Topping out for Good Eats ~ Tip Top Meats!

"Hi! This is Vicky posting about her latest meal. She is extremely honored to be invited by Kirk to  blog on mmm-Yoso!"

So apparently I get super excited about my food, and totally forget about taking the pictures until after I'm done... Oh well, I'll have to wait until my next trip before taking pictures of the great munchies I had for........

So we celebrated Asian New Years and I did my best to feed the poor college student that was crashing with me for the weekend. He unfortunately didn't bring anything fancier than a t shirt so my steak loving cousin couldn't take advantage of my generosity since we couldn't go to Donavan's. And besides, where else can I feed a starving college student amazingly good quality steak at less than 10 bucks a plate?! I can't even say that about TGIFridays where you get a mediocre steak for around 20! So on my way up to dropping him off in Orange County, we swung by a North County secret. It's where I drop in when I want a good hunk of steak (before Kirk posted about Siesel's), and it's where I managed to feed my mini army of guy friends who helped me move... I have a ton of stuff, so I had to bribe them with a "steak dinner." *drumroll!* Tip Top Meats!! It's a meat market/restaurant/european specialty deli or market all rolled into one. Here's a picture of the outside, where they write all their specials for their restaurants on the whiteboard:

Wowsers! They even have their daily availability of wild game and goodies to satisfy the pickiest inner carnivore. If you look on the bottom right of the corner to see their "Big John" breakfast, its the craziest entree on their breakfast meal. Their menu describes it as: "Three eggs any style, home fried potatoes, toast, and ALL* of our own delicious smokehouse bacon, pork link sausage, or polish sausage, bratwurst, or ham you can eat." *~Sorry, ALL not valid on TOGO orders (two choices of meats). All that for $5.98! S got that one time when we went shopping at the outlets down the street. They weren't kidding about the all you can eat! It seriously was all you can eat meats!

Tip Top apparently is a wholesale meat market that some of the high end local restaurants use. They have their deli on the end of the market and apparently their mentality is to cut out the middleman/distributor so their meals stay unbelievably reasonable! AND they give you an amazing portion! AND it's amazingly tasty!

But before we get to the prime rib part, more pictures of the place:
A freezer full of random things... (yes if you look at the enlargement, they have "maui ribs..." I haven't quite figured out what Maui Ribs are though... )The scary part of the store is that they have everything fresh in the meat cases AND frozen so it will keep when it travels! How convenient!

Here's a look at the crazy meat case full of meat. They had nearly every imaginable cut and part of meat. The best part was that the prices were kept very reasonable. At the same time, the staff was very knowledgeable. They had everything from veal cutlets to bacon wrapped filets. The sausages are made in house and the bacon is also smoked in house! Unfortunately when we got there around 7, they had already started covering up and cleaning up so that was the only section of the meat case that wasn't covered up or stored away. In addition to being the ultimate meat market, Tip Top also makes a plethora of European pastries.... including.... STRUDEL! Here's a picture of their gargantuan strudel: avaliable in 4 flavors, which they bake in house. They also make a wide variety of German cakes and goodies.

Each strudel was about 7 inches wide and nearly 2 feet long!!! They also carry the strudel cut into manageable serving sizes in the eatery portion. Each strudel will set you back nearly 6 dollars. Goodness... Here are a couple more shots of the marketplace. 

When you have German sausages, you gotta have the German lagers and beers!

This picture is for Frankie and Sammy...  At first, I just took a picture of the bones in the case but realized how there was no way to really see the size of these suckers so I shall present you my very unflattering wrist and thumb! (And yes, there is probably a herd's worth of cow femurs.) Wow... that is ONE huge bone. I'm sure it would make some amazing stock though... Although I don't know anyone who would have a stock pot big enough to cook it in.

Also available here at Tip Top is a well dressed and re ady to cook Bugs Bunny along with goat. (I recall seeing some comments a co uple days ago from a reader asking about goat availability in San Diego. I'm kinda tempted to ask Tip Top what they DON'T carry.

Along with fresh meats and frozen game, the grocery/deli/market had an amazing selection of goodies.

Here's their "condiment" section, full of every single imagineable imported ketchups/horseradish/and mustards... to go with every single imagineable sausage/wurst/link they make! I was amazed at how much stuff they carried! They even had a caviar section of imported caviars from around the world. So after much perusing and browsing and "stealth" picture taking, I joined up with the guys who were patiently standing in line by the eatery. So the eatery pretty much works like this: you stand in line, you tell her what dish you want, choose your sides - one or two sides depending on the dish, salad or soup, and generally it comes with a roll. So the reason for this visit in the first place is that from 4:30 to 8pm every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, they have prime rib. It's not the meager tough prime rib they serve at the neighborhood buffet place or even the cheap Nevada buffets. I'm talking about the GOOOOOD stuff. I actually prefer the texture of their prime rib over Donavan's! Granted they don't have the white linen tableclothes and it is pretty much a "they call your number" and you get your food and go chow type of place. So we ordered two prime rib plates, which came with 2 sides, soup or salad and a dinner roll. The choices for sides are: mashed potatoes and gravy, baked potato, french fries, sauerkraut, red cabbage, or steamed veggies. I had sauerkraut and mashed potatoes where Cousin H had the veggies and mashed potatoes. We each got a different soup; tonight they had beef barley and lentil. I don't think I enjoyed the soup that much. I'm still trying to get used to thick heavy soups, being that I was brought up on miso shiro and tofu vegetable soup. So we got our soups, and sat down. (H and I were sharing a prime rib plate... hence the two orders. I can never finish an entire plate and I hate dealing with leftovers.) So after a short while, our number was called and we picked up the immense amount of food.

