mmm-yoso!!!

Menya Ultra (Mira Mesa)

I know of quite a few people who had been waiting for Menya Ultra to open in Mira Mesa. So when Eater annouced the soft opening, then grand opening schedule; I just figured it was going to be nothing like being able to sneak into Menya on their first day of business on Clairemont Mesa; since Menya had made a name for itself. Still, with several meetings cancelled; I found myself with some time and a bit of freedom on my hands. So, I decided to head up to Mira Mesa, I take a quick peek to see what the line was like. I arrived at 10 till 11 and things weren't bad at all.

Instead of a sign in sheet; this location uses an iPad and you get a text right before your table is ready.

The capacity of this location seats about 50; so even with the staggered seating, I was in by 1110. Funny thing; they sat all the parties for two at the counter and single customers at the two-top....which probably made sense since it was a pretty tiny two top.

I knew what I wanted by the time I hit my seat and it took me thirty seconds to fill out my order. The young lady who was working the seating and seemed to be managing the front of house; I believe her name is Maia is amazing. As soon as she saw I had my order filled out, she walked over, smiled and said, "that's fast". I told her that I'd been "trained well" eating the Clairemont location. She cracked up.

I think they had a bunch of stuff already going as my Chicken Karaage got to me in less than five minutes.

This wasn't bad; moist, but on the chewy side. There's some nice savory tones going on; but it's not nearly as good as Ramen Menma - Basso Drillman; which while on the salty side, was much more crisp and even more juicy than this. Like I said, not as crisp as I enjoy, but a passable version.

Of course I got the Ajitama Ramen with extra ajitama.

This was a darn good bowl; better than what I'd had at the Clairemont location during my last couple of visits. Rich, but not greasy, not too salty, nice belly and tongue coating, collagen filled goodness. The noodles were good, chewy and al dente, but nice and slippery, as expected.

The ajitama looked really good; the orange yolks glistening, but much like Kirbie's visit (Please check it out here), this was much saltier than I'd had in the past. The eggs were also too cold.

Still, I don't think you can get a better version of tonkotsu ramen in San Diego. And maybe it'll be easier for you to get a seat at the Clairemont location.

Menya Ultra
8141 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126
Hours:
Tues - Sat 11am 2pm, 530pm - 9pm
Sunday     11am - 2pm, 5pm - 9pm

Hanaoka (National City)

Thanks for stopping by to read mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog.  Kirk is very busy with work today, so Cathy is writing.  

Hanaoka opened in January 1986 in this National City location, West of the 805 on the South side of Sweetwater road.  Hanaoka Enterprises is now the umbrella group for itself, North Park Sushi & Grill as well as Junz Teriyaki &BBQ.  A good Japanese restaurant in the South Bay area of the County, almost taken for granted.  

A series of several rooms (originally it was a sushi bar with three tables but when Swensen's Ice Cream closed, Hanaoka bought up the attached building), Hanaoka is quite large inside.  The menu is fairly large and sushi is predominant (but now there is no sushi bar seating area).  We were here at lunch.
 The green tea ($2.25), which is not matcha is remarkably good- a roasted tea leaf and very strong brew, was kept filled throughout the meal. The miso soup is also quite good. I ordered the Hanaoka lunch bento ($13.95): two pieces of California roll (real crab), five pieces of sashimi, tamago, rice, salad, beef, chicken, fish and a tempura shrimp.  Everything was fresh, flavorful and plenty!  The teriyaki sauce is not too sweet nor sticky.  
The Mister ordered the beef teriyaki and fried fish lunch plate ($13.95), just for the fried fish.  It was very well made with a crisp yet light crust.  The tartar sauce is house made and quite nice.  
 The green tea ice cream ($4) which was matcha and had not much 'tea' flavor (other than a small 'background' tannin hit) and was a pleasant desert. 

A very nice birthday lunch for one of our eight days of feasting.  

