foodies: a southern california food blog

Unlike mega chain Starbucks, It’s a Grind is well, a smaller chain. At least compared to Starbucks and compared to the number of locations in San Diego. I had a small hunch it was a chain, but I didn’t really know it until the internet confirmed my suspicions. In any case, it was still lovely for a chain.

The particular location I visited was the one in Littly Italy. My friend and I wandered through all of Little Italy on Friday night, after we visited Hudson Bay Seafood earlier in the evening for some fine seafood. I’ve already reviewed Hudson Bay Seafood, but I will say that their fried shrimp is excellent but that I’m not very keen on their clam chowder. The clam chowder had bit bites of celery in it, which is a turn-off for me. I like celery, I just don’t like chunks of it. I like them to be itty bittier pieces so it doesn’t overpower my poor little taste buds.

We stopped at It’s a Grind on a whim. We bypassed a little gelato place just east of the main Little Italy drag and a few of the other hopping coffee places. Defintely bypassed the Starbucks as well as we’ve both been there and done that. It’s a Grind was pretty nice. They had a bunch of high backed cozy chairs for sitting and sipping your drink.

The service we had was also really excellent. The girl who served us was super nice. She explained of all the tasty goods in the case and told us they could make us pretty much any kind of coffee we wanted and to our liking. If we wanted something sweeter, or not so sweet, or even combine things (she spoke of a mystical drink - the “Tuxedo Mocha” which would have white chocolate and dark chocolate in it which sounded very tempting and is not displayed on their regular menu) for us. I opted to have the “Nutty Cow” - a hazelnut latte. My friend and I also this pink cookie I spotted in the case. I asked the girl, “Is that a pink cookie I see?” She said, “Yeah, it’s actually a raspberry white chocolate chunk cookie.” I thought, “Yes! I need to try that.”

The “pink cookie” was divine. She heated it up a little bit for us so it got just a little bit melty. The best part was that it had just a few chocolate chips in it, kind of a nice little surprise while you’re eating the rest of it. It was just the right amount of dessert to top off the night. The pink cookie was also $1.99, not too shabby. The coffees are pretty much priced the same as Starbucks or similar - the small coffee was just over $3.

They also let us stay past closing. It was a Friday night and they closed at 9PM but she assured us they wouldn’t kick us out right away. We stayed until 9:30 until they started to mop the floors. The girl also offered to give us the rest of their baked goods for the day - muffins and scones - which we both glady took since she said they were just going to throw them away anyway. After working there for quite some time, she was pretty much all “baked-good-out” and had no interest in taking them home herself. We were totally happy with the experience and I would go again, it if were closer to where I lived, but it’s a good option for another night if anyone wanted to just go and chill out for awhile.

It’s a Grind
(multiple locations)
1603 India St.
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 795-6209

Volare is this awesome little hole in the wall Italian family restaurant in the Sports Arena/Old Town area. It’s in a strange location, off of Barnett Ave. near the Marine Corps Recruit place with a very large adult store that apparently has an “adult arcade”. But location isn’t everything, and I digress

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If you’re looking for fancy ambiance you won’t really find it here. What you will find is a cozy little place with salmon colored walls, posters of Italy, and a “sit where ever you want” kind of laid back attitude. And the food is totally delicious and affordable. A lot of the pasta dishes are under $7, such as the pesto (with your choice of pasta noodle) or lasagna. The seafood/meaty dishes are a bit more expensive but still totally affordable. They also have awesome calamari appetizer for $5.50 and cannoli’s for $2.50. Garlic bread is also included with most meals and salads can be added on for another $1.50.

I’ve been here a handful of times and the food has always been excellent. Everything is pipping hot and tastes freshly made. The pesto I got was bright green - the jarred stuff does not come this bright unless it’s fresh. It’s simple food that tastes great.

I also personally think the place has its own cozy little charm. I’ve read other reviews of Volare and they all seem to dock it a few points because of the decorating. So, it’s not the fanciest place ever but the food is more important to me than how the place looks. But maybe that’s just me.

Anyway. I highly recommend it. Also - funny little story about the place, which I pull off of my friend’s live journal. She was here in town at a conference and I took her here since the food is yummy. And she lost her hat but I thought she never had it with her. Here, the story begins:

“I have this dark corduroy cap that I love. In cooler weather, I am more or less inseparable from it. I had stuffed it into the front flap of my bag. kyten took me to a great Italian restaurant in Old Town called Volare. Fun was had, but as she was driving me back to my hotel, I had the nagging feeling I’d left my hat there. kyten said she didn’t recall me having my hat with me, but sure enough, when I got back to my room, I was hatless. On a lark, I called the restaurant and began babbling about sending money for them to mail my hat back until the guy said, “Well, I’m the delivery guy, I can bring it to your hotel.”

!!!

