Spicy City warms my spicy heart

Where spice dreams are made.

Neighborhood: Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa

Price: $$

Vibe: Tiny, busy Szechuan Chinese restaurant in a strip mall off Convoy Street. The mirrored wall can deceive you, the tables in this small space fill up fast. Plan accordingly.

I love restaurants with seasonal menus that evolve throughout the year, almost as much as I love restaurants like Spicy City, offering the favorites, the steadfast, tried-and-true dishes that I crave and think about often.

Spicy City is for spice lovers. Like for real. If you or your dining partner don’t like spice, either pass on Spicy City, or lean-in, let your nose run, and enjoy it in all its spicy glory.

Szechuan cuisine is a wonderful eating adventure, but the menu at places like Spicy City is vast and can be a bit overwhelming. I was happy to enjoy my first experience here with a friend who had been before and seemed to know every delicious dish on the menu. This very well could be because everything on the menu is fabulous. I do my best to branch out and try new things, but when I visit a place like Spicy City, I looking forward to my favorite dishes. Here are a few that I would consider my favorites at Spicy City.

Beef in Dried Pot

The Beef in Dried Pot is a wonderful stir fry of beef, spicy peppers and vegetables over fresh bean sprouts, steaming and simmering in the dried pot. It’s fabulous! Try it.

Shredded Pork with Baked Tofu (This may be my fave!)

The shredded pork with baked tofu sounds basic, but it’s a rush of flavor and textures that I find I want to keep eating, and I can’t really say if it’s the pork or the tofu that star in this dish, it’s kind of like a beautiful duet that you never knew you needed to eat!

Boiled Fish Filet in Hot Sauce

I know i said that the pork and tofu dish is my favorite, but I’ll be honest, the Boiled Fish in Hot Sauce is a favorite also. Mmmm how I love the spicy, oily sauce that this fish comes cooked in, it seems like it’s going to be too spicy to bear at first, but then you keep eating and enjoying and the next thing you know, you’ve cleaned the hot pot!

On this visit we also tried some fried dumplings and Chinese Greens. The dumplings were a little doughier than I’m used to, but let’s be honest, they’re dumplings and they are delicious.

Fried Dumplings

Chinese Greens in Garlic Sauce

I always love a good Chinese Greens. You really can’t go wrong with any of the Chinese veggies, but these cooked in garlic sauce were especially delicious.

Spicy City is an authentic, traditional and absolutely wonderful dining experience. You will overheat a little, you may sweat, but it’s all worth it for some of the most deliciously spicy offerings in the city. I’m grateful to have this as an eating option here in San Diego, I definitely feel that I should imbibe more often.

Spicy City

4690 Convoy Street, Suite 107

San Diego, Ca 92111

Seven Courses of Beef at Phuong Trang is delightful

Neighborhood: Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa

Price: $$

Vibe: Mid-80s home kitchen vibes. As with a number of Asian restaurants in this area, you are not here for the atmosphere, you are here to eat! Closes at 8:30pm SHARP so plan accordingly.

Phuong Trang is a staple of the Convoy Street food scene, and has been around since the early 90s, serving up authentic, fresh Vietnamese cuisine. It’s been around for so long that it doesn’t quite get the kudos it should as one of the best options for Vietnamese in the area. The ingredients are fresh and the quality just can’t be beat.

During one of my last visits to Phuong Trang, I was introduced to a lovely meal called Seven Courses of Beef. Meant to be shared, so it’s perfect for 2 or 3 people. This lovely coursing of beef involves a variety of different cooking techniques - each meant to be served in a “make-your-own-spring-roll” fashion, which is a little messy, but delicious and loads of fun! I love a good interactive meal!

Before I start in on the Seven Courses of Beef, I also must share a couple of fantastic appetizers we tried. There really isn’t a bad option on the menu, but I do hope to share with you some suggestions for things you may not have tried before.

Garlic Wings with Butter

I could come here just for the wings. Let’s be honest, I have done this! The deep-fried Garlic and Butter wings are out of this world! Perfectly crispy on the outside, while still perfectly juicy on the inside, yum! You can order either a half or a full dozen of these wings - go ahead and order the dozen because the leftovers are worth it.

Vietnamese Crepe

We also tried the Vietnamese Crepe, which is a crispy rice flour crepe filled with shrimp, pork, bean sprouts, sliced onions and mung beans. Wow. I absolutely love the flavors here, and the crunch of the bean sprouts inside this very light and fluffy crepe was really unique. The crepe was a lot larger than we anticipated, so keep that in mind when choosing your apps, as they are substantial!

On to the star of our meal - the Seven Courses of Beef, or Beef Seven Ways. I absolutely love fresh spring rolls. In fact, if we didn’t order this meal of beef coursings, I would have ordered the fried tofu fresh spring rolls (another time).

The Seven Courses of Beef represents 7 different preparations of beef — each to be eaten in your own spring roll concoction, with the exception of the Beef Porridge. Though during our visit, we missed out on the “Ground Beef in Caul Sheet” and were supplied with another helping of the “Ground Beef in Grape Leaves” (I was not mad about this! The Ground Beef in Caul Sheet is actually beef wrapped in caul fat, a membrane that encases the digestive organs of some animals).

They start the meal by bringing out all of the goodies to make your spring rolls. This includes the rice paper wraps, a small bowl of warm water and a plate of delicious accoutrement including lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, jicama and pineapple. I also suggest you order the vermicelli noodles to include in your spring roll inventions, this is an extra $3 but totally worth it.

Rice paper wraps are served with a bowl of warm water to make your fresh spring rolls.

Fresh lettuce, cucumbers, jicama, carrot and pineapple to adorn your spring rolls.

