mmm-yoso!!!

KZ Mori (Inside of H Mart - Balboa)

Recently, I had to deal with parking at H Mart on Balboa at 1030. Well, finding a space wasn't bad, though things filled up quickly and it was kinda crazy as I was about to leave. Since it was just about lunchtime, I decided to head on back into H Mart and peruse the ever changing food court. The last time I had taken a look at the food court was when Bann had closed. Of course, no sooner than had Bann closed that they were replaced with another "concept". One place that I thought wasn't too bad in the Food Court was Katzya, though my last visit there was not too satisying. They eventually closed as well. I had heard that they had been replaced by a Katsu shop, named KZ Mori. For some reason, the name sounded familiar. When I saw the logo, it hit home. I had read about a katsu shop in the H Mart food court in Arcadia named "Kazu Mori". And I think it's related somehow? 

   I walked up to the counter, the place had just opened, but there seemed to be a couple of folks waiting for their orders already. The young man working was really nice, though he looked a bit overwhelmed. I took a look at the menu....even though the portions looked pretty large, I went and ordered the Mix Katsu Combo ($19.99), which included both pork and chicken katsu and curry. 

There was one other guy working and I saw him take out a huge batch of katsu and start chopping away. Oh my. After watching the first couple of orders go out, I was wondering how he knew which was the chicken and which was the pork. My plate was made from that "pile".

Instead of getting my order to dine in; I got it in a take out box, which was a good move since it was pretty darn hefty.

Opening things up on the table revealed "blotchy" katsu to the left and "blotchy" katsu to the right, a huge pile of shredded cabbage, and some nicely cooked rice.

 The katsu had not been fried evenly and there were some darkly colored spots, the texture of the panko was kind of mealy, at least the breading wasn't separating from the proteins, but it was easy to tell which was the pork and chicken. The pork was on the left; it was thicker, had a more spongy texture, but was fairly tender, if a bit on the dry side. The seasoning was one dimensional being quite salty. The chicken on the right side was thinner, dry, and chewy. It was also quite salty. I'd take the pork any day of the week.

 I'm pretty sure the curry had been made with "cubes", it had a nice spice, but was barely lukewarm....and I was eating in the food court. It was quite gloppy and was also on the salty side. Dipping the katsu in this was just too much sodium for me.

There was standard issue Japanese Sesame Dressing for the huge pile of cabbage, which was fine. The Katsu sauce was too sour and thin for me to enjoy.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting, say EE Nami, but there seems to be a lack of QC here as I think Homestyle Hawaiian and if we're looking at food court katsu even Musashiya (though it's been a while - I need to revisit) is better. Though, if you're really hungry, perhaps this would fill the bill? I think it's more about portion size here, the place seems quite popular - I ended up taking about half the food home with me. 

I mean, take a look at the katsu.......

KZ Mori (In the H Mart Food Court)
7725 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 11am - 8pm

Midweek Meanderings - Champs Korean BBQ Replacing Seoul Korean Tofu House and Chicken Karaage from Tokyo Central (Marukai)

Just two quick things for a "heat wave Wednesday"!

Champs Korean BBQ Replacing Seoul Korean Tofu House:

I saw this while driving back from shopping at Nijiya.

I know that this used to be Convoy Tofu House, then it became Seoul Korean Tofu House. Now it looks like it's going to be yet another AYCE Korean BBQ. Because well, like KFC and Hot Pot we can never have enough AYCE KBBQ, right?

4229 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Chicken Karaage from Tokyo Central:

I started seeing these signs posted when entering Tokyo Central (aka Marukai).

Hmmmm.......Ever since Nijiya went and changed the recipe for their karaage I've been looking for a replacement. And the price at $10.99 a pound isn't too bad. After all, the regular price on the frozen Ajinomoto Karaage is $10.99 if I recall.

So, after about the fourth or fifth time seeing the signs I decided to go for it. I walked over to the warmer and bought me a small portion.

Once home I opened it up and had a taste. I liked the flavor, decent soy tones, without being too salty. I did find that it was on the more soggy side.

So, I ended up putting it in the air fryer for like 6 minutes and it was like a whole different dish!

Nice and crisp/crunchy. Heck, even the Missus liked it! So, even though this won't stop me from getting my Tenkatori "fix", it's a good option when heating in the air fryer.

