**** Hola Paris has closed
Back in May, I was doing a morning walk around Old Town, when I walked into Old Town Urban Market mainly to see what was going on with the location of Barrio Donas that was opening there. You can read about my visit to Barrio Donas here. When I noticed that the shop opening right across from Barrio Donas had some activity going on. It was called Hola Paris, a name which harkens to some of our favorite places to travel, so of course I was interested. There was a nice couple setting things up, when I inquired about the name, the nice owner named Gabby is Mexican and her Husband who is handling the chef duties named Benjamin is from the outskirts of Paris! Thus, Hola Paris! Of course, I then cracked them up when I left saying "merci, adios, au revoir"!
The place opened a couple of weeks later. Looking at the menu, which featured pastries and crepes was perhaps not going to be our cup of tea. We had spent two weeks in Paris during our last trip to the city and one of the places we tried was the ever popular crêperie Breizh Cafe. It turns out that we didn't care for the savory crepes there.
Still, the owners of Hola Paris seemed so nice. So, I decided to check things out. I went on one quiet morning to the very "Instagrammable" looking shop in the Urban Market.
Benjamin broke into a big smile and laughed when he saw me…….I guess he remembered me! We had a nice conversation and I mentioned I don't care for sweets much. I also mentioned that during our last stay in Paris, we tried crepes and didn't care for it. He asked where and I told him Breizh Cafe. Benjamin quickly explained that Breizh Cafe makes Bretonne style crepes, which uses buckwheat. The style made here is based on the sweeter style crepes made with wheat flour. He also pointed out, because of the Mexican touches, the several of offerings are quite savory and even have some spice.
He recommended I try the Ham y Queso ($13), which includes jambon and queso fresco.
Upon turning, I noticed this sign, which gave me flashbacks!
I asked him about it and was told Gabby loves Chanel! I mentioned the Cambon location….and apparently Gabby loves that location as well! Oh boy…….
Anyway, I went and had a seat and soon enough my crepe was delivered.
The crepe was light and at first a bit too sweet for me.
But as I tucked into it, the saltiness from the ham and the mild, rich milkiness of the queso fresco started coming to the forefront. While this was still a bit too sweet for my taste it was not bad!
I waited about a month, before revisiting. And Benjamin greeted me with a smile. In thinking about what I'd had on the previous visit, I thought that a bit of heat might really spice up things a bit. So, I decided to order the La Suiza ($14), which included tomatillo sauce and a green salsa.
This time the crepe was delivered with a fork and knife. I wasn't sure I'd enjoy chicken in a crepe, but it wasn't bad at all. Actually, the bite of tangy-sour heat from the sauces/salsa really made it enjoyable to my palate. The sweetness was tempered and the cheese really helped to balance out the flavors. I do think this could have used a bit more salt. And heck, even more spicy too!
I'm glad I tried Hola Paris. While it's not something I crave, Benjamin and Gabby are so nice and friendly. I really enjoyed chatting with Benjamin about Paris.
It'll be interesting to see what other savory items make it to the menu…and heck, I might even just have a Kir Royal here once day!
Hola Paris
2548 Congress St.
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Mon – Fri 9am – 6pm
Sat – Sun 9am – 7pm
And yes, it was quite full of Cha Lua, Thit Nguoi…… What I think banh mi purists' will appreciate, I'm looking at you "Billy" is that Phoung Nga still includes cucumbers in their banh mi, a rarity these days. The bread, as usual is a bit heavily baked (onsite), making it more hard and crusty than having a nice balance of light, crusty-flaky. But these days, this is almost a blessing, as much of what I've had is soft and doughy. There's a good amount of pickled veggies, the jalapenos were present, but not overly spicy on this visit. This was a nice lunch for me.
Arriving home, I quickly unpacked things and immediately went for the item I 
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.
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 
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.
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!