I have mixed feelings about this place, which bills itself as a Southeast Asian (mainly Vietnamese)-Japanese fusion. That alone is a little confusing, because Vietnamese and Japanese foods are opposites in terms of flavor and style. On one hand, the stir-fries are really good and has the taste and texture of a dish made with good wok hei. On the other hand, the soups are pedestrian: bland and uninspiring. My first visit, the soup was basically bouillon and water with noodles in it. It didn't necessarily taste bad, but I don't want to pay $5-6 for a bowl of hot water and bouillon. Figuring I had ordered poorly, I wanted to give Dao Son another chance.
We started with the fried spring rolls. They weren't bad at all. I prefer rice paper as a wrapper versus the flour-based wrappers, which are thicker. The greens were sparse, but fresh.
D.'s stir-fried rice noodle with chicken was really good. The noodles were perfectly done and the flavor was rich with onions, garlic, and pepper. The bean sprouts, Napa cabbage, peanuts, and carrots gave it a nice crunch. Wok hei is almost impossible to describe. Per the Wikipedia article, it truly is an "essence" and this dish was chock-full of it.
My shrimp tempura ramen was underwhelming. The ramen was a little undercooked, but I'd rather it be undercooked than overcooked and mushy. I believe the broth is supposed to be shoyu and mushroom-based, but it was somewhat bland.
The tempura were almost inedible. For one thing, they were almost 2-inches thick. Here's a cross-section. Talk about breading...
D. suggested the thicker tempura was made that way to absorb the soup, but when the breading became soggy, it was extremely mushy with a mouthfeel that borderlined on nauseating.
If I do go back, I'm definitely getting some fried noodles. They had a catfish and eggplant dish that also looked very intriguing. No more soup noodle dishes.
(from December 19)
We stopped at this tony La Jolla restaurant for the company's holiday lunch. Located on the same lot as the Hyatt on LJ Village Drive, this is a place to see and be seen. Per our founder, evenings here can literally have a "meat market" atmosphere. Food-wise, it's Japanese fusion. Very expensive and very good, but do you get that much bang for your buck? Not really. It's Sushi Deli-style food with higher quality ingredients and prettier presentation. Since their prices are 5-6x Sushi Deli's, I'd rather go to Sushi Deli.
That's not to say that our lunch wasn't delish. We ordered tons of appetizers and rolls, all very fresh and classic Californian interpretations of the their Japanese counterparts. They were good, but I noticed that smoked salmon was substituted for raw salmon. I don't know if this is a quality thing or a maintenance thing (smoked salmon would last longer), but they had raw tuna, so I doubt it was anti-raw fish sentiment.
Here are two of the appetizers, starting with the duck potstickers:
They were good, but not extremely flavorful. I'd say the star of the dish was the coriander-mint pesto. It was fresh, light, and would have gone well with the duck had it been better prepared. Placed in a potsticker, where it's essentially steamed, duck loses the depth of flavor that searing would have given it. The fat needs to be cooked at high temperature to bring it all out. Also, who the hell sells 3 potstickers for nine dollars?!
The Japengo prawn salad, which was pretty good. I'd say their strength is using fresh ingredients, so the avocado, lettuce, and pineapple-honey dressing held up well against freshly fried shrimp.
The only thing that was really worth the price were the desserts. The money isn't paid for quantity, but for the details. Gorgeous, eye-catching desserts that tasted as pretty as they looked. My tasting platter of creme brulees was something to write home about. Green tea, lemongrass-coconut, espresso, and chai tea were literally explosions of flavor from shot-glass proportions. Given there were about three tiny spoonfuls per cup, the fact that I could easily and clearly distinguish the flavors says a lot about the custards. Texture was absolutely perfect.
Other desserts ordered were the assortment of sorbets and the bread pudding.
Absolutely gorgeous, aren't they? They were pretty good, too. Thus, the conclusion on Cafe Japengo is this: dress up, go to happy hour, and splurge on dessert.
We don't go to Pacific Beach often, but whenever we end up there, we try to stop by World Curry. I wouldn't call this place authentic, but it serves good curry from all over the world. Thai, Indian, Japanese, Singaporean, and Caribbean curry are served here along with fabulous naan bread. Their coconut ice cream and Thai iced tea are pretty good, too.
I had my usual tikka masala curry, which is actually British. It's quite decent. Nothing to write home about, but a simple and good lunch.
If anything, I love their naan. It's tender with a crispy crust and a yeasty flavor. Perfect for dipping and munching.
I need to bring my bloody camera with me! I've been to several places this past week and could not take pictures. We made hors d'oeuvres over the weekend and I forgot to photograph them before taking them to a party. Oy vay. I'm totally slacking.
Last week, I went to:
