Brick Bowl-Sourdough, Vinegar, Korean-Kearny Mesa

CLOSED- Brick Bowl and its wonderful food is now gone.  It will be missed.

mmm-yoso!!! is the name of this food blog.  Welcome (back).  Today, Kirk is vacationing and Cathy is writing.

I saw the signage across the street from my parking spot after shopping at Niban and picking up a 2019 calendar.  Another new place to try. Turns out that Brick Bowl is known as 'the restaurant next to Yu Spa', a Day Spa with a Korean style sauna and many other services.  Since the parking lot also houses several auto repair shops as well as a busy car wash, Brick Bowl has a variety of customers (and potential customers) looking in at the menu choices.
There are some menus to the right of the cash register where you order and pay. Photos of menu are at the bottom this post.  The chalkboard special is good Monday to Friday and is the best way to try a smaller portion of the menu basics.
 The fresh made sourdough bread is the basis of the Brick Bowls. 

You can 'Build your own Brick' (starting at $9.99) Choose a sauce, a meat, veggies, cheese and add-ons. There are also six choices of 'Chef Specials'-ingredient mixes decided.  The Mister wanted to try the "Bocelli's Italian Meatball Brick" ($10): marinara sauce, 100% beef meatballs (seven were in our Brick), cooked spinach, grilled onions, grilled bell peppers, olives, tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese. The grilled, buttery, herbed garlic bread on the side is what was pulled out from the thick cut slice of fresh sourdough.   
The photo doesn't do it justice, but this bowl is about two inches thick.  Everything tasted so good- very fresh ingredients.  
The secondary item available here are the (hot or cold) sparkling vinegar drinks ($3.99).  The "Elixir of Acid" graphics, as well as the tabletop tent information is interesting.  
 We have tried the mango and the pineapple flavors, but there are more: passion fruit, lychee, pomegranate and watermelon.  The Mister and I used to purchase 'drinking vinegars' at Korean markets, but now add sparkling water to apple cider vinegar, at home.  The same is done here-along with the various fruit flavorings.  There is an A La Carte Menu and we decided to try the pan fried dumplings ($7).  The filling chocies are either vegan or pork.  We went with pork.  The filling was meaty and flavorful and the dumpling skins were thin and crispy and also wonderful.  This was a nice little snack.

 There is also Bibimbap ($11) which we got with beef and egg.  We received a second bowl and you can see the divided up ingredients.  This was so fresh and so tasty and had just enough (not too much) rice...despite the fact that it wasn't served in a hot stone bowl so the rice didn't crisp up, every ingredient was so fresh and it all went very well together.  Small containers of kimchee, pickled radish and cucumber were also given and there are house made condiments, water and cutlery on a table near the door.    A cup of seaweed soup (beef broth or vegan) comes with the bibimbap. A lot of seaweed and so much flavor.

There are only a few other A La Carte menu items to try and some other drinks along with planning out some Brick Bowl combinations...I do like limited menus and the Korean choices make this small restaurant even more intriguing.  

Brick Bowl 3927 Convoy Street San Diego 92111 (between Ostrow and Othello) Open Mon-Thurs 11:30-3, 5:30-9. Sat 11:30-9, Sun 11:30-8 Website  

Comments

[Alex]

Hello from Canada. I’m a longtime lurker and first-time commenter. I’m so intrigued by the menu here (looking hungrily at the Greasy Pesto Brick - what a name!) and everything that was ordered looks delicious. I’d be really interested to see another post on this place to see if they add more Korean items and are able to sustain the quality.

[kat]

looks like a nice variety of things to try!

[caninecologne]

A great new find Cathy! I'll have to check it out once I'm on summer break. The sourdough brick with toppings sounds good. Not sure if I would like the vinegar drinks though.

[Cathy]

Welcome to this side of the blog, Alex! Yes, what an interesting name-and Signature item, considering Brick Bowl is the Spa's restaurant! The Mister and I will definitely be returning to try more of the menu.

A nice variety and such an interesting concept, Kat. Not all wild and crazy, but healthy-good without pretension.

Brick Bowl has been open since September, cc, and I've seen no other blog posts; only local news articles (Sandiegoville and Reader) and only happened to notice it on that December 'calendar search' day. The food here is so fresh and each meal has been a great experience. The vinegar is subtle and kind of complimentary...sparkling water makes it fancy.{We first tried a drinking vinegar sample at HMart and bought it because on sale and in the summer started adding our Sodastream water to it and now like just the vinegar with the sparkling water on hot days}

[Soo]

Those pan fried dumplings look good!

[Cathy]

Excellent flavors with great quality, Soo. Pretty darn sure they are made here.

[Sandy]

I haven't been at this end of Convoy Street in awhile, but this strip mall looks pretty new. Very intriguing menu - I want to try it soon.

[Cathy]

It had been a Tile/Flooring Store, Sandy; I think they footprint was re-built...it does look new. The food is quite wonderful. A regular Brick can be shared, but the $6 Special of a Lite Brick and vinegar drink is plenty for one person.

[RedDevil]

Interesting, I’d heard of this place but never really thought to try it (don’t know why) until your post. Thanks again for taking the time to make these posts!

[Cathy]

Well, the name kind of sounds like strange tableware and only one type of food style, RD, so I don’t blame you. I've taken to writing down places to check out later and am glad I did notice the signage and did finally go back; Brick Bowl is really good. (Thank you; I usually am able to help Kirk more but the early part of this year was filled with distractions.)