Plaza Sorrento Food Court - Greek Bites and Amarin Thai

***** Both of these places have closed

I'm a true believer in Food Courts; not the cookie-cutter shopping mall type, mind you. But those found in areas of the San Gabriel Valley, with interesting variety and decent quality. You'll hardly ever find "great" food in a Food Court, but it's the "hunt" that counts. Two of my favorites are The Quincy Market in Boston and Union Station in Washington DC. The usual program would go like this; we'd each take $20, head off in opposite directions, with instructions to meet at a central location in 15 minutes to share our bounty. Honestly, there are more "clunkers" than winners, but it can be fun. So when we came across the Food Court in the Plaza Sorrento during our visit to the Sorrento European Bakery, we became very interested. And since we were starving, and one Banh Mi would not quench our hunger, the hunt was on.

In this food court is a Indian Tandoori place, a Vietnamese restaurant, and Japanese restaurant. I started noticing that many of the places in this "food court" had it's own dining area, making the description of food court into a misnomer, this collection of eating establishments was more of a "restaurant row". On this trip we decided on Greek and Thai.

From Greek Bites we got a combination platter ($8.65).

This pretty sizable platter was a big dissapointment, even at food court standards. The gyros meat was very dry, the chicken kabobs were dry and tasteless, and the chicken wings were - eh, ok. The salad was short on feta and the dressing tasted bottled. The rice pilaf was over-cooked. The tzatziki was good though, and we ended up slathering it over everything, and even bought another one ($.40). Seems like the name Greek "Bites" was somehow appropriate. At least we had leftovers for Sammy and Frankie.

Our other choice was Thai from Amarin Thai Restaurant.

I asked if this place was under the same ownership as Amarin Thai in Hillcrest and was given a positive nod. I ordered the Thai Sausage ($5.95) and Grilled Beef Salad ($7.25). One quick thing, unlike the speed of most food court type places, there was quite a wait here - even though it was sausage and a salad I ordered.

The Thai Sausage was nicely portioned with all the usual condiments, the sausage was alot milder than I'm used to (i.e. LOS in Vegas), not as salty, a bit more herbacious, and softer in texture. The sausage tasted fine with a squeeze of lime and wrapped in a cabbage leaf, but I could've used a bit more peanuts.

Yum Nuah (grilled beef salad), is one of my favorite dishes, especially on a hot summer day. This version had a generous amount of beef, lots of cilantro, cucumbers, lettuce, and tasty ripe tomatoes. The dressing was a bit one dimensional, I know that sounds strange, but it had too much fish sauce and not enough lime. I ended up squeezing the lime from sausage dish to balance the flavor out. We ordered this dish hot and the heat was excellent, though in spite of the amount of beef, the overall portion size was on the small side.

Best dish of the day - the Thai Sausage. We finished almost everything (Greek stuff leftover), and could have gone for more, but it was getting a little late, so we headed home.

So not quite a food court,  The Plaza Sorrento " International Food Court" features a great variety of restaurants, putting everything from Boba and Pho' to Tandoori Chicken within reach. Obviously your mileage may vary in these type of places, but it's fun to be able to grab a good variety of dishes. And besides, there's great sport in the hunt! Do you think there's a future for an organized food court eaters league?

6755 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92121

Comments

[milgwimper]

Kirk,

I wonder if that Amarin Thai is the same as the restaurants up here in the South Bay? That would be interesting to find out. I will have to try the Thai sausage and the beef salad (hopefully it will be better up here). I'm so sorry the Greek Bites literally Bites. Well maybe the Boyz will enjoy it more than you and missus. :D

[Kirk]

Hi Mills - Don't know if they're affiliated - but you haven't had Thai Sausage - it's pretty good. The "boyz" actually did enjoy it - especially the gyro meat - which I thought was kinda funny!

[milgwimper]

Yeha I have never tried thai sausage, I have it on my list of things to try now. Well I am glad the The Boyz enjoyed the left overs, I guess they enjoy dry meats. ;>

[Kirk]

Hi Mills - "da' boyz" enjoy any kind of meat they get their paws on....

[Jo]

Yep, Pepper has to learn to love chicken. Not a problem exactly. He and the rest of the gang are not thrilled that I've been on semi strike the last few days. Just to darn busy to cook. Last night I had to abscond all together for a church meeting and they all had Marie Callendar chicken pot pies. I do believe Pepper is in love....

