**** Cape Fire Grill/Bunny Chow has closed
Back in August of last year, LouiZiana Food closed and was replaced by Bunny Chow. "FOY" Sandy was quick to let me know when the place opened that it was serving South African food, something that's a bit of a rarity in San Diego. In fact, I only recall being to the stand in the Hillcrest Farmer's Market, Sabor Piri Piri in recent years.
Over the course of the last 9 months, between trips, I managed to visit Bunny Chow a couple of times.
The folks working on all my visits have been friendly and welcoming. The menu is huge and there are "photos" of the various dishes taped to the front table.
The bright yellow color of LouZiana Food has been kept and the tables now have covers with designs on them
All my visits were for lunch and on my maiden voyage into B. Chow land, I went with something that I am somewhat familiar with. I got the Chicken Thighs with Peri Peri ($14.95). I also got a side of Chakalaka ($3) as well. When I unpacked my lunch I was a bit taken aback by the appearance of the chicken.
It looked like it needed to be airlifted to a burn center; it was so black. A quick taste confirmed things. The chicken skin was incinerated and bitter. The flesh very dry. The peri peri was quite sour and very mild in terms of spice.
I did enjoy the yellow rice, which was moist, tender, not overly sweet, and mildly buttery-peppery. I understand that "Geelrys", the yellow rice, has its origins in Cape Malay Cuisine, firmly rooted in the food brought by slaves brought to South Africa; Indonesians and Malaysians were among those brought by the Dutch.
I also enjoyed the Chakalaka which had nice sour-earthy tones. I was told that this had some spice, but I thought it more tangy-sour than anything else.
It was also much more tender than I expected. One of the guys in the office sniffed the air and asked me what it was? I told him "chakalaka". He said, "what?" I then went off and said, "you know, like Boomshakalaka, Boomshakalaka, Boomshakalaka, Boom!" I got a blank stare, so I added:
"Why'd the chicken cross the road?
To get from the left to the right
He stepped out of rank, got hit by a tank
He ain't no chicken no more"
Of course, I totally forgot, this was before his time. And if this seems strange, you might enjoy this clip for some "clarification"? 'Nuff said.
After this visit, well, I was a bit conflicted with regards to the food. That chicken was terrible, but I enjoyed the sides. I decided to return.
I really wasn't sure what to order and finally decided to go for it and got the Bunny Chow Sampler Platter ($19.95) with an upcharge for Lamb Curry ($2) and a side of Peri Peri – spicy ($1.50). It was $23.45 without tax and tip! It seemed to weigh a ton as I carried the containers back to the office.
There were two containers involved here. The smaller one consisted of 4 rubbery and overcooked wings, the spicier peri peri helped things a bit, but it still didn't seem very spicy to me. The peri peri was on the sour side and not even close to the version I enjoyed in Lisbon. Again, I enjoyed the rice.
The Bobotie, which came across as a type of casserole, was high on the acidic side of things.
And the peri peri came in handy here again….though it seemed to heighten a tanginess of the dish a bit too much. I thought the brioche roll, which looked quite dry, added a bit of buttery sweetness and really helped things out here.
The Durban Curry seemed more like a tomato based sauce/stew was also quite tangy and the lamb flavor, which I enjoy was muted. It was mildy spicy, but I still wanted a bit more heat.
So, of course….
In the end, I miss LouZiana Food. The folks here are nice though prices trend on the high side of things. Perhaps I'll return in the future to get more chakalaka, but for now I'll give it a rest. Let me know if you've enjoyed the food here and what dishes you enjoyed!
You can read Soo's post on Bunny Chow here.
Bunny Chow
7128 Miramar Rd.
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am – 8pm
Fri – Sat 11am – 9pm
Sunday 11am – 7pm
I swear I tasted some soy sauce in this ceviche negro; but I must be imagining things. I liked this refreshing dish. The shrimp had been chopped and for me, it made a nice bite when including the onions, cucumber on a tostada. The Missus thought the dish was short on shrimp and had too much "other stuff" for Her taste.
This was a nice portion of plump shrimp. Though that salsa verde was very mild and really lacked acidity. And because of that; the shrimp never "cooked/cured" in the sauce. It was basically raw shrimp the whole way thru. The tostadas provided were tasty and up to the task, but that sauce was really weak.
We recently were back in the area and stopped in. 
I did not get a photo of the menu, but 
Of course we had to try a combo: Two chicken tenders, waffle, fries and a drink ($13.99).