Tokyo Central
8125 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

I hope everyone is keeping cool and comfortable during this heatwave!

Chicken Wing Wednesday - Kuljem Chicken & Beer (aka Honeyjam Chicken & Beer, aka JJ Chicken)

Ok, I know you must be tired of all these KFC posts, they seem to be coming in hot and heavy right now, this will be the last one for a while...hopefully, though I do have some revisits in the queue. Based on the crazy pre-opening history of this place, you know I just had to visit. For those who don't remember; originally, back in 2021, this was supposed to be JJ's Chicken, then in August of 2022, the "JJ" sign was gone. Then FOYs Patty (in the comments of that post) and Rena (via email, with an attached photo) notified me that the place was going to be Honeyjam Chicken. I drove on over and posted a photo in October of 2022. Finally, in May of this year Eater posted on the Soft Opening of Honeyjam. I had heard about the place selling out of wings and really didn't want to repeat the BHC thing, so I waited. By the time of my visit, the signage now said "Kuljem"! You gotta love it. Which is basically "Honey" (ggul) and "Jem" (잼) means "fun", so I guess it all fits, right? Whew.....

Not wanting to fight crowds and such, I walked in at 1130, opening time on a Tuesday. 

A really nice young man greeted me and asked me if I was ordering for here to to go. I told him I'd be dining in and he led me over to a table and pointed out the QR code for the menu.

I placed my order and once he got things set he came over and introduced himself as John and is one of the owners. He also owns Arteazen, the Boba/Tea shop in the plaza. He was a really friendly guy and I guess I must have a rather generic look because he asked me if we'd met before? Seeing an opening, I asked him about first being JJ's and was told that the sign was a mistake because that's the name of their LLC; his business partner's name is Jin, so "J & J" got it? But what about the Honeyjam "thing"? Well, after being open a bit, they found that with the name Honeyjam, folks were expecting SFC ("Southern Fried Chicken") and waffles, that sort of thing, so they went with the Korean name! Got that? Double whew.....

Anyway, I ordered the wings - Original Crispy (6 piece - $12) and some Kimchi Fried Rice ($16). Not cheap, but it looks like about $2 a wing is the going rate these days? I was graciously brought a glass of water and soon enough my wings arrived. Even before the fried rice. John told me that they double fry the Original Crispy.

   These were those jumbo sized wings; the batter was really thick and more hard-crunchy than crispy. The seasoning was a good amount of salt and black pepper. The wings were moist, especially the flats, and looked to be of good quality. As whole, just way too much batter for me, but decent wings. It threw the entire proportion off and I really needed that cabbage with dressing and the mul kimchi, which hovered on the sweeter side of things to reset my palate.

What I enjoyed much more than the wings was the Kimchi Fried Rice ($16).

While I do wish they had a Spam option for this, the chicken, which I'm sure they have a lot of was ok. Loved the fried egg with the crisp edges, it was perfect. The rice was wonderfully coated and there was a good amount of crunchy, fermentally sour kimchi in this. This was quite good!

I heard some customers, who came in after me raving about the "Saigon Wings" so I knew I had to make a return visit. I did wait about a month or so, but again returned at the 1130 opening time, this time on a Wednesday. I was greeted once again, this time by John's partner, "Jin", who led me to a table and the ensuing QR code drill. And brought me a glass of H2O.

This time I decided on the Saigon Wings (6 - $12). 

  The batter for this seemed a bit different; it was thinner, more lacquered, but still on the crunchy end of the spectrum. The menu says "aromatic and slightly spicy", I'd go with barely spicy and teeth rattling sweet and sticky. The wings were, as before moist and tender, but this was too much for me. I ended up needing the cabbage a mul kimchi to recover! Also, I had to request extra napkins, because of that sticky sauce. Perhaps they'll stock some wipes in the future?

Really like the two owners who are very friendly and quite chatty. The wings are good quality, though it's a bit too crunchy for me. Funny thing is; I'll definitely get the kimchi fried rice. Now if they start offering a Spam option, well I'd be there for sure!

Kuljem Chicken & Beer
8895 Towne Centre Dr. Suite 101
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Daily 1130am - 2pm, 5pm - 11pm

Buga Revisted

Our visit to Prime Grill had the Missus wondering how Buga was doing. It had been 5 years since our last visit, which was during August as well. And our previous visit was during the previous August too! I had also heard that Buga had changed ownership once again. So, we decided to head on over for lunch.

