Bao’s Awesome Burgers & Sandwiches (BABS)

May 082013
 

S and I love burgers, and luckily for us, San Diego is filled with awesome burger joints. Our favorite is Hodad’s, but sometimes we just want to avoid the long lines and sort-of far drive. We recently tried out Bao’s Awesome Burgers & Sandwiches, aka BABS, on Convoy St.

IMG_0758

It’s located in the A Cafe/ RakiRaki/ Tapioca Express/ Crab Hut plaza, which unfortunately has terrible parking. Luckily we found a spot easily during our last visit, but sometimes it’s just impossible.

The menu here is all-American (burgers, sandwiches, fries, etc.), but I believe the owners are Asian-American, so the flavor is quite fusion-y. I debated for a while between getting a burger or sandwich, and in the end, both S and I chose burgers.

Original burger ($4.99)

White Hot Burger: pepper jack cheese, topped with chopped habaneros & spicy hot sauce ($6.99)

White Hot burger ($6.99)

Original Burger: cheddar cheese, topped with Cajun sauce ($4.99)

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The Counter: Custom-Built Burger Bar

Jan 172013
 

We recently visited The Counter with two of our good friends. I’d never heard of it before, but our friends said that they really liked it when they were in college, and wanted to go back and check it out again. S and I rarely turn down burgers, so we jumped on board.

The place resembled Slater’s 50/50 in that you could build your own custom burger from a large list of ingredients. The atmosphere is pretty trendy (do people still say that?) and modern.

For customizing your burger, you could choose the size and type of patty, cheese, 4 toppings, a sauce, and type of bun. I always have a hard time deciding whether I want to go with one of the restaurant’s own signatures or create my own. But we did immediately decide to share some fries…

"Fifty-fifty": half Parmesan French fries, half Crispy Onion Strings ($5.95)

“Fifty-fifty”: half Parmesan French fries, half Crispy Onion Strings ($5.95)

I was surprised when S suggested we try the Parmesan fries because he usually turns up his nose at Parmesan cheese (literally). I guess the stinky sweet potato fries at Karl Strauss really changed his mind. Anyway, I really enjoyed the crispy fries but wasn’t as thrilled with the onion strings. I guess I’m a bigger fan of thick onion rings than the flimsy strings.

After much debate, I finally decided to go with a salad with a 1/3-pound patty. I’ve listed all the toppings in the caption below:

1/3-pound beef patty with horseradish cheddar, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, cucumbers, and scallions, with sun-dried tomato vinaigrette over a salad ($11.45)

1/3-pound beef patty with horseradish cheddar, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, cucumbers, and scallions, with sun-dried tomato vinaigrette over a salad ($11.45)

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Islands Restaurant – holiday offerings

Nov 272012
 

S and I had a great time at Islands before, and I was recently invited to visit again and check out some of their holiday offerings. We had just been talking about going for Monday Night Football, so we took the opportunity to try the new items and catch a football game.

We started out with some drinks. Islands is offering new spiked coffee drinks, and from my experience with their cocktails, they can be quite strong.

Spiked coffee drinks

I decided to try the Irish coffee, and S went with the Islands Golden Ale, which is his “tried-and-true.”

Islands Golden Ale and Irish Coffee

The Irish coffee was, as I expected, pretty strong, but I also liked it a lot – probably because the sugar and cream helped tone down the taste of the alcohol. S liked it so much that he decided to try one of the coffee drinks, too.

Cocomo coffee

He went with the Cocomo coffee, which is creamier than the Irish coffee. I actually liked this drink even more than the Irish coffee – probably because it’s more chocolate-y. You can also order the coffee drinks decaf, if you don’t want to mix caffeine and alcohol.

Cheddar fries

Not a holiday special, but I love cheese fries, so we wanted to try out Islands’ version. It was pretty good – crispy fries, gooey, melted cheese, scallions, ranch sauce… what more could you ask for?

For our main entrees, we both went with burgers. One of the restaurant’s new items is the turkey patty, made with a mix of ground turkey, applesauce, seasonings, bell pepper, celery, and scallions. I was pretty intrigued by this description – normally I find turkey burgers to be dry and pretty bland compared to juicy, meaty beef burgers. Would all the mix-ins make a difference?

