Tag: Closed

In my post mentioning that Great Wow looked shuttered; "GT" mentioned the Hillcrest spot, which I posted on back in November. At that time it seemed to me like Wow was expanding….after all, this spot seemed maybe one-third the size of the Convoy location. This weekend, I had to pick something up in Hillcrest for the Missus, so I went to check the place out.

Well whaddya know; the place had opened. In need of some lunch, I decided to check the place out.

They've really packed it in here! The tables and chairs looked exactly the same as the restaurant had on Convoy.

There's a small bar area here as well. The really nice young man manning the front told me that right now; "it's happy hour all day"!

The current menu looks quite temporary; a bunch of stapled together pages with photos……there were only three varieties of jiaozi available, 1 vegetarian, 2 with shrimp.

While looking thru things the older gentleman dropped by this for me…..

Man, when had I last seen this in San Diego? Seven Layer Meat Cake. Basically layers of thin scallion bread with a light sprinkling of seasoned, ground meat between the layers. The flavors were pretty good, on the rich side. Enjoyed the crispness, but this looked a bit over-cooked and was the exterior was on the hard side instead of crisp. Nice try though.

My hot tea arrived; which helped to balance out all that richness.

I went ahead and placed an order for the Shrimp and Chive dumplings.

And this was brought to my table. Wow; a Xian Bing!

This was deeply browned, but was nice and crisp with a light chewiness. Not a big fan of the filling though, it was just rather bland.

Meanwhile, since I was the only customer in the place, the nice young man dropped by and we had a nice chat. It seems that they've bought into the Trinitea franchise at this location. They are paring down the menu while trying some new items. I did mention how much we enjoy the radish version of Xian Bing; like we've had Beijing Pie House, though I'm not sure how that would go here in Hillcrest. They are trying a few more vegetarian options.

I had noticed that they were making my jiaozi to order….very nice.

I finally broached the question about the Convoy location and was told that yes, that shop is indeed closed. It is going to be (yet another) a hot pot restaurant.

Meanwhile, yet another sample….a hot and sour soup was brought to my table.

Man, I was getting full just eating samples!

I didn't think I'd be able to finish my Shrimp and Chive Jiaozi.

So, how did these measure up? The wrappers were a bit thicker and had less chew to them than I recalled. Very plump and moist….super moist. Like the Shrimp, Pork, and chive I had at Convoy, the chive flavor came through quite well, but the filling was quite salty.

Still, not bad.

I'm still wondering how Hillcrest is going to do with Xian Bing, Jiaozi, and items like that. I'm hoping they give them a try. The Trinitea take out window was doing good business though.

Trinitea & Great Wow
3865 5th Ave
San Diego, CA 92103

**** Noodle Hut has closed

Hey, it's "Two Huts" in three days. I hope everyone had a great V-Day. I thought I'd take a short break and return with yet another "hut". Back in December I noticed that Xi'an Kitchen had closed and for good reason. The shop was being replaced with Noodle Hut. So, let's see; remember Nam An, then Jin's Pot, then Xi'an Kitchen. So that makes 4 restaurants in 6 years? Not a great track record.

I decided to visit when the weather was running on the cold side. The place had just opened their doors and I was curious.

Man, they've gone full bore with the wood paneling thing.

Though the light fixtures and the chairs are the same, the table tops look a bit different. There's now a noodle/dumpling making booth in the back corner, though I never saw anyone amking either on any of my visits.

Being a bit chilly; I decided on the Lamb Hand Ripped Noodles ($8.99).

Like Kirbie, I thought the noodles were quite good, a bit of spring to them, good chew, very nice texture all around. The lamb was decent, on the chewy side, and only fairly gamey. For some reason, I didn't enjoy the cabbage in this soup, which was perfectly scalding hot! The broth also had too much white pepper in it, causing it to be too bitter for me.

This was decent, the portion size generous….at least in terms of noodles and soup. So I returned a few days later with Calvin in tow. I'd first introduced him to Yang Rou Pao Mo at Xi'an Kitchen. Turned out he loved it. So he was eager to try out Noodle Hut.

While looking at the menu; Calvin noted that it really did resemble that of Xi'an Kitchen with a few exceptions.

We started with the Preserved Eggs and Tofu a bargain at $4.99.

While not as good as the version we had at Shan Xi Magic Kitchen, this was still decent. The tofu had been adequately drained, the earth-sulfuric tones of the pidan, matched with the scallions and Peppercorn Oil was vey nice. The tofu added a refreshing layer to the dish. I'd been trying to get the Missus to try this at Shan Xi Magic Kitchen, but She wasn't interested. Last time I went, they didn't have it on the menu. I took the leftovers home and the Missus really enjoyed it……..go figure….when will She trust my taste?

Of course we got the Yang Rou Pao Mo ($8.99).

Aside from the waxy, totally wrong bread (hopefully one day they'll get it right here in the states), which I've gotten used to; there were some hard pieces. The broth was too watery and bland. The lamb was nice and tender, but like the broth really lacked the "skatolic" barnyard essense that makes this dish so rich and hearty.