Hanaoka 1528 Sweetwater Road National City, CA 91950 (619)477-5173 Open Mon-Fri 11-3 and 5-10, Sat 11-10, Sun 12-9 Website

cc has been to Hanaoka (in 2008) and more recently, to Junz. Mary has been to North Park Sushi & Grill (in 2011)

Clearing Out the Memory Card - Romeo & Julieta Wine Cafe, Et Voila, and Sushi Noguchi (Yorba Linda)

Just a quick post for tonight - 2 Happy Hour revisits and once place where not all the photos came out.

Romeo & Julieta Wine Café:

Now that the weather is getting a bit cooler, we're enjoying HH here. It's never too crowded and the food is hearty. There's always leftovers for the next day.

My previous post on Romeo & Julieta Wine Café.

Romeo & Julieta Wine Cafe
4715 Monroe Ave
San Diego, CA 92115
Hours:
Tues - Sat 4pm - 10pm
Sunday     3pm - 10pm

Et Voila!:

Honestly; we're not overly fond of many of the meat courses and entrees. But we really enjoy HH.

Even though the Huckleberry Bourbon is now nine bucks during HH....it's still a relative bargain.

Two drinks and  a couple of staples from the Happy Hour menu and we're....well, quite satisfied and happy.

Et Voilà!
3015 Adams Ave
San Diego, CA 92116
Happy Hour:
Sun - Fri 430pm - 7pm
Saturday 430pm - 6pm

Funny story insertion time. The Missus and I were eating outside on the quaint little patio. There was a couple seated right past us.....the gentleman was really, really chatty. We usually keep to ourselves, but he was very amiable. We talked about everything from this being his first visit to Et Voila (he was pleasantly surprised - Jayne's was closed) to Japan to whatever seemed to come to mind. I told him he looked familiar; turns out it was Mike Aguirre. I laughed and said; "wow, you're famous". He smiled, shook his head and said, I'm sure in jest, "no...more like infamous." You never know who you're going to sit next to.....

Sushi Noguchi (Yorba Linda):

Yes, Yorba Linda. This one is from last year actually. I had a meeting up in the OC and the Missus decided to join me since She had a couple of days off. I'd been waffling between sushi places, so I sent off an email to the one and only Elmomonster, His vote was the tiebreaker. We chose Sushi Noguchi; which is a rather odd place....another strip mall treasure in Yorba Linda.

The Missus and I had a great time....such a great time that I missed a couple of photos and some of what I took was not usable.

I thought about trashing what I had; but the meal was very good; especially having three different uni (San Diego - Santa Barbara - Hokkaido), where we could really make out the differences in flavor - San Diego was the meatiest and the mildest, the Hokkaido uni had an amazing briney-sweetness, it tasted of the ocean, the Santa Barbara might have been the sweetest of the three. We also really enjoyed all the shiromi (white fish).

The only thing we didn't particularly care for was the yellowtail in the olive oil-soy sauce.

This was only about half of what we got; the negi toro temaki was also fantastic.

I'm not sure when or if we'll be back in the area in the future, but this one is a total winnah! I'll do a better job of documenting our meal then. And worth every penny of the $120 per person without drinks.

Sushi Noguchi
18507 Yorba Linda Blvd
Yorba Linda, CA 92886

Ramen Menma - Basso Drillman Oceanside

Now here's a ramen spot with origins in Japan that I had read about several years back. Ikebukuro's Basso Drill-Man ramen is fairly well known by ramen junkies, mainly for the Tsukemen and Abura Soba; basically "oil noodles" in which thick and hefty noodles are coated in "oil" in many cases rendered pork fat with various seasonings. I was quite happy that another ramen shop with a true ramen background was opening up. The catch; Ramen Menma - Basso Drillman was opening in Oceanside. Oceanside!

So, when Eater announced the opening of the shop in June; I just knew I had to check it out. It was just a matter of having the time and making the 30-plus mile drive up to Oceanside.

I find the location interesting, it's not quite Convoy or even Mira Mesa as the restaurant, which has a rather spartan interior is basically across the street from Swami's.

