Phileas Foggs Bar & Restaurant

Our lunch was located on the northern end of the Sabre Springs Plaza strip mall which also houses HOB Coffee....

CAB, fresh from her trip from England thought we could try this place out...

despite some dubious reviews on that four lettered site. I read them AFTER our meal and OMG, some of the one star reviews were pretty harsh. More on that later.

Phileas Fogg is the name of the main character in Jules Vernes' 1973  novel, "Around the World in 80 Days"...

He kind of looks like Snidely Whiplash (those over 40 and/or familiar with "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" may get this reference).

The large "Fish and Chips" sign is what piqued our interest. We were willing to give it a try.  We had initally walked in with our coffee drinks and the Asian lady behind the bar told us we had to finish them outside.

There IS a sign that does say "NO outside food or drinks" so what she said wasn't unreasonable. She just seemed a bit rude about it though.  We left to put my drinks in the car (there was no dairy in my drinks so I wasn't worried about them getting spoiled) since I didn't want to chug them down, omg.  Later, as she served us, she asked if our drinks were "good", wtf. Really.

We kept it simple. Fish and chips for CAB and Sausage roll and chips for me.

This is a bar which lots of sports and alcohol decor inside.  There were only a few patrons during the time of our visit. I'm sure it gets packed at night.

I didn't know that water was 'self serve' (this was also a point of contention in some of the lower rated yelp reviews). CAB had received her soft drink and I was waiting for my water.  After a few minutes, I sked the lady if I could please have a glass. She pointed to the direction of a cooler and said, "It's self serve". Wow. It would have been nice to know this ahead of time!  But, hey, whatever.

Our lunch - CAB's fish portion was huge! It was a big chunk of meaty cod plus thick cut chip, coleslaw and tartar sauce. My sausage roll was served with chips along with beans (my choice since mushy peas didn't sound appealing to me).

Her fish was really good! The batter was not overly thick. It was fresh and not greasy at all. 

My sausage roll had an actual sausage inside, as in pre-formed (not a bad thing, mind you). I've made a version of these back in 2012 for KD's Epic Tea Party but formed the sausage myself from loose pork sausage meat.  I loved anything wrapped in puff pastry. The beans were like the canned Pork and Beans from  Heinz I grew up eating. 

So this was our desperation lunch since the line was too damn long at Nutmeg, which I should have expected. They have a brunch menu that changes weekly and it was Sunday around noon, so yeah. We'll have to go next time much earlier. I had my eye on a particular dish there, but Phileas Fogg was not so bad.  Our plates were generous, filling, and tasty.

Phileas Foggs Bar & Restaurant
11385 Poway Rd., Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92128
(858) 486-4442

www.phileasfoggs.com + the mixed bag o'reviews from you know where (I'll have to agree with some of the reviewers who noted that the Asian woman was kind of rude)

Some of the songs playing when we were there, interspersed with various sporting events. I recognized a few, like "I Need to Know", Tom Petty:

A pretty damn good song!  RIP Tom Petty.

CAB didn't recongize this one, "Lucky Man", released 1971 from the self-title debut album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP):

Not a big ELP fan, but I'm familiar with them because one of my good friends, the Arsonist used to listen to them A LOT, along with other prog-rock backs like King Crimson, Yes and Asia back when we were in high school. His favorite albums were "Tarkus" (their second album, 1971) and "Brain Salad Surgery" (released 1973 and known for the cool cover by illustrator H.R. Giger and the song, "Karn Evil 9, First Impression, Part 2, which you may recognize by the opening lyric, "Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends").  How do I know all this shit?  It's a curse and blessing to remember so much trivia.

and another song we both recognized was "Living Thing" by Electric Light Orchestra:

Very Beatlesque!  Jeff Lynne was rocking that 70's whiteman 'fro!

I overhead a young couple two tables away wondering if the song that was playing was Steve Miller. I couldn't help but politely interject that it was actually Paul Rodgers singing. Paul Rodger of Bad Company. Duh. No, I didn't say "duh" but I thought it because come on, how can one mix up the two?  She was young so she gets a pass. This time.