Tag: sandwiches

Lincoln Park, San Diego County, Mary, Cheap Eats

pete mayo’s waffle burgers / lincoln park – san diego, ca

Waffle burgers. Say it with me – waffle burgers! Why hasn’t anyone else done this? I’m surprised this hasn’t popped up into the consciousness sooner – using waffles as a replacement for buns. The idea sounds awesome… but how’s the execution?

Pete Mayo’s Waffle Burgers is a tiny little restaurant located on Imperial Avenue in Lincoln Park aka not the best part of town. I grew up nearby so I know what it’s like. It’s one of those restaurants you could pass a million times without ever noticing it because it’s in such a weird location right on that busy, busy street.

There’s not much to it once you step inside, either. Two tables at best with a sparse counter and only paper menus to reveal what treats they’re cooking up in the kitchen.

[the menu]

The items are all cheap, too. The most expensive sandwich rings in at $6.25 for a cracked peppered turkey waffle sandwich which you can get served hot or cold.

[the small countertop/kitchen]

Jake actually discovered this one on Yelp with only two reviews to it’s credit. The name intrigued me enough to want to go by. Our first attempt failed when they were not open yet on a Saturday morning with no hours posted in the window. We took our chances this time around one October morning to find them open for business.

[the original waffle burger – $5.50]

I took the plunge and decided to order the “original” waffle burger which comes on your choice of waffle (buttermilk, blueberry, multi grain or cinnamon – I picked buttermilk) with a 1/4 lb patty, grilled onions, bell peppers (I asked for none), lettuce, tomatoes and cheese with a good bit of mayo, mustard and ketchup.

[waffle burger – once bitten, twice shy]

I loved the waffle as the “bun” but this burger could use some improvements. The beef was quite obviously a frozen patty and it was a bit underseasoned and wasn’t the freshest burger I’ve ever had. The condiments were fine, though it was a bit heavy handed on the mustard. Overall I wasn’t impressed, but I didn’t think it was awful either. The idea was more exciting then the execution in this case. On the other hand, there were these chicken waffle sandwiches…

[mayo’s chicken n bacon sandwich – $5.75]

Jake ordered a Chicken n Bacon waffle sandwich with a multiple grain waffle.

Let’s just say that I was jealous of his meal after one bite.

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College, Rolando, Cheap Eats, San Diego County, Mary

milo’s pizza & subs / college area – san diego, ca

I went to Milo’s Pizza on a whim. I was at Jake’s waiting for him to come home from work and wanted to have some pizza ready for him. I went and got a couple of pizzas and some garlic bread. It was the garlic bread that hooked me – nice, thick sourdough with lots of crunch!

Jake and I finally came back recently so Jake could try out a pipping hot pie and have started to come here a bit more regularly.

[milo’s pizza mottos]

“Yes, our slice pies are cooked in a brick oven.” (Score)

“No. We do not use sausage that looks like dog food!” (Double score)

[16″ inch x-large pizza with ricotta and meatball – $11.99 + $1.50 per topping]

We ordered whole pies at first before discovering the slice specials. This one above has meatball and ricotta. The whole pie has a thin, sort of soft crust with a good amount of sauce. I liked how their sauce tasted – not too tangy and not overly sweet. Everything tasted fresh!

[sourdough garlic bread – 4 slices for $2.49 (i had already eaten a slice…)]

I love how thickly cut the slices of garlic bread are – nice, hearty slices of sourdough. Not too heavy with the garlic (not enough in my opinion) so it will sit well with most folks. Little sprinkle of herbs in there, too, but it’s just a hint.

Next up… the slice specials – cheap and delicious!

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Mission Valley, San Diego County, Mary

dave and buster’s – mission valley / san diego, ca

I hadn’t been to a Dave & Buster’s in years, but I was recently invited to swing on by and to check it out again. I was looking forward to taking Jake, Chris and T for a night out to try out Dave & Buster’s newest menu items and to try out some of their fun, new games this summer!

Let’s get crackin’. There’s a lot of food to cover.