Mavericks turkey burger

I chose the Mavericks burger with the turkey patty. First thing I did was take a small bite of the patty itself and was pleasantly surprised by how flavorful it was! The applesauce and veggies made the burger less dense and “meaty”, but the patty was juicy and very well-seasoned. This must be the only turkey burger I have ever liked.

Mavericks turkey burger with side salad

FYI, also on the Mavericks burger: BBQ sauce, Islands Reds (crispy fried red onions), American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles. I opted for no mayo and a whole wheat bun. You also have a choice of endless fries, onion rings, steamed veggies, sweet potato fries, and small garden or Caesar salad. I chose garden salad with sesame dressing.

Hula burger with onion rings

S chose the Hula burger (beef patty), which has sauteed mushrooms, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and also Islands Reds. He really enjoyed this, too. For his side, he chose onion rings, which weren’t great – the breading wasn’t properly seasoned and was overall very bland. I wish we had tried the sweet potato fries instead.

After our very satisfying meal, our waitress brought over the restaurant’s “Secret” menu item, Pipeline Porter floats.

Pipeline Porter floats

You’ve probably had a root beer float before – vanilla ice cream on root beer. Well, this is vanilla ice cream on top of Pipeline Porter beer (from Kona Brewing Co). The beer is brewed from Kona coffee and boasts a roasty aroma and earthiness, which theoretically pairs perfectly with the sweet vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately neither of us really enjoyed it – I think the bitterness of the porter didn’t really work as well with the ice cream as one would have thought. In the end, we scooped out the ice cream and then drank the beer separately. Haha.

Overall, though, it was a good dinner, and as I’ve already mentioned, I was very impressed with the turkey burger. When the manager came out to chat with us, she said that the patties are made everyday so that the mix-ins stay fresh. I have some friends who don’t eat beef, and I was excited to share with them the news of a good turkey patty. The atmosphere at Islands is great, and the waitstaff is very friendly. I’m sure we’ll be back for football and drinks again!

Disclaimer: As I’ve noted above, I was invited to Islands by a PR company. Our meal was complimentary, but all reviews and opinions are my own.

Islands Restaurant
3351 Nobel Drive, La Jolla, CA

http://www.islandsrestaurants.com/

Hours: Sun-Thu 11am-10pm, Fri-Sat 11am-11pm

Slater’s 50/50

Nov 022012
 

I’ve heard so much rave about Slater’s 50/50 that I had to check it out for myself! My first taste of the burgers there was at SD Restaurant Week’s Kick-off Tasting event, where they served quarters of the famous 50/50 burger. By the way, I should explain – the name comes from their half ground beef, half bacon burger patties. Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?

S and I actually weren’t super impressed with the burgers from the Tasting Event – we thought it was way too salty. But one of our friends kept telling us to try it, and that it was his favorite burger in San Diego (and perhaps ever), and there was a Yelp check-in deal (10% off from 10pm-close, not sure if the deal is still available). So we decided to head over for a late-night meal.

Normally, I believe there’s quite a wait (we called in once on a Saturday evening, and the wait time was 2 hours!), but there were quite a few tables available when we went on a Thursday after 10pm. It’s a pretty typical sports bar with several TVs, booths, and a pretty large bar. Our waiter told us that they have over 100 beers on tap!

100 beers on tap

(By the way, this is another cell phone camera post… I should really just tie it around my neck or something.)

S tried the Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, and I had a sip. It was very vanilla-y, yet it went surprisingly well with the smoky flavor of the beer.

Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

For the burgers, you could either “create your own” – select the type of patty and fixings – or choose from one of the restaurant’s creations. I went with the monthly special, the “Big Bad BBQ Burger.” It featured a patty composed of ground beef, ground pork belly, and ground pork shoulder.

Big Bad BBQ burger (burger of the month): mix of ground chuck, ground pork belly, and ground pork shoulder seasoned with Pete’s Firehouse Sub, coleslaw, red onions, colby jack cheese, four strips of bacon (I got it on the side), Pete’s Firehouse BBQ sauce, brioche bun ($9.95 for 1/3-pound)

It was really a great burger – the patty was very juicy and had a nice char, the fixings were appropriately portioned, and the bun was a nice, toasted brioche. I asked for the bacon on the side since I actually don’t enjoy bacon on my burgers (blasphemy, I know), and I’m glad I did because the bacon was quite salty. I don’t think we even ate all four strips of the bacon. But anyway, I really enjoyed my burger.

