I guess if you've been reading long enough you'd have noticed by now that I'm just not a pancakes and French toast for breakfast kinda guy, right? Here are a couple more weekend breakfast stops.
Barrio Donas:
One morning when the Missus had to work; I decided to head into the office to catch up on a few things. On the way up, I decided to take a short detour to see how Barrio Donas was doing. The place was pretty busy for just past 7am on a Sunday morning.
I still can't get over the rather modern; hipster-ish look of the place; such a change from when it was Best Donuts.
I got my usual breakfast torta; the A la Mexicana.
On the good side; the light and airy bolillo roll was still warm as I opened up the sandwich. These days; it seems that there's a lot less salsa and spice, and much more cheese. It's not quite the sandwich that I really used to enjoy....it seems a bit out of balance, a milder and tamer version.
The great thing about doing this blog for so long.....here's the A la Mexicana from Best Donuts back in March of 2017.
Nice acidity and brightness from the salsa, decent heat from the jalapenos, the earthy-nutty-savory flavor of the beans, not too much cheese, mixed with eggs. Doesn't that one look better? It was also $4.99 then; now, while it's not a big deal, it's $6.50. They gotta pay for all the renovations I guess.
Barrio Donas
4714 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117
Pho Hoa Huong:
On may to do my usual "rounds" on a Saturday morning, I was too early for my next set of stops; Nijiya, H Mart, and Marukai, so I decided to grab some breakfast.....my kind of breakfast. I had kind of enjoyed my last visit to the "fastest pho in the west" and decided to drop by.
Like I mentioned in my last post; the former perfunctory, hovering over you waiting for your order, has been replaced with a more relaxed.....though I can't really call it friendly, atmosphere. What hasn't changed was how quickly the pho hit my table after I ordered it. I set my stopwatch and it clocked in at an amazing 3 minutes 45 seconds.....
Being the consistent (or as the Missus calls it, "boring") person that I am. I went with #4.
Man, look at all that basil, sprouts, and ngo gai. Some of the basil was turning color, but there was so much of it that it really didn't matter.
The broth was darker than on my previous visit, slightly beefy, not overly sweet as is the norm for san Diego pho these days. Perhaps a bit too defatted, but not bad overall. I didn't need lime to cut the saltiness.
The clump of noodles still had a nice pull to them....I guess when you get the bowl to the table in less than five minutes, there's no chance of the noodles getting mushy.
The flank was better this time around; though still too tough for my liking; the tendon decent, and the tripe had a nice crunch.
And like on previous visits, in and out in less than 30 minutes.
Pho Hoa-Huong Restaurant
6921 Linda Vista Rd
San Diego, CA 92111
No pho place I've tried in Seattle is as fast as Pho Hoa Huong!
Also I was just saying the other night that I missed the Nijiya/Marukai/Mitsuwa trifecta. Uwajimaya in Seattle is as approximately good as one of them but not as good as all three of them. At least we got H Mart, although it's a bit out of the way for us.
Posted by: MrZ | Wednesday, 26 February 2020 at 09:16 PM
speedy breakfast!
Posted by: kat | Wednesday, 26 February 2020 at 09:55 PM
It's quite amazing how fast they consistently are Mr Z! And having the "trifecta" within about a mile from each other is great....though I wish they opened a bit earlier. Hope all is well; it's great hearing from you.
Very fast Kat......
Posted by: Kirk | Thursday, 27 February 2020 at 06:19 AM
I remember one time I placed my order, went to the bathroom to wash my hands and when I got back my bowl was already waiting for me!
Posted by: Junichi | Thursday, 27 February 2020 at 08:40 AM
They are scary fast Junichi! It's become a bit of a sport to set my stopwatch after I order.
Posted by: Kirk | Thursday, 27 February 2020 at 08:44 AM
The Night and Day section of today's Union Tribume had a review of Barrio Donas, mostly focused on the doughnuts.
Posted by: Sandy | Thursday, 27 February 2020 at 02:33 PM
Interesting Sandy - Thanks for the heads-up.
Posted by: Kirk | Thursday, 27 February 2020 at 02:45 PM
Both breakfasts look good, now I’m craving pho... in a world gone crazy, I am comforted by your blog.
Posted by: Foodhoe | Tuesday, 10 March 2020 at 02:48 AM
Hey FH! It's so nice to hear from you. Hope you and your loved ones are secure amid all the craziness. Hope you manage to get a nice comforting bowl of pho!
Posted by: Kirk | Tuesday, 10 March 2020 at 06:58 AM