Places To Eat Around San Diego

Driving for a living has required that I occasionally grab lunch on the run in just about every part of town. I thought I would list some of my favorites.

1. Broken Yolk Café – they have an omelet called The Border Check. It is basically a jack cheese and chorizo omelet with jalapenos and guacamole. In addition, they have started keeping bottle of their own brand name Serrano hot sauce. Not very hot, but the best flavor I’ve ever tasted in a hot sauce. I think I hit 1/3 of the bottle each visit. (Cause, they added a “hot sauce shooters” surcharge to my bill… dammit.)


2. That Mexican place by the Vons supermarket in Scripps Ranch – I forget the name of the place, but they make their own chorizo. It is hardly the brightest red color, but I think it’s the best I’ve ever had (and when I looked inside, I didn’t see any fat).


3. IHOP – They have a country omelet that has the hash browns on the inside. Add three pancakes and the pot of coffee they leave at your table, and you’re set for the morning.


4. All-Chicken listing -- Livingston's Chicken Kitchen – They do pressurized, full sized pieces of chicken, buffalo-wing style that is awesome. Popeye’s is great, but is fried… which makes it even GREATER! Wings & Things for their buffalo strips special.


5. 99 Ranch Market – not for the actual supermarket, but there’s a place in back that does the best calamari. They offer two items plus a rice or noodle side for $4. They back it so full, it looks like a suitcase that needs to be sat upon to lock. I usually just eat the two main courses, and eat the rice later.


6. O’Nami’s – Ok, not exactly food on the run, but it’s a buffet, (those things I said I hardly do anymore) and it offers hot items, a sushi bar, a salad bar (I heard) and a dessert bar, where if you’re willing to eat through all that nasty chocolate, you can have a strawberry, which is fruit, which is good for you.


7. Bennigan’s – these muthas will actually fry a sandