[Update - D'Lush is now gone and replaced with Pink Berry Yogurt as of 2011]
This was taken on Mother's Day. Check this out, we were leaving the church parking lot and across the street (at the old Marian High School, now closed) was a dude (or maybe it was a chick, I don't know!) in a full on gorilla suit holding this sign. His/her head is turned so you can't see the gorilla mask. This was so funny. I was reminded of the scene in one of my favorite Eddie Murphy movies, "Trading Places" (a Christmas classic that will endure for decades to come), where the Clarence Beeks character (played by the dude who was the Principal in "Breakfast Club") dressed up in a gorilla suit and later got ass-raped by a real gorilla!
In the past, for Mother's Day, we'd gone to the Panda Inn at Horton Plaza since they have a really nice buffet. I don't even remember where we went last year because that was when I was sick and I didn't feel like going out much. Instead of going where everyone and their mother (ha ha, had to throw that in) was that day, we decided to go to Bali Thai in Mission Valley. It's located on that road that's parallel to the I-8 freeway. You pass the abomination known as Benihana's, and the other shithole known as El Torito's before you reach Bali Thai, which is located in a jumble of business buildings. It's right before you hit TGIF's and the gym. When we drove by Benihana's and El Torito's, we saw the crowds and the lack of parking space. As we drove farther, we were relieved that there was a lot of space to park near Bali Thai. Why? No one was there! And it remained that way for the most part of our lunch, which was sad because we really liked our lunch that day. People missed out man. You can get crappy sushi and chopped up shrimp/beef/chicken and Mexican food anywhere!
This was the menu for the day. It was $19 a person, which was a bargain, compared to some other buffets out there charging $25 or more.
The patio...
We hadn't been here in at least a couple of years. I remember when they opened back in 2004...I really liked their beef rendang and their Thai style fried chicken. They'd changed their decor by adding seat covers...
It's pretty small inside which I like because huge restarants are a big turnoff for me. The area behind the black curtains is a hallway which leads to the kitchens; the bathrooms are further down to your left and yes, they are quite clean and nice.
I think you can get this at Costplus.
Yeah, the place setting. I'm so anal!
Bert's Thai coffee (that's TC's finger):
Since we ordered the Mother's Day special, the starter was Chicken Satay which rested atop a bed of spring greens and was drizzled (Okay, drowned) with peanut sauce. I figured that TC would like this since it is a utensil free food and she likes to eat anything on sticks. I let her eat my share. We ordered two of the specials, intending to share our food with TC since she certainly wasn't going to eat a whole order herself.
So, this was everything you saw on that board...The rice shaped into a cone is colored by turmeric. You can see the chili shrimp at the top, the whole plate encircled by several longass carrot squiggles. Someone had fun with their vegetable garnish peeler! Next to the shrimp was the Balinese fish filet with some sort of sweet sauce - delicious! Below that was the Eggplant Balado, eggplant in a chili sauce. I know I keep writing "chili sauce" (because I love the Time's song, "Chili Sauce" so much, but no...) but it totally wasn't that fierce or hot. Well, it had a kick, but not enough to make you sweat and cry for more like at Sab e Lee or Ba Ren. This was a kinder, more gentler "hot".
You can see the chili shrimp on the left, the krupuk (shrimp chips) that are pressed against the rice, a ramekin of a type of sweet and dark soy sauce with a really complex flavor, and the fried tofu and tempeh becem below the shrimp. I dind't really like the tempeh - it had a gross and thick grainy, oaty mouthfeel. I liked the tofu more because it had a smoother texture, and that's saying a lot because I'm not a tofu fanatic.
