Jury duty is the reason for my presence in the Gaslamp area, otherwise, as those of you who know me well, I would be nowhere near this place.
The previous day I had a lovely meal with a co-worker of mine and two great ladies whom we do business with from time to time, and who also work in the downtown area, and who highly recommended this place. Whence I came upon it the next day during my two hour lunch break I simply had to try it.
The folowing is my summation...
OK, so, fresh fish and bar. Let's start with the location. 4th and Broadway, south east corner, prime spot. Looks fairly new, very comfirtable interior, open and inviting exterior. A couple of TV's were on and I enjoyed watching the LLWS during my visit.
Here's part of the lunch menu
I realized that I would likely only have this one chance to try this place, based on my eversion to Gaslamp, so I thought I should order a couple of things.
I also realized that I was on jury duty and it was possible that I could be sent to a courtroom later in the day, so I enjoyed an iced tea... which was standard, nothing special, but refreshing in the heat of days.
Let's have the sriracha shrimp and garlic noodles...
and the blackened mahi fish tacos
Let's break up the decriptions so that it doesn't get too muddled
When the waiter placed the bowl in front of me he said "be VERY careful, this is VERY hot"
I thanked him for the caution and gently eased my way in. Looked great, smelled pretty good too. I moved some of the veggies around and spooned up some broth, and......
it was warm. Not hot, warm.
The first dissapointment of the meal. It should have been piping hot, just like the waiter suspected it would be. There were even wisps of steam coming from the bowl, no idea where they came from, honestly, but there they were. I think the problem is, and many amateur soup purveyors have, is that all of the "fixin's" are kept in the fridge and placed in the bowl after the broth has been poured over the noodles, thus significantly lowering the temperature of the soup. If you want it to be hot, everything needs to be HOT!
The second dissapointment was the flavor of the broth. I was expecting shitake ginger broth (just like the menu said) and I got a big mouthful of soy sauce. It honestly tasted like they just opened a bottle and dumped it in. Not so awesome.
I didn't stop there tho, one of the best things I ate was coming up, and something that a LOT of ramen shops, amateur ramen shops, in San Diego, just get flat our wrong.
The egg
Just look at it!
This is how you prepare a soft boiled egg to go in a soup. You have vats of hot broth, COOK YOUR EGG IN THAT!!! not just hot water, there's no flavor in that.
This was yummy, flavorful, cooked well.
It was actually cooked a little too well, well done that is. But I would much rather have it over done than under done. I don't want egg yolk soup. If I do, I 'll go get some chinese food.
It was also a bit cold in the center, obviously right from the fridge. Flavor was nice though.
Good job Spike!
I just couldn't eat any more
Not wanting to end with a criticism, I thought I'd offer my last main gripe here.
And it's really a shame too. The black beans, of which I am a huge fan of, tasted terrific. Big flavor, texture perfect. The problem is the long soft onion things in the bowl. WTF is that?!?!? It felt and tasted, uhm,, well, just weird. Blech. Whoever came up with this idea is off the mark. Not good. Just do it normal. There is no need to dress it up, at least not with limp onions strips.
Gross
The tacos were good. I would have liked to taste the fish a bit more, the mango and guac overpowered it a bit, but the flavor was nice and it all worked well. For $12.95 though, lemmie taste the fish. WDHS?
What else can I say?
Eat more in Gaslamp? no, please don't.
Try more new places to eat, something new? Yes, great idea! Thanks Claudia and Kelly!
DVA
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