I arrived just as the open sign was turned on and lead over to the bar area. I recall being told that this used to be an Americanized sushi bar. The two women working were quite nice and friendly.

Ordering for me was a no-brainer; being a lover of Sichuan Liang Mian and still make my version of "Oil Noodles"; I just had to try the Abura Soba, which they call Aburasso here. I ordered the "deluxe" version, not cheap at $15.75.

I'm glad I also got the Chicken Karaage, which at $4.25 for four pieces was not cheap. But let me tell you; this is the best karaage I've had in a while. And I got five pieces instead of four.

The coating was so crisp and lightly crunchy, and the dark meat chicken was so moist that it basically exploded when I bit into it.....it was more juicy than the recent XLB I had at Din Tai Fung. It had been marinating for a while as there was a deep soy flavor; perhaps edging on being too salty, with a definite lightly acidic tone, I'm fairly certain they use shio koji or something similar. There was a slight hint of ginger as well. This was quite good.

The Aburasso was soon passed to the Server who brought it over to me. I had seen the medium-thick noodles being mixed with the oil base. I had also seen one of the egg yolks fall out of the white and the poor fellow wrestle with getting it back into place.

The noodles were topped with the afore mentioned egg; nicely flavored, and for once, not served cold as it was nice and warm. The chashu had a very nice soy-slightly sweet flavor and while nice and fatty was on the more chewy side. Not sure about the blanched cabbage, as it brought nothing to the dish.

The flavored oil was on the bland side, with a hint of spice and smokiness. I was looking for a more intense, maybe porky essence. But this wasn't bad at all and several levels above the Abura Soba at hipsterish Nozaru Ramen.

It did a great job of coating the noodles though. And those noodles....you'll either love them or hate them. I enjoyed the wonderful toothsome chewiness....these were noodles with heft and would obviously be great if they were also used in the Tsukemen. Very nice noodles, it looks like you won't have to worry about the noodles being mushy here!

 

As much as I was looking forward to he ramen here, it was the karaage that fueled my return the following weekend.

The karaage this time around was even better than on my previous visit. A bit lighter, less salty, but still with a deep soy flavor.

So crunchy and moist, it was a joy to eat.

I had thought of going with the Tsukemen, but in the end, I chose the Deluxe Shoyu Ramen ($14.75). And while my main motivation was to see how the broth was at Menma, I regretted not getting the Tsukemen as this was less than satisfying.

While the egg and chashu was better this time around, both in terms of texture and flavor, I'm not a fan of the thinner noodles here as it lacks the springiness and toothsomeness of the thicker noodles.

The broth was very one-dimensional, it just seemed dashi heavy and salty, lacking any real savory tones. And while it appeared rich enough it strangely lacked that wonderful tongue coating "aaah" appeal.

My favorite component was strangely the menma, the bamboo shoots were initially crunchy, with an almost meaty finish, making it very satisfying to eat.

The two women working on both visits were very pleasant. And man, that karaage. But all of this comes with an investment for someone living within San Diego. Think of it as being about thirty-five bucks if you include gas and tip. And I was eating solo.

And yet, that karaage beckons me...….and perhaps that tsukemen…….just to see how it compares to Rokurinsha.

Ramen Menma - Basso Drillman Oceanside
509 Mission Ave
Oceanside, CA 92054
Hours:
Tues - Sun 1130am - 230pm, 5pm - 9pm

Tokyo - Kizo Ramen

It seems that during the course of our visits to Tokyo that we've developed some "traditions" of sorts. Dinner at Suzunari is one of them. And as we had breakfast, we decided to keep anther going.

The breakfast, we were given vouchers from the hotel, was basic and fine. We decided to head on down to Tokyo Station a few hours early; stash our bags in the always convenient lockers, and spend some time shopping, eating, and just enjoy our last few hours in Tokyo. We did manage to do some shopping; buying some gifts for folks back in San Diego.

When it came time to eat, well, that was easy. It was Ramen Street for us......a little habit that I think will become a tradition. On our first visit, it was the ultra-hyper Rokurinsha, on our last visit Oreshiki Jun. What was it be this time around?