Looking at all of these photos makes me feel the fullness again. Oof.

We were greeted by some of the assistant managers who took very good care of us that evening. He had everything under control – ordering the food and drinks for us, asking if there was anything else we wanted and catering to our needs. I wish I could dine like this all of the time. Totally, totally spoiled. Oy.

[The Lawnmower Salad – layered using fresh romaine and green leaf lettuces, grilled chicken, diced garden vegetables, boiled eggs, bacon bits and bleu cheese crumbles]

We started the dinner off with a salad – a salad unlike any other I have seen before. They call it the “Lawnmower Salad” and it comes on a huge plate with all of the veggies and greens layered out in pretty little rows. The nice part about this is you get to kind of build the salad the way you want it – grabbing the veggies you like and scooping them onto your own plate. The lettuces are underneath all of the toppings, so as you grab some, you also get the lettuce underneath.

By the time you scoop what you want onto your own little plate, it manages to get all tossed and mixed up and ready for your waiting mouth… don’t read into that.

You get your choice of dressing on the side to pour over your own mini salad. Perfect for sharing with a crowd!

[The 5:15 – Comes with 5 Buffalo Wings with your choice of Ranch or Bleu Cheese dressing; 5 Chicken Quesadilla Wedges with salsa; 5  Pretzel Dogs; and 5 Crispy Fried Shrimp with spicy habanero sauce; complete with a stack of fresh BBQ potato chips]

Next we had the “5:15” appetizer platter brought out to us – this is geared towards the “after work” crowd who’s ready to get the evening started after a long day at work. It comes with a little mix of everything – wings, quesadilla wedges, pretzel dogs, fried shrimp and plenty of freshly made BBQ potato chips.

I got to eat all of the shrimp, because boys are weird.

Well, at least the ones I know are. Who cares though – more shrimp for ME!

The shrimp is a basic fried shrimp, but the spicy habanero sauce gives it a hefty kick to the seat of your pants, if you like that kind of thing. The pretzel dogs were my next favorite item – they were encased in a soft pretzel dough which paired nicely with the dogs. The boys were all seriously digging the potato chips which had Dave & Buster’s own BBQ seasoning dusted over all of the chips. They had a good crunch and flavor – though not my favorite, simply because I don’t dig BBQ chips all that much.

Maybe I’m just a weird girl.

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Travel, Las Vegas, Mary

great bao – las vegas, nv

For our final meal in Vegas, I wanted to go somewhere a little off the beaten path – at least, off of the beaten Strip path. After we checked out of the hotel and got everything together, we headed over to this little strip mall just a couple of miles away from the Las Vegas Strip.

To a beauty salon.

[Great Bao Cafe is inside – there’s food beyond these doors, promise!]

My cohorts were pretty skeptical about this one. Food inside of a beauty salon? Is that even healthy?

The fact that it’s in a beauty salon just intrigued me more. I love weird, quirky places and this totally fit the bill! I ignored their weird looks and trusted my gut that this place would be awesome. Luckily my friends trust me as well and I heard no protests.

[Great Bao Cafe]

The owner/chef has got his little corner in the beauty salon, complete with tiled roof and little string of lanterns. I was already in love with this place.

The owner is originally from Los Angeles and made his way out east to Vegas (I think because his wife is from Vegas – but don’t quote me on that). He originally had a food truck, but set up shop here after seeing a place for rent in Craigslist. I swear, you can find just about anything on Craiglist! Used TV’s, free chairs, moving boxes, boyfriends, and apparently, places to rent so you can make and sell your little steamed bun sandwiches.

[Great Bao Menu]

The menu here is pretty simple. All of the sandwiches are made with bao which uses similar ingredients to bread, but the bao is steamed, giving it a soft, chewy consistency. There are five different fillings for the Bao (one of them, the pulled pork, isn’t up on the menu). There are smoothies and salads plus cold and hot drinks. The best deal – the deal that all of us got – was three bao + a drink for $10. For an extra fee, you can upgrade to a smoothie.