So, one hour and a tip later, my hat was back in my possession. Volare will forever have a soft spot in my heart for not only being tasty, but nice above and beyond the call of duty.”

So go here. Eat the food. Enjoy it. Yum, yum.

Volare Italian Restaurant
3528 Barnett Ave.
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 224-0030

This is my companion to Mary’s Cheeburger Cheeburger review. I had just gone there when I saw her post about it, which reminded me that I was sitting on my own unused Cheeburger Cheeburger pictures and comments. If we had any sort of quantified ratings, mine would be slightly higher than hers. I had good service there and was generally happy with the place.

Heather went with me and we ordered a basket of “frings,” which is really just a basket with french fries and onion rings. They were okay but not fabulous. I ordered their horseradish-based dipping sauce and that heightened the experience. In the future, I wouldn’t order them without the sauce. They really do have a zillion shakes too. I had Mounds and Heather had the Turtle, and each one tasted just like the candy it was named for. Basically, the shakes were heavenly.

I had my burger with cheddar cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms, olives, pickles, lettuce, tomato, mayo and A-1 Steak Sauce. To get the grilled onions and mushrooms together was a premium topping (meaning I paid extra for them), but the rest of the toppings were included in the burger price. Basically, you choose the size burger you want, and then you can choose from a list of basic toppings (lots of choices, even grilled peppers) that are included in the burger’s price, and premium toppings (like avocado) that cost a little extra.

My burger was cooked to order, and juicy and delicious. Plus, I loved my topping combination and wished I was clever enough to think of a name for it. “The Alyssa Burger,” would be just a little too boring and lame.

The other thing I liked about this place was that they put laminated Trivial Pursuit cards on the table for entertainment. Heather and I had endless fun quizzing each other on random crap we never learned before and still won’t remember. How can I have so much fun feeling so dumb? When there’s tasty meat involved.

Cheeburger Cheeburger
12002 Carmel Mountain Rd
San Diego, CA
858-613-1576

I also went to Yogurt World today.

I had noticed they had a sign for this place up for about a month or so, “Yogurt World - Coming Soon”. I only noticed that it was opening today because they had those guys dressed up in Chinese Dragon costumes dancing around the outside and inside of the store while a troop of fellows played drums behind them. I think that went on for about a half hour before the store actually opened at 12:28pm. The sign actually said “Grand Opening - March 1st at 12:28pm”. I overheard a guy ask the manager what the significance of the time was, and he just said, “It’s a lucky time for us.”

Yogurt World is a self serve frozen yogurt place. You go down to the end, pick up a cup, and pick what yogurt you want. They had a whole bunch of flavors, ranging from New York Cheesecake and Green Tea, to Strawberry and Mango flavors to “sour” yogurts to the flavor I actually picked, which was Peanut Butter. There were probably about a dozen different flavors to choose from in all. There’s also a ton of toppings to choose from: I saw granola, cereals, chocolate chips, M&Ms, mini Reese’s pieces, oreos, nilla wafers, gummi bears, all kinds of fruits and nuts, coconut and more. You dump whatever toppings you want into your cup and head for the counter.

Here you smack your concocted bowl of yogurt down to be weighed. It costs $.38 cents an ounce. The ounces add up quick though! I filled my cup above half way and dumped mini Reese’s pieces, almonds and a couple of Reese’s peanut butter cup pieces and my total came out to $2.53.

The yogurt itself was pretty good. It wasn’t overly sweet and had a nice peanut butter flavor - it wasn’t “full on” peanut butter, more like a hint of it more than anything else. Sorry my photo isn’t prettier. I was excited to eat it and was about to get in the car and go and didn’t have time to take the lid off. Dur.

There’s also another popular location in Kearny Mesa, if that interests you. I hear the parking there sucks though.

Yogurt World
8995 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126

I had to visit the laundromat today to wash my comforter and bedding. I quickly got bored of hanging out with the machines on spin cycle and decided to gander around and scope out some food. I don’t eat a lot of Filipino food actually, for whatever reason, even though I am half Filipino. I’m American, though, and don’t speak a word of Tagalog. I do know some key things about Filipino food though, from my mom’s cooking and visiting many Filipino households. Lumpia is the best thing ever. Lechon is probably the second best thing ever, followed by pancit. Living in Mira Mesa all of these years I have never been to Manila Fast Food & Desserts before but I spotted a photo of Lechon in the window and thought, “hmm. looks good.” It’s similar to a fast food Chinese place - all of the food is laid out under heat lamps for you to pick and choose from.

Lechon (full name: Lechon Kawali) is basically boiled, then fried pieces of pork. The outside of the pig gets very crusty and crunchy and really tasty. It’s a bit fatty, too, so if you can’t stand that then…. well, you should try it anyway. Come on, at least one piece!

