No. 240

BBQ 81

 This place is on El Cajon Blvd (at Louisiana) and seats 36, plus 4 stools at the beer bar. On-street parking is problematical at best and very likely impossible during certain times of the day. It's only been open for a couple of months but the front door glass was smeared with handprints, a serious no-no in this biz, the carpet was threadbare and the reconditioned table tops were covered in either pleather or vinyl. There are a couple of flat screen TVs mounted on the walls but during our visit, the server / cashier / busser / beertender (she did it all without ever once washing her hands) was playing the stereo too loudly for us geezers. Finally, a couple of large windows were open, triggering the heater's thermostat and no doubt, jacking up the owner's SDG&E bill unnecessarily.

We had a half slab of baby back ribs with corn bread, slaw and fries for side dishes. I also ordered a hot link sandwich (2 grilled, butterflied links in a sandwich roll) and an iced tea, which I discovered was from the machine. I no longer drink from soda fountains because of the line cleaner, which you can taste. The ribs weren't bad (but definitely not falling-off-the-bone tender), the fries were nice and hot (but generic), the hot link was fairly spicy, the corn bread was cold, and the slaw wasn't anything to write home about.

Finally, it's a bit pricey ($25 & coin plus tip, making it an even $30 for a small lunch) and we won't be going back.

Their web site: http://www.barbeque81.com

No. 239

New York Buffalo Wings & Ribs
333 H Street
Chula Vista
 
Since we moved over this way, we no longer have Neighbor Neal nearby to feed every once in a while and there's really no point in buying a whole chicken when there's just the 2 of us. Additionally, I'm not overly fond of chicken (my dad was a chicken farmer back in the early 50s). And since I only eat wings and an occasional piece of breast meat, we've been looking for a better way to get in our weekly chicken. So far, we've tasted wings at Popeye's, Church's, KFC and Wings & Things (National City) and this chain is Number One Son's favorite wing palace so we decided to check it out..
 
Unfortunately, this location had dirty front door glass, floors, tables, catsup bottle lids, etc and I watched on employees wiping the counter with a wet rag, then grabbing an order of food with the rag still in that hand. Then there's a serious problem with lousy, loud rap music dropping an almost constant stream of "F-bombs" despite the table with kids in the middle of the dining room at 3:00 PM...
 
When it comes to the food, we found the wing pieces (not whole wings) to be small, with not a lot of meat (KFC is winning on that point), the fries were generic and the dipping sauces were a bit vinegary. To their credit, it was possible to get iced tea that wasn't dispensed through the soda machine.
 

New York Buffalo Wings & Ribs web site: http://www.nywingsandribs.com/

No. 238

Rubicon Deli

 We've read about this place for a couple of years (they've racked up a number of "Bests" from San Diego Magazine, SD City Beat, The Reader and the Union Tribune), with 3 locations: Mission Beach, Mission Hills and Reno. We visited the Mission Hills location, a small storefront just down the street from El Indio, with 3 booths, one long table and window seating for 6. It was clean, neat and well kept.

 We shared The Dipper Dapper, essentyially a whole loaf of their Onion Durch Crunch bread with  ("...A Half a Pound of Thinly Sliced Prime Rib, Creamy Horseradish, Served with Au Jus For Dipping..."), a bag of Dirty Chips and a 1 liter Mexican Coke in the glass bottle. Our total was $18 and change but the portions can only be described as  more-than-generous and they tossed in a couple of just-baked cookies. Your choice of cheese is also included but the wife can't have it and I don't think cheese belongs on a French Dip..

 The meat was perfectly done and very tender, the Au Jus had great flavor but I wish I had ordered a more substantial bun as the Dutch onion loaf tended to fall apart in the Au Jus.

 We both really enjoyed our lunch and have already discussed several other items on the menu which we'll be trying soon.

 Finally, this place is more a very upscale sandwich shop than it is a deli...

The web site: http://therubicondeli.com/

Half of the Dapper Dipper - please excuse spillage & poor composition

No. 237

Wings-N-Things
1499 East Plaza Blvd
National City
 
Since we moved over this way (away from Neighbor Neal), it no longer makes economic sense to cook a whole chicken (it's just the wife and me now) so we've decided to look around for another solution.
 