All of us got iced tea as our drink of choice. The really nice thing about that was we could have it sweetened how we wanted it. Laura got it unsweetened, I got it slightly sweet, and Jake and Chris both got it sweet.

There was a bit of wait for our sandwiches – but that was totally understandable, seeing as this was a one man job that day. We waited outside for our food since it was about the only place where all four of us could sit together. There are two very small two seater tables inside and two tables outside.

[Bao sandwiches on a cutting board]

Everyone got a little cutting board with their bao sandwiches on it. I choose the duck, chicken and pork belly sandwiches.

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Mira Mesa, Mary, San Diego County

fuze restaurant and lounge / mira mesa – san diego, ca

Mira Mesa has gotten a new addition to the neighborhood: Fuze, a Korean restaurant located where “Mr. Wasabi” used to be. They haven’t changed the name on the signage yet, but you still spot the restaurant when you’re driving west on Mira Mesa Blvd. I was invited to come in and try out the restaurant not too long ago. I actually went in early to do a “sneak peek” on one of my lunch breaks before I came in. For this trip, my cohort was my dad.

We there about 5PM on a Wednesday evening. No other guests to speak of. Our hostess/waitress showed us to a table and we sat and started to peruse the menu. Sadly she wasn’t totally well versed on the menu so I felt it was a little lacking there since she gave us half-hearted suggestions. No matter, we ordered a few things and were off!

[pajun – korean style scallion pancake]

I’m not well versed in Korean food at all. This was described to us as sort of a “seafood pancake”.

It’s a large pancake-like appetizer with lots of scallions and little shrimps. The outer edge was a bit crisp (though not too crunchy) and the inside was very doughy. Our waitress said “it’s supposed to be like that” but it sort of tasted like the inside wasn’t cooked all of the way. I did not really like the consistency of the inside of the pajun and mostly just nibbled on the outer edges and a few pieces of the shrimp.

[fried calamari with wasabi ranch and house tarter sauce]

The fried calamari was a more familiar dish that we tried – I was mostly curious to see what kind of twist (if any) they would put on one of my favorite dishes. The calamari are cut into rings and then fried in a coating of batter, resulting in a light, crispy calamari. I love that they’re served on those noodle things (I can’t remember what they are called! argh) giving them a fun, visual appearance. The wasabi ranch wasn’t too god-awful hot and the tarter sauce was just okay. I kept nibbling on these babies sans sauce, cause that’s how I roll. They were tender with a very slight chew and a nice, crisp outer texture.

[bulgogi – sauteed sliced rib eye, onion, asparagus, bell pepper, mushroom and basil]

My dad ordered the bulgogi – or Korean barbequed beef – for his meal. I tried this previously for lunch and my dad and I both agree that this is a very good dish. My dad said that this reminded him of “something your mom would make” – a meat and mostly veggie dish in a nice sauce with some rice on the side. The bulgogi has a nice seasoned flavor and I love the veggies that come with it (especially the mushrooms – I lub you, mushrooms). The bulgogi is tender and the marinade/sauce is slightly sweet and delicious. They also serve bulgogi philly cheese steaks and bulgogi sliders, two items I surely want to come back and try in the future.

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Miscellaneous, Mary, Baking

baby shower!

I’ve been having some very busy days lately and last weekend was no exception! So short post today mostly recapping Alyssa’s baby shower!

Alyssa used to write for this blog, back when she had time to do so. I miss having her posts on here! Now that she’ll be a mom in a few short months, I think it’s safe to say she’s not coming back (though I’ve known that for a long, long time). We celebrated the future birth of her baby boy with a little baby shower, hosted by her old friend Christina. All I did was set up and do desserts, so most of this is Christina’s lovely handiwork.

The spread, from the view of my desserts! I finally bought myself a Dessert Tower. I’ve been wanting one forever but didn’t really feel that I needed it. But I’m over that now. I need it. I want it. It makes cupcakes look so pretty.