The lechon was pretty good. Some of the pieces were a bit dry and some pieces were greasy, but there were a few choice cuts that were good. I also really liked the sauce that they gave with the lechon. It was a slightly sweet kind of sauce that went well with the pork. Lechon isn’t really something I can eat a whole lot of, but man, when I do it sure is good. The pancit was all right, not as good as my mom’s of course, but it was still good. It was mostly noodles and not much else. I think I got one piece of chicken in there, a few stray cabbage and carrot pieces as well. The lumpia was really good, and again, not as good as the one mom or I make. But at least it was still warm and really crispy. I like these lumpia better than the ones I’ve gotten down the street from L&L Barbeque, and these were also a lot cheaper. My above meal was the 2 item combo for $4.99, plus an extra dollar because I got the pancit instead of steamed rice, for a grand total of $5.99.

They sell all kinds of other Filipino foods that I don’t know the names of. I didn’t recognize most of the dishes, but I’m sure most of it is good. They also have breakfast on the weekends. It looks like Filipino sausage (lasilog) and eggs with rice. I wasn’t in the mood for breakfast by the time I got there, but it’s something I would try if I find myself back in here again during the weekend.

Hail, lumpia!

Manila Fast Food & Desserts
8979 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126
858-578-0968 / 858-695-9104

Hours:
M-F: 9:30am - 7:30pm
Sat: 8:30am - 7:30pm
Sun: 8:30am - 6:00pm

I was in the La Jolla area yesterday scoping out the annual cake show that the San Diego Cake Club puts on every year. I was hungry and my lunch date bailed on me so I was on my own for food. I decided to just wing it and head on over to La Jolla Village Square to see what was up. I spotted this placed called “Croutons” in the location where Pasta Bravo used to be. It sounded healthy-like so I thought I would check it out.

It’s a casual dining place. Sort of a cross between fast food and casual dining, really. You order up front and they bring the food out to you. There’s not much to the menu. They have a variety of signature and specialty salads, ranging from Cobb and Chopped salads to Pear & Blue Cheese and Mediterranean (think Greek) salads. They also have Panini’s and something called “Flatini’s” which I’m not sure what that is, but I imagine its a grilled wrap from the name.

I tried a Chicken Pesto sandwich - chicken breast, mozzarella, basil pesto mayonnaise. It was really good. The bread was really crisp and crunchy and the flavors were good. It tasted fresh, warm, and gooey. For $6.75 that’s all you get - the sandwich. There are no side dishes or anything. You can opt for a combo which is half a panini/flatini, half a salad or soup. The only “sides” on the menu are warm ciabatta or flatbread or chips. I will also say that I had this blackberry green tea that was really excellent as well. I would have liked to see some kind of side - even just chips - included with my sandwich but I guess you can’t always have it all. Though for the taste and price, I would still come back and spring for another sandwich. I’ve had other panini’s at other locations where it wasn’t really crisp all the way around or just sort of crisped up in one spot - but this sandwich had some attention to detail pasted onto it, which made it really good.

There are 2 other locations in Southern California, one in Carlsbad and one in Sorrento Valley. The Sorrento Valley location makes me happy since I can actually go there for lunch during the work week… and I foresee additional panini sandwiches in my future.

Croutons
8707 Villa La Jolla Dr.
La Jolla, CA 92037
858-909-0960

The Teri Cafe is a Teriyaki and Noodle House located in Clairemont, with 2 additional locations in Oceanside. They serve various teriyaki dishes and bowls along with ramen, udon, soba and other Japanese noodles in soups and stir frys. They also have sushi and tempura and some other appetizers, like egg rolls and gyoza, for you to snack on. It’s your basic Japanese food type place that pretty much covers all the basics. It’s tucked away in in a strip mall in Clairemont not too far from the Kaiser Hospital on Clairemont Mesa Blvd.

On this particular visit I decided on the chicken teriyaki and shrimp tempura bowl - it came which the chicken, 2 pieces of fried tempura shrimp, steamed rice and vegetables. I also got some egg rolls on the side. The bowl is a good meal for $5.95. The chicken was tasty, the shrimp wasn’t too greasy and the veggies and rice were good when I smothered my teryiaki sauce all over it. The egg rolls were just okay, not what I was really expecting. I thought the inside was too mushy and too saucy inside for my liking. I bet I would visit this place more if it were a bit closer to my work as they have $5.99 lunch bowl specials that include a drink. But alas, I don’t ever feel like making the trip down to Clairemont just to partake in their tasty food. There are other similar type places around town so I never really get a particular craving to come to this particular location, but the food is good and affordable.

You order at the counter and they bring the food to your table - sort of like fast food that delivers and isn’t so greasy and reasonably healthy for you. The have a different lunch specials Monday through Friday and they also have dinner specials. Their website mentions that they have their own noodle factory in Oceanside and offers personal orders for various types of Japanese noodles - check out their website for more information if you’re into that kind of thing.

