Over the weekend Jake and I picked up the kiddies, S and A, for a quick afternoon of movies and lunch (hello, The Muppets – which was really awesome). There’s some kind of stomach bug going around since Jake was sick last week, so was his mom, and his other son, T and these two kiddos… man, did someone put something in our water?! Anyway… after the movie we headed over to this little place in Chula Vista called Tastea Grill. I saw it on Yelp and figured it’d be something that could caters to everyone’s tastes.
Here’s the outside. It’s in this part of Chula Vista off E. Palomar Street that has like a park on one side with a pretty green median with lots of trees in the middle, and these shops on the other side a bit like a mini main street.
Here’s the menu – click here for much larger, more readable version of this photo. They have a bunch of grilled items (Hawaiian BBQ style), sushi and lots and lots of teas (milk teas, flavored teas, etc).
[milk tea – $2.95 / boba – $.50 extra]
For lunch on Friday, my co-workers and I stopped at Bobalicious in Mira Mesa so I “remembered” that I like boba (it’s been awhile) and decided to get another milk tea with boba here. Jake and the kids all tried the boba but thought it was “too slimy”. Pfft. To each their own, I guess. Just means more for ME.
The I got a black milk tea here and I thought it was a bit on the weak side – like it had way too much milk in it and it tasted a bit watered down.
[buffalo fries – $5.55]
The fries were shared by everyone though S specifically requested these buffalo fries. These were thicker cut fries drizzled with buffalo sauce and ranch with fries chicken nuggets mixed in. I had one of the chicken nuggets, which was white meat chicken which had a bit of a crunch from the coating. I didn’t really have any of the fries with the sauce but everyone seemed to really like the mixture of sauces with the fries and chicken.
[volcano fries – $5.55]
The volcano fries are also smothered in some kind of “volcano” sauce – which makes it sound spicy but really was not spicy at all. It was more like a tangy/sweet sauce with a hint of spice. That’s all topped off with grilled bbq chicken (which is also smothered in the sauce). Jake and the kiddos kind of went back and forth on which set of fries they liked better (it seemed to be about a draw to me – they all loved the sauces for both fries). I had a few bites of the fries which were pretty good with the sauce – the fries managed to stay crispy for a bit despite being smothered in sauce which I appreciated. I’d say this one was a little better because it was more unique and I liked the grilled chicken more than the fried little chicken nuggets.
[bbq beef mini plate – $7.95]
My choice was the BBQ Beef plate. This is a mini – which is one of those half size Styrofoam containers. The beef is thinly sliced and there’s a drizzle of a sweet-ish sauce over it (I don’t think it was teriyaki sauce – we had a side of that and it was a bit tangier than the sauce on this beef). The beef had a good overall flavor and was tender. I liked it a lot! I usually order chicken so I felt all weird ordering beef but I wanted to go out of my comfort zone just a wee bit.
[macaroni salad]
The macaroni salad here is not chock full of mayonnaise which I really enjoyed. It was more of a light touch of mayo with some herbs you can clearly see on the mac. The noodles are just a little past al dente but not quite “mush”. It could used another touch of salt or something but I enjoyed the lighter flavor overall. The herbs could have been more pronounced, too, I couldn’t quite tell what herbs were used here.
The rice here is just plain steamed rice but it was a bit on the dry side. The rice did not taste freshly made, either. It definitely tasted like it was made and sat around for a long, long time and warmed slightly.
[chicken combo plate with bbq chicken and chicken katsu – $8.75]
Jake – who normally orders beef at grill type places like these – ordered the chicken combo. We were all switching it up that day! We shared everything though, so no biggie.
I really like their chicken katsu – even though they didn’t seem to have any katsu sauce to go with it. The chicken was tender and had a really nice outer crust/crunch that I enjoyed.
The bbq chicken was also good – moist and flavorful – though I though it seemed a bit more sauce/marinade. Their teriyaki sauce served on the side was not my favorite.
[california roll – $5.25]
A got an order of California Rolls. I didn’t try these but she really liked them and was pretty happy with the amount of sushi she got for the price.
The interior has about four booths inside so you can sit inside and enjoy your lunch/dinner though it’s not a huge place. Overall everyone seemed to enjoy the food and it was an affordable tasty meal.
Tastea Grill
1392 E Palomar St., Ste 305
Chula Vista, CA 91913
(619) 216-0608
Oh man now I want this for dinner tonight. How does boba taste slimy – it makes me shiver thinking it’s like the tapioca balls gone ‘bad’. I like how we both fear anything smothering fried stuff b/c of fried stuff getting soggy 🙂
That’s a great photo bomb pic at the end 🙂
Hi Faye – I didn’t think it was slimy – I think the kids just didn’t know how else to describe it. “Chewy goodness” it how I would describe it but maybe that’s just me 🙂 Yeah, I really really hate when things get soggy! Even cereal, man. Soggy is the worst texture ever if you ask me!
I had another photo of Jake but the photo bomb picture made me laugh so I used that one instead. S is such a ham. 😀
We used to live walking distance from Tastea and got their slushes with boba all the time. Oh now I am craving it! Their mango slush is SO good and extra refreshing during thr summer time. I have only had their kalbi ribs here. Great post, M. We must go back!
Hi Janice – The slushes do sound really refreshing! I liked the sheer number of flavors and offerings they had – they seemed to have just about everything!
The folks here are so nice. We’ve been here quite a few times in the past. I like the Basil Beef at Tastea Grill. TC likes the boba drinks here.
FYI – This place used to be Eduard’s (a Filipino owned fancy dessert place which closed in 2007). The Thai place next door, Bamboo Garden is also pretty good.
Hi CC – I had a feeling you had probably been here, haha! I must not have noticed the Basil Beef – sounds really tasty! I hadn’t been to any of the restaurants in this area of CV – it reminded me of a quaint little Downtown-ish area. Maybe we’ll check out that Thai place sometime.