Closed – Page 92

Yakitori K-1

September 21, 2006 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Japanese Restaurants

*** K-1 has been replaced by Wa Dining Okan. You can find posts here and here.

I approached Yakitori K-1 with a bit of apprehension, because I really can't remember the last time I had good Yakitori. Still, seeing the sign for Yakitori K-1, every time I shopped at Nijiya finally wore me down.

We arrived at 6pm, and found the tiny, spartanly decorated shop, empty.

The menu was simple, and short, but all the usual suspects were present.

So we placed our orders…and off we went. It is normal to order several different items, and eat slowly, usually with "liquid refreshment", but Yakitori K-1 is still in the process of obtaining a liqour license. I started with one skewer of Momo (Thigh – Momoniku – $1.29), and Negima, Chicken pieces(In this case chicken breast) and Green Onions($1.79).

The Momo is a good test of the Tare(basting sauce), and cooking technique. The Missus thought the Tare was really salty, I thought it was pretty one dimensional, with shoyu overpowering everything else. The chicken pieces were fairly moist, but I'd have enjoyed my chicken a bit more caramelized. In a case like this, I'd rather just have "Shio", or salt on the chicken. The chicken breast was kind of dry, it would have been really nice if the some of the skin was left on the chicken. And just two pieces of Negi(green onions) meant that you were not going to get the flavor of the green onions in every bite, unless you did the sword swallowing thing…..

The ShisoMaki (Shiso wrapped thigh – $1.49), and 2 orders of Teba (Tebasaki – Grilled Chicken Wings – $1.99):

The Shiso Maki, was simple lightly basted thigh, though I really thought it was breast. In this case the minty-basil flavored shiso went well with the lightly basted chicken, which was very moist. It had me wishing for Momo no-Ume Shiso, where minced ume (Japanese Pickled Plum) is mixed with shoyu, mirin, and sake, and slathered onto one side of the chicken. Thinly julienned Shiso is sprinkled on the ume concoction. This is really good stuff! The Teba was by far the best item we had all night. Simply seasoned and grilled, skin crisp, with a small squeeze of lemon, these almost had the addictive "crack like" quality like really good Tebasaki.

Because I needed a bit of starch in the midst of this protein-fest, I also ordered the K-1 Stick(skewered rice balls with tare – $1.49).

These are like mini Yaki Onigiri(grilled rice balls). Excellent texture, crunchy on the exterior, moist and starchy interior. The Tare fell seriously short here as well, just a strong shoyu flavor.

The Missus ordered the Tsukune Bowl($4.99).

Tsukune refer to the Chicken Meatballs. The Missus thought they were very rubbery, and lacked flavor. In fact She traded 3 meatballs for 1 Teba. The tamago(egg), was well, tamago. The ground chicken was sauced with the tare, though here it tasted a bit sweeter. One thing for sure, there sure was enough rice.

To be perfectly fair, Yakitori K-1 was out of two of our favorites; the Sunagimo(gizzards), and Kawa (skin….mmm…skin…). So we weren't able to sample those. As we left, several customers walked in the door.

The prices at Yakitori K-1 are very reasonable, though I'd steer away from the combinations, which have mostly Momoniku and Mune(Sasami – skinless breast). I'm far from an expert on Yakitori, you may enjoy the Tare at Yakitori K-1, it's just not to our taste.

Yakitori K-1
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Crispy Tonkatsu

September 20, 2006 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

**** Zion Market has moved and Crispy Tonkatsu is no longer

Crispy Tonkatsu(at least that's what the sign and business card says), shares the Zion Marketplace Food Court with Happy Meal.

While having lunch at Happy Meal, I noticed a group of guys having lunch from Tonkatsu, and I must say it looked pretty good. So I decided to check it out for myself. The menu at Crispy Tonkatsu is rather small, and consists mainly of…what else? Katsu, though Udon, and other items are available. There is also an interesting handwritten sign titled the "Well Being Project" describing how healthy, and fresh the food at Tonkatsu is. This really cracked me up, after all, we're talking about breaded, deep-fried, pork cutlet, right?