Another closeup of the food. This was a really pretty presentation and the food was fantastic. The krupuk was nice and crunchy too. If you've ever seen these unfried, they look like plastic wafer chips or even those plastic things you would color as a kid and bake in the oven (damn, I forgot what those were called!), then when you throw them in hot oil, they puff up and expand almost instantly. I believe that's part of the fish filet you see there. There was also some noodle dish that I didn't really eat. I gave it to TC. She had bits and pieces of our food. She wasn't crazy about some of the spicy stuff but really liked the rice, the fish and the shrimp. I just realized that my pic with the view of the beef rendang isn't here. Maybe it's just as well, because it wasn't as good as I remembered it to be. In fact, the meat, which is supposed to be very tender, was kind of hard, like it hadn't been stewed long enough.
The cook, who hailed from Indonesia (Sumatra I believe) came out to greet us and invite us to their montly gatherings. Apparently, the restaurant does these monthly dinners where she cooks dishes not normally found on their menu. She was pretty happy that we were there (well, I guess since no one else came in!). Our waiter was pretty mellow. He was also from Indoensia but from another city (which I forgot). Here's our dessert, the banana spring rolls with ice cream. Not as pretty as PF Chang's. The banane spring rolls here were actually individual tiny spring rolls, as opposed to a big spring roll cut up in pieces (like at PF Chang's). Cute! The ice cream was not spectacular - just vanilla with a cherry on top. But, nice and simple. Not frou frou at all.
After our relatively stress free lunch, we headed over to Fashion Valley mall so I could do a few exchanges/returns and also window shop. Later, we ended up buying a smoothie from this place:
They seemed to be doing some sort of renovation at the food court. I think Starbucks was gone. I saw a lot of folks with D'Lush Cups. Bert got a Strawberry Mangoyogurt smoothie...
It was pretty good but overpriced of course. But hey, it was Mother's Day right?
Bert and TC were so sweet - they got me a little gagdet that stores and plays digital photos. Bert uploaded a ton of pictures of just me and TC on there, from when she was still a toddler up to the present day. I loved it!
This was taken on Mother's Day. Check this out, we were leaving the church parking lot and across the street (at the old Marian High School, now closed) was a dude (or maybe it was a chick, I don't know!) in a full on gorilla suit holding this sign. His/her head is turned so you can't see the gorilla mask. This was so funny. I was reminded of the scene in one of my favorite Eddie Murphy movies, "Trading Places" (a Christmas classic that will endure for decades to come), where the Clarence Beeks character (played by the dude who was the Principal in "Breakfast Club") dressed up in a gorilla suit and later got ass-raped by a real gorilla!
In the past, for Mother's Day, we'd gone to the Panda Inn at Horton Plaza since they have a really nice buffet. I don't even remember where we went last year because that was when I was sick and I didn't feel like going out much. Instead of going where everyone and their mother (ha ha, had to throw that in) was that day, we decided to go to Bali Thai in Mission Valley. It's located on that road that's parallel to the I-8 freeway. You pass the abomination known as Benihana's, and the other shithole known as El Torito's before you reach Bali Thai, which is located in a jumble of business buildings. It's right before you hit TGIF's and the gym. When we drove by Benihana's and El Torito's, we saw the crowds and the lack of parking space. As we drove farther, we were relieved that there was a lot of space to park near Bali Thai. Why? No one was there! And it remained that way for the most part of our lunch, which was sad because we really liked our lunch that day. People missed out man. You can get crappy sushi and chopped up shrimp/beef/chicken and Mexican food anywhere!
This was the menu for the day. It was $19 a person, which was a bargain, compared to some other buffets out there charging $25 or more.
The patio...
We hadn't been here in at least a couple of years. I remember when they opened back in 2004...I really liked their beef rendang and their Thai style fried chicken. They'd changed their decor by adding seat covers...
It's pretty small inside which I like because huge restarants are a big turnoff for me. The area behind the black curtains is a hallway which leads to the kitchens; the bathrooms are further down to your left and yes, they are quite clean and nice.
I think you can get this at Costplus.
Yeah, the place setting. I'm so anal!
