looking Burger that I can’t get out of my head……

And most importantly I’d like to wish Passionate Eater(aka ‘PE’) a quick recovery. Recently, PE injured Her hand, and is recovering. Unfortunately, weighed down by a finger splint she’s unable to post at this time.

El Dorado Mexican & Peruvian Restaurant

January 30, 2006 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Peruvian Restaurants

*** El Dorado has changed ownership and no longer serves Peruvian food

One day on a trip down to Hogetsu Bakery, I noticed El Dorado, sitting in a strip mall on the corner of Palomar Street and 3rd Avenue in Chula Vista:

The Missus and I had nice memories of Peruvian in Los Angeles, so we had to make a trip down to Chula Vista for a visit. We arrived during a week day for a lunch, and found the colorful restaurant completely empty. Looking around we started to realize that this visit may be a bit of a mistake.

The decor and signs screamed out "Sports Bar". But we forged ahead! The very friendly and helpful Waitress, took our order and brought over some chips and Salsa.

The chips were not oily and tasted fresh, with a nice corn taste. The salsa had a nice spicy and sweet flavor; for some reason it reminded me of Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic Salsa, except fresher and more spicy. Things were looking up! While we were waiting for our order, we watched the Young Lady who served us cleaning with complete awe. I'm talking about really clean, really fast, and really thorough. If we could give her a "letter grade" Ala DOH, she'd get an 'A+'.

Finally our dishes arrived. I ordered the standard Lomo Saltado ($5.50):

Lomo Saltado, is a traditional Peruvian "stir-fry" dish, with strips of beef, onions, tomatoes, and most of all french-fries, yep french fries! A carb lovers dream! The dish usually has a touch of heat provided by some hot pepper. This version was a major disappointment. The steak was tough, dry, and tasteless; giving new meaning to the term "two-dollar steak". The onions and tomatoes were over-cooked and mush, as were the french fries. Though the taste of remnants of the onions, fries, and tomatoes(skin) was fairly tangy, there was a lack of any heat. The rice with frozen peas and carrots,was really dry. 'Nuff said.

The Missus really surprised me and ordered Anticuchos($5.50):

Anticuchos is a skewered meat; in this case beef heart, marinated in vinegar and chilies. This was served with a pretty weak "white" sauce, the thin slices of heart were decent; slightly gamey, but not too rubbery. The thick slices tasted too much like liver, which I don't care for, and was much too dry. Overall, the beef heart was really under seasoned and bland. The best part of the dish was the slice of deep-fried yucca. Crisp on the outside, with a dense and starchy interior.

We had pretty much written off this meal when the Deep Fried Plantains arrived($5.50):

We were a bit turned off at the almost black, charred appearance when the dish arrived. But the plantains were just darkly caramelized, and were sweet, tangy, and rich. The condense milk like "leche" helped to smooth out the flavor. Unfortunately, the plantains are not reason enough for us to return. The menu is quite extensive, with dishes like Cau Cau (tripe stew) and Arroz Chaufa (Peruvian Fried Rice), but we'll leave that for others to explore.

El Dorado Peruvian and Mexican Seafood & Grill
311 Palomar St
Chula Vista, CA 91911

San Diego Tet Festival 2006

January 29, 2006 mmm-yoso Festivals & Events, Vietnamese Restaurants

During a recent trip to Vien Dong Supermarket, I noticed a banner announcing a 3 day Tet Festival at Qualcomm Stadium. What a minute, did you say 3 day festival and Qualcomm Stadium! My immediate thought was, "man, that’s quite ambitious", after all I’ve been to many of these "Asian Festivals", and most have been really small. Like 12 booths small, with only 4 booths of food, and 1 of them is funnel cakes, and the other is a taco stand. So we wanted to make sure to attend, and arrived at about 2pm on Saturday:

We arrived to a pretty full parking lot, and were surprised at the amount of people. Admission was 4 bucks, and we entered and made a beeline for the food stands which took up a whole end of the festival!

Now I understand that the Vietnamese population in San Diego is topping 30,000, and I think they were all here! And all of them were talking on cell phones at the same time!

There were some pretty good size lines at most of the booths, but if you wanted Funnel Cakes or Tacos, there wasn’t a wait!

There was tons of food, so here are a few pictures.

The Vietnamese food ranged from Banh Mi to Noodles; but the one common denominator was Cha Gio; it seemed that every stand sold them. Either 2 for a dollar, or 3 for a dollar. The perfect festival food, we tried several, and they ranged from okay to fairly terrible. But this was a festival, right? Part of the experience is the ambiance. What spoiled the it for the Missus was the booth that sold these:

The gal at the wire mesh window(great idea BTW, keeps all sorts of critters and dust out); took cash from several individuals with Her bare hand, then proceeded to grab the Cha Gio and put them on paper plates with the same bare hand. The Missus just got completely grossed out, and made sure they replaced ours.