On this day I ordered the Chicken Katsu($6.99 – $7.99 dinner):

This rather hefty lunch came with a rather watered down miso soup. Two pieces of crispy fried mandu, which were on the skimpy side, but not bad. And a "salad", that was a basically a cole slaw "mix". The dressing was quite unusual, I'm pretty sure it was a blended asian pear, rice vinegar, and sugar, type dressing. A bit too sweet for my tastes.

In addition to the good sized bowl of rice, was a small portion of Baechu Kimchi(not very good), and some fairly good pickled radish(daikon). A single pitted, canned Lychee was provided as a dessert/palate cleanser.

The Chicken Cutlet was perfectly fried, and moist, the breading was crisp, and on the lighter side. It's just about the same as the katsu, though not quite as flavorful as the version I make at home. The Tonkatsu sauce was another story. I'd say that it was probably the worst tonkatsu sauce that I ever had(next to the lousy sweet-sour stuff at L&L), watery, really low on flavor.

Still, not bad for $6.99.

I'm afraid to say that I wasn't through. On the day I had made up my mind to check out Crispy Tonkatsu, I saw the Gentlemen on the next table sharing some really plump, good looking Gyoza. Good enough to cause me to go into a bout of Gyoza envy. I'm not a big fan of how many lower priced places make Gyoza, because it's usually the same as store bought Gyoza…remove from plastic bag, and thrown in the fryer. But these looked pretty good, so I ordered some ($2.99):

What arrived didn't look quite as plump as I had remembered seeing. I guess it could just be a case of "the Gyoza on the other table always looks better." Still these weren't bad at all, there was a mild ginger flavor in the meat filling, and the soy based dipping sauce wasn't too bad.

I don't know if I'd have these again, but they were not as bad as most.

Here's a photo of the whole thing.

The prices at Crispy Tonkatsu are very reasonable, and I believe you get your money's worth, at least for lunch, when everything is a buck cheaper than dinner. The ordering process is the same as Happy Meal's, you place your order at the counter, pay, have a seat, and your food is brought to your table.

Overall, not bad….but please, don't tell me about the health benefits of Tonkatsu….I already know them!

Crispy Tonkatsu
4611 Mercury St
San Diego, CA
In the Zion Marketplace Food Court

Cali Cafe Sandwiches

September 17, 2006 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Sandwiches, Vietnamese Restaurants

*** Cali Cafe has closed, and is now an outlet of Bale.

With the slightly warm weather we had today, it only made sense for us to grab a few Banh Mi for lunch. And since we were in the Mira Mesa area, we decided to give Cali Cafe a try.

Both Renee and Rob have mentioned this little shop to me in the past. Because Lucky Seafood, Lucky Pho, and Tan Ky Mi Gia are all located in the same strip mall, I really hadn’t paid much attention to this small, but well lit, and clean restaurant.

The Banh Mi here are priced at $2.75, and other Deli type sandwiches at $6.

As is my MO I ordered the Dac Biet:

First off, this is the "long type" of Banh Mi, much like those at K Sandwiches. The baguette is also thin, minimizing the amount of bread, and maximizing crust. this "Special"(Dac Biet), was simply single layers of Ham and Lean Pork Sausage, nothing special. I enjoyed the addition of thin slices of red onion to the standard pickled veggies. In addition to the standard wedge of cucumber were 2-3 slices of Jalapeno. Since these were cross slices, you never really knew where they were in your sandwich. This creates and interesting Jalapeno Roulette of sorts. I really didn’t care for the mayo in the sandwich either, here’s wishing for a smear of pate’. Overall, a decent though not outstanding Banh Mi, very pedestrian flavors.

The Missus ordered a BBQ Chicken Banh Mi:

The Missus enjoyed Her sandwich, and I found that the BBQ chicken was very nicely flavored. The rest of the sandwich was the same. I felt that the BBQ Chicken fared much better than the Dac Biet.

The sandwiches at Cafe Cali aren’t too bad, though a half buck more than those at Lucky Seafood several doors down, the sandwiches here are bigger. I’d say I enjoy the bread and BBQ Chicken here, and the Dac Biet and more exotic flavors at Lucky Seafood.

Some Notes: Seems like many people place take-out orders and come back for them after shopping. I saw several very large orders picked up while waiting for my 2 sandwiches, probably due to the "Buy 5 and get 1 Free" promotion. As with many of these type of places, there is a nice selection of drinks, and other items for purchase.