Hmmmm…..we picked two and decided to check them out. After peeking into the two places; Kizo won out.

Mainly because the clientele, at least on this day all seemed Japanese; while the places (i.e. Rokurinsha with the huge line) had so many tourists. A big plus was that the specialty at Kizo is Sendai Gyutan Negishio Ramen...….beef tongue - scallion - shio ramen.

And as is the drill; we ordered a couple of other items on the menu and basically shared the ramen....like the gyoza.

Not the best "skins" which were brittle and plastic-ky. The filling was much too salty and a bit on the dry side.

Not the most auspicious start to a meal.

We also ordered the Beef Tongue Crouquette.

Man, the panko breading on this was fantastic; light and so crisp. This was the only light thing about the croquette as the filling was so rich; great beefiness, but perhaps too much of a good thing. A bit over-the-top for us. Wonderful textures though.

Which had us wondering how the ramen was going to be. We shouldn't have worried.....

As you can tell; we ordered extra ajitama, which was serviceable, the yolk decent and definitely not over-cooked. And those slices of beef tongue were heavenly....so tender, so beefy......as only beef tongue can be. The broth was good; not overly salty, it had almost a light garlic-beef-pork flavor to it. The tongue feel was really good, much thicker than it looked as it coated the nice, springy-chewy noodles well. The negi added a bit of pungency and crunch to things, but really wasn't needed in my mind.

And while we didn't have a whole lot of ramen on this trip, this was easily our favorite.

Kizo (Tokyo Station - Ramen Street)
1-9-1 Marunouchi Chiyoda Tokyo

As we left Tokyo Station I thought "well, it's three down; five to go....I wonder what we'll do when we reach eight?" Hmmmm…..let's not dwell on that.

Let's just enjoy the "interesting" and somewhat humorous signs that are posted.....

As with all of our trips to Japan; this one was chock full of memories....and Sakura!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tokyo - Sansei Yotsuya

As with most things in Japan; we got back to our hotel efficiently. We were a bit tired from the days activities and after a short nap; we decided to stay in the neighborhood for dinner. The Missus was still in "Yakiniku mode" and we had asked Chef Murata (or at least Reiko had) for a nearby recommendation.

He recommended a place named Sansei...….which caught me by surprise, since I'm a Sansei.

The restaurant is located right on the main street; in the lower level of one of the business buildings lining Shinjuku-dori.

The restaurant it self is fairly small, but comfortable. We were seated at the bar and given menus, which the Missus was able to start translating. When the young lady heard us talking we were given English menus, but by that time we were ready to order.

But first, a nama biiru (draft beer), which was nice and refreshing. The Missus ordered some kind of ginseng beer, maekju, which arrived on ice.

A brazier was delivered to the bar; with lit charcoal in it. We were wondering if we'd end up smelling like grilled meat; but a panel was opened up on the bar which did a great job sucking out the charcoal smoke.

We weren't super hungry, so here's what we ended up ordering.

Mushrooms, which came drizzled with gochujang.

I enjoyed the gyutan, the best. It came sliced a bit thicker than usual, but with the wonderful marbling it grilled up nicely. Crisp edges, toothsome centers, and really absorbed the smokiness of the charcoal real well.

The Missus had fallen in love with horumon during a previous visit to Tokyo, so of course we just had to order the offal combination.

The horumon arrived with a typical slightly sweet-salty marinade of sorts. It was bit on the tough side; even for intestines. The Missus enjoyed the liver, never a favorite of mine.

Overall, we enjoyed the yakiniku we had earlier in the trip at Horumon Dedesuke mmore. But this wasn't bad. Plus, it was rather close to our hotel.

Sansei Yotsuyahonten
3-3, Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo, 160-0004

I ended the evening like I often do when on vacation; with a couple of "cold ones".

The Suiyoubi No Neko; literally "Wednesday Cat" was a fairly enjoyable Belgian White, very "wheaty", with hints of orange and clove.

