Zorba's Greek Restaurant

Sometime last month, we finally went to this place...it's on Broadway in Chula Vista, on the northern outskirts right before it turns into National City.

I've never watched the movie, "Zorba the Greek".  I'm not too keen on certain types of Greek food but I wanted to try their buffet so off I went, with Bert and TC as willing accomplices.

I didn't take too many photos of the buffet but they had a big selection of fresh salad items as well as hot entrees...


This is family owned and run and the people working there were super nice. They were very welcoming and you could tell that there were regulars there. Everyone was really nice here...We were told to sit wherever we wanted so I chose the far end of the dining area.

Look, there's Anthony Quinn on the movie poster!

Here's their menu:

Only $8.95 for the lunch buffet (for adults). I don't know why people would order from the regular menu when you can get practically everything from the buffet.


I got several triangular pieces of the spanakopita. Normally I don't like feta cheese. But when it's mixed with spinached and wrapped in buttery and flaky phyllo dough,then I'll eat it. I got a cabbage roll, rice,  and somewhere in there was a Greek version of lasagna (pastitsio)...as well as an eggplant dish (sorry, forgot the name).

There's Bert's plate - he got some gyros meat (I passed because I don't like lamb), pita, gren salad, some sort of chicken dish, potatoes, and vegetables.

This was TC's lemon chicken soup with rice which she really liked.

Here's Bert's second plate. Actually, he got one of those cabbage rolls for me!

I got one of each small dessert - different types of baklava and another dessert that absolutely dripped with honey. That powdered sugar cookie was kind of too thick but it had a cinnamony type flavor. We shared this between the three of us.

TC also got some fresh fruit and some sort of Greek rice pudding. Looks kinda goopy to me. I am not a fan of soft and wet desserts. I have to stop using that phrase, "Soft and Wet". Sorry Prince. And yes, that's an actual Prince song title.

All in all, it was good for the price. I'm not a Greek food connoisseur but I enjoyed most of what I had. I passed on the chicken items. I really liked that spanakopita though! I was hoping for real stuffed grape leaves but it was cabbage instead.

After lunch, we were on our way to the Chula Vista Nature Center. We had a 2 for 1 pass while TC had a free pass. Good thing too because they raised their prices from $5 for an adult to $11!!!! Yikes!

So long Zorbas! I hear at night time, there's belly dancing!

Chula Vista Lemon Festival - Part 2

But wait! There's more!  Ooh, garlic onion rings and garlic fries!

Here's TC's frozen lemonade

Here was another booth selling pupusas. They were giving free samples too. Their pupusas were also cheaper - the first place was selling them for $4 each! That's highway robbery! It was $3, which is cheaper but still kinda pricy for pupusas especially when you can get them for just $2 at El Salvadoreno. But hey, we wanted pupusas today and they there right there!

I ordered three pupusas to share - they were filled with pork, cheese and beans. It was fun watchin the women pinch off the masa dough, stick in the filling and then flatten it onto the griddle...


The pupusas were served with curtido on the side...

Here's another view...

I heardthis place was pretty good, Comal. Check out their sign - "Birria  y Barbacoa"! I think I'll go back for the Barbacoa.

This place used to be an educational supply store. Then it changed to an Italian place, Manga Bene. Now it looks like it's still an Italian place but with a different name.

These looked pretty good by the line was waaaay too long to stand in! It was so hot that day!

More food booths...

Here's a taco place...

Here's a booth that was selling custom made light plate switches....Pretty cool. I want one with Rick James on it. Or better yet, Don Knotts. Or Clarence Rutherford from "Leave it to Beaver".

Not...TC was disappointed because there were none with a horse or horses on them.

Here's a live band playing some classic rock...

If you ever go to the Lemon Festival, it's usually the 2nd weekend of August and it's held in downtown Chula Vista. You can park for free in the parking structure behind Marie Callender's (from F Street) or if you're coming from the other way, near Futtbuckers Fuddruckers. Park your car for free and in the shade and just walk less than a block to the festival.
Here's the Black Crowes with Jimmy Page on guitar (man, he looks so old now!) doing their rendition of Zep's "The Lemon Song":

Squeeze this...

Chula Vista Lemon Festival Part 1

Hey there everyone - just trying to get some older posts out. This was last month...The Chula Vista Lemon Festival. Here's an older post I did 4 years ago in 2006, "Squeeze My Lemons". (That's a Led Zeppelin reference for the non rockers out there).

We hadn't been to the Festival since then...ooh, pupusas!  And check out the sign, "F Street". Heh, "F Street Bookstore"! Actually there is one on 3rd Avenue near KMart and Long John Silvers. The only reason I know this is because back in '97, Bert and I were driving  up on 3rd to get to La Bella Pizza Garden and a damn cop had us pull over, which ended up being right next to F Street Bookstore. Turns out I didn't have my registration sticker on my license plate. At that time, we were living down South to save money to buy a house. The registration information was sent to our old apartment and never got to us. We had to go to the DMV the next day (back when it was still in Otay Mesa), explain the situation and get the fine waived, which they did. So, yeah...F Street!

