Well, this was a place we'd been wanting to try out. I remember reading Mary's post on McGonagle's last year.
I remember there was one of these (see above) in the book so off we went...
Unbeknownst to us, the Paradise Hills (Reo Drive) location of McGonagles was CLOSED. Utter Fail. I guess the coupon book wasn't updated. There are a few other establishments that have the old address (Nicolosi's) or have gone out of business (Honey's/recently closed, and some other Philly Cheesesteak place in Eastlake). That kind of sucks.
Anyways, McGonagles would have been to the left of the Guamanian store, Hafa Adai. I should come back to check that out. I'm not surprised that McGonagle's didn't last long here. This isn't really a "happening" part of town. I'm not dissing Paradish Hills, but it seemed like a random place to have a Philly Cheese Steak shop. The new and only other location of McGonagle's is on Highland Avenue in National City, right across from the gigantor Wal-Mart. I wonder if they'll honor the old coupon at the new place? That'll have to be a future post...
We were hungry so we wanted to go check out the nearby Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken place (had a coupon for that too) at the end of Paradise Valley Road. As we passed by, we noticed it was not a sit-down place, unless you count the plastic chairs lined up against the wall for customers waiting for their orders. No tables there folks. So....just a few yards away was this tried and true place...
Yes, Leocynn's Lumpia...
His menu is simple. Pancit bihon, Longganisa, Chicken Adobo, Pork Adobo, Lumpia (different kinds like shrimp, shrimp and vegetable, shanghai, beef, etc) and rice. Combos are $7.50.
The owner's Pacquaio wall...
We got two combos to share between the three of us. This one was rice, chicken adobo and pancit. He also offered us several homegrown calamansi to squeeze over our pancit.
The other was rice, pancit and longganisa. Yeah, those sausages were nice and oily and delicious!
On the side, we had three shrimp and vegetable lumpia with sweet and sour sauce.
I really liked his shrimp and vegetable lumpia. The vegetables were diced perfectly and the shrimp pieces were pretty substantial. He did some small talk with us like asking us where our parents were from and what we did for a living. Now you might think that's nosy, but that's pretty normal for an older Filipino. He's around my dad's age so he'd be like an uncle to me. He mentioned that he keeps his menu simple because those are the Filipino dishes most people are familiar with. He's not in a big Filipino area like National City where everyone knows all the different dishes.. He has a point there, but I think that customers should be able to discover something new like Afritada, Mechado, Pinakbet, Tinola, etc. But from his business standpoint, his main seller is the lumpia which gets him through the economic hard times, especially during football games, parties, and such. People order lumpia for these occasions by the hundreds so that keeps him and his wife in business.
See my old posts here:
First Visit
Second Visit
Even though our trip to the now defunct McGonagle's was a bust, we still had some homemade Filipino food that night. Now, since we were in the area, I figured we should go back to Choice #2 so I wouldn't have to cook the next day...
4 comments:
Bummer you didn't get to try McGongale's for yourself. I'm pretty sure they would honor the old coupon since they just moved locations. You'll have to let me know if they taste good to you since I didn't dig it! I did get some really good pandesal at a bakery next to their old location.
i'm going to call the new location and ask if they would honor the coupon. i remember you weren't too thrilled with their food but i'm still willing to give it a shot.
Everything from Leocynn's look delicious. It's been a while since I've gotten some Filipino food. I think it might be time!
you could probably get better food in mira mesa or in PQ. i don't know if a you would need a special trip just to go to leocynn's.
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