This time around; the Missus joined me, having some Sparkling Sake and I finished off with a Hitachino.

And some yuba snacks we got in Nikko....which we actually enjoyed much more than the actual yuba we ate for lunch!

We just relaxed and enjoyed our last evening in Japan.

It had gone by so fast......

Nikko - Toshogu Shrine, Lunch at Yasai Cafe Meguri, and the "Venus of Gyoza" at Utsunomiya Station

We had made the walk up from the train station and into Nikko National Park. We walked up the stone stairs past the walls gilded with moss. It was a lot to take in. On a misty day like this was; walking past moss covered stone lanterns, there is a feeling you get, mystery....wonder....like you've wandered onto a set of some movie.....

We were only spending the day in Nikko, so other than the Shinkyo Bridge, our main focus was on visiting Toshogu Shrine where Tokugawa Ieyasu, Shogun and founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate which ruled Japan for over 250 years, is supposed to be buried.

There is quite a bit to see here. Among my favorites were the Sanjinku, the Three Sacred Storehouses. Which were lined with gold leaf......hard to believe these were storehouses.

My favorite feature were the carvings of elephants that adorn the Kamijinko  (Upper Sacred Storehouse), which look like they came out of some Sci-fi comic.

These are called the Sozonozo Elephants (“imagined elephants”), as the artist who carved these, Kano Tanyu had never seen an elephant. Working from descriptions of the beasts he created this interpretation of what he "imagined" elephants looked like.

Right across from these structures is the Shinkyusha (the "Sacred Stable").

Notice all the folks taking photos here. It's because of the eight panels of monkeys lining the structure. The monkeys are depicting the lives of humans.

Especially popular is the Sanzaru ("Three Wise Monkeys").

You know the saying, right? "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil." Which I've been told are also three of the principles of Tendai Buddhism.

And then it was past the gate and up the stairs to the Yomeimon Gate.

Man, there was a lot to see here.....

From here 200 stone steps leads you up to Ieyasu Tokugawa's Tomb.

Man, that mist sure added to the atmosphere...…

After this we headed back down past all the other visitors; even some four legged ones.

Half the fun was people watching...….I guess the hill was kind of steep for some as they seemed to need a little boost.

We walked down the path to Futarasan Shrine...where the fog was really thick. Along with being the oldest shrine in Nikko, the area around the shrine is known for something else.

There is a tree near the gate of the shrine where a cedar and oak have joined together. This has come to be known as the matchmaking tree; you leave an offering for good luck in your relationship.

At this point, the Missus and I determined that it was a good time to head on back down the street and grab some lunch. Our philosophy when we travel is always to see the one or two things that are important to us; the rest is gravy. We always treat a destination as if we'll be returning someday.

We headed back down the street in the direction of the train station. Along the way; we saw this building.

Which definitely was not a "art and curios" shop as folks were eating inside. A quick search on Google Maps determined that this was Yasai Café Meguri, a vegan/organic restaurant. I looked at some of the photos and saw that the place served yuba bean curd; which I really enjoy. Plus, yuba is a specialty of Nikko.

So we decided to eat here. We entered, were warmly greeted, and led to our seats......which made the Missus crack up. It was my kryptonite...…..floor seating....

I've mentioned having to sit using tatami style seating before, my fear of having my legs fall asleep then trying to stand and destroying half a restaurant. Oh, the lovely noise of my joints snapping and popping as I sat on the floor.

Anyway, both the Missus and I got the Yuba Bean Curd Special.

We really didn't find this particularly to our taste. Everything was cold; including the rice under the yuba. The food was rather bland; the bean curd skin crunchy, but somewhat water-logged.

The thing we enjoyed the most about the dish was the green salad; the fresh, crisp bitter greens. 

Probably just not our kind of thing.

Yasai Cafe Meguri
909-1 Nakahatsuishimachi
Nikko 321-140, Tochigi Prefecture

We made our way back to the JR Station. Got on our train and headed back to Tokyo. We did have an hour layover in Utsunomiya where I decided to search for a statue I'd read about; the Venus of Gyoza.