[Jack]

Kirk-I've always wondered about that thai place. Every month or so our "family" goes out for sushi at the japanese place next to the food court. It went through a ownership change a number of months ago. We go here because it is central for everyone, they can accomodate our usual party of anywhere from 10 to 20, don't mind if we are loud and have kids running around (not sure how the patrons feel :) ), and the sushi is pretty good. In fact we are going there tonight.

I've never had thai sausage...sounds and looks good.

[elmomonster]

That Thai food looks good, but I have one burning question: Why is everything packaged in foil? Did they run out of styrofoam containers?

[howie]

I used to go to this food court all the time when I worked in Sorrento Valley. Your pictures of the Beef Salad at Amarin look pretty enticing.

I usually end up going to Spices Thai Cafe in the same shopping center for Thai Food. The Japanese restaurant Yoshi is not bad either, but I'm sure it doesn't compare to Sakura.

I've tried the Pho place a couple of times, and it's not one of my favorites. I would usually end up driving further down Mira Mesa to Ca Dao or Pho Hoa Cali for my pho fix.

[Kirk]

Hi Jo - I got a kick out of that - pot pies, huh? Crust and all?

Hey Jack - The Thai sausage is pretty good. More of an Issan kind of thing. About the family and kids, that's kind of the good thing about a place like this, people can get what they want, and it's very casual and relaxed. I noticed the Japanese Restaurant - but the words 'Sushi Buffet', usually scares me away! But maybe we'll give it a try. I've got a post that is in the queue about a sushi buffet, need to get that done soon, I guess.

Hi Elmo - Ha, it's pretty funny, actually the foil blocks out the styrofoam containers - didn't notice you couldn't see them until I looked at the pictures just now - they are all lying in the generic styrofoam containers.

Hi Howie - The Beef Salad was ok - but sorely missing some flavors to balance it out - nice amount of beef though. I did notice Spices Thai Cafe on the opposite side of the parking lot, is it any good? So a second 'ok' for the Japanese place? I think of things in terms of economies of scale, not every place can or should be Sakura, good, decent Japanese food has it's place - plus, if I held out for Sakura, I'd be broke and then some!

[Jack]

Is this Yoshi Sushi? The buffet must be a new thing. I'll find out tonight.

[Kirk]

Jack - I'm pretty sure that there was a 'Sushi Buffet' sign - I think it was hand written, outside Yoshi Sushi. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[clare eats]

Sushi buffet? WOW

[KIrk]

Hi Clare - Not wow, most of the sushi buffets are pretty terrible, I won't touch any of the fish there!!! It's all low grade, pre-cut and put aside, then formed into sushi when the supple runs low! There are exceptions if you consider "robata" style sushi, a buffet, I went to a place that had robata-buffet, but the problem was you had to wait for the 99 California Rolls to pass before you got something good!

[Kirk]

Clare - There are exceptions, though I can't think of any right now....

[Jack]

Had dinner last night at Yoshi Sushi w/17 other family members (cousins, spouses, kids). They do have an all-you-can-eat deal for I think $25/person. It's not a buffet though. You place an order from the usual sushi sheet (we were obviously not at the bar!). It is different from the regular menu, but not that different. Missing were the more expensive specials of the day and other rolls. In the past we have typically spent about $40/adult for sushi and the kid's meals. So we saved a few dollars. The sushi...not bad at all. In fact the nigiri sushi was quite nice..tuna, yellowtail, toro (had to pay a little extra for the toro). Probably more like an everyday/neighborhood sushi place where you can get decent quality sushi. Very friendly staff. After we finished our last plate of sushi, the chef kept on sending all sorts of other dishes (on the house) out to us. We were stuffed, but, well, we kept on eating!

[clare eats]

oh you nean sushi train? We have them..... but you pay per plate

of course the buffet would be crap :P you can hope can't you?

[Kirk]

Hey Jack - Thanks for clairfying, I may try this place in the near future.

Hi Clare - Yes, most robata style sushi is paid for by the plate - what type of plate. But this palce had robata buffet - it was horrid.

[clare eats]

sushi train is expensive too... and NEVER as good! bah humbug!

Handrolls there can be good though ;)

[Jo]

Wait a sec here... what exactly is "robata"? Mike and the boys ADORE taking sushi plates from the wee little wooden boats at "boat sushi" Most of the time this is pretty decent. Being somewhat ignorant of proper tradition and all of course. Mike tops everything with wasabi, shoyu, and ginger.

To be honest, I'm hot for the wee little boats myself!

[Kirk]

Clare - Could it be because the temaki are made to order?

Hi Jo - Robata as used here is an incorrect term - it literally means "by the fireside", but is used in slang for conveyor belt sushi, actually correctly called "Kaiten" sushi - confused???