The first two preparations they serve are “cook-it-yourself” fondue-style courses. We started with the Vinegar Fondue with Beef. A small pot of vinegar is prepared on a warming plate, and you are each served a few thin slices of raw beef topped with thin sliced onions and scallions. Once that vinegar starts to bubble, grab your chopsticks and drop a slice or two of the beef in, it will cook instantly, so you won’t wait long.

While your beef starts cooking, I suggest you dip one of the rice papers in the water. It only needs to be submerged for a second and it will immediately soften. Place it on your plate and start making your spring rolls. You can add the meat first, or start with veggies, I just recommend that you start small so that you can actually wrap everything into the paper. I say this as advice to myself in particular, because I habitually overstuffed my rolls. It made them a little messy, but still delicious! Don’t forget to try the vinegar/fish sauce dipping sauce. It really ties the whole roll together. My dining partner and I each requested our own, so that we could dunk our sloppy rolls into our individual dipping sauces and didn’t have to worry about double dipping (or sharing).

Dipping sauce for the Spring Rolls

The second “cook-it-yourself” course is the Hot Grill with Beef, which is basically replacing the vinegar with a skillet of melted butter, you can drop in your beef and onions and cook to your liking. The raw steak that they serve are meant to be cooked one of these two ways,. My favorite was definitely the Hot Grill beef, so I chose to save the two of my three pieces of beef for this option.

Ground Beef in Grape Leaves, Char-Grilled Beef and Steamed Beef Meatloaf

I thought the first two preparations were fun, but then came out this amazing platter with our remaining courses. This included Ground Beef in Grape Leaves, which were fabulous! In fact, this was one I didn’t eat in a spring roll, I just took a bite, and it was a wonderful depth of flavor. The Char-Grilled beef had a delicious flavor profile, with that fresh off the grill char and smokiness. The Steamed Beef Meatball was also a surprising delight, and probably one of my favorite spring rolls of the evening.

Steamed Beef Meatball had loads of flavor and was one of my favorite of the seven courses.

Beef Porridge

Last but not least was the Beef Porridge course which was really unique and delicious. The Vietnamese certainly know how to make some delicious soups and the porridge was unexpected and would be my ideal “go-to” comfort meal on a cold day.

The entire meal was delicious at Phuong Trang and the Seven Courses is something I can wait to try again. I’ll work on honing my spring-roll-making skills and will try, try to remember that less is more, but let’s be real, you know I’ll overdo it again,

If you haven’t been ever or even lately, make your next night out an authentic Vietnamese adventure. Try something new! But get there by 7:30pm latest if you want to be seated, doors close at 8:30pm sharp!

Phuong Trang

4170 Convoy Street, San Diego, California 92111

Robataya Oton, the little Japan of San Diego

Shoes off when dining in the private seating areas of Robataya Oton

Neighborhood: Kearny Mesa, just a couple of blocks off-Convoy Street

Price: $$$ (Depends on how much fresh sushi you order!)

Vibe: This dark little restaurant, with private wooden booths gives us all the feels for an authentic Japanese dining experience

If you’ve read this blog before, you know how much I love Convoy Street (Kearny Mesa) and all that this area of town has to offer. We are SO lucky to have such an eclectic selection of wonderful Asian restaurants right here in San Diego. If you haven’t explored this part of town yet, please get out there and try something new next time you dine out. P.S. my blog offers a ton of our favorite offerings at different restaurants along Convoy Street. Just search “Kearny Mesa” here to see some of my suggestions.

Back to this fabulous little restaurant that is Robataya Oton! Located in a little strip mall off Kearny Villa Road, just bordering the 163 freeway. You must make reservations because the restaurant is small, with only a few private dining booths and some seats at the sushi bar. As customary when visiting someone’s home in Japan, you take your shoes off before climbing into one of the private booths, and immediately you feel a little more relaxed in this charming dining spot.

Our view of the sushi bar from our private booth

The owner and chef, Takumi Sakurai, prides himself on choosing only the finest local ingredients and actually sources some of the seafood selections straight from Japan! This is ever-so-evident when we start getting our dishes delivered. I’m a little embarrassed by how many orders of the yellowtail belly nigiri and fresh Hamachi carpaccio we ordered, so I won’t exhaust you with the details. The sushi here is so unbelievably fresh that it literally melts in your mouth. We were so into our eating experience that I failed to get a picture of the Hamachi carpaccio, except for one last piece, oops!

Yellowtail belly nigiri

The only picture I got of the Hamachi carpaccio — a testament to how delicious it was.

We also ordered the chicken karaage, lightly battered and deep-fried and seasoned to perfection. This was a delicious crunchy bite, and yes, we ordered this twice because the first order went so fast.

Chicken Karaage

Tara Saikayo

Though the image above doesn’t quite do it justice, I also must recommend the Tara Saikyo — an appetizer of black cod cooked and caramelized in a delicious Saikyo miso marinade. I could have eaten 10 of these!

Our fixens for Shabu Shabu

The grand finale of this eating adventure of course had to be one of the hot pot options on the menu. I love a good hot pot, and while we typically order the Chanko Nabe (with miso base and pork — incredible!), this time we opted for the Shabu Shabu - just to try something different. It was a great selection of Premium thin sliced beef and vegetables, mushrooms, and tofu cooked in Japanese "Dashi" soup stock. The Shabu was a fun change, but the dashi soup stock didn’t have that knock-you-down flavor I was hoping for. It’s served with sesame sauce and ponzu sauce, and we found that adding some to our individual bowls and using it for a dipping sauce was a needed addition to the Shabu Shabu.

Shabu Shabu

Robatay Oton is a truly special restaurant in the off-Convoy area. A great way to taste a variety of Japanese offerings in a place that feels like home.

Robataya Oton

5447 Kearny Villa Rd.

San Diego, CA. 92123