Teri Cafe
7305 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, #B
San Diego, CA 92111
858-560-8859

I spotted this place in December when I was in Carmel Mountain Ranch getting my oil changed over my meager Christmas break. I was killing time by going to Pier One and noticed this funny little diner that wasn’t there before. It’s a 50’s style diner tucked into a little location. I think what really caught my eye was the name: Cheeburger Cheeburger.

It’s actually a chain restaurant mostly found in the east and south. This is the first California location. I was seated pretty quickly and the host asked me if I had ever been there before and I said no. He went over the menu with me - basically you have 5 sizes of burger to choice from. You can choose whatever toppings you want. There are a few specialty toppings that cost extra but basically you can get whatever you want on it. They also have a “Famous Pounder” burger which if you eat the whole thing, they’ll take your picture and put it up on their wall.

I went with the “Semi-Serious” burger, a 1/3 lb with lettuce, sauteed onions, mayonnaise and jack/cheddar cheese. The burgers don’t come with fries, you have to order a side basket like you do at Islands. I got a basket of fries, too, and a Dr. Pepper in a mason jar. They also have flavored cokes and a ton of shake flavors to choose from. I didn’t have a shake, but they have some interesting sounding ones like Peanut Butter and Jelly, S’mores, and Almond Joy.

The burger was good - it wasn’t spectacular. I didn’t really like the kind of bun that they used but it was still good. The fries were good, but again, not really outstanding. Some of them were a bit overcooked and I found myself rummaging through the basket for the “good ones”. The service wasn’t that great either. My waitress didn’t come over to be for quite some time and didn’t offered to refill my drink until I was done with my meal. So all in all, it was just an okay meal. There are some interesting little touches to the place, like they have Trivial Pursuit cards at every table and put a whole roll of paper towels on your table for you to tear off from. I’d like to come back and try a shake though and see how those are.

There are some differences between the menu online and they one in the restaurant. For instance, the Famous Pounder is about a buck more and guacamole is a specialty topping here while sauteed onions are not. Just some small differences I noticed when I peeked at their online menu.

Cheeburger Cheeburger
12002 Carmel Mountain Rd
San Diego, CA
858-613-1576

Stacey came to visit me a couple of weeks ago. After spending a day shopping for Sleazy Lounge Party clothes and watching many episodes of Dexter, we worked up a significant appetite. Not only that, but I wanted my dining experience to be amusing without being too involved. This desire doesn’t lend itself very easily to typical restaurant search sites, so I started Googling everything I could think of to find sites featuring restaurants in Orange, in the hopes of finding something I hadn’t seen before. I came across one site with many clearly outdated listings, that had an entry at the end for The Tartan Room. Stacey and I thought it was an interesting name, but we weren’t really sold yet.

I did a ton of searching for information on the The Tartan Room and could only find two reviews. One was unremarkable. The other said (going from possibly inaccurate memory, here) that the food was good and the portions were large, that the decor was very dark and extremely outdated, and that halogen lights had been added fairly recently over the booths, giving the feeling of being in a surreal puppet show. Sold.

Dark faux-wood paneling, some minimal kitchy decor that you can barely see in the dark corners, a live singer (with songs ranging from Brown Eyed Girl to White Wedding), fairly private booths, and acoustic tile ceilings covered in stains and glitter gave this place just the awesome ambience I was hoping for. We were immediately served tasty cheesy bread and our beverages were never less than a quarter full. Dinner entrees were generally in the $10-$20 range (the cheapest non-appetizer item is a $10 burger), while the steak dinners were in the $20-$30 range.

Prime rib sounded good, but I didn’t feel like forking over $25 for it in a new restaurant that could potentially suck. Instead I ordered the $15 open-faced prime rib sandwich (above), which ultimately turned out to be a huge slab of prime rib over a piece of cheesy bread you can’t even see, a cup of jus, a cup of horseradish, and onion rings (I had a choice of those or fries). Was this the most fabulous cut of meat I’ve ever had? Maybe not. But was the entire meal incredibly tasty and worth my time and money? Absolutely. I’m in love with this place.

I had mixed feelings about Stacey ordering a cobb salad, because this seemed like a heavy-eatin’ kind of place. Not to fear though, because this is a heavy-eatin’ kind of cobb salad. Every bite was coated in the perfect amount of dressing, it was well-mixed, the ingredients were delicious, and the salad was quite sizeable. I was pleased, and it wasn’t even mine.

To sum things up: if, after reading this, you don’t want to go to The Tartan Room, don’t ever come visit me in Orange. I must insist that everyone I know visits this place when they’re here. Seriously. I’ll rage on any dissenters.

(714) 282-1274