So maybe presentation wasn't their forte.... And apologies for the empty soup dish. Also, I had cut a good hunk out of the top piece of prime rib before H reminded me to take pictures. Yes... it was TWO slices of prime rib on each plate! MMMMMMMmmmm! The prime rib was tender and tasty, perfectly medium, swimming in a pool of au jus served with fresh horseradish. (I'm not a fan of horseradish... maybe that's why I forgot to take a picture of it.) It was straight up European home style cooking, the gravy on the mashed potatoes was divine, same with the sauerkraut. It really helped cut whatever fat/grease was in the meal. All that food for 10 dollars and change!

Most of the entrees are under 10 dollars. The prime rib roast is probably one of my favorites to get there, they also carry a lot of German style foods including sauerbraten, rouladen, holsteiner schnitzel. They also offer veal cordon bleu for under 8! If none of the entrees tickle your fancy, you can go over to the meat counter, pick out your steak and for an extra 2.98 in addition to the market price of the raw steak, they will cook it to your liking and add in sides for a complete steak dinner.

According to their pamphlet, they will order any specialty meat and will cook anything for you provided you give them a three day notice for whole pigs and steamboat rounds.

Tip Top Meats
6118 Paseo Del Norte
Carlsbad, CA
(760) 438-2620

Open Daily from 6am to 8pm

Comments

[Kirk]

Hey Vicky - I've just gotten orders from Sammy and Frankie to march on down to Tip Top and get the "Femur".......

[Cathy]

Tip Top *was* my little secret, Vicky...It tastes like home to me and The Mister. We used to go there when the Prime Rib meal was $4.98...is it still served only on Friday and Saturday nights? We love it here.

[Vicky]

Hi Kirk!
Hahaha... isn't the femur bone just nuts!? I used to work at Williams Sonoma and they didn't even have a pot big enough to fit that in!

Hi Cathy! Wow! Prime rib for under 5!? And I was thinking 9.98 was awesome! =P Its served from 4:30-8 Friday/Sat/Sun. :) Sorry for spilling your secret!

[nhbilly]

Oh My meat heaven I wish it was closer to me. Now regarding the beef bones. Got Pho?

thanks
bill

[maia]

My boyfriend is German, and I love going into Tip Top and getting him all sorts of German goodies that you can't find easily.. knoedel, hanuta, etc etc. I haven't had a chance to eat there yet, but it looks like it's a great deal!

[Janfrederick]

When I worked in Vista, this was a regular lunch spot for us. Great eats! I still head up there when I need sausage or specialty meats.

Speaking of which, is there anything comparable meat market-wise further South?

[Vicky]

Bill - Mmmmm I love pho... It's usually on my list of lunch haunts since I work in Sorrento Mesa. Our fav pho place is Pho HoaCali Express on Black Mountain/Mira Mesa.

Maia - Ooooh! Have you guys been to Kaiserhof in Point Loma?? Their German food is AMAZING!!

Janfrederick - Siesel's in Bay Park is pretty good for something not as far, I really like the bacon they smoke there. They're more of a meat market and don't have the European deli attached. You can try Bristol Farms in UTC, when I need a good steak and I don't want to drive far I'll swing by there. Bristol also dry ages their steaks which makes is OH SO GOOOOD! If you're closer to Mission Valley, there is Iowa Meats on Mission Gorge and they're a good butcher shop also. Hope that helps!

[davivid]

i don't like tip top meats. it's dark and creepy. but the deli behind it makes amazing, fresh homemade soups and pasta dishes. it's takeout food only, but there's a line around the block at lunch time. i can't recall the name, but you should check it out.

[Cathy]

Wow. The sandwiches from Tip Top are, like, HUGE and the meat is quality. I've never even considered going in next door..but, that could be a post for me...to compare the two..and their sandwiches.

[Mario]

Thanks for giving Tip Top some love. My co-workers and I work at the airport down the street and get tip top every wed. we f'n love it. When we used to stick class in high school, tip top was the spot to go for breakfast. dont forget about breakfast, its just as good.

[Vicky]

Davivid - Are you talking about the little produce market adjacent to Tip Top?

Mario - I love breakfast at Tip Top! They have some awesome combos and deals.

[seant]

The butcher shop in tip top is retail. The beef at tip top is dry aged. Very few places have dry aged beef. It is an art and it is the reason your prime rib tasted so good. I liked your review but you missed some important aspects of tip top.

[Vicky]

Hi seant!

I asked the butcher how they aged their meat and they said it was wet aged. The only places I could find dry aged around SD was at Whole Foods and Bristol. I think Siesel's had dry aged a couple random times depending on their availability. I personally like Bristol Farm's dry aged meat better compared to Whole Foods. Hm... I'll ask about the aging again next time I'm there.

[seant]

I was at tip top for lunch today and had the fabulous (sp)Rostbratel. I went two days in a row. mmmm mmmm good. Dry aged, always.

[Vicky]

Hi seant,

I finally figured out the discrepency in this aging discussion. I contacted Tip Top after your first comment and their butcher told me that only select cuts are dry aged. The rest are wet aged. The dry aged ones are only aged 13 days which isn't enough to really make that big of a difference from what I remember at culinary school. Whole foods and Bristol do 30+ days (at least 20 are needed fully develop flavor). Nevertheless I still love Tip Top!