Cali Cafe Sandwiches
9330 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Open 8am-7pm Sun-Thurs
8am-5pm Fri-Sat

Korean Hometown Restaurant

September 14, 2006 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

I really don’t know the Korean name of this restaurant, so will just go by the English sign.

I first noticed this little restaurant over a year ago. We had finished a nice meal at China Max, and were wandering around the strip mall, when I noticed a Woman running two plates of Mandoo over to the Pool Hall located right next door. Even though I was stuffed to the gills, it still looked pretty good. A few days later I received an Email from our eating buddy Calvin; who mentioned that "the food is like what my Mom and Aunts make, and the sometimes surly service is like what you’d get at home." Hmmmm…..sounds good, after all Mom’s make the best food, right? Hmmmm…sounds bad, remember how Mom acted when you didn’t eat your peas???? Or when that "Tuna Surprise" really did surprise???

Recently the Missus and I finally made our way to this restaurant. The interior is full of wooden booths, with Soju posters on the walls, along with a closing time of 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, I could sense pretty hearty grub.

This really is a Family operation. We were first served by an Older Lady, and later on when 2 other Young Women(daughters?) walked in, they immediately started waiting on us as well. A Middle-Aged Gentleman was manning the kitchen. We looked over the menu, and placed our orders.

And soon enough our panchan arrived.

The portion size of the various panchan were pretty good. And the quality ranged from some pretty tasty stuff, to very, very mediocre(iceberg lettuce salad with thousand island dressing??).

The Missus enjoyed the sweet potato and shrimp:

And the steamed egg.

The Seaweed Salad wasn’t bad.

Even though the Baechu(Napa Cabbage) Kimchi wasn’t the best, it was still passable. As was the most of the panchan. We were starving so we basically attacked the panchan. And even though we were in the secluded corner booth, the Older Lady came by just as we were finishing up our panchan, looked at us, and said, "Oh, you hungry, huh?" To which we pointed out the stuff we liked and said "It’s really good". Damned if She didn’t break out into a smile, and a minute later came back with a second round of panchan…and we didn’t even ask! Just like Mom????

The Missus, being absolutely starved had ordered the Combination BiBim Naeng Myun and Bulgogi($13.99). Not knowing what to expect, the usual metal bowl of rice, and a sizzling plate of Bulgogi arrived at the table.

The Missus enjoyed the Bulgogi, though I told Her it was on the sweet side, and with the mushrooms and carrots it was almost like a stir fry. I will say this, it wasn’t bland in the least. With some help She managed to finish the Bulgogi, only to be met with this. The BiBim Naeng Myun(spicy cold noodles).

Geez, do you think this was enough food? I didn’t think this was very good, the Hot sauce tasted earthy and beany, but without any sweetness, or tangy flavor, and suffered from a lack of depth. The noodles were not good either, instead of having a taut elasticity, they were on the mushy side. The ice was shaved frozen broth. Overall, not something I’d have here again.

I realize that we didn’t even get to what I had yet. I ordered the Spam and Kimchi Fried Rice($8.99):

This was a large portion of rice, that had been stir fried with a generous helping of Spam(must’ve been a half can!), some kimchi, and Gochujang. I really enjoyed this, the sour hints from the KimChi kinda freaked the Missus out, so She ate the Egg! Try as I might, I couldn’t finish, so I had the rest the next day.

Korean Hometown Restaurant serves up rustic, though tasty Korean dishes. It is indeed Homestyle. Doesn’t some KimChi Fried Rice sound good with a couple of Hite? Looks like we’ll be back….well, I’ll definitely will be back. Mainly to try out this item on the menu:

It’s the only item that’s priced the same for lunch and dinner. Is that saying something?

Korean Hometown Restaurant
4690 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Chin’s Seafood and Grill – Part 2

September 10, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian

***This location of Chin’s has closed

After a very surprising and pretty good meal at Chin’s, we returned several more times. Here’s a compendium of some items we’ve recently eaten that were not included in the first post. These items are from the Chinese Breakfast menu pictured right. During one of our meals we saw 2 Navy Officers enter the restaurant, stopping dead at the entryway, looking at each other totally flummoxed…..not your usual Holiday Inn restaurant, I guess. They were shown a table and given the Lunch/Dinner Menu which has a few items that are on the breakfast menu, but in larger “meal-sized” portions. So several meals later, and we’ve done some damage with regards to the menu.