Build-your-own burger: 50/50 patty (mix of ground chuck and ground pork belly), chipotle mayo, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, fried egg, brioche bun ($8.95 for 1/3-pound, $1 for egg)

S chose to make his own burger. The toppings he chose were simple, but I thought he did a great job since everything went well with the patty and tasted great together. The chipotle mayo here is really tasty – flavorful, but not overpowering. He really enjoyed his burger creation.

Overall we liked our restaurant experience much better than the tasting at the SDRW event. I found the patty very well-seasoned and flavors balanced. I can definitely understand why my friend claims that this is his favorite burger in San Diego. However, I have seen other reviews that lamented its inconsistency – so hopefully you’ll have the same great experience that I had!

They really do love bacon here.

Slater’s 50/50
2750 Dewey Rd. #193, San Diego, CA
http://slaters5050.com/

Hours: 11am-1am daily

Neighborhood (two visits in one post)

Sep 192012
 

Neighborhood is one of S’s favorite restaurants in San Diego, but we don’t go nearly as often as we would like because 1. it’s difficult to find parking in downtown, and 2. the restaurant often has a really long wait-time. He said that once, he and some friends waited over an hour and a half and could not get a table! I guess that shows just how good and popular it is.

Since moving to SD, I’ve been to Neighborhood twice, and I’ll compile the two visits into one post. For the first visit, we came pretty late (around 10pm), and I did not have my camera, but fortunately my friend M brought his camera (which is also much nicer than mine) and took pictures for me.

The bar offers quite a few beers on tap, and even has draft whiskey and root beer! I really wanted to try the root beer on tap, but too bad they ran out.

Clockwise from top left: Lindemans Framboise, Stone Arrogant Bastard, Allagash Curieux

The food is overall contemporary American – burgers, hot dogs, salads, all with high-quality and creative ingredients.

The Neighborhood burger: caramelized onions,blue gruyere cheese, pepper greens ($10)

The burger is a pretty solid option – the patty was juicy and flavorful, and the bun was nicely toasted. I’m a fan of blue cheese with beef, and I think that the gruyere helped tone down the blue cheese a bit so that the beef flavor still comes through the most.

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Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern

Sep 102012
 

A while ago, S bought a deal from Google Offers (Google equivalent of Groupon) for Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern, but we sort of never had the time to visit. Last weekend, though, we had a good friend in town, and we thought it’d be a good chance to go try it out together.

It’s a pretty casual-looking restaurant, located on The Promenade on Harbor Dr. Pretty large interior, with plenty of outdoor seating so that you can watch the boats and yachts right on the harbor.

We were seated after a short wait and presented with menus. S was pretty happy with their draft beer list and ordered something which I no longer remember, but it arrived in a special J-FAT glass!

Forgot which beer this was, but I love the JFAT glass! Wish I could take it home hehe

The menu is pretty simple – appetizers, burgers & sandwiches, salads, and a few “large-plate” entrees like braised short ribs, a grilled steak, grilled fish, and chicken. We were all drawn to the deviled eggs in the appetizer section.

Spicy jalapeno deviled eggs, served with house potato chips ($8)

Apologies for the blurry photo (I’m still learning how to take good pics in low-light environments…). The deviled eggs were pretty good – plenty of mayo mixed with the yolk – but I was really hoping for more spice. The chips were good, but you only get 4 pieces.

I really wanted to order the Spicy California Burger, but after reading what Erin of EJ Eats had to say about it, I decided to go with The Jimmy instead.

The Jimmy burger: pimento cheese, applewood smoked bacon, jalapeno jelly; served with peanut coleslaw ($15)

I thought this was a great burger. It was cooked to a perfect medium, very juicy, and I loved the pimento cheese and jalapeno jelly. The bun was nicely toasted and withstood the juiciness of the patty and toppings. Could have done without the bacon (although, at the risk of losing readers, I’ll declare that I actually don’t LOVE American-style bacon), but overall, very yummy. I chose the peanut coleslaw for my side instead of fries, and while it’s definitely not your typical Southern-style coleslaw, I rather liked it. Sort of reminded me of the almond coleslaw at Bull’s Smokin’ BBQ.