As I mainly eat wings nowadays, we had planned to taste test the 3 major fast food chicken chains side by side, KFC, Popeyes and Chucrh's but noticed a Wings-N-Thgings nearby and after checking out their web site, stopped by yesterday.
 
The web site is somewhat misleading as it took me several visits to determine that they serve plain wings as well as Buffalo BBQ Wings (all of the photos only showed the BBQ wings).
 
It's somewhat expensive ($9.92 for 3 wings, 3 sauces, a couple of pieces of celery and carrot, a couple of generic breadsticks  and an iced tea) but the chicken was cooked to order and pretty good (despite my aversion to chicken in general) and I can't say I like their idea of cutting the wings apart and saying it's twice as many pieces (there wasn't a lot of meat)
 
The place was clean but noisy (lots of hard surfaces)  but I would go back, at least once more, to try the BBQ wings...
 
The web site: www.wingsnthings.com
 

UPDATE: We visited a second time and they must have twice-fried the wings, some of the most expensive chicken jerky I ever had.

No. 236

Ramberto's Mexican Food
1039 Sweetwater Road
Spring Valley, Ca.
 
Not to be confused with Alberto's, Adalberto's, Berto's, Dilberto's, Filberto's, Gilberto's, Hilberto's, Noberto's, Roberto's, etc...
 
This is a drive-through-only place (open 24 hours) and the food is so similar to Valerio's in El Cajon that I couldn't tell the difference...
 
Portions are fairly large, the place appeared to be neat and clean inside.
 
I had the 2 beef taco plate (with beans & rice) and the wife had the carne asada taco plate for a total of $14.54 (plus a dollar tip). The wife liked the carne asada and says she'll order it again and my only complaint is that the taco shells are too tough as I am missing a number of teeth now. .
 

No web site.

No. 235

Filippi's Pizza Grotto
 India Street (restaurant row)
 
We first heard about this place on Sam The Cooking Guy's show shortly after we moved here, almost 11 years ago now. We had been meaning to check it out ever since but had never made it over there until now (we're a lot closer to everything here at the new house).
 
To start off with, we should have known the streets would be crawling with tourists on a sunny Sunday afternoon in January...
 
You enter the restaurant through a small, very crowded, grocery store with very narrow aisles. It's dark inside (I couldn't read the menu) and once my eyes finally adjusted, the first thing I noticed was the 1000 year old carpet (stained, threadbare, soaked with spills and smelly). The dining room is a throwback to the 60s, with Chianti bottles and plastic grapes hanging from the ceiling. Then we realized we had been seated next to the trash can and dirty dishes and what's worse, the drink pass-through window is directly above them, a clear health code violation as well as being visually disgusting....
 
The wife had a horrible antipasto salad (lots of lettuce hearts, 4 slices of salami, a few slices of mortadella, hard green olives, garbanzo and kidney beans) and I ordered a pepperoni pizza, easy on the sauce, and an iced tea. The iced tea tasted like someone had put a cigarette butt out in it, the pizza had way too much cheese, maybe half an inch thick; it was flavorless and the crust was gummy and doughy in the middle. I only took a couple of bites, looking for anything actually edible, before I gave up. It was easily the worst pizza I've had in years and I counted a total of 2 slices of pepperoni on the entire pie...
 
 Incidentally, our waitress appeared to be totally clueless as well (we ordered separately yet she served the salad immediately and the wife was done with it before my pizza arrived)..
 
Our total was $26 and coin and I threw the money on the table and left
 

No. 234

Chef John's Fish & Chips
Lemon Grove
 
After we checked out Carnitas El Botanero, we drove right next door for my dinner.
 
I ordered the Fish, Shrimp & Chips with an iced tea. The place was clean and it's obviously a Mom & Pop operation. All of the food was obviously pre-frozen (I saw the chef pour the fries directly from a commercial freezer bag). The fish was properly done, the shrimp had a nice breading, almost like tempura. A couple of the fries weren't quite done and the tartar sauce wasn't up to snuff...
 
Our total was $11 and coin.
 