Five Spice Beef($4.95):

Wonderful sweet-salty-five spiced flavor. The beef is thinly sliced, and neither too soft, nor too tough. Additional sauce is placed over the meat for extra flavor and moisture. One of my favorite items on the menu.

ShaoBing Youtiao($2.95):

Shall we say a double-carb special? The Youtiao was quite good, if not a bit on the over-fried and oily side. Still some of the best we’ve had in San Diego, the Missus was yearning for some Jook(rice porridge) which is not served. Most people were having the Youtiao with Dou Jiang(Soy Milk).

ShaoBing($1.50):

The Shaobing was a bit too dry for the Missus, but a few slices of 5 Spice Beef fixed things up.

Pickled Mustard Greens and Shredded Pork Noodle Soup($6.95):

This soup was quite good, the light broth had some excellent flavor, the slightly bitter greens(made inhouse) added character, and the pork strings were soft and tender with decent pork flavor. we really don’t care for the hard spaghetti-like noodles at Chin’s, but this soup is on my “list”.

Pickled Mustard Greens Steamed Bun($2.95):

A steamed bun with the pickled mustard greens. Here is a view of the filling.

I enjoyed the sweet-bitter flavor of these, the Missus wasn’t quite as impressed.

Fried Bread($2.95):

No big deal, and a bit on the oily side. Too light in the middle, and not as flavorful as the version at Kingswood.

Sorry about the following photos, we don’t always get seats with optimal lighting.

Wined Chicken($4.95):

Not bad, the chicken doesn’t have quite enough of the cured texture I enjoy, though the marinade did have a decent salty-wine flavor. Doesn’t hold a candle to the Beef or Smoked Fish.

Of course we had to try the Niu Rou Mein(Beef Noodle Soup – $6.95):

Again we don’t really care for the noodles. The Beef was nicely flavored and soft. The broth left something to be desired, nice and beefy, but lacking the depth of flavor from various herbs and spices. We enjoy the version at Shanghai City more – better noodles, better broth, and if you have it on weekend mornings 2 bucks cheaper.

Steamed Hua Juan(Flower Roll – $2.95):

Best eaten with some beef, or soup. Very routine.

The classic Ci Fan Tuan($2.95) with Rousong(Pork Sung/Meat Floss):

Now this was an interesting dish. I’m not a fan of Pork Sung(Rousong) anyway. Rousong, and Zhacai(Spicy Pickled Vegetable) was rolled in glutinous rice, and steamed. A very traditional Shanghainese breakfast item. This was on the dry side, with not enough Zhacai to make a difference in flavor. Perhaps someone who enjoys Rousong will enjoy this more than we do.

After some contemplation, I think what I’ll do in a brief post in the future is to go over the menu, and list which item is which. Then, you can do the Captain Jack trick. On a recent visit to Ba Ren, Jack looked over my post, and associated the various dishes with items on the Chinese Placard by location and counting characters. When the Server arrived for His order, he grabbed the placard and pointed to the dish He wanted, totally freaking Her out! So I guess if we list various dishes and associate them with items on the menu, you can grab the Chinese menu, and have some fun…….

Chinese Breakfast served from 11am to 230pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Chin’s
9355 Kearny Mesa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126

858-536-2300

Happy Meal

September 7, 2006 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

No, it’s not a joke, this Korean Food "booth" in the Food Court at Zion Market is really called Happy Meal…..automatically puts a smile on your face doesn’t it?

Happy Meal came recommended by Denver, based on price and portion size, and Cathy, based on the same value criteria, plus She mentioned they used to give out little "toys" when they first opened up. So one evening a few weeks back, I had done some shopping at Zion Market, and my stomach and I decided to have a "Happy Meal". The prices at Happy Meal are very reasonable, and come with a good selection of panchan.

The best was the seasoned squid on the bottom of the photo above. Here’s more.

Overall, a nice, though pretty routine selection.

All this, along with a bowl of fairly bland seaweed soup, comes with your meal. Which in this case was the Bulgogi Box($6.99/lunch, $7.99/dinner).

