Have you seen this place? Does it look familiar?
Anything ring a bell? The decor? Furniture???
How about the Chinese BBQ case, not bad looking eh?
Well, walking in here was a bit of a shock.......the place went from this:
To this.....
Yes, that's right it's The Noble Chef....
Oooops, I mean The Noble Chef.
You know, I've been coming here since 2002, and first posted about the place in June of 2005. I've seen the old owners retire, taking their wok skills with them. And while, the couple of items I thought were pretty good on the menu were never quite the same, it was passable and even improved over time.
Thanks to FOY (Friend of Yoso) "Jess", I found out that The Noble Chef was finally reopening on September 3rd.
Imagine me walking in to a menu full of Cantonese dishes facing a case of Chinese BBQ. I decided to just try out the roast duck; I needed time to look over the menu to see what new and maybe promising, and also to see if my old favorites were still there. So I got a half roast duck ($12). Getting home and opening up the styrofoam container, I felt like there was bait and switch going on. The ducks in the case were a nice, lacquered brown....this was a rather beige looking beast.
Skin like rubber, meat moist, but lacking flavor...skin almost without flavor, where was the five spice, the salty, the sweet? I also question the cooking temp/technique as this seemed greasy, not rich with oil, but greasy. This has got to be the worst Chinese Roast Duck I've had in quite a while.
Let's add insult to injury, it seems that many of the dishes I thought were decent at Noble Chef are no longer on the menu; Shrimp with XO Sauce Fried Rice, Shrimp Tomato Sauce, Shrimp and Egg on Rice....in fact, it looks like there aren't very many shrimp dishes on the menu. To make things even worse; one of the lousiest dishes I'd ever had at Noble Chef, the Hainan Chicken Rice is on the lunch menu.
So what to do? I'm not sure....I guess I need to check out some of the lunch specials at the least. Lunch is served until 4pm, which is great......but I'm not so certain about the food. Really nice folks, they seem to be trying hard, but this just didn't do it for me.
The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111
:(
Posted by: kat | Friday, 05 September 2014 at 07:07 AM
The horror... Where should I go to get a roast duck that has flavor and crispy skin?
Posted by: Soo H. | Friday, 05 September 2014 at 09:09 AM
Ouch! I used to be a regular but now only go to Sieu Sieu.
Posted by: Junichi | Friday, 05 September 2014 at 12:54 PM
Really disappointing Kat.
Well Soo, not in San Diego. BTW, Chinese roast duck doesn't really have what I consider a crispy skin...you'd have to deep dry it for that. It can however have a nicely flavored, not too tough, firm skin, which tastes wonderful.
Hi Junichi - I kind of stick with Golden City.
Posted by: Kirk | Saturday, 06 September 2014 at 09:52 PM
I'm tempted to try out their Hainan chicken rice, hoping the chef there is different from the one before? I haven't ate there before and can only tell from the photos.
Posted by: Jess | Monday, 08 September 2014 at 01:25 PM
Check them out Jess! And if you do, please let me know how it is.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 08 September 2014 at 06:04 PM
I just tried them today for lunch. The duck I received for the bbq lunch combo tasted pretty lackluster and the meat was very dark (whereas the roasted duck in the showcase looked incredible and fresh). I'd still like to see if their 'take out' roast duck is better - assuming I can pick and choose which duck I want from the showcase.
Posted by: Faye | Monday, 22 February 2016 at 05:01 PM
Hi Faye - I still haven't tried anything else there......I'll probably do that one day soon.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 22 February 2016 at 06:15 PM