It was at 1130 and while the parking lot didn't look packed, the restaurant was quite busy. In fact, we waited almost 20 minutes just to be acknowledged. 

The workers were scrambling around and I noticed that the group of 6 behind us, didn't even get seated until we already had our food!

The Missus ordered the combo with Beef Bulgogi and Naengmyun (lunch special - $27.99) and of course I got the BiBim Naengmyun ($15.99 - lunch special) 

It took a while, but our panchan eventually arrived.

Man, this was not good, the namul was bland, as was the dotorimuk (acorn jelly) muychim. Both the cabbage and radish kimchi wasn't very "fermented" in flavor, and that Korean potato salad needed more flavor.

This was not a good start to the meal. 

My BiBim Naegmyun soon arrived.

This version uses an abundance of thinner, very stretchy noodles, which we like. The beef and boiled egg were fine. Because of the amount of naegmyun in the dish, there just wasn't enough sauce to coat all the naengmyun; which was nice and spicy, though it lacked sweetness - sesame oil tones .

The Missus's combo soon arrived. The Naengmyun was interesting, and not in a good way.

While it featured the same generous amount of thin and stretchy noodles; the broth was strangely lukewarm. What happened to the icy-chilled broth; which also lacked the nice, sweet-tangy pear flavor. It was quite sour and very salty, but that temperature threw us off. We always think of Naengmyun as being refreshing; well, this was not.

As for the Beef Bulgogi.

I think you can tell by the look. It wasn't marinated well enough and not evenly as some of the pieces were quite "light" in color. The meat was super tough and cut too thick for our taste. This was really bad; the worse we've had in a while.

This was not a good meal. I have wonderful memories of Buga (under he original owners), as my first post goes all the way back to, yep August, of 2005, when the last, great, Ed from Yuma, premiered his "delici-yoso dance"! It's kind of sad. The place was packed though, I'm figuring all those folks having AYCE BBQ and such. As for us, well, I don't think we'll be back.

Buga Korean BBQ Restaurant
5580 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

Don Chicken (Encinitas) and Cal Pacific Orchid Farm

Recently, I was up in the Encinitas area and decided to make a couple of stops on my way back home. The First was to the Cal Pacific Orchid Farm which I had heard about from some folks I know who live in North County and also read this on Hidden San Diego. I decided to stop by. The huge greenhouse is located off of Orpheus Avenue which parallels the I-5. It was interesting finding the place as there's a discreet single lane driveway from the street which heads up to the greenhouse and the small parking spaces.

Many of the beautiful plants are in lovely arrangements and the staff are so friendly. The gentleman working that day was very nice and spent almost a half hour chatting with me. My grandparents on Maui grew orchids and my Mom had a couple of plants when we lived in Kaimuki. For some reason, I thought that orchids needed a rather humid environment to grow, but the gentleman went through some of the various species, how they thrive in San Diego, that they do like moisture, but not too much water and not too much direct sun....which is why we saw so many in the Cloud Forest in Ecuador.

The gentleman obviously enjoys his job and has a real passion for orchids.

One thing I found interesting is that Cal Pacific will "board" your plants if they are not doing well, not blooming, or in need of additional care!

The folks here are wonderful. I'm going to make sure to get my orchids from them!

Cal Pacific Orchid Farm
1122 Orpheus Ave.
Encinitas, CA 92024
Hours:
Mon - Sat 9am - 4pm
Closed on Sundays

Of course the next item on the agenda was......well, what's for lunch? A while back, someone, I don't recall who, asked me if I had been to Don Chicken. I looked thru my emails and searched through my comments but was not able to find that recommendation. Well, you know me, could I fight off the temptation of some "KFC"? Probably not. Especially when it's just a ten minute drive away.

Don Chicken is located off El Camino Real in one of the many strip malls lining the street. I arrived a few minutes before opening, so I headed over to Baker and Olive a few doors down to take a look at things.

The open sign lit up just as I started heading back toward the restaurant. Don Chicken is yet another chain from Korea, though my friends told me that the chain is really popular in Ho Chi Minh City? Which, for some reason made me think of Crispy Chicken n’ Tomato which declares itself the most popular KFC in Japan.