Good reviews on Yelp, we'll be back but this time, we'll bring our own (home made) tartar sauce.
 
When we were leaving, the owner's wife ran out to the truck to give me my cane, which I had forgotten and left behind (thank you!).
 
 
 
UPDATE:
 

We visited a sexond time, this time bringing our own home made tartar sauce and it was great!

No. 233

Carnitas El Botanero
Lemon Grove
 
The wife ordered the pork verde with beans, rice, a couple of flour tortillas, chips, salsa and an iced tea for me (I was there only to taste)
 
I liked the beans & rice, the wife liked the verde sauce and also discovered that she likes pickled jalapeno peppers
 
On the other hand, the chips were stale, nothing really stood out and we can't see any reason to return.
 
The total was $11 and coin.
 

No web site

No. 232

Teriyaki Grill
Chula Vista, Ca.

We had attempted to check this place out on New Year's Day but they were closed so we tried again yesterday.

All of the reviews I read on Yelp were positive but...

I ordered the beef teriyaki bento, which comes with rice, a couple of egg rolls, salad and grilled veggies, and the wife ordered the chicken teriyaki bento.

Of course, I had the usual iced tea although the Sapporo looked wonderful (I haven't had a beer in over 5 years now)...

When the server asked how I wanted my beef cooked, I was momentarily distracted as most teriyaki places serve thin slices of beef on skewers and I replied "fairly well done". Not listening too closely, she replied "very well done" and turned and walked away before I could correct her. I had also asked if they serve tempura (no).

Incidentally, a bento is a small, compartmentalized serving tray, if you haven't experienced it before...

When the food arrived, close to half an hour later, we were served what appeared to be fried (chicken) dumplings instead of egg rolls, neither of us could taste any dressing at all on our side salads and the grilled veggies were mainly raw, with a few grill marks. And even though we asked twice, the server never got around to bringing the wife some wasabi and the chunks of beef were almost charred on the outside and undercooked in places on the thicker pieces. The wife liked the chicken, however...

Service left much to be desired as we saw a total of 3 employees in the place (the cook, a young woman assisting him and the server / cashier / busser), the tables were full of dirty dishes our entire visit, we noticed several stained acoustic ceiling tiles which should be replaced and a number of spills under the tables, fingerprints on the glass front door, etc.

It wasn't the server's fault as she did nothing but run the entire time we were there and they need to hire at least one other employee, maybe even a couple of them.

There was also a party with several loud kids who were a major distraction.

Our total was $21 and coin and we won't be back.

The web site: http://www.teriyakigrillcv.com/

No. 231

Casa Del Taco
National City, Ca.
 
We found this place online on New Year's Eve Day and drove over to check it out. It's not far from China Super Buffet, just off the 54 in National City.
 
It's a small place (it looks a lot bigger on the web site) and features a number on very nicely carved wooden tables (and a number of fairly ornate carved wooden chairs in the main room) and parking is tight.
 
The chips were too tough on the few teeth I still have and the salsa was fairly spicy. We ordered a beef tamale (no cheese, ranchero sauce) for the wife and a beef taco and enchilada (also with the ranchero sauce) for me and an iced tea. The tamale may have been chicken instead of beef, the taco had a lot of green leaf lettuce, which I am not allowed to have, and the enchilada was unremarkable. Both were garnished with a dollop of crema.
 
It was very reasonably priced ($12 and coin) but after tipping the guy a couple of bucks, we won't be back...
 

No. 230

Canada Steak Burger

 We've been meaning to stop by their original location for quite some time but discovered their second location (Chula Vista) today, so...

I had the steak sandwich, onion rings and a bottled water and the wife had the quarter pound burger and fries. Unfortunately, there was seasoned salt on the steak, fries and o-rings (I hate the stuff) and my steak was cut into chunks. The fries, o-rings and burger patty were generic. Our total was $14.87.

The menu is all over the place with a hot dog, cheesesteak, pastrami, grilled cheese, BLT, falafels, gyros, kabobs, souvlaki, spanikopita, fajitas, BBQ ribs, fish, chicken & shrimp. And it seemed like our order took forever (to be fair, it was cooked to order and everything arrived hot), but they weren't very busy with only 2 other customers, who came in after us at lunch time.