A bit of a close up – red velvet cupcakes on the first three levels and lemon ricotta cookies on the bottom. The overflow of cookies is on the cake stand to the left, with some vanilla meringues from Trader Joe’s. The little sugar animals are from Do it With Icing in Clairemont (I love that place).

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San Diego County, Mary, Hillcrest

urban eats / hillcrest – san diego, ca

Urban Eats is a new little restaurant in Hillcrest that’s been open for about three months now under the helm of Chef Christopher B. Sayre. The spot started out earlier this year as Taco Banh before Sayre decided to switch gears and instead open up Urban Eats, a locally sourced restaurant serving up a mix of American dishes. My cohorts and I had noticed on the bottom of our bill it has said “Taco Banh” and curiosity got me to Google searching. It seems Taco Banh didn’t quite work out and Urban Eats was able to rise up out of that. Jake and I are certainly glad that it came to this as we dined here twice within one week – once as a guest and another time on our own with our friend, Laura.

The space is small, but cozy. The bar is the first thing to catch your eye with its colorful Asian lanterns. The simple seats are all set up with place settings and menus and your greeted in a most friendly manner to “sit anywhere you’d like!”

Kyle, our host, server, and waiter extraordinaire, was there to take care of us on both visits. His warm and friendly personalities just exudes charm. I loved him immediately, especially when he recognized us on our second visit and already knew we were going to order the macaroni and cheese again.

More on that later.

At Urban Eats you get cucumber water, which I love. Jake puts his cucumbers into my glass because he’s weird and doesn’t like cucumbers.

*eye roll*

[cheesy baguette slices with honey butter]

All customers get this complimentary appetizer to start. It’s a little more doled up than just “bread and butter” so I call it an appetizer. Baguette slices with cheese and a little cup of honey butter greet you shortly after you take a seat, luring you in. The butter has drizzles of honey on it, so the honey is still distinct as you slather it onto a slice and devour it. It’s a yummy way to start any meal.

[mini grilled cheese – swiss + cheddar + brie + tomato bisque – $6]

On our first visit, I decided I had to try the Mini Grilled Cheese. The grooves on this appetizer are serious. Super panini pressing was going on to create this sandwich. The size reminded me of those weird French Toast sticks. I could tell it was basically a sandwich cut into fours, but I didn’t really care. Oozing cheese on grilled bread makes me happy and these were pretty tasty dunked in the cup of tomato bisque that accompanied them. My only complaint would be that I thought it was cooked a little too long and I tasted more bread than cheese.

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San Diego County, Mary, Multiple Locations, Hillcrest

lotus cafe and juice bar / hillcrest – san diego, ca

Lotus Cafe and Juice Bar is a local restaurant with two locations in Hillcrest and Encinitas. They serve fresh, healthy, natural food and have a lot of dietary options for people who have gluten restrictions, are vegetarian or vegan. Many items can be made vegan and there are a few meaty dishes for those who prefer a bit more protein with their meal.

[Lotus Cafe and Juice Bar Menu]

[Menu Key – The menu is marked with various symbols indicating what the different options are. ]

When I found out I was being invited here and looked at the menu, I decided that I would bring Stacey along with me on this outing as she’s the closest to a vegetarian friend that I have, without actually being vegetarian. What can I say? The girl really likes her salads but can’t bear to give up bacon (bacon smells really good, you must admit).

[Hummus & Pita Bread – spread made of ground garbanzo, sesame seeds, olive oil, lemon & garlic, served with wedges of whole wheat pita bread]

We started off with an appetizer of hummus after we spent an obscenely long amount of time trying to figure out exactly what we wanted. The hummus comes in a big scoop. It’s very solid so not as creamy as other hummus that I’ve had, but the flavor of garlic and lemon shines through and gives this a nice texture and flavor. It comes with a mess of carrots and sprouts along with whole wheat pita bread for spreading and eating.