On this day, the place was a one man operation, at least while I was there. The menu features Oven Baked and Fried Chicken in various sauces. The specials include bulgogi, tteok-boki, a chicken sandwich, and even katsu. But, since this was a KFC joint, I was just going to get the Fried Wings. The wings only come in orders of 10, a bit much for me, but at least it was priced at $15.99, which was much cheaper per piece that the $8.99 I paid for 4 wings at BHC recently.

And after a short wait, my wings were ready.

 The wings came with a rather large order of Mul Kimchi, crisp, not overly sweet, a good palate cleanser for fry-o-lated foods.

As for the wings, well these weren't overly large, which I prefer as the skin/batter to meat ratio to more to my liking. The meat was moist and tender, no dark areas and no off flavors.

   The batter was somewhat crunchy, but it really got soggy quickly. The seasoning seemed quite mild, but I had a raging thirst after eating 6 of these wings. I took the remaining wings home and even tried to revive in the air fryer, but that didn't work too well. I'm thinking that if I tried this again it would have to be with some kind of sauce; but based on experience with other KFC chains of this ilk, I'm going to assume it's going to be too sweet and heck, it already gets soggy-mushy too quickly anyway.

So perhaps I'll just give it a rest? If you've visited Don Chicken what was your meal like?

Don Chicken
215 S. El Camino Real Suite G
Encinitas, CA 92024
Current Hours:
Mon - Sat 11am - 9pm
Sunday 3pm - 9pm

Chicken Wing Wednesday - BHC Chicken (Sorrento Valley)

Back in June, the huge KFC chain BHC opened in what I believe is called the "Mercato Food Hall" off of Scranton Road. I made up my mind to hold out for a while before visiting and in a show of ultimate willpower actually managed to wait 9 days! Well, so much for that, right? One of the good things is that BHC opens at 1030 during the week, so I'd (hopefully) manage to avoid the anticipated crowds. I drove on over to the mall where the restaurant is located. It's kind of an interesting place as it seems that there are a good number of vacancies there....or maybe it's just that every time I've visited, most of the businesses, minus the McDonald's is closed?

I arrived just at opening time and as I walked up to the door, the open sign came on. Perfect timing right?

Well, maybe not, as when I arrived at the counter, the really nice young man working told me they were out of wings. Sigh.....

So, I had to work out a plan B. They really nice fellow gave me a little container with a chip with the Bburing seasoning, which had some cheesy-garlicky-sweet tones to it.

I asked for a recommendation and was told that the Signature Sandwich ($10) was a good deal and I thought I'd try some Cheeseballs with the Bburing Seasoning ($8). I went and had a seat.

When my cheeseballs were ready, one of the nice young folks brought it to my table along with a cup of water. Very nice service.

In keeping with the popular Bburinkle seasoning, the powder was cheesy-sweet-salty with hints of garlic and possibly oregano. It was a bit too sweet for my taste. The exterior was crisp, the filling was nicely molten and gooey, but somewhat lacking in flavor, perhaps that was due to the Bburinkle powder which basically got everywhere.

This was interesting, though I don't think I'll have it again.

As for my sandwich; well, it was huge.

In fact, I could barely finish half the sandwich. The ratio of bread to filling was off and there was way too much mayo on this.

 As you can see, the chicken took up only two-thirds of the sandwich surface area, so there were "fowl-less" bites and with all that bread and mayo, it was hard making heads or tails of the flavors. So even though that label said "please enjoy it as soon as served" there was no way I could finish this. I put half in the fridge at work and took it home. During dinner that evening, I brought out the remainder of the sandwich and the Missus and I took out the piece of chicken. Even though the batter had sloughed off, it seemed like the chicken thigh meat was nicely seasoned and fairly tender. 

Which meant that I needed to try out those wings. I returned at opening time a couple of days later and guess what? Still no wings. So, I waited a bit, like two weeks before revisiting. Even though I had items for a small lunch; I thought an order of 4 wings, which came in at $8.99......man, it's like two bucks a wing here, would be a good addition to my rather healthy lunch. 

And they did have wings available on this day. Of course, since this was the first time I'd be having the wings I went with the 4 piece "Classic Fried", having that Bburinkle powder on the chicken would just overpower things in my opinion. I did also get a side of the sweet and spicy sauce ($1). When my wings were ready, I took that quick ten minute drive back to the office where I opened things up.