I had wanted to order the Spicy Pork, but "no pork today…" A pretty large portion of Bulgogi, rice, a green salad with sesame dressing, and 2 mandoo(Korean Dumplings), along with the panchan made for quite a large amount of food for $7.99. The mandoo tasted like packaged frozen stuff, and the salad was pretty much routine. The Bulgogi was quite mild in flavor, and the thin slices of potato and onions mixed in with the beef, almost reminded me of a stir fry. Not great, but well worth the price.

The usual drill at Happy Meal, is to place your order at the counter, pay, and have a seat. The counter person will first bring you your panchan, soup, and drink; than later drop off your main course. This can be a major factor during a busy lunch hour, as I found out on my next visit. Even though it was quite early for lunch (1115am), every table except one(which after ordering and paying I occupied), with plastic number cards on them. Very few customers actually had food in front of them, and I really felt for the Young Lady working the counter, both taking orders and serving each table twice. I shoulda brought a book, it took me 30 minutes to get my food, which started with the usual panchan and soup:

Do you notice something about the panchan? Check out the portion size…..

The Young Lady explained that they accidentally gave me panchan for two, but that was okay since I had to wait so long.

The Japchae(cellophane noodles) tasted really good, everything else was pretty routine, though the radish("Mu") kimchi tasted a bit too sour and off. Still this was quite a bit of food, and I still hadn’t gotten to my main course. Which was the Dolsot BiBimBap($6.99/lunch, $7.99/dinner).

The sizzling Stone Bowl(Dolsot) was brought to my table along with a squeeze bottle of Gochujang, I let the bowl sit for a minute to develop the wonderful crust, and dug in. The toppings were pretty routine, fernbrake, ginger, bean sprouts, minced meat, all topped with the perfect egg. Sorry, not the best photo I’ve ever taken, so let me mix it up for you….

I really enjoy the various textures of the crusted rice, the veggies, and so forth. The flavor wasn’t anything special and none of this is going to stand the culinary world on it’s ear, but you really get what you pay for(In this case $6.99) at Happy Meal. This ain’t no lousy same chicken with a different sauce food court garbage. So after my Happy Meal, with the happy panchan mistake, I was looking for a cool dark place to lie down. Happy, happy, me………

Some Notes: As I mentioned, service may be on the slow side during peak hours. I didn’t notice any difference, except price between lunch and dinner. The food and portion sizes are an excellent value, especially lunch.

Happy Meal
4611 Mercury St
San Diego, CA 92111

Thanks for the recommendation Denver and Cathy!

Chin’s Seafood and Grill – Part 1

September 4, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Xiao Long Bao

***This location of Chin’s has closed

Recently, the Missus and I had brunch at a restaurant located adjacent to the Holiday Inn Select in Miramar Road.

Though it’s not quite what you may have in mind. The Restaurant is names Chin’s Seafood and Grill.

And yet, that still may not have you very interested, since there are 10 other locations of Chin’s Szechuan in the greater San Diego area, and most of the Chinese dishes served are very Westernized. As you enter the generic ‘B’ list hotel lounge-restaurant area, you’d still feel as if you haven’t come to the right place for Chinese Food. Though if you take a quick glance around the room you’ll notice that more than ninety percent of the customers are Chinese, and anyone who is not are accompanied by Chinese customers.

One quick look at the menu, will tell you why.

For brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 230 pm, Chin’s has a special Chinese menu. Unfortunately, there is no English version of this menu. Some of the items are available on the regular menu, and I’ll try to indicate what those items are when possible. The prices reflect the special menu prices, not regular menu prices.

The Missus looked over the menu with a smile on Her face. She told me, that there are dishes on the menu that She has only heard off, and never tried, as well as some of Her favorites. The Missus started checking off items on the menu card, and the really nice Server came by to verify. As She and the Missus spoke in Mandarin, I thought She reminded me of someone…..I mentioned this, and the Missus says, “I think she reminds of my Mom.” And yes, she indeed had that friendly, sincere element about her. I had the Missus inquire about the style of food served here, and the Lady said a combination of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, basically Eastern Chinese(aka Shanghainese).

Soon enough the food started arriving.