Ha ha - "Fresh Squeezed Lemonade"...

Vintage trucks. See that tall tower in the back? That's the Congregational Tower - it's where old retired folks live and it's right next to a church. Awhile ago, a dude went crazy and shot and killed a bunch of people there, including himself. It was all over the news. I was at the dentists office one street down, not knowing what all the commotion was (cop cars, sirens, etc).

Bert had his eye on this booth:

As he waited for his Philly Cheesesteak, TC and I sat on the grass in the median watching people go by. We saw someone dressed up as a lemon. There were also lots of people campaigning for the upcoming elections.

I've never tried these...

I like this sign...Downtown Chula Vista's gotten nicer over the years. It still has that small town feel to it.

In addition to food and craft booths, they also had small scale amusement type rides, as well as llama rides (animal exploitation), rock climbing, bungee plunging, etc...

Back to the Philly Cheesesteaks:

Here are the dudes making them:

And here it is...nice!!!

Back to those pupusas...

At the pupusas booth, I ended up getting a bacon-wrapped hot dog for TC. Kinda over priced, $4!

We went to this booth to buy the frozen lemonade...

More to come!

Hans and Harry, Bonita

Before heading home, we went to the Belle Bonnie Brae strip mall in Bonita (Corner of Central and Bonita Road) to go to Hans and Franz Harry's Bakery.  We are going to PLUMP YOU UP!!! (say in an Ah-nold accent)

This place is known for their long fruit and custard topped struedels.

We didn't get a struedel today - we'd never be able to finish it between the three of us. We each chose one dessert. These two belong to me and TC:

TC liked the Sunnyside Up pastry which was a square of custard topped puff pastry with half an apricot. I think it looks kind of gross because the thought of it being an egg yolk (even when I know it's not) disgusts me. But it tasted good tho'!

I really liked this slice of cake - look at all of those layers! The chocolate on the top and sides was also really good! I ate that first, heh.

I also bought a small container of these Chocolate Chip tea cakes. They're so cute - heart shaped. Don't you just love the scowling craggy visage of the amazing actor, Danny Trejo? That was coincidental since I was reading the San Diego Reader's review of "Machete". I loved Danny Trejo in Robert Rodriguez's movies ("Desperado", "Once Upon a Time in Mexico", "Spy Kids III", etc). He was also pretty funny as the ice cream truck driver in that long long Jake Gyllenhaal gem, "Bubble Boy" (I think Jake's left that off his resume now that he's made it big...huh)!!!

Once of my students once brought me these tea cakes. There are 8 in a container (forgot how much it was, between $3 - 4). I thought it was fkg funny when I realized that Danny Trejo was in the corner of the photo. Trejo, along with Puerto Rican Luiz Guzman, are a couple of my fave character actors...this guy especially. Don't FK with him.

Mmmm chips...

Bert got the Black Forest cake - just a slice. I got a whole Black Forest cake for Divalicious' bday party a few weeks before. Hans and Harry's has become my go-to place for desserts ever since Eduard's (in Otay Ranch) closed.

What a long ass day...

Upcoming posts -

I'm going to try to cram in as much as I can before Bert leaves for Texas on a business trip. He's taking the laptop with him (gasp) and I feel like I'm going to like that fish flopping around frantically in the "Epic" video by Faith No More.

On our way to UTC and Hot Dog on a Stick

Even though it was a sunny day, there was a marine layer on the coast. Here's the I-5 right after the Garnet Ave exit.

You can barely see the Mount Soledad cross on that hill (leftish middle)...

As we approached La Jolla, we pass by the white spires of the Mormon Temple. Back in 1993, when I was still in grad school, Bert and I were able to take a free tour of the Temple before they officially closed it off to gentiles (non Mormons). We had to wear these little plastic booties over our shoes so we wouldn't ruin their floors. It was quite surreal being in there. You also had to be invited by an LDS (Latter Day Saints) member and one of the women in the master's program was LDS.

Fast forward to UTC...I remember when going to this mall was an adventure. For us kids who lived down South, this was pretty fkg far to drive. Plus, La Jolla was a lot "whiter" back in the 80's than it was now. It's so much more diverse.  While TC and Bert enjoyed ice skating, I did a bit of walking around, browsing, and shopping. TC had a late lunch from Hot Dog on a Stick.

Here's that nice and healthy lunch - Two corn dogs (Remember the mall scene in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"? The one with Freud holding a corn dog and tilting it forward as he said, "Tell me about your mother!" Ha ha!).

As you can tell, she loves ketchup.   Mmm, meat tube...fried...

They skated until the allotted time; after that, it was time for the local ice hockey team to take the ice. We headed back home down South to Chula Vista...