Many booths had various Chicken Skewers/Sates, which ranged from $1.50-$2.50 a piece:

This one had a nice lemongrass flavor.

Banana Fritters($1.00):

Fried Chicken Drumettes($3.00):

Crispy, but a bit on the bland side. Luckily a small container of sweet chili sauce was provided.

We had to leave a bit prematurely. A combination of being tired, dry weather, and maybe some dehydration, and blood started pouring out of my nose, which took a while to stop. Funny, it didn’t seem anyone noticed! Here are a few more photos:

And my favorite:

Some notes: The Tet Festival was presented by the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance of San Diego, and by and large was well put together. There were everything from carnival rides to vendor booths. But the one area I would suggest some changes would be in the traffic and parking control. Using teenagers to direct traffic didn’t really seem to be working, half of them were just "hanging out", while one Young Man was hurling insults, and other four letter words at Drivers while frantically directing cars, we were waiting for someone to come out and slug Him!

Xin Nian Kuai Le – Happy (Chinese) New Year!

January 28, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

Just to cover all the bases – Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Not much to say; just a few photos. Can you guess where this is from?

And of course we had to have a noodle dish:

I know it’s not quite New Years yet. But to quote the Missus, "New Years Eve is better; because that’s when we eat!"

Hope everyone is having a fun and safe weekend!

Ai-Yai! It’s Pad Thai!

January 26, 2006 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

The day after our visit to the Wat Thai Temple's food court, the Missus asked me to make Pad Thai. The request filled me with a bit of apprehension. You see, first of all, I hadn't made Pad Thai in about 6 years, and have never used the Big Kahuna to make any type of noodles. Also, I must admit, I really don't deal with last minute cooking requests real well.

First of all, I had to find "My" recipe. We used to cook alot more when we lived in Los Angeles, and became obsessed with Pad Thai. Not cooked using any particular recipe, but made to our taste. We must have made at least a dozen versions of these noodles before coming up with something that we enjoyed. Now after all these years, I dug up the crumpled sheet of yellow legal pad paper I wrote the recipe on. What follows, is that recipe, though this version was a bit different, which I'll get into later. And of course a quick trip to 99 Ranch Market was in order.

This time, the Missus wanted Shrimp as the meat for her Pad Thai, so we replaced the Chicken and Dried Shrimp with fresh shrimp. The other item I really feel strange using in Pad Thai is Ketchup, yes, I use Ketchup. I never said it's authentic, it's just the way we like it. Also, we tried to cut out the amount of oil when we originally made Pad Thai, and ended up using low-sodium chicken broth to keep the noodles from sticking to the wok. High heat has made the chicken broth a relic. Amazing what 50,000 BTU's can do! In this case shell and devein 1/3lb shrimp; season with salt and pepper(I added 1 Tb Xiao Sing), and stir fry over high heat:

Also as with any stir-fry, have everything prepped. It's especially important if using high-heat!

Here's my original "crumpled" recipe:

Pad Thai
1/2 lb dried rice noodles – soaked in warm water about 20-30 minutes, drained, cut in half.
1/3 cup chicken broth
2-3 TB oil – most Pad Thai recipes use 1/4-1/2 cup of oil – we get away by using chicken broth to avoid sticking
3 cloves garlic minced
1/4 lb chicken sliced thin and seasoned with S&P and marinated in 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tsp water for 15 minutes
1/4 lb baked or fried tofu sliced
2 eggs beaten – can use 2whites/1yolk season with S&P
1/4 cups chopped roasted peanuts
1/2 lb bean sprouts
2-3 stalks green onions – green portions cut chinese style, parts of the whites finely sliced
1 lime

Pad Thai Sauce:
3-4TB Brown sugar or Palm sugar
3TB Tamarind Paste – we use dried tamarind and reconstitute it in boiling water into a paste and strain
3 t finely chopped dried shrimp.
2TB Ketchup – Yes, ketchup
5-6TB Fish Sauce – We use Tiparos – you can adjust. Pad Thai tastes best with Tiparos which has almost a caramel fragrance when used.
3-4TB Shoyu
1t(or more) Red Pepper – optional

Head oil and saute garlic and white part of green onion until garlic is light brown.
Add some chicken broth to make sure that bottom of wok is covered.
Add chicken and tofu, then add egg, let set about 5 seconds and then stir fry until chicken is cooked
Add juice from 1/2 of the lime
Use broth to keep from sticking as necessary

When chicken is cooked add 1/2 of the bean sprouts, green parts of green onions, and rice noodles and mix

Add sauce and cook for a few minutes until cooked and well mixed – use chicken broth to keep from burning/sticking

Plate Pad Thai, add the rest of bean sprouts, chopped peanuts, place sliced lime wedges around plate. You may also want to garnish with chinese parsley.