  The wings were on the larger end of the spectrum and were lightly seasoned. The sauce was much too sweet for me. 

While there was some discoloration with the flesh, there were no off flavors and the meat was moist and tender.

The batter rode the crisp-crunchy line nicely and kind of reminded me of the cornflake-corn starch fried chicken my mom used to make. 

This was quite good, though one of the pieces; an unwieldy drumette was way over-battered.

Still, the wings were tender, though in need for a bit more seasoning, perhaps I need to find the right "sauce". The wings had a nice crispy-crunchy coating, which I don't think would hold up to when sauced, so if anything, I'd get that on the side.

I liked the friendly service and BHC seems to be a nice addition to the "KFC" scene here in San Diego; though I'm wondering, like hot pot and ramen, when we'll be hitting critical mass here.

You can read Soo's post on BHC here.

BHC Chicken
9450 Scranton Rd. #112
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Mon - Tues 1030am - 1030pm
Wed - Sat    1030am - 11pm
Sundays      11am - 930pm

Prime Grill Revisited

The recent hot weather had me craving some Bi Bim Naengmyun, so I started thinking of some options. I'd last had a metal bowl of it at Yuk Dae Jang, but I wasn't very impressed. Thinking back, I had enjoyed the BBN from Prime Grill, though on our last visit there back in March of 2022, the panchan was terrible and the service even worse. Would things be different over 2 years later? Well, we decided to roll the dice and find out.

We arrived for an early dinner and the place was still fairly busy. This time around, the woman who waited on us was quite warm and friendly. 

The Missus had always enjoyed the Dak Bulgogi here and ordered the combo ($24.99) and I (of course) got the Bi Bim Naegnmyun ($16.99). The panchan was much better than what we'd had on our previous visit. 

The Baechu kimchi was nice and fermented, with a slight funkiness we enjoy, the kkakdugi (radish kimchi) was spicy, sour, yet refreshing, the Missus enjoyed the namul and I the oi (cucumber) kimchi!

The Missus's combo soon arrived.

   And when the gyeran jjim (steamed egg) hit the table, I thought that this would be the interesting test of the service. You see, the Missus enjoys some sesame oil on Her steamed egg. I think it's kind of a Northern Chinese thing. On our last visit, Her request for some was met with some testy derision. This time, the nice woman came over with a squirt bottle and told the Missus, "tell me when...."

Also of note, the woman had told the Missus that there was an option for "sausage tofu stew", basically Budae-jjigae with the combo. And surprisingly, the Missus went for it.

Apparently the Missus enjoyed the gyeran jjim as it was gone in an instant.

The version of budae-jjigae was fairly mild in terms of spice and on the salty side. It was not bad on rice. And the weather was so hot that I just really had a taste and left the rest to the Missus. 

Who really enjoyed the salty-sweet-soy flavors of the dak bulgogi, which was also decently griddled with spots of caramelization without charring.

I had a bite and thought it was not bad; dark meat chicken, nicely balanced flavors, not overly tough.

As for me, well, soon enough my metal bowl of spicy-vinegary-sweet elastic noodles arrived at my table.

I made sure to accept the shears that were proffered as I'd had enough experience trying to slurp in what seemed like an endless stream of highly elastic naengmyun. These days I go for a "four-cut". I enjoyed these as the noodles weren't too elastic, but still held on to it's pleasurable, springy-stretchy resiliently bouncy texture. The sauce had a nice spice to it, I added a bit more vinegar to balance things out. If the heat rose to bit too high, I simply took a sip of the icy sour and sweet broth to recover.

The slices of Asian pear helps "Sweeten the pot" and there's a single slice of very dry meat and the boiled egg was overcooked, you could tell that by the evil "gray ring" around the yolk. But heck, I didn't order this to help fulfill my protein requirement for the day.

I wanted something with loads of flavor to help cool me off. And this did the job in spades.

The Missus also enjoyed Her meal with the panchan and service back on track, so I'm thinking Prime Grill is back in our good graces after a two year wait. Just in time for the summer heat.