[Lotus Caesar Salad – Mixed organic greens with tomato, avocado, croutons, Parmesan cheese and vegetarian Caesar dressing]

We also shared this very large Lotus Caesar Salad between the two of us (half salad is also available). This comes with a vegetarian Caesar dressing on the side. The Caesar still has all of the flavor and kick of a regular Caesar so you’re not missing out when you get this. The tomatoes were so fresh and bright and the Parmesan shavings added a nice salty flavor to the salad. Half of a perfectly ripe avocado is placed on top for you to devour (which we did). So refreshing and crisp – the addition of the avocado here really made this shine for me.

[Stuffed Veggie Quesadilla – Whole wheat chapati stuffed with sauteed veggies and cheese, topped with guacamole, salsa and sour cream]

Stacey was between two items for quite some time but finally decided on this Stuffed Veggie Quesadilla. This one can be made vegan, if you so desire. It’s stuffed with with sauteed veggies – including big chunks of broccoli (something we both found really weird at first but it tasted so good that we decided it was a brilliant idea). The veggies are still a bit crisp with a little bite for extra texture. Covered in delicious cheese and topped with a spot of guacamole and sour cream, this is a very delicious and healthy version of a quesadilla.

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San Diego County, Mira Mesa, Mary, Multiple Locations

new shrimp items at daphne’s california greek

Daphne’s has undergone a transformation, becoming Daphne’s California Greek last year and offering more and diverse items on their menu. One of their newest additions are their new shrimp items.

[Crispy Shrimp Pita Sandwich with two sides]

The crispy shrimp has been on the menu before, but never before in a pita sandwich. I got the Shrimp Gyro meal with two sides – greek salad and rice pilaf.

The shrimp itself was nicely done – crisp with a bit of herbs that are in the batter. It’s kind of unwieldily to eat a shrimp pita though, since the shrimp like to keep jumping ship and falling right out of the sandwich. While it was good, I’d still prefer to get the shrimp “on the side” and not eat it in a pita.

[Mango Shrimp Salad]

One of their other new items is the Mango Shrimp Salad. I went with the grilled shrimp this time and am happy to report that the grilled shrimp is quite tasty. They’re fairly good sized shrimp and the grilling gives the shrimp a nice, distinct flavor. I took them off the skewer to eat with my mango salad. The salad itself has hand-made mango salsa with a hint of smoky chipotle flavor, mixed greens and feta cheese with a balsamic hummus dressing.

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Los Angeles County, Mary

eating in la: broome street general store / silver lake – los angeles, ca

Our post-felting class excursion led up over to Silver Lake to Broome Street General Store. We passed right by it without even seeing it since the sign out front was angled weird – you could pretty much only see it if you were heading down the street in a particular direction. Very odd.

Broome Street is named for a street in Manhattan where the owner once lived. It’s filled with various vintage kitchen items and sundries and various artisan goods (such as pickles, sauces, spices and other items).

I bought some smoked sea salt from Wales. It sounded really interesting. I have yet to actually try it though.

Alyssa and I browsed through the whole shop before heading over to the front counter to look at the ready to eat goodies they had for sale.

There were various tarts, yogurt and granola and brownies on this side.

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Atwater Village, Los Angeles County, Mary

eating in la: the village bakery & cafe / atwater village – los angeles, ca

Time for another road trip! This time to hang out with my cohort, Alyssa.

I drove up on a Saturday morning to her house just outside of Downtown LA. I always go up Saturday morning because Friday afternoon traffic makes me very, very sad. There was a slight drizzle when I left and I encountered no traffic on my way up. I got to her house just under 2 hours. That’s the way to go!

After I got there, we got ready to head out for the day and went out for breakfast. We were taking a felting class in the early afternoon and gave ourselves enough time for breakfast and a little window shopping before our class started.

Our first stop of the day was to The Village Bakery and Cafe in Atwater Village.

This is what we looked at while we stood in line to order, trying to decide what we wanted to eat for breakfast. This case contained cupcakes, tarts, and various brownies.

We’ve only scratched the surface! There were also all kinds of muffins, cinnamon rolls, mini pies…

Cookies and cakes…

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