S always goes with the classic burger on the menu, and as usual we swapped halfway so I got a taste of that, as well. It was also a nicely cooked burger, but I did prefer the pimento cheese more. French fries were crispy and delicious.

Classic cheeseburger: cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion, secret sauce, served with french fries ($14)

Overall, I had a great time at JFAT and definitely hope to come back to try some of their other items. The prime rib dip sandwich looked mighty tempting…

Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern
4990 North Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA

http://www.j-fat.com/

[SD La Jolla] Islands Restaurant

Aug 222012
 

I was recently invited to Islands to preview their upcoming menu items – Jinxi Eat’s first media event!  I was pretty excited, and if you ask S, he can probably tell you how happy I was.  Because I’ve moved around so much in the past couple of years, it’s been hard to get the blog “out there” – but now that I’ve settled in San Diego, I’m glad to finally establish a home base :)

Anyway, onto the visit.  I’ve driven past various Islands restaurants in San Diego before, but actually never stepped in.  My dinner took place in the La Jolla Village Square location, but there are locations on Balboa Ave and Mira Mesa Blvd, and several others in the San Diego area.

We started off with some of their new cocktails…

From left to right: Jager’s Bay, Paradise’s Mai Tai, Maker’s Wedge

We tried the Maker’s Wedge (okay, S drank it and I took a sip) and Paradise’s Mai Tai.  The Maker’s Wedge waspretty strong – S and I liked it a lot.  The Mai Tai was a low-calorie option; it was pretty light and sweet, although I could definitely tell that it was artificial sweetener.

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[SD Mission Valley] The Habit Burger Grill

Jun 212012
 

The Habit is a chain restaurant, with locations throughout California and Arizona.  There are a few locations in the San Diego area; I visited the one in Mission Valley.

SK and I were furniture-shopping in the Mission Valley area (read: Ikea) and wanted to eat something else besides the Ikea cafe.  I suggested Bunz, a burger place that I’d read about on Serious Eats, but while we were looking for it, we saw The Habit Burger Grill (which we also read about on SE) instead and were so hungry that we just decided to try it out.

The Habit Burger Grill

The menu features burgers, sandwiches, and salads – for a burger joint, this certainly has a lot of alternative, healthy options.  I’m all for healthy eating, but tonight I just wanted a nice, juicy burger.

“There’s No Substitution for Quality!”

I ordered the #1 Charburger, which is a combo meal with burger, fries, & drink.

#1 Charburger combo, $6.20

Burger close-up

The patty is pretty thin but juicy.  Toppings – caramelized onions, tomatoes, and shredded lettuce (no mayo or pickles for me) – were all very fresh, and the sesame bun was lightly toasted.  The bun-to-ratio is actually decent, even though it looks like the bun is huge in the first photo.

The French fries were also tasty: crispy, good amount of salt, and tasted great with or without ketchup.  Still no as good as the perfection that is McDonald’s French fries, but alas that is difficult to achieve.

The bottom line?  I had a great burger-and-fries meal here at The Habit, and the price is quite reasonable.  The milkshakes here also looked super tempting, so maybe I’ll give them a try next time!

The Habit Burger Grill
845 Camino De La Reina, San Diego, CA
(619) 299-9913

http://www.habitburger.com/

Hours:
Mon-Thu: 10:30am-9pm
Fri-Sat: 10:30am-10pm
Sun: 11am-9pm

[San Francisco] Burger Bar

Oct 262011
 

I am a big fan of Top Chef and Top Chef Masters, and one of my favorite chefs on the show is Hubert Keller – something about his personality (and accent) was just oh-so-charming, haha. So ever since I moved to the Bay Area, I have wanted to go to one of his restaurants. Last weekend, I dragged S. to Burger Bar, located inside Macy’s (6th floor) in Union Square.

The restaurant interior is pretty much a typical bar. There are wood plaques from various microbreweries as wall decorations, and mini-TV screens at every booth, tuned to ESPN (okay, so this is not very typical of a normal bar). The dining areas were pretty well-lit, which I like, and if you are lucky enough to be seated by the window, you can enjoy a pretty great view of Union Square.

