Mr Holy Gao Revisited

So, recently I had some time for an actual sit down lunch. Though not enough time to head down to Kearny Mesa. I wanted some Chinese, of which there seems to be a rather strange shortage of in this area. There's the "one-trick-pony" shop (which I actually revisited for the first time in nearly ten years and Lai Chen, which never seems to be open. My office is close enough to the 805, so a revisit to My Holy Gao seemed to be the most realistic option.

The place was empty when I arrived and pretty much stayed that way during my whole visit. The menu has changed a bit since my first round of visits back in March. Some new dishes added including Di San Xian; a classic stir fry of potato, eggplant, and bell peppers. While I knew the specialty of the shop leaned more toward Sichuan style dishes, I decided to order it. A big mistake.

This was like every bad stereotype of Chinese food out there. The dish was gloppy, too sweet, the eggplant wasn't cooked properly, as in the skin portions were hard and inedible and the interior pieces almost crunchy; lacking the buttery texture of well cooked eggplant. There was a shortage of one of the "three treasures", the bell peppers.

At least they had the Tea Smoked Duck which is the dish I believe they do best. While a bit drier than on previous visits; this was by far the best item.

Not too salty, nice smoke flavor, good texture.

For the final item, I saw the classic Chongqing Dish, Mao Xuewang on the menu. I've usually avoided it because the blood curd used is usually of terrible quality. In this case, I decided to go for it.

I've noticed something about the hot pot and similar type Sichuan dishes here. They seem to lack skill and finesse and the flavors are very simple and lacking in the wonderful layers and complexity of really good Sichuan food. The broth was very thin and in spite of looks not very spicy. The only real "ma", numbingness was provided when I bit into the whole Sichuan peppercorns. The blood was metallic and bitter; the "ham" in this case was faux Spam; the beef was decent if a bit too chewy, the intestine was good, though somewhat lacking in the offal-funkiness that I enjoy.

And like before, the rice here was terrible; with some really hard pieces, followed by strangely gummy grains.

In spite of the tea smoked duck; I'll probably not return for a while.

Mr. Holy Gao
10066 Pacific Heights Blvd
San Diego, CA 92121
Open Daily - 11am - 930pm

Comments

[kat]

:(

[Nicole @ Bento Momentos]

Poorly cooked eggplant is so disappointing. The tea smoked duck looks tasty, though!

[Faye]

I have yet to visit this place and we were at Qualcomm. Lai Chen! I have thought about them but read as well they are never open. Hope you get to re visit Lai Chen and post. Happy Monday -

[alnc]

"...the rice here was terrible..."

Nothing says, "We don't care" better than a Chinese restaurant with bad rice.

[Kirk]

Yeah Kat.....not too good.

So far, the duck has been the only thing good here Nicole.

Well, so far Lai Chen hasn't been open when I've driven by Faye....so I got a streak going. Not a good one though.

Totally alnc.....

[Junichi]

Bummer. Bad rice is a deal breaker.

[janfrederick]

Dang. Walking distance from work. But probably empty because of people like me who don't go. ;)

[caninecologne]

Even the rice sucked? :( Perhaps this place should be crossed off the list.

[Kirk]

I agree Junichi.

You can give it a shot Jan....or maybe not.

Though that tea smoked duck was pretty good CC.

[TFD]

Good lord! Thank you for taking one for the team. That place is literally walking distance from Mr. C's work.

[Kirk]

Yeah, not very good TFD.