As is almost routine, we started off with the Suzhou-style Smoked Fish($4.95):

The Missus said that this version, with the rather intense 5 spice and sweet flavor was fairly close to what She grew up eating, though maybe a bit mildly flavored. When we got home and looked over the map of Jiangsu, we were both surprised at how “close” Suzhou was to Shandong province(it’s all relative), which explained why Her Grandmother made this often while growing up. As usual this isn’t a “smoked” fish, it just appears to be so. This fish is first marinated; usually in a soy sauce, wine, and salt mixture. The fish slices are than deep fried in oil; and finally marinated again in a 5 spice and sugar mixture to “cure”. You could eat all the small bones on these slices.

Jiaxing Braised Duck(Chin’s Roasted Cold Duck – $4.95)

Almost like a duck version of the above. Quite tasty, nice duck flavor, but not nearly as flavorful as the fish. But still a pretty good cold duck dish.

Zhenjiang Style Pork(Chin’s Cured Pork – $4.95)

This was probably the “hit” of the meal. Neither the Missus, nor I had ever seen this before. The dish was a sum of tasty parts. The pork was cooked and shredded, and had a nice mild flavor. It was topped with a thick layer of aspic, much like what creates the broth for Xiao Long Bao. A really nice and mild, but not weak flavor. Here’s a better photo of a piece, and no, it’s not pork fat…..

Here’s a little secret……we took most of this home, and made a pot of rice. We scooped the rice steaming hot into a bowl a placed a few pieces of pork on top of the rice and let the aspic melt all over the rice….delici-yoso!!!

Shao Bing with Braised Beef($2.95)

I really enjoyed this version of Niu Rou Shao Bing; really crisp bread, flavorful thin slices of 5 spice beef, scallions, and a bit of Hoisin made for a a very well flavored and texturally interesting treat. The Missus though the Shao-Bing was too thin, and the amount of beef was on the skimpy side. And yet, I thought; “who cares about Banh Mi; give me this….”

Taiwanese Style Glutinous Rice($3.95)

This scoop of glutinous rice was mixed with chunks of pork and shredded dried shrimp(yum). A nice bit of “spicy ketchup” was added. Though the rice was a bit on the dry side, this was certainly not lacking in flavor. Not bad, but I think we’ll go in a different direction next time.

The Flakey Turnip Strip “Cake”(Shanghai Pastry – $3.95)

The Missus said that she has had better. I thought these were very moist, and the texture was very nice, but we’ve had better elsewhere. The taste was almost “buttery”.

Taiwanese Style Won Ton Soup($4.95)

Okay, our Server came by and told us we were ordering too “many dry items” and needed some soup. So we asked for a recommendation, and this was it. Really bland and uninspired.

No need for this……

Nanxiang Style Xiao Long Bao($5.95). Now if you know me; you can imagine how excited I was over these……

But these were not very good, at least for what I look for in XLB. I don’t know how they make the Xiao Long Bao in the city of Nanxiang, but if I were to make a guess based on this, I’d say it was with very thick wrappers and barely a scant amount of “soup”. We’ll take a pass on these…..

So, with full bellies, and being very satisfied, we left Chin’s, only to return. And in fact, the Missus noticed that I was tasting the food based on “SGV” standards, which is a good sign…..

Part 2 coming soon – some old “favorites” and some new……

Part 2 of this post can be found here.

Chin’s
9355 Kearny Mesa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126

858-536-2300

Western Steakburger

August 30, 2006 mmm-yoso Burgers, Diner, Greek Food

*** Western Steakburger has closed

I'm not quite sure if Western Steakburger is a franchise or a chain, but I know that there are at least two of them in San Diego(the other in Serra Mesa). I'll often stop by the shop on University Avenue when I'm in the area and grab a burger. Though with this food blogging thing, not often enough, since I haven't been here in a while……

This Western Steakburger, which an acquaintance of mine calls "Western Steakburger West", has a real Mom-and-Pop feel to it.

The Owners are usually hard at work, with Maria(I think that's Her name) manning the counter, and "Gus" manning the grill, at this Greek-Burger joint. The drill goes like this; you order at the counter, pay, and grab a seat. When your order is ready, you pick it up, and proceed to devour it. Here's part of a menu for RONW's reading pleasure. I know I haven't posted one in a while.