The verdict? Well, we've never achieved that bright orange-red color of some of the Pad Thai we've eaten, but it tasted pretty good. In my rush I bought some pretty lousy noodles, but that'll be rectified in future versions.

Whew, I survived Pad Thai! We included some of the Papaya Salad we bought at Wat Thai.

Again, the recipe is just our broad interpretation. Barbara of Tigers & Strawberries has a nice version here.

Tandoor Indian Cuisine

January 25, 2006 mmm-yoso Indian Restaurants

Many consider the Mission Valley area North of the 8 Freeway stretching from Fenton Parkway until Old Town to be Chain Restaurant and Fast Food Hell. In fact, Ed from Yuma in one of His most inspired moments described a certain area of Mission Valley this way; "From a chowhound standpoint, Hotel Circle may as well be one of Dante’s circles of Hell." Has to be one of the best lines I’ve heard. At first glance all you see is PF Chang’s, California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, Carl’s Jr, Bennigan’s, Fuddruckers, and the Food Courts from the 2 shopping centers that occupy a large portion of the valley. But there are a few interesting choices in Mission Valley. Tandoor Indian Cuisine, formerly KC’s Tandoor, is located in the Ralph’s and Long’s strip mall bordered by Mission Center Road and Friars Road.

In fact, this was the restaurant that made the Tandoori Chicken that the Missus was so infatuated with, and eventually burned-out on that I mentioned in an earlier post. Now, with Indian food back in our rotation, we finally paid a return visit to the latest incarnation of this Indian Restaurant. Tandoor Indian Cuisine, is one of several little restaurants huddled together forming a "food court" of sorts in the middle of this strip mall. As a matter of fact, a new location of El Portal is a few doors down from Tandoor.

Though the ownership of the restaurant had changed, other then an expanded menu, just about everything else seemed the same. Unfortunately, this includes the aloof and sometimes downright rude service. As in: "can you hurry up and make up your mind and order", when there’s no other customer in the restaurant except me. I guess it’s "Mission Valley Burnout" caused by crazy lunch hour traffic. "Don’t go away mad; just go away…." You know, I rather enjoy eating meat, but don’t take pleasure being treated like a piece of it!

On this visit I had 4 piece Tandoori Chicken Combination($7.99), with Rice Pulao(Basmati Rice), and Dal as my side orders:

All combination plates also include a piece of Naan. There were 2 small thighs and 2 small drumsticks, that were moist and tender and cooked in the tandoor located on one side of the restaurant.(White meat .75 more each piece) Today, the slightly charred areas of the chicken tasted good (cancer be damned!!!), though the overall flavoring of the chicken was somewhat bland, and not as good as we recalled. The distinct mildly smokey taste we remembered was missing. As the Tandoori chicken here has never been especially spicy nor herbaceous, any missing flavor component was especially evident. The rice was dry, and the Dal, was well dull, just overly watery.

The Missus ordered the Lamb Curry Plate($6.79):

Along with the Lamb, the plate included Naan, Rice, Dal, and Raita(yogurt and cucumber dip). The lamb was very soft and tender, the Missus enjoyed the flavor of the lamb and curry, which I thought was a bit on the watery side and found the tomato based curry a bit odd.

The hit of the day was the Garlic Naan($1.99), which we ordered in addition to the Naan included in the plates:

The Naan was rolled out and cooked in the Tandoor to order and you get it hot and crusty. It also helps that there is always a generous amount of garlic and herbs on the naan. I usually enjoy watching the Naan cook in the Tandoor, but this time the Cook gave me an annoyed look when I moved over to watch him. I guess the attitude was transferred along with the ownership of the restaurant. We probably won’t be back, at least until we’re prepared to deal with the attitude again, which may be a while.

Some Notes: Tandoor is not a sit-down restaurant, but closer to a "fast-casual" style eatery. There’s a Saturday Dinner Buffet and Sunday Brunch for $7.99. The menu is quite extensive with over 70 items. The strip mall that Tandoor is located in can be a real zoo during lunch hours and during holiday season. Getting back to Friars Road from the parking lot can also be somewhat frustrating at times.

Tandoor Indian Cuisine
5608 Mission Center Road
San Diego, CA 92108

Open Daily 11:00 AM to 9:30 PM