Mini-TV screens at every booth

As for the burgers, you can choose to ‘build your own’ or select one of the ‘Chef’s Burgers’. Being a spicy food fanatic, I had to order the ‘World’s Hottest Hamburger.’ I will admit, I was somewhat intimidated when our waitress repeatedly asked me if I was sure that’s what I wanted, that I had to sign a waiver before they serve it to me, that when the kitchen cooks make this burger, they wear goggles and gloves, etc. In the end I figured, oh why the hell not, I’ll do it.

So she brought out my waiver…

Waiver for the "World's Hottest Hamburger"

And here is my burger, in all its glory:

World's Hottest Hamburger with skinny fries ($21.95)

World's Hottest Hamburger

The burger consists of a jalapeno-cheese bun (which was delicious), jalapeno bacon, tomatoes (possibly the only non-spicy thing in the entire burger), jalapeno-habanero sauce, and a hot sauce-infused jalapeno-and-beef patty. To top it off, they sprinkled chili powder on the plate, and quite a bit of it stuck to the bottom bun.

The verdict? It was pretty damn spicy. For me, I started feeling the heat after about 3-4 bites, and it stayed at a reasonably tolerable level until the last 3-4 bites. So actually, it was quite balanced and actually really enjoyable for me. (To give some perspective, S. took one bite, declared that it was ‘so spicy!’, and drank about half a glass of water.)

S. ordered the American Classic burger and asked for sweet potato fries instead of the regular skinny fries. Surprisingly, there was no upcharge for the substitution, but there was a 55-cent charge for the tiny serving of chipotle aioli.

American Classic Hamburger with sweet potato fries ($14.5)

I didn’t taste the burger (I doubt I would have tasted much, since my burger was so spicy), but S. said that it was pretty good. The patty was not as fluffy as he had expected, but it was a very flavorful and juicy burger.

As for the fries, we thought that the skinny fries tasted very much like McDonald’s fries (and yes, that is a huge compliment since McD’s fries are arguably the best ever). The sweet potato fries were crispy and flavorful, but the chipotle aioli wasn’t too special.

Overall, I really enjoyed the meal – it felt really fun to have to sign a waiver to eat the ‘World’s Hottest Hamburger’! If you love spicy food like me, you really must challenge this burger :)

Burger Bar
251 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA
(Enter Macy’s through Geary St. entrance and go to 6th floor)
415-296-4272
Hours:
Sun-Thu  11am-10pm
Fri-Sat  11am-12am

[San Diego] Hodad’s, Redeemed

Oct 052011
 

So, I am sick at home with no appetite and no motivation to eat or work. I just spent half of my day watching SC2.. and decided to do something semi-productive. Like updating my blog! Haha.

If you’ll remember, my first experience at Hodad’s in San Diego wasn’t so impressive. Then, S. went back at some point and decided that it was the best burger he had ever had. And he kept going back. And when I visited San Diego in July, he didn’t take me there. So I whined and whined and whined and when I was in SD the last time, we finally made it there to redeem my Hodad’s experience. The lunchtime line was about 40 minutes on a sunny Saturday, but it was well worth it.

S. suggested that I order the regular instead of the mini hamburger – the only difference, he claimed, is the patty size. And I liked meat. So I took up his recommendation of the single bacon hamburger with everything.

Single bacon hamburger, $6.25

He ordered the same thing but with the ‘basket’ ($8), which just meant that it came with wedge fries:

Wedge fries

Okay, so maybe I was slightly affected by the raving comments from S.&friends, but I really did think that the burger was amazing. I really loved all the toppings – even the pickles! (I am usually a pickle-hater.) For me, the freshness of the lettuce and tomatoes made a huge difference to the flavor and juiciness of the burger. And the patty itself ain’t half bad either!

Wedge fries were decent, but nothing too special, I think. I still prefer regular-style fries, and I didn’t eat too many of the wedge fries because the burger was already quite filling.

Anyway, I must say that this experience at Hodad’s was indeed much better. Maybe my expectations of a burger has changed since moving to California, or maybe last time was just a fluke. Either way, I can’t wait to come back!

Hodad’s (Ocean Beach Location)
5010 Newport Ave., Ocean Beach CA 92107
619-224-4623

Hours:
Su-Th  11am-9pm
F-Sa     11am-10pm

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