Walking just outside the station we found her, in all her beauty ummm creepieness uniqueness, a woman creature emerging out of a gyoza. The "Venus of Gyoza". After all, Utsonomiya is considered the "capital of gyoza" in Japan. You can read about it in this article. Over the years; I've started to include one odd interesting place during our travels. And after all; this is still a food blog....and this has something to do with food, right?

The Missus was kind enough to humor me. Then we went back into the station and did some shopping (looking for local snacks) before our train arrived. On time as usual; after all, this was Japan!

Thanks for reading!

Lunch Revisits - Okan Diner and Hinotez

Here are a couple of revisits for a post-holiday Tuesday.

Okan Diner:

I was headed back to the office from a meeting and decided to grab some lunch. It had been a while since I last visited Okan Diner. Since the restaurant is right off the 805, I decided to stop in. I was fairly surprised to see the place completely empty and it stayed that way during my entire meal!

I went with what I usually have for lunch here, the Katsuni ($11.50). When it arrived; I quickly noticed that the tonkatsu had gotten smaller since my last visit.

There's also less side dishes; more rice, and the miso soup was a lot more watered down.

The pork cutlet was a bit over cooked and dry, the breading too hard. There wasn't enough of the sweet-salty sauce and the eggs were over cooked as well. At least it was hot, right?

There was one thing that kinda bothered me even more than the mediocre food.

Unfortunately, the kitchen was in my direct line of sight and I kept seeing one of the prep cooks constantly stopping and checking his phone. Notice that he's cutting meat. He'd slice some meat, stop, pick up his phone and start texting; put the phone away, do additional prep, grab his phone and start texting, grab some other product, and so forth......without gloves. I just should have sat somewhere else......

I think I'll just go get me my usual lunch at Okan next time.

Okan Diner
5430 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Hinotez:

I've mentioned dropping by Hinotez for a quiet lunch. It's usually fairly empty for an early lunch. And this day was no exception.

The problem being; I didn't know what to order....it was way to hot for ramen on this day. I looked over then menu and even though it was a zillion degrees outside, I went with the Curry Combo......for some reason, I thought back to the time when Taisho was Curry Rice Hinotez. I just went for it and had the Curry Rice ($8) with Tonkatsu ($4) and an Onsen Tamago ($1). It ended up being a pretty hefty meal.

The curry was really thick and full of meat. It was a bit on the mild side so I added raiyu to add some zip. It was very meaty. As you can tell, it seems that the frying oil for the pork was off since the breading was super hard and dark. The actual meat was fairly moist and tender though. That runny egg sure didn't hurt things.

I was stuffed after this meal and had to grab a double espresso on the way back to the office.

Still, it wasn't bad meal. The woman working on this day was very efficient and nice. And I got a quiet and relaxed meal....just what I needed.

Hinotez
7947 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

Karami Ramen

It's a bit strange; I've heard so much about Ramen Ryoma's opening, but not so much about Karami which opened around the same time. Last week the weather had started cooling off and due to the fact that a lot of folks were on vacation, well......many of my meetings were cancelled, so I decided to head on down to the plaza that houses Nijiya, Spicy House, and Pho Mignon.

I arrived at 1130 and there were only two parties in the place during my entire visit. The lay-out of this tiny restaurant is somewhat neat; in a slightly cheesy kind of way....but it does remind me of some of the ramen places I've eaten at in Japan.

 My Server was super friendly, with a great sense of humor.

As you can tell by the name; Karami specializes in spicy ramen. I wasn't too sure about having that on my first visit, so I just went with the Miso Tonkotsu and Chicken Karaage.

The Chicken Karaage wasn't too bad; in fact, I think it was better than what I'd had at Ryoma.