Bring the "stick in the mud" that I am, I usually go for the same thing. 1/2 pound Western Deluxe($5.85), no mayo, no ketchup, with grilled onions(add $1.25). Today it dawned on me that I'd never had the fries here, so I added fries(add $1.35), as the Missus says; "whoa, living on the edge, huh?". All burgers are grilled, and you can sometimes watch the flames rising in the air, I keep what it would take to set off the Halon(or whatever they use nowadays)…..

The patties here are formed into a sort of oval shape, and the meat is course ground. And yes, that is Gyros meat on the burger. The burger is always fairly moist, in spite of the grilling, though I sometimes find the burger very under-seasoned. I enjoy the taste of the grilled onions, but on this visit I found the Gyro meat to be very bland. Though this burger beats any mass produced burger by miles….

It is quite a mouthful. I found the fries to be nothing special, and they were not salted. I don't think I'll have them in the future. One last item, I enjoy the well toasted bun. Still that flavorless Gyro meat gave me some concern, since I saw them cut it fresh…..

So on my next visit, I ordered the Gyro Sandwich($5.65).

I don't think I've ever had a Gyro Sandwich with so much meat in it. The sandwich itself must have weighed in at three-quarters of a pound. Unfortunately, the meat was on the mild side, and the flame grilling left it dry and hard. The Tzatziki also wasn't to my taste, being quite mild, with no herbs, and very little flavor.

So I think I'll stay with the burger. During my visit, almost everyone ordered the Teriyaki Burger, which I guess is a popular choice…..

I think that Western Steakburger really isn't worth a special trip, it's not the best burger in San Diego by a long shot. But if you're in the area that I call the "Dead Zone", the area between Hillcrest and North Park, Western Steakburger isn't a bad choice.

Western Steakburger
2730 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104

Golden City: A New Beginning Part 2

August 28, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Golden City has closed

After a satisfying meal at the “new” Golden City(and quite a bit of leftovers as well), we decided that one good turn deserved another. This time we decided on 2 items that were “kept” from the old menu, and 1 new item that caught our fancy.

We started with an old favorite the Peking Duck, 2 courses, at eighteen bucks, pretty much a bargain. To our surprise, instead of the slices of duck skin lying on shrimp chips, surrounded by “buns”, Golden City now does their Peking Duck “cart style”.

The Young Man wheeled our friend out on His own little cart and made short work of Him. After trimming off most of the skin, Mr Duck was taken to the back room and worked over.

Though I found the duck to be better flavored than the version from the Old Golden City, most of the rich subcutaneous fat had rendered off, and thereby losing some of the richness I enjoy. The Missus, not a fan of duck fat, thought these were very good. The duck was served with shredded Scallions and Hoisin Sauce. Only one small complaint; the scallions apparently had been lying around; they were tough, dry, and tasteless.

A steamer insert of buns was brought to the table, steaming hot. I thought these were much too thick and large for the petite slices of duck. Overall, not the highest quality duck, but a bargain at eighteen bucks. And let’s not forget the chopped duck in lettuce cups, the second course.

I daresay the Missus enjoys this more than the duck skin. Duck is stir fried with Scallions and Jicama, creating a great contrast in textures. The taste is a rich sweetness, to go along with hints of 5 spice.

One of my favorite dishes is Kwai Fei Chicken, a cold chicken dish(half chicken $8.95):

This version was much different than what I’m used too; first off, instead of the usual pale white color, the skin of the chicken was a light brown. The chicken also had a very nice 5 spice, wine, and soy flavor. I really didn’t need the minced ginger-scallion oil for flavoring at all. The chicken was cooked perfectly, no hint of blood dripping from the bones, and the meat was moist and tender.

The most satisfying dish of the evening was the Chaozhou Beef Stew ($12.95):

A Chiuchow version of the standard Beef Brisket with Turnip Hot Pot. The soup was brought to our table in a stainless steel hot pot, with flammable gel in the chamber below. Unfortunately, the Server forgot to light the gel, no big deal. The light broth was full of flavor, and much more complex than its color would indicate. The meat was a very flavorful brisket, the cut of meat also included the fat cap and the connective tissue, which could be somewhat off-putting to some, but not for us. Buried under then meat were matchstick sized slices of radish(daikon), along with preserved vegetable, which added to the flavor of the broth. All of this topped off with basil, cilantro, and scallions.

Man that was good!