I forgot to ask why it's called Canada Steak Burger...

The web site: http://www.canadasteakburger.com/

No. 229

Golden Chopsticks Chinese Restaurant
1430 Plaza Blvd
National City, Ca. 91950

 We've been meaning to check out Little Dim Sum, in the same shopping center in National City, but most of the reviews pointed us at Golden Chopsticks, a couple of doors away.

This morning, the wife needed to refill her vitamin prescription so we made a trip to the CVS right across the street and decided to swing by and check it out for an early, leisurely, Sunday morning lunch.

We ordered the Hot & Sour Soup for the wife, the Wor Wonton Soup for me, Egg Rolls, Szechwan Shrimp and Mongolian Beef with a cup of plain rice. I also ordered hot tea for the wife, iced tea for me.

The egg rolls were cool in the center (our only complaint), both soups were terrific, the Szechuan Shrimp (their spelling) really wasn't that spicy (what we do at home is definitely spicier and I think of their version as more of an Orange Shrimp dish) and the Mongolian Beef is a tried and tested recipe, like many others we've had over the years (BTW, how many ways are there to spell Szechuan?).

I had to ask for chopsticks. I understand that I don't look like I can use chopsticks or be trusted with anything sharp and I can see how they would save a lot of money by not putting them out for everyone but that also means someone should ask if you want them when they take your order. The same with Chinese hot mustard, as well...

Service was attentive and almost immediate, the iced tea refills were on top of it, we didn't have to ask for extra napkins and they presented the check in a very timely manner (one of my pet peeves with a lot of restaurants).The place was nice and clean,and we will be back.

Next time, we plan on tasting the Seaweed Soup, a Hot Pot or Sizzling Platter, the Pork Fried Rice and possibly the Peking Duck. They also have a Whole Steamed Fish and I know the wife will love that...

Our bill was $35 and coin; make it $41 with tip If that's a bit steep, we have to say it was the best Chinese food we've had since we moved here and they also have very reasonably priced lunch ($5.50 to $6.95) and family meal ($10.26 to $13.25) menus.

Unfortunately, they don't have a web site or even a complete online menu.

UPDATE:

For our second visit, we split another cup of their excellent Hot & Sour Soup and ordered the Pan Fried Dumplings, House Special Combination Hot Pot, BBQ Pork Fried Rice, a pot of tea for the wife and an iced tea for me.

The Hot Pot features shrimp, beef, chicken, pork, calamari, tofu and a few veggies (carrots, mushrooms, etc). Unfortunately, the beef, pork and mushrooms were rubbery and inedible (I discreetly spit them out), the tofu had an unpleasant, spongy texture and the BBQ Pork Fried Rice was nondescript (a great disappointment as I was really looking forward to it).

The topper was our server, a middle aged guy with absolutely no sense of humor and an exceedingly short attention span as he appeared to be too busy to actually stand still long enough to hear our entire order (appetizer, soup, 2 entrees and drinks, how hard is that?).

He would turn and start walking away halfway through our order, causing himself to make several more trips than would have been necessary as we already knew what we wanted when we walked into the place. Instead, we had to ask him for a cup of soup, then chopsticks and hot mustard, then more napkins, etc.

Because of this server's rudeness, the inedible Hot Pot and mediocre fried rice, we are re-evaluating our review and will visit at least once more (although it will be a while), just to be sure...

No. 228

Honeybaked Hams
 
We checked this place out as the bank clerk at my new bank recommended it when I asked him what there was to eat in the local shopping center.
 
I ordered their club sandwich, which came with ham, turkey, bacon, cheddar cheese, romaine lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo on sour dough bread. I chose it in order to taste both the turkey and the ham. The wife had the ham, which also came with all of that and chipotle mayo.
 
Both of us agreed that the ham was way too sweet for our palates and both of us tossed over half of our sandwiches.
 
They offer nothing to drink so we had to go next door to Von's for a Sprite in the glass bottle.
 

And I really wasn't impressed by the sandwich making area as it looked thrown together (no refrigeration), like they had suddenly decided to sell a few sandwiches on the side...

