It was time for a revisit...
For those of you that might remember, this used to be the old Da Kine's Restaurant, a Hawaiian place which was pretty popular in the mid to late 90's. They even had a location at one point, in Liberty Station. It is now gone. I checked on the four lettered sit and the only Da Kine's left is in Santee. I assume they are still in business since the last review was dated 5/31.
Anyhow, Hawaiian food was pretty popular back then (remember Island Boy Grille back in the mid 90's as well?) but has kind of gone by the wayside (L&L anyone? Anyone?). So....anyhow Pho Mai Cali has been here since 2011. Five years is not bad for lasting in this strip mall.
It was just us two so we only got a few things. Bert would have our leftovers anyways (he was out doing another errand).
In my previous post, I noted their groovy "love beads". The view out the window shows the wall of neighboring Kyoto Market, a small Japanese market that I like going to when I don't feel like driving all the way up to Mitsuwa or Nijiya.
TC's fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce (she always orders that whenever we are at a VN restaurant) and my fried spring rolls with nuoc cham. Curiously, they only serve 4. Some places serve 6.
TC's pho with steak and flank. I made sure to get the server's legs and feet in there. Makes it more "real" I say.
I was vaccilating between bun or the BBQ Beef salad. When I asked our server what kind of vegetables were in the salad, he just said, "salad". When I repeated my question, he seemed confused and said "vegetable", so I just gave up and said, "I'll take the beef salad". Language barrier. I wasn't sure if there would be lettuce in the salad. It turned out to be lots of cilantro, mint, picked carrots and daikon, green onions and slivered cucumbers with nuoc cham. This was so very refreshing. You'll notice that there's lots of beef on top as well. The bbq flavor was very nice. You could tell that they cooked the meat on the grill. Some of the pieces with fat had a nice slight char to them.
I noticed that they haven't bothered redecorating the bathoom since the old Hawaiian posters are still there. And it's not a Vietnamese restaurant bathroom unless you have cleaning supplies in it. At least it doesn't entirely double up as the supply closet. This is pretty tame.
Earlier today we took TC to a doctor's appointment and by the time we got out, it was past our normal dinner time. We had a craving for VN food so we went to our old standby, Phuong Trang.
This sign...you'd be surprised at how lax some parents are.
At least there were no unruly kids during this particular visit.
This dude had on a really colorful Aloha shirt...
We already knew what we wanted. Pho tai for Bert. Fresh spring rolls for TC, fried for me plus a repeat of the pork, shrimp and jellyfish salad. We were super hungry that evening. That hospital visit took longer than expected.
The basil sprig was nice and fresh.
The lettue and herb plate for my fried rolls...Much more generous than the skimpy plate I had at Pho Convoy where they halve the lettuce and gave only one sprig of limp mint. No, this was abundant and fresh.
I can't resist their fried spring rolls here.
TC's Bun with shrimp - very meat shrimp pieces these were (all seven pieces, we counted!).
Shrimp, pork and jellyfish salad served with shrimp chips:
Nice, light and refreshing. It was pretty hot early that day but cooled down that evening. Still, it was good to have something healthy and something that didn't need to be "cooked".
On our way back to the car, we peered into the bowling supply store...
Them ballz sure were colorful!
Before heading home, we made a stop at Tokyo Central & Main gift shop. This used to be Marukai Daiso. TC wanted to get some candies and snacks for her friends and teachers. The last day of school is tomorrow.
While she was decided on what to get, I saw this....
Somehow, a curry flavored soda does NOT seem refreshing to me. I bought a similar type of soda at an Indian store out of curiosity and nearly hurled. It was Garam Masala flavor. Yeahhh...spice flavored soda = no bueno.
This was a cute display. Everything strawberry. They also had one just for Green Tea flavored items.
TC was thinking about getting her friend a Shiba Inu keychain but didn't want to spend $5 on one item, choosing instead to get her an assortment of candy at $2.99/lb. She thought it would be more fun for her friend to have different kinds of cute and colorful sweets.
If only they were cheaper!
Previous visit to Pho Mai Calli:
July 2014 when this place was "Plan B" because the lines at the newly opened Sonic were too long!
Previous visit to Phuong Trang
November 2015 (but posted May of this year)
Previous visit to Tokyo Main & Central:
October 2015
I need to try the lemon beef salad next time at Phuong Trang. Both Kirk and Cathy have posted on it and I am curious to give it a try as well...
2 comments:
Ooo, that beef salad looks really good! Kind of reminds me of the bun bowls but without the noodles.
The fried spring rolls at Phung Trang look really good - the skin looks extra crispy!
I would also pass on the curry soda. Ugh, the thought of that is making me make weird faces, haha.
Yes, this is the place one of your readers recommended and I seconded her, ha ha. There was a lot of beef on that salad.
I do like Phuong Trang's version of the fried egg rolls - that blistered rice paper has a nice texture when done right. If not fried well, it is horrible (gummy) but when perfect, is crisp and amazing.
Curry soda = barf.
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