It's right off the 805 and just look for this sign...
They have parking in the front but some in the back as well. We got there right when they opened (11 am)...
It had been awhile since we last saw each other. As always, it was so nice catching up with Kirbie and learning about her latest projects and future travel plans.
It is very bright in here - I love the combination of chartreuse and orange. The wall color made the black and white photos of Vietnam stand out. Very eye popping I must say.
Specials menu in the back. We chose the skewer platter and two other menu items for this visit.
My iced coffee; I liked the crushed ice here, which I prefer to ice cubes.
For our skewer platter, we decided on the shrimp with tail ( but no head), shrimp on sugarcane, pork belly, baby octopus and filet mignon. The dipping sauce consisted of lemon juice, salt and surprisingly, wasabi (I asked) with a slice of lime on the side.
Of the meats, we liked the pork belly and filet mignon. Both meats were tasty and I know I wouldn't mind having more of that in the future. The shrimp was also good but I want to try the version with the head next time (juicy!). Our least favorite skewer was the shrimp on sugarcane because it was very very salty. The tiny octopus was good too, very tender.
Our other meal components included the fish sauce wings served here with slivers of green pepper and white onion. The version that Kirk had (post linked at the end) had bits of cilantro with slices jalapenos.
The wings were great with flavorful skin and juicy meat. They weren't overly huge or too tiny to seem not worth it. This was just right.
We tried this particular salad because it had grapefruit in it, something we both hadn't seen in a Vietnamese restaurant before. This was so very light and refreshing with the finely chopped cabbage, pickled vegetables, pork and shrimp. This could have been a meal in itself.
Despite having read from Kirk's post that the banh khot here wasn't that great, we took our chances and thus, learned our lesson. The discs were not as thin or crisp or executed as nicely as Brodard's version. I was hoping that they would have changed the way they did it after Kirk showed the waiter a comparison from Brodard's. I guess not!
That's not to say you shouldn't try it. It's a dish we don't often see on menus here so we gave it a shot.
I thought the addition of wasabi in this dipping sauce was strange. The flavor was very very faint. Perhaps they only utilized wasabi for the pretty color it imparted to the sauce?
Overall, Kirbie and I had a great meal here at Char House and plan to come back with our respective husbands (and teen).
Dessert was nearby at Blush. Last time we went out for lunch at Appethai), it was closed and was being revamped under new management.
They are now offering sandwiches here. We recognized the same owner as before (the guy).
Kirbie's S'mores cake ($5) - This looked nice and notice how upright it is.
Her macs - cookies and cream, almond apricot and strawberries and cream. I chose the brown sugar matcha (you couldn't really taste the brown sugar though) and also the almond apricot.
Their macs are overpriced at $2.50...just saying. They were...okay.
Now this was my dessert, the Nutella. Looks kind of nice from this angle...
But, hey now, it's a leaning tower of craptasticness from this angle!
The guy told me that my cake needed to be "warmed up" because the buttercream was hard. I kind of hesitated but trusted him. Well, when I peeled off the protective plastic sleeve that held the circles of layered cake together, this is what happened.
Buttercream gets softened and the fucking cake leans and then looks ugly. I told him about it and that in the future, it would be preferable to NOT warm up this type cake because it no longer holds up. He wasn't really apologetic and reiterated that buttercream needed to be softened because some people don't like eating it cold and hard. I guess I'm one of those who do. But yeah, this was not so great. The cake itself tasted good but would have been better if it wasn't heated up.
Rant over.
Back at home, one of the food gifts from Kirbie (we exchanged belated birthday presents), Lay's Korean barbecue flavored chips. She didn't give me the Stacks, but I found these Korean BBQ flavored chips from Grocery Outlet (only .99!). I thought it was interesting that Korean BBQ flavor was a "thing". For the record, the Lay's tasted way better than the Stax version (also by Lay's).
The other food gifts...
Chocolate truffle spread (it's awesome), the new M and M flavors (chili peanut, honey nut and coffee nut) and a new Peeps cookbook featuring six of her recipes AND her own photos (very beautiful and cute they were). Now that Peeps are sold year round in all colors and flavors, you can get quite creative with this former Easter candy. Of the new M and M flavors, I liked the honey nut the best and the chili the least. It did have a slight kick to it but I would prefer candy not to be spicy. Points to M and M's for trying new flavors though. Also the colors matched the flavors which was cool. For the chili, the colors were red, dark orange, and orange; the honey nut had yellow and dark brown; the coffee tan and cream.
Previous visit to Blush
December 2015
Who else went to Char House?
Kirk of course, was first on the scene. You may also see Kirbie's post of our visit here (with much better photos) + a recent article from the SD Reader, "Chicken Hearted" April 28, 2016
Char House
7767 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 569-5144
Their FB page + reviews from you know where
They will be having an upcoming Mother's Day special featuring 10 skewers for $10 (wow!) but fearing crowds, I will probably pick a different spot for my choice of venue for Mother's Day dinner. Bert and TC will have to come here next time so we can sample all of their skewers!
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