Bert's Thai coffee (that's TC's finger):
Since we ordered the Mother's Day special, the starter was Chicken Satay which rested atop a bed of spring greens and was drizzled (Okay, drowned) with peanut sauce. I figured that TC would like this since it is a utensil free food and she likes to eat anything on sticks. I let her eat my share. We ordered two of the specials, intending to share our food with TC since she certainly wasn't going to eat a whole order herself.
So, this was everything you saw on that board...The rice shaped into a cone is colored by turmeric. You can see the chili shrimp at the top, the whole plate encircled by several longass carrot squiggles. Someone had fun with their vegetable garnish peeler! Next to the shrimp was the Balinese fish filet with some sort of sweet sauce - delicious! Below that was the Eggplant Balado, eggplant in a chili sauce. I know I keep writing "chili sauce" (because I love the Time's song, "Chili Sauce" so much, but no...) but it totally wasn't that fierce or hot. Well, it had a kick, but not enough to make you sweat and cry for more like at Sab e Lee or Ba Ren. This was a kinder, more gentler "hot".
You can see the chili shrimp on the left, the krupuk (shrimp chips) that are pressed against the rice, a ramekin of a type of sweet and dark soy sauce with a really complex flavor, and the fried tofu and tempeh becem below the shrimp. I dind't really like the tempeh - it had a gross and thick grainy, oaty mouthfeel. I liked the tofu more because it had a smoother texture, and that's saying a lot because I'm not a tofu fanatic.
Another closeup of the food. This was a really pretty presentation and the food was fantastic. The krupuk was nice and crunchy too. If you've ever seen these unfried, they look like plastic wafer chips or even those plastic things you would color as a kid and bake in the oven (damn, I forgot what those were called!), then when you throw them in hot oil, they puff up and expand almost instantly. I believe that's part of the fish filet you see there. There was also some noodle dish that I didn't really eat. I gave it to TC. She had bits and pieces of our food. She wasn't crazy about some of the spicy stuff but really liked the rice, the fish and the shrimp. I just realized that my pic with the view of the beef rendang isn't here. Maybe it's just as well, because it wasn't as good as I remembered it to be. In fact, the meat, which is supposed to be very tender, was kind of hard, like it hadn't been stewed long enough.
The cook, who hailed from Indonesia (Sumatra I believe) came out to greet us and invite us to their montly gatherings. Apparently, the restaurant does these monthly dinners where she cooks dishes not normally found on their menu. She was pretty happy that we were there (well, I guess since no one else came in!). Our waiter was pretty mellow. He was also from Indoensia but from another city (which I forgot). Here's our dessert, the banana spring rolls with ice cream. Not as pretty as PF Chang's. The banane spring rolls here were actually individual tiny spring rolls, as opposed to a big spring roll cut up in pieces (like at PF Chang's). Cute! The ice cream was not spectacular - just vanilla with a cherry on top. But, nice and simple. Not frou frou at all.
After our relatively stress free lunch, we headed over to Fashion Valley mall so I could do a few exchanges/returns and also window shop. Later, we ended up buying a smoothie from this place:
They seemed to be doing some sort of renovation at the food court. I think Starbucks was gone. I saw a lot of folks with D'Lush Cups. Bert got a Strawberry Mangoyogurt smoothie...
It was pretty good but overpriced of course. But hey, it was Mother's Day right?
Bert and TC were so sweet - they got me a little gagdet that stores and plays digital photos. Bert uploaded a ton of pictures of just me and TC on there, from when she was still a toddler up to the present day. I loved it!
4 comments:
*sigh* I love your restaurant and food reviews.
Glad your Mother's Day was divine :)
thanks and i hope u had a nice first mother's day too! : )
I always thought Bali Thai was just another Thai place, but the Southeast Asian-Malay-Indo flare makes it sound more interesting.
hi lmc - yes, they have your standard thai stuff, but there's a few indonesian items on the menu as well. there used to be an indonesian place in la jolla but it closed in the mid 90's - rijstafel (probably spelled that wrong), which means 'rice table'
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