Category

744 Market St. San Diego, CA 92101. (At the corner of 8th and Market)

I’ve walked past this restaurant a couple times on my way to eat at The Kabob House in downtown San Diego. Today, my coworkers and I thought we’d finally give it a try!

Champagne Chicken $6.00 (Lunch price - Normally $8.00)

The Champagne Chicken is just a fancy name for their version of a sweet and sour chicken but with an extra kick of spiciness. Yes! It was quite spicy, even by my standards. There were these little thin slices of peppers that caused me to teeter totter between satisfaction and insanity. Most of the pieces were cooked alrite. There were a couple of pieces that were extra crispy from overcooking. Overall, I loved this dish but I wished they gave me more rice! One scoop is definitely not enough for a hungry man like me.

Chicken Katsu-don $6.00 (Lunch Price - Normally $9.99)

My coworkers ordered this one. All they could say was that it was better than the last time they had it from some restaurant on Clairemont.

Service was really slow at this restaurant and it wasn’t even busy. It took a long while before they came to take our order and an ever greater length of time to deliver our check. We never received any drink refills either! Also, there was a mysterious 5 minute delay between them serving my entree and serving my coworkers…

Taste: 8/10
Service: 2/5
Atmosphere: 3/5

Total: 13/20

5424 Morehouse Drive, San Diego, CA, 92121 (858)202-0464

I’ve been having the biggest sushi craving for a while, so I asked my friend Phil if he would like to accompany me and at the same time recommend a place where we can get good sushi. He decided to take us to Sushi Town and told me their sushi was pretty good and at a decent price range.

The interior of the restaurant is really spacious with a really high ceiling, which gives the restaurant a nice relaxing feel to it. I would like to quote Phil’s comment on the restaurant while we were sitting down looking at the menu. Phil says “I really like how this place has a lot of room, it has good feng shui” (that is about as accurate as I can remember… I just had to write that quote because I remembered laughing at him when he said it and asked him if he was serious). They also have a conveyor belt that they run when the restaurant gets busy. Unfortunately the conveyor belt was not running when we went. For those of you who are unfamiliar and wondering why there would be a conveyor belt in a restaurant, a conveyor belt is used to put sushi on it while it continuously moves around and you grab which ever sushi you would like to eat. You are charged by the color coded plates according to the price.

Our first item was the “Mountain Roll” ($12.95), which Phil highly suggests because he always orders it and it is his favorite item at Sushi Town. The roll consist of spicy tuna in the center and then topped off with baked salmon on top with a little eel and spicy mayonnaise sauce. I believe the roll is first cut and then slightly charred with a blow torch to give it that char taste. I am not a big fan of rolls myself, but this was not bad at all.

Next was the “Lobster Roll” ($12.95), cut California roll on the bottom with lobster on top covered with eel and spicy mayonnaise sauce. I didn’t really like this one because the California roll on the bottom was cold and then the top layer of lobster was hot, so it was a odd taste in my mouth. It was also definitely too drenched with sauce which I thought masked the taste of the lobster. I won’t be ordering this next time I come here.

“Spicy Scallop Hand Roll” at $2 each why not? Scallop mixed with their spicy mayonnaise sauce all wrapped into a cone shape roll ready for our enjoyment. I thought this was a little rich with all the mayonnaise, but at the same time I didn’t care because it tasted so good! What can I say I’m weak when it comes to scallops… I just can’t say no.

Finally my favorite part the nigiri! I’m sure I have mentioned many times before, but I’m gonna do it once more. Nigiri is definitely my favorite and I prefer over rolls because I’m just not a big fan of rolls unfortunately. You can’t go wrong with salmon and yellow tail. The yellow tail had a little ponzu sauce over it with sliced green onions. I was pretty surprised with the quality of fish that we got.

I never had toro before because of the price, but I just said what the heck and went for it. It was about $10 for 3 nigiri pieces and let me tell you guys it was worth it! From now on I’m gonna always have to at least order one serving of toro before I leave any sushi restaurant ever again.

We then finished everything off with an order of Uni ($7). Rich, creamy, and melts in your mouth. If you’ve never had it before, I would have to say you either love or you hate it.