I was curious about the falafel slider ($4.99)
A fresh made falafel patty with tahini, lettuce, tomato and a pickle on a toasted eggy bun. I really liked this. 
We also ordered a House Salad ($6.99). Mixed greens, cheese, onion, grape tomatoes and cucumbers. We asked for ranch dressing, which was standard and good.
And to be perfectly honest, I was interested to see what the price of the Gyro Combo was these days. And the sign said the combo was now $15. In case you’re keeping score, in 
Upon opening up the Gyro, I quickly noticed that things had changed. This was no longer marinated pork cut from a spit into thin slices. This was more like chunks of marinated grilled pork shoulder. Along with being chunks of pork, the meat was a lot darker in color than what I’d had previously. It was also tough and dry. In terms of flavor, this was on the salty side.
On this morning the parking lot was empty. I walked on over and took a look at the posted menu and noticed the opening time was noon. I also noted that there were donburi and ramen lunch specials going for as low as ten bucks! In these days that's a bargain. I decided that I'd return on another day and check the place out. As I started walking away the "open" sign came on and the really friendly gentleman who runs the front of house waved me in. My lucky day I guess.
I would go on record to say this was more sausage than tsukune. It was hard, rubbery, tough…..I'm sure there are more synonyms I could come up with given time. Not much flavor at all….I guess that's why salt was provided.
And my worries were well placed. Ok, so since the ownership is under Olleh, my expectations were low, but this was even below that!
The chashu wasn't bad, nicely marinated, tender, decent porkiness. The noodles were standard issue, curly, a bit overcooked and mushy…which did nothing to enhance the dish. It had me thinking….at ten bucks what should I have expected?
I loved the presentation. And overall, I enjoyed this dish the most. Nothing fancy, just a by the book beef bowl. The beef was on the chewy side, flavors were quite typical, soy sauce – mirin – sake, which is not bad at all. A generous portion of rice….I wish there was more egg, but this was a decent donburi.
Nothing fancy mind you; but for a ten buck for lunch…I wouldn't pay $15 to have this for dinner, this might work out fine for you. After all, how much is a bento from Nijiya these days?
When I finally had another opportunity, I arrived just as the very friendly young lady was folding up the blinds on the front door. And as during the soft opening, only one party is allowed inside the shop at once. I recall seeing chicken karaage on the menu when I did my aborted visit, but that was no longer offered. There are four sandwiches on the erase board menu; chicken katsu, menchi katsu, egg salad, and fruit and cream.
Compared to the Japanese version; this was chopped too coarse, there wasn’t enough mayo. There was a bit too much black pepper and it edged on the sweeter side. Liked the visual of the quarter tamago. The bread was slightly moist, but a bit too firm and chewy for me. Like I said before, I prefer my shokupan fluffier and softer.
It was also quite dry. This did the bread no favors. There was some flavor though it was quite mild. I could have used with a bit more katsu sauce to added a nice savory-umami-sweetness to things. It’s a sad day when I think that the shredded cabbage is the best part of the sandwich.
Which was soggy and peeling off the protein. Man, this was not good eats at all. It seems that the only thing I could taste was the katsu sauce. Again it was the cabbage that was the headliner of the sandwich, bummer!
I noticed that ordering here is done strictly with QR codes, something that I've gotten used to in my travels.
The broth was clear and lacking in beefiness, was overly salty, and pretty "plain". The beef while a bit on the chewy side, had good flavor.
You can tell one was pan fried a bit longer than the other. The crusts were hard and chewy; like a good amount of rice flour was used. The beef filling was very tasty though and a good dash of block vinegar helped things along. These were pretty small overall.
Actually, these were not bad, even though I got the Beef-onion instead of what I ordered.. The wrappers were a bit on the brittle side, in need of a bit more "pull". A couple of them had burst during the cooking process. This caused the fillings of the dumplings to become "waterlogged" during the boiling process.
I set about reheating the broth and moving the noodles and proteins to a proper bowl. One thing I noticed was that the broth really didn’t have that wonderful lemongrass-beefy fragrance of typical bun bo hue broth. Though I was prepared for the lack of banana blossom and such this time.
Well, that decent bowl of 
The noodles were the same as the NRM. The duck was much better this time around; you can tell by the color, there as much more five spice flavor and the meat, while on the tough side had taste. The skin was still a bit rubbery for my taste, but the fat had been rendered nicely. This was a definite improvement.