We asked the young lady for a recommendation and she suggested the Spicy Chicken Soup…so to her surprise we ordered the Szechuan "Pork Gut Soup in Casserole" ($10.99)

While there wasn't much intestine in this soup, and what there was didn't seemed to be prepared very well, it sure was spicy….though on the thin side and we both missed the "ma" (numbing) sensation that we enjoy from Sichuan type dishes like this. Again for eleven bucks, the portion size was quite generous.

And so, this would basically be it. Except for all the long days I've been working. At the end of one particularly long day, I told the Missus that I wasn't up to the task of making dinner….so She requested that Pidan and Tofu dish. Take-out on the way home.

The portion size was well worth the $4.99…….until I opened my big fat mouth and said that we could do better just making this ourselves. Sigh. So now it's organic tofu, preserved egg, scallions from the yard, and Sichuan Peppercorn Oil at home.

I also ordered the Cumin Lamb.

Man, this was a good sized portion. Though for my taste, there wasn't enough cumin, nor enough flavor overall. The lamb was thick sliced and rather tough. Thin sliced onion is a nice addition, but the red and green bell peppers seemed like filler. I also missed cilantro in this as well. This was more quantity over quality for me.

Which kind of describes Noodle Hut. I think most folks prefer that. Sorry to say; that's not our preference. Though I'm thinking I need to try the jiaozi here. One of these days.

Noodle Hut
4690 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

 

** Dumpling Hut has closed

I had been wondering what was going on with Dumpling Hut since they closed for a spell. While keeping the Dumpling Hut moniker, the Chinese "name" had changed. The folks at Sizzling Pot King told me they had changed owners, but I hadn't seen any change of ownership notice. Still, even though my meals at Dumpling Hut left something to be desired, I was still curious, so I returned soon after they reopened.

Man, they've really….really, brightened up the place.

Though looking around a bit you notice some interesting "features"…..

The place was really quiet when I visited. I was the only customer….during my entire meal.

I got to thinking that I'm probably the wrong "demographic" when my water arrived….with a twisted straw.

As for what to order, well, the "new" Chinese name had clay pot in it…..

So deciding to play it safe, I ordered the Pork Chop Rice Clay Pot ($11.50). The young man working recommended getting it "spicy". It came out in a donabe style pot…..which I've seen at Daiso for four bucks….in case you want one.

So, not quite "pork chop", more like spareribs, very tough, very salty, very one dimensional in flavor. The best item was the over cooked boiled egg. The broccoli was basically a garnish as it wasn't seasoned at all. The rice was fine; I think I would have preferred the "regular" as this was basically chili oil on rice; it was very greasy, one-dimensional spicy, some anise, and not much else. A lot of rice though.

Well, perhaps these were new owners, but the end result of my meal was the same…….

It was interesting though, Calvin was kind of interested in the place. And one day, (it was Tuesday) we went to Village North which was closed. So Calvin, JohnF, and I headed on over to Dumpling Hut.

Like my previous visit, we were the only folks in the place for the entire meal. I'm thinking this place is targeting a younger demographic after more snack like food and drinks.

We started with the Shenjian Bao ($7.99).

Liked the nicely brown and crisp bottoms of the buns. The texture of the tops were gummy, chewy, and these didn't seemed like they were steamed right. The pork filling wasn't moist enough and was pretty darn bland.

Next up was the "Guotie", I put that in quotes. So these Pork "Potstickers" ($8.99).

Good lord, basically a wrapper enrobing ground pork, then put into a pan and cooked like basic pot stickers. This reminded me of stuff you'd have from the frozen food aisle. I mean, I really didn't expect, say QingDao Guotie, but this was worse than what I'd had here before. Greasy, too chewy, not good eats at all….

The best item we had was the Spicy Tripe Hot Pot ($8.99).

Not very much tripe in this one; but it was prepared decently; perhaps a bit too hard, but properly cleaned. The broth, while rather singularly spicy, with no numbing tones, looked to be bone broth based.

It was back to the "the norm" with the next item. Calvin grew up in the SGV, a mere short walk from 101 Noodle Express….so of course we had to try the Niu Rou Chuan; the Beef Roll ($6.99), which was just plain tragic.

Very dry, not pan fried enough, with a cardboard like texture; the "da bing" was terrible. What's with the lettuce? Smeared with standard issue hoisin, the thin piece of beef was fine…what there was of it.

Check out the "photo" of the beef roll in the front of the restaurant. Does not even look like the same dish.

And to add insult to injury; we liked the look of the Sam Sun Dumplings on the window.

This is what we got ($11.50).

These were very unsatisfactory; the wrappers were too hard and seemed to be typical store bought wrappers. The 1/3 piece of shrimp was fine, but this was underflavored. definitely not what I expected from a place like this….well based on the meal, I should have expected this.

I think this visit was worse than my previous visits under the "previous management". The food was quite underwhelming. I probably won't be going back.

Dumpling Hut
8046 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111