Lynn and Dennis had told me a while back that they did not like this place. I would have to party disagree with them because the nigiri pieces that I had were pretty good quality cuts of fish and they definitely hit the spot. The rolls however did not. The next time I come back I will avoid the rolls and just go straight for the nigiri! I recommend you guys try everything out for yourself because I am kind of biased in the sense that I’m already not a big fan of rolls.
Taste: 7/10
Service: 4/5
Presentation: 3/5
Total: 14/20

Chef Evans of Roy’s Restaurant demonstrates to the crowd on how to make Japanese Misoyaki Butterfish at the Del Mar fairgrounds. His crew even prepared copies of the recipe for everybody who wants to try it out! Hooray!
Ingredients:

• 4-7 oz pieces of black cod (substitute with salmon if not available)
• 1 qt misoyaki marinade
• 16 oz sizzling soy vinaigrette

Misoyaki Marinage:

• 3 cups sake
• 3 cups mirin (sweet rice wine)
• 8 oz saikyo miso
• 8 oz brown or white sugar

Sizzling Soy Vinaigrette:

• 1 red bell pepper, brunoise (very small dice)
• 1 yellow bell pepper, brunoise
• 1 green bell pepper, brunoise
• 1 bunch green onion, fine chopped
• 1 bunch cilantro, fine chopped
• 2 oz daikon root, grated
• 2 oz maui onion, grated
• 1 oz ginger, minced
• 1/2 cup peanut oil
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2 oz rice wine vinegar
• 2 lemons, juice
• salt & pepper, to taste

(Sizzling Soy Vinaigrette)

Procedure:

To make the misoyaki marinage, bring sake and mirin to a boil for 5 minutes. Reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Whisk in remaining ingredients until well incorporated. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool. Generously marinade black cod in misoyaki marinade for 24 hours. (12 hours for salmon).

To make the sizzling soy vinaigrette, heat the peanut oil in a pan until it reaches smoke point. Place the bell peppers, onions, daikon, and ginger in a mixing bowl. Ladle hot oil over the vegetable mixture in 2 oz increments. Whisk in rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and lemon juice. Set aside.

In a cast iron pan, sear fish over medium heat until golden brown (about 3 minutes per side). Transfer cooked fish to served plates. Ladle sizzling soy vinaigrette over fish.

(Misoyaki Butterfish with Sizzling Soy Vinaigrette served on Bokchoy)

2956 Kress St, Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii. (808) 245-3271

This hole-in-the-wall place is very popular among locals and tourists because you can get a bowl of noodles for about $7 or less. There is limited seating at various counters. Expect to wait in line for a seat.

The kitchen is adjacent to the dining area, so you can watch as they prepare your meal.

This is the Special Regular ($7). It’s special because it’s loaded with slices of pink and white fish balls, half a boiled egg, some wontons, chunks of BBQ beef, and bits of ham. It’s the regular sized portion.

I ordered the Medium Bowl ($4.50) with a side of BBQ Chicken ($1.40). My noodles were topped with ham and cilantro. The hot noodles were very good even though it was a hot and humid day. The BBQ Chicken smelled great and tasted even better!

Inside Hamura’s Saimin is another counter where you can order shaved ice.

This is the regular sized Shaved Ice ($2.25). You can get up to 3 flavors. I picked lychee and passion fruit.

This is the Shaved Ice with Ice Cream ($3). The flavors are strawberry and lime. The vanilla ice cream is at the bottom and it is much better than the regular shaved ice. It sort of tastes like a Creamsicle.

Overall, this place is a great value, but don’t expect any frills.

Taste: 8/10
Presentation: 2/5
Service/Atmosphere: 2/5
Total: 12/20

9172 Mira Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 348-0414

Dennis, Lynn and I decided to try out bamboo hut in Mira Mesa because we found a coupon in the clipper magazine.

Our appetizer, the Spicy Tuna Roll (not shown) was very plain and it was extremely dry, even after dipping it in the sauce. Dennis ordered the Combination Bento C with nigiri sushi, chicken katsu, and cali roll (9.25), which includes salad and a choice of garlic or steamed rice. The salad was the typical lettuce sprinkled with the ginger salad dressing and the garlic rice definitely was more flavorful than the plain rice, with a subtle hint of garlic. The katsu chicken pieces seemed too thin but the crunchy texture and sweet sauce tasted fine.

Nguyen ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry (5.95) with a second item (2.50) of Mochi Chicken, with the standard salad and rice. The bite sized mochi chicken was dipped in seasoned sweet rice flower and deep fried. The texture was soft with a hint of crisp but the flavor was not of his liking. We didn’t like the katsu curry chicken too much either. The breading was less crisp because of the watery, buttery curry, plus it should have had a stronger curry flavor. The steamed rice wasn’t that great either, as if all the flavor was sucked out of it.

As for service and atmosphere, we weren’t too pleased. All the tables were dirty when we got there and the waitress left the table wet after wiping it down. The menus were a bit dirty too. The wait for the food seemed a bit long because the table that ordered before us almost finished their food by the time our main courses came out. Most likely, we won’t go back unless we go for happy hour sushi rolls, since this restaurant got an award from san diego’s best.

Taste: 5/10
Service: 3/5
Presentation: 3/5

Total: 11/20