It lightly crisp; the dark meat chicken was slightly marinated....too little for my taste; but it was moist and had flavor. Of course, I had to listen to the know-it-all young lady on the next table tell her dining companion that it was all wrong....it should be white meat instead of dark meat. Methinks she got her katsu and karaage all mixed up. It didn't help that she ordered the "tonkatsu ramen"......

Meanwhile; my Miso-Tonkotsu was disappointing.

The noodles were standard issue JFC stuff and overcooked for my taste. The egg was cooked nicely, but ice cold. The chashu had a nice band of fat, but was on the dry side.

The broth was way too salty and very thin for a tonkotsu style broth; totally lacking in the balanced tongue coating richness I enjoy. There was a hint of garlic; but not much else beyond the sodium. It was truly lacking in complexity. You know I'm reaching when I thought to myself; "hey, this menma is pretty good".

You can tell what I thought about the broth......

On the bright side; the server was really nice and that karaage wasn't the worst that I've had recently.

Anyway, Calvin just returned from vacation, and guess where he wanted to eat?

And you know what? I was ready to actually try one of these......

We both ordered some extras. Calvin went with the curry-rice, non-spicy.

It actually had a mild kick, was slightly beefy; but the meat was tough and dry. Not too bad.

I ordered the spicy chicken wings; which was "all show and no go".

It's got to be the blandest; spicy looking chicken wings I've ever had.....hardly spicy at all; it lacked in any nuance of flavor, no sweetness, it seemed to be using something like kimchi base, or something similar mixed into a paste like texture. The batter got gummy quite quickly. At least the wings were moist.

I order the Triple Super Spicy Chashu Shio Ramen...….

Well, this was also underwhelming. Our server, the same friendly young lady as on my previous visit, looked surprised that we ordered this. She warned us several times about how spicy this was......it wasn't. It just wasn't very spicy; and what heat there was lacked nuance. I did think it was better than the thin, salty broth I'd had last time; but I was just surprised that this wasn't very spicy.

The noodles were still cooked more than I prefer; but was better than on my last visit. As you can see; the chashu was on the dry side; and cold to boot, as was the tamago.

The young lady seemed genuinely shocked that we were unfazed by the triple spicy ramen. She said she was worried we'd get sick from the spice. But she really won me over when I told her, "would you like me to call tomorrow to let you know I haven't died?" Her reply was awesome, "ok, but no screaming on the phone...."

Now that witty answer might be worth another visit....maybe.....

Karami Ramen
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Mon - Thurs 1130am - 230pm, 530pm - 10pm
Friday      1130am - 230pm, 530pm - 1030pm
Saturday    12pm - 3pm, 530pm - 1030pm
Sunday      12pm - 3pm, 5pm - 9pm

Midweek Meanderings - Guest Kabob Replacing Hunan Kitchen, Isshido Coming to Mira Mesa, and Menya Ultra's Second Location

So, I decided to take a the REALLY long route to this office this past weekend......well, let's call it what is was....procrastination. I ended driving up Convoy to check on Hunan Kitchen a.k.a. Noodle Hut a.k.a. Tǔjiā Xiāng Cài  and here's what I found:

Hunan Kitchen being replaced by "Guest Kabob":

At least that's what the sign says.

 

I saw the construction on the place a few weeks earlier.....I had hoped that Hunan kitchen would stay....but looks like we're going to have the sixth restaurant in this spot in the last 7 years.

4690 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Isshido replacing Submarina in Mira Mesa:

I drove up to Mira Mesa....just, well, because. A bit hungry, I turned into the parking lot near Habit Grill and saw this in the now defunct Submarina spot.

I stopped and took a look. I'm not sure what type of restaurant Isshido is going to be. Doing a Google search yielded nothing. So I'm not quite sure what's going on here.

8250 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

I ended up grabbing a late breakfast/lunch across the street....that'll be in a future post. On the way out of the parking lot, I decided to check out.....

Menya Ultra's Mira Mesa location:

Which is right next to Grocery Outlet. With all that brown paper up; it's hard to tell what's going on here.

8141 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

So there you go....one morning of procrastination was pretty productive, even before I got into the office, don't you think?