Prime Grill
4620 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 11am - 10pm

Monday Meanderings - Juewei Coming to Convoy, SotBBQ Replacing Olleh Sushi, and Recently Consumed

We're recently back from yet another Road Trip and I needed to do my rounds this past weekend. Driving around Kearny Mesa I noticed a few new places.

Juewei Coming to Convoy:

I actually drove into Plaza del Sol on Convoy to see what was going on with China Max and noticed a new sign. Right next to Bonchon was this signage.

Whoa, could it actually be? We had been to Jue Wei Kitchen in San Gabriel for the duck neck, pig's feet, etc.......

So, just before typing this up I dropped by Eater San Diego and according to their post, it is true. Get ready for some spicy duck neck, pig ears, tripe, and all kinds of braised goodies!

4690 Convoy St #103
San Diego, CA 92111

SotBBQ Replacing Olleh Sushi:

While driving East on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, I noticed another new sign. This one for something called SotBBQ? This is in the plaza where the original location of Menya Ultra is located.

Less than two years ago Olleh Sushi replaced Old House Hot Pot, and before that it was Uniboil, which replaced Beauty Hunan, which replaced Szechuan Taste! Man, is this location cursed or what?

Well, we'll see how this works out.

8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

And finally.......

Man, this past weekend was a hot one, huh?

I really didn't want to work too hard at cooking and with the post 4th of July folks still crowding things....man, was the Little Italy Mercato packed. I couldn't find any parking at my usual spots and had to actually get metered parking!

Anyway, just to get a bit silly here, we had stuff from the farmers market; great tomatoes from Andrew at Indian Summer Farms, Fuerte Avocados from another stand. We had gotten a nice sourdough loaf from Erick Schat's Bakery in Bishop, perfect for sandwiches, and so forth.....

For a light lunch I made an Avocado - Tomato Toast, with lardons of bacon and feta.....

And for lunch yesterday, it was a Watermelon-Bacon-Feta Salad with tomato, basil, cilantro micro greens, and butter lettuce.

Nice and refreshing.

What have you been eating to "beat the heat"?

Hope everyone has a great week!

Revisits - HFS at Centerpark Labs, Sue's Korean Kitchen, Ngon Ngon to Go, and Tenkatori

So, I've noticed something about many of the places I head to during lunch. I get into the office rather early and start getting hungry at 10am or so. I also don't care much for crowds. Thus, I've developed a habit of heading to places that open a bit earlier than the usual 11am start time. Also, for these takeout visits, I usually don't stray too far afield.

Having done multiple posts on all of these places, I thought I'd just do a "COMC" (Clearing Out the Memory Card) post.

HFS at Centerpark Labs:

A regular stop on the rotation since my first visit back in August of 2020, HFS has since moved their retail location. It's still a stop when I want decent poke here in San Diego. And they've become quite popular. Heck, there were folks waiting at ten minutes before the opening time on this day.

For lunch I'll usually get the medium poke bowl with brown rice ($19) and can usually get out quite quickly. I stay with the ahi choices here. Not a fan of the salmon and stuff.

On this day it was the "Pearl Harbor", which had some good spice and the Shoyu Ahi which had a better quality of fish; quite tender and creamy.

It's still my first choice for poke in San Diego.

HFS at Centerpark Labs
6835 Flanders Dr.
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Thurs - Tues 10am - 8pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm

Sue's Korean Kitchen:

I've done a number of posts on Sue's since I first visited back in 2021. I like that they open at 10am and basically stick with one item on the menu, the Kimchi Fried Rice ($12.99). Though I've encountered "shrunken portions" at times, on my last two visits, things seem back to normal.

And though I've encountered "mushy rice syndrome" on a couple of visits, that was not the case this time around.

A nice Spam-i-fied, mildly spicy, fermented, carb load. The woman here cracks me up as she seems to remember me and what I order!

Sue’s Korean Kitchen
6755 Mira Mesa Blvd. Suite 109
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Mon - Sat 10am - 9pm

Ngon Ngon Food to Go:

Ngon Ngon might be as far as I would usually wander for lunch. They open at 9am, though are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays......need to remember that. I've kinda stuck to one item since my first set of visits when they opened a year ago, the Bo Luc Lac.

They've kinda rearranged things in the small space within Vinh Hung Market.

