mmm-yoso!!! is a blog. Centered mostly around food, we (Kirk, Ed(from Yuma) and Cathy) write about various places, recipes, ingredients. Here's a post about a place, written by Cathy.
As mentioned in another post, frequently I meet clients for an exchange of paperwork and often they offer to buy me lunch. I let them choose the location, asking them where's a place they enjoy- knowing they might not be as adventurous as I- and also they are aware of the price point, since they have offered to pay.
Chopsticks Inn has been in the corner of this storefront area in La Mesa since 1988. It's the same corner and shares the same parking lot as La Mesa Bistro & Bakery . The owner of Chopsticks Inn was born in SouthEast China, moved to Hong Kong where she grew up with her Grandmother and eventually moved to the US, learning Japanese and Thai cooking along the way. As you can see from the signage, a multitude of Asian cuisine choices are available.
The interior of the restaurant is decorated in a higher end Asian look. The waitstaff is friendly, efficient and knowledgeable.
We both ordered lunch specials, which came with a choice of soup. Hot and Sour and Egg Drop were our choices. When we were first seated, the fried wonton strips and small plate serving of a sweet/vinegar 'duck' sauce were brought to the table.
The Red Curry Chicken lunch plate ($7.55)- came with the soup, an egg roll (all vegetable), cream cheese fried wonton, steamed rice and a very good size serving of red curry chicken-made with fresh mushroom, red and green bell peppers and celery. Yes, celery, which was very complimentary with the flavors.
The Kung Pao chicken ($7.25) was also accompanied by the same sides, as this was also a lunch special. You can see it also had fresh mushrooms, celery and is topped with peanuts. It wasn't very spicy-hot, but was made with very fresh ingredients and tasty...had just a bit of heat, which was nice.
Fortune Cookies were brought out with the bill. I haven't seen packaged Fortune Cookies in a long time and it was fun reading and exchanging our predictions. (Hot tea was $1 each).
This was a very nice, quality meal. I noticed the Dim Sum is a la carte as well as available as platters, that Bento boxes are available at lunch and dinner prices and many noodle and rice dishes are available along with Chinese "Family" meals (priced per person). A new item they were promoting were Boba beverages.
A very interesting restaurant in an unexpected location.
Chopsticks Inn Restaurant 8687 La Mesa Boulevard La Mesa, CA 91942 open Tues-Sun 11 a.m-9 p.m. (619) 466-4470 Website
Looks good. Never been of fan of such places I just rather go to Panda Express since the taste is always predictably or maybe I'm just a sucker for there orange chicken
Posted by: nhbilly | Thursday, 31 October 2013 at 08:38 AM
Surprisingly good, Bill. The neighborhood/area of town is retiree- centric and this place only has lunch specials (no early bird dinners) and it is busy and consistent with fresh, good food all with a good (albeit Americanized) Asian touch.
Posted by: Cathy | Thursday, 31 October 2013 at 02:11 PM
I've always wondered about this place! They give out fortune cookies at our local ABCD Chinese place too (Mandarin across from SWC).
Posted by: caninecologne | Thursday, 31 October 2013 at 08:47 PM
It's been here forever, cc...and the Sushi and Dim Sum and Bento offerings, combined with Chinese and Thai are such a mishmash on the menu and I've had low expectations. The end result though, is good, fresh food with distinct flavors.
Posted by: Cathy | Friday, 01 November 2013 at 06:12 AM