No. 227

Social Life (Neapolitan) Pizza

 This is a similar concept to Project Pie, maybe twice the size, with a large selection of draft microbrews and more than just sodas from the machine (iced tea, bottled items, etc), It's on the corner of College at El Cajon Blvd, near  Smashburger.

It's a very compact menu (8 pizzas, 4 salads, 2 desserts and meatballs for appetizers) and very reasonably priced. Since the wife can't have dairy products, she had the side salad and I had a pepperoni pizza with mozzarella and marinara sauce and a pretty stout iced tea. Our total was $13 and coin.

When my pizza arrived (nice wood chairs, by the way), it had too much sauce (I burned my mouth), a little too much oregano, not nearly enough cheese and I couldn't taste the pepperoni. The crust was burnt around the edges (not a fatal pizza flaw, especially from an actual brick pizza oven) but the pizza was almost soupy in the center, which caused me to burn my mouth. And the shakers for the red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese had holes which were way too small for the job. I realize that that's a minor complaint but...

I will have to go back for another visit soon; this time easy on the sauce, easy on the oregano and more cheese please.

The web site: www.sociallifepizza.com

No. 226

Old Spaghetti Factory

 This is a chain with over 2 dozen locations, mainly West Coast but a handful are in far flung places like Ohio, Minnesota and Tennessee...

This location is in a handsome old brick building at the foot of Fifth in the Gaslamp district, just across from the Convention Center on Harbor Drive and a couple of blocks away from PetCo Park

The lobby features an ornate throne (I want one), an antique floor-to-ceiling mirror and the dining room displays several antique furnishings and other turn-of-last-century architectural details.

Needless to say, parking was horrible and we circled the block half a dozen times until a 3 minute parking spot opened up right outside the front door. The hostess said that they enforce the parking regulations strenuously there, even on Sundays but fortunately, my handicapped parking placard allowed me to park there for our meal...

We split a No.3 (Meat Lover’s Treat) with Sicilian Meatballs, Italian Sausage and spaghetti with Rich Meat Sauce and soup or salad ($12.99) and I had an iced tea. Our total was $15 and coin, not including tip.

The wife liked the minestrone soup, the meat sauce is similar to what we make at home (Mom's recipe), the sausage was heavy handed with the fennel and the meatballs and bread were generic.

We arrived at this selection because most of what they serve has cheese, which the wife can't have, or garlic, which I can't have...

Service seems to be minimal to non-existent. The hostess seated us at a table under the stairs, despite a number of booths being available, and quite a distance from the front door, people who were seated after us got their food before we did, the minestrone soup took forever and I was never offered a refill on my iced tea.

The waitress who seemed to do as little as possible (she didn't even "run" her own order) had the nerve to ask the wife "Want your change?" when she paid the bill with a Ben Franklin...

The wife left a $2 tip.

The web site: http://www.osf.com/

No. 225

Tender Greens

This used to be a Pizza Hut or something similar, in a portion of the old (Pickwick?) hotel building, which now houses the downtown bus terminal.

And it's a chain operation with approximately a dozen and a half locations (all in California).

We deliberately waited to check it out on a Saturday in order to avoid the downtown crowds during the work week. I was able to find a 15 minute parking space in sight of the table we chose and had to watch the truck during the meal in case they tried to tow it away, despite hanging my handicapped parking placard on the rear view mirror.

It's a large, cavernous interior with seating for maybe 100 plus and service is cafeteria style.

The wife ordered the Chinese Chicken salad (with tatsoi, mizuna, golden pea sprouts, carrot, wontons, roasted peanuts, cilantro, green onion & sesame dressing). I had the characterize platter (with some excellent prosciutto and salami, a small side salad with what may be mint and pomegranate, what may have been some butter or a very mild cheese, a shot of blue cheese and 3 slices of bruschetta) and an iced tea, For some reason the platters on the chalkboard aren't on the online menu. Our total was $26 and coin.

The wife thoroughly enjoyed her meal, a nice change of pace and in good contrast to the French Dip and fries we had earlier (we're still in the process of moving so we've been eating out a lot lately).

The web site: http://www.tendergreens.com

No. 224

Las Cuatro Milpas

 Rough translation: The Four Cornfields, whatever that means...