I'll call in my order for #27, the "Cubed Beef Filet Mignon with Steamed Rice" ($16). Now while the though of comparing this to gourmet filet mignon might be a stretch, the beef is not bad. Slightly toothsome, edging on a bit too salty, with a touch of savory-sweetness.

I'm not the biggest fan of the salad as at times the greens have been starting to brown, but this time it wasn't bad.

Ngon Ngon To Go
10550 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126
Current Hours:
Wed - Sun 9am - 8pm
Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays

Tenkatori:

And finally, Tenkatori. Another regular stop since I first visited two years ago. The place opens at 1030 on weekdays, which is great since I hate that parking lot. There is one key thing when I do take out. I always call in my order when they open at 1030. The online ordering ordering, even though it says no service fee adds on $2-$3. For instance, I ordered the Mega Karaage Don on this day. I called in my order which was $17.30, using Uber Eats for Pick-up it's $22.80! Ordering Door Dash pick-up it's $22.50. For pick-up!

Actually, I'm not sure why I ordered the Mega Don as it was way to much food....but what the heck; the chicken heats well in the air fryer.

Tenkatori Miramar
6780 Miramar Rd Suite 104
San Diego, CA 92121
Phone - (858) 200-2016
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri 1030am - 2pm, 4pm - 8pm
Sat - Sun   11am - 230pm, 4pm - 8pm

So there you go...my recent early takeout lunch habits. I'm going to do turo turo in a separate post.

In your opinion, am I missing out on anything? And what have you been getting for lunch recently?

Bann at Gourmet Artisan

Back in January I noted that Bann, located in the HMart Food Court had closed. I used to visit them once in a while when they were located on Miramar Road. Less so when they pulled up roots and moved to H Mart. Still, I was sad to see them close as I had enjoyed their kimchi fried rice.

Well, I'm not quite sure if you know this, but I do have an Instagram Account. I'm not tied to it much as I much prefer long form posts. I usually put up odds and ends, photos after I actually do a post and such. Anyway, I basically set-up my Instagram account so I could keep in touch with folks like Dennis of a Radiused Corner, or "CC". But, once in a while I will learn something from Instagram; not necessarily from a post. For example, I know folks who are great "FOYs" who also do posts on that platform. One of them is Derric, who was nice enough to send me a screen shot of a text he recently got.

Hmmmm, Bann at Gourmet Artisan? A place that I've posted on many times before? Hmmm........

So, this past week, I wanted to see what was up with SuperNatural Sandwiches, I dropped by in January and the place was closed with a sign saying reopening mid-January, but it was already late January and.....well, more on that in a future post.

I decided to go ahead and see what was up with the Gourmet Artisan. Now, GA is one of the few places that I don't mind doing online ordering from since there doesn't seem to be an upcharge for that (so long it's done from the website). So, I went to the web page and then to the "Order Pickup" and quickly noticed this:

So, I scrolled down and found the "Pick-up Meal Deals". You order these ahead for one of the designated pick-up times. Of course, I was disappointed to see that kimchi fried rice wasn't available. But, the Bulgogi Bowl was $9.99! Man, in this day and age, that's a reasonable price. 

I placed my order and just like when ordering a sandwich from GA, was informed when my food was being worked on. I'm close enough to the shop to get there in ten minutes.

And my order was being placed on the counter when I arrived. There were four other takeout orders on the counter as well.

 I guess Bann has some kind of pseudo "ghost kitchen" thing going at GA?

Anyway, I was interested in trying the bulgogi, since Bann always called their version of the dish "marinated beef", not bulgogi. 

Well, the beef looked as I remembered it. Though this "bowl" had much less vegetable filler than what the former version of Bann sold. The veggies are really undercooked. 

The portion size was quite good; the rice moist. But like the "old Bann" the marinade was really weak, you can tell by the color. It was in need of more...of well, everything, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic. On the good side; the beef was much more tender than I recalled. I'd say for $9.99 this might be worth the price.

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I'm glad to have tried this and will keep an eye out to see if anything else, that doesn't have bulgogi (or salmon) in it will be offered. Or heck, I'll get a sandwich from there on my "next round".

The ghost kitchen stuff is getting interesting......

Bann at Gourmet Artisan - Bann items currently only available for online ordering and pick-up
7094 Miramar Rd.
San Diego, CA 92121

Thanks for thinking of us Derric, I really appreciate it!