It seems that the new version of Golden City serves up some pretty good food. I’m hoping that they can keep it up, and give us another option for Chinese Food in the Clairemont area.

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Open Daily 11am – Midnight

We recently did a revisit post on 12/17/06, it can be found here.

Golden City: A New Beginning Part 1

August 23, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Golden City has closed

Since the “New” Golden City opened back in September, I made the restaurant a little “side project” of mine. The intent was to see how the “New and improved” compared to the original restaurant, where we were pretty regular customers. I must admit; my excitement took control, and I was the first customer when the doors opened on Sept 26th, 2005. At that time, I thought that doing a series of posts on a particular restaurant and watching how the food developed would be interesting, sort of a “life cycle” of a restaurant thing. Little did I know how true to life this life cycle thing would become. My second post covered the late night specials. And it seemed like the food was not as good as the original. The third post covered a dinner and a lunch where I had the exact same dish as I ate on opening day.

Unfortunately, Golden City could never carve out it’s niche on the Chinese restaurant front in San Diego, and in July of this year, the restaurant changed hands. And so awhile back, the Missus and I decided to pay a visit to the “new” Golden City.

Well, the signs looked the same, and the interior was basically the same; maybe a bit more “freshened up”, and posters of various Chinese dishes lined the walls. In what was another change, the tanks in the rear of the restaurant were full of crab and lobster, quite an ambitious sign.

We found that the menu was very similar to the previous Golden City, except for some strategically placed dishes. We also recognized our server; he used to work at China Max, we thought that a good sign. After all, who would leave China Max for a new restaurant, unless the prospect seemed positive.

The Missus seemed smitten with a few of the items on the posters, so we placed our order.

Since I was recovering from a cold, we started with a soup; Shredded Duck w/Chinese Chive soup (large $12.95):

The soup arrived piping hot, much to the approval of the Missus; She has a thing about soup being really hot. The broth had a wonderful color, and the texture was a perfect velvety texture. Unfortunately, everything else about the soup came up short; the flavor was terribly unbalanced, you could taste nothing but chives, unless you bit into a piece of duck. The chive flavor overwhelmed everything in the soup, even white pepper couldn’t damper the tastes of chives…and I love chives…except when there’s duck involved!

The Sizzling Lamb Chops($15.96) was my choice:

The one thing that stood out about this dish, was how tender the lamb chops were. The chops were melt in your mouth tender, and I do mean melt in your mouth tender. I could have done with a more rich lamb flavor, but the Missus enjoyed the sweet-soy flavor. We’ve had the Lamb Chops with Black Pepper Sauce several times at China Max, and they have never been as tender as these. The presentation, and flavoring at China Max may be a bit more sophisticated, but the flavors(overdone peppercorn, with no sweet overtones) are not as pleasing to us as these Lamb Chops.

In a surprise pick, the Missus went with the Steamed Crab over Rice. By surprise, I mean that the Missus is pretty picky about crab; having grown up in QingDao, She is used to fresh and flavorful seafood; be it crab or crawfish(yes, crawfish). She still doesn’t understand the purpose of drawn butter with seafood, other than to disguise a lack of flavor. I think that when we were told that the new Owners were originally from Hong Kong, and that the cooking “Crew”(that was the choice of words) were from LA, She felt emboldened. Soon enough our dish arrived (Crab at Market price $12/lb – 2lb crab, plus $6 prep and rice = total $30):

We had seen our Server (His name is Alan, for those who knew the Servers at China Max) wrestle out the crab from the tank. It was delivered in a Lotus Leaf lined steamer insert; the crab had been steamed on a bed of rice that had been mixed with various Chinese Herbs, Egg, and fish eggs, so that the flavor of the crab had permeated the rice. We both thought the crab had been slightly over steamed, but the Missus still thought it was quite good, though very messy. Golden City needs to invest in some crackers and other implements. I had a few pieces of crab(in deference to the Missus who really does enjoy it more than I), and destroyed the crab flavored rice, which was so rich, so flavorful, and so filling. For us, on this evening, well worth the price. Little did we know, we’d be back within a week.

Some notes: Golden City has maintained the Lunch and Late Night menu, though it sounded as if it may be changed in the future.

Part 2 coming up…….

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Open Daily 11am – Midnight

Updates can be found here and here.