I've heard about this place since we moved here (it's been around since 1933) and finally made it over there to see what the hubbub was all about. We were lucky to find a handicapped parking space right across the street but the wife still had to stand in the line out the front door and down the sidewalk shortly after 10 AM.

It's in the barrio, just under the ramp to the Coronado Bridge and surrounded by the huge, colorful murals of Chicano Park, which are painted on the on-ramp structures to the bridge. It's also small and old, with a fairly limited menu and no web site.

I had the chorizo and beans and a couple of cans of Coke and the wife ordered the beef taco, a pork tamale and a side of rice. She tells me that the rice was nice and light, the tortillas which came with my order were great but the hot sauce was so hot that even she couldn't eat it. Our total was $11 and coin, very reasonably priced.

I had a bit of the taco (great shell, nothing to complain about there) and ate half of my chorizo and beans. We both agreed it was the best thing we tasted (a little too spicy for me) but will very likely never go back (parking issues, standing in line, etc).

No. 223

Cali Comfort BBQ & Sports Bar

 We tried checking this place out before (also on a Sunday morning) but got there after the church crowd started filtering in and didn't want to stand around for 15 or 20 minutes to get seated. This time, we got there right around 9:00 AM (also on a Sunday). It's a couple of miles from the new house...

I ordered their brisket platter (sauce on the side, please) with beans and shoestring french fries and an iced tea and the wife had a small order of pancakes.

The brisket was huge and I only ate a small amount of it, saving the rest for the wife's lunch later. The meat was tender and although they say it was smoked for 12 hours, ours at home has more smoky goodness. The fries were generic, the beans and sauce too sweet for my palate.

After we left there, we stopped by Sprouts for a few groceries. While I was sitting in the truck waiting for the wife to finish up her shopping, a homeless guy approached the truck, saying he hadn't eaten in a couple of days. I gave him the brisket (it was still warm), which he said looked good. He also said he'd never had brisket before and I told him "You'll like it"...

Incidentally, Number One Son's fiance Stacy tells me that her brother Tim (we've never met) frequents this place. As they advertise 22 beers on tap and seem to have plenty of large flat screen TVs, I can see the attraction...

We plan on going back soon to taste around the menu (ribs, tri-tip & pulled pork sandwiches and beer battered onion rings).

Their web site: http://www.calicomfortsd.com/

No. 222

Jones Brothers BBQ
 
We recently discovered this place while driving around our new neighborhood, checking things out.
 
They specialize in Mississippi style (sweet) BBQ and we ordered a brisket sandwich and a tri-tip sandwich, sauce on the side (it's also printed on the ticket), slaw and fries. I also ordered a couple of cans of Coke. Our total was $20 including a buck and change tip.
 
We were offered several different sauces and had the mild and a slightly spicier one.
 
The tri-tip was served on white bread, the brisket came on a bun and they drowned both in sauce  .
 
We weren't overly impressed with anything (they may have given us a pulled pork sandwich instead of brisket, the slaw was mediocre) and we have to confess that Phil's is still our go-to guy.
 

No. 221

Panda Express
 
While synthesizing our first ten years of food here in another article I'm putting together, I realized I had never been to a Panda Express and we visited one last evening. It isn't far from here (in a small strip mall in El Cajon, where Krispy Kreme used to be) and we checked out the menu online. We knew exactly what we wanted and cruised on over for an early dinner.

Unfortunately, what you see online is a far cry from the partially stocked, already congealed, humble steam table offerings they deliver. It was easily the worst attempted Chinese food I've ever had, with soggy Orange Chicken, which is usually twice fried and crispy. And they said it'd be a 10 or 15 minute wait until they could knock out another batch of their current special (Samurai Surf & Turf) as it would have to be defrosted first. The vegetables were just that, possibly a defrosted melange a la Birdseye and the spring rolls were so much mush, no texture and room temperature as well.

It's not that they don't have the personnel to do it right as I counted half a dozen people standing around behind the line, mainly stirring the stuff from the half empty steam table.

We'll never go back, of course, and our total for the 3 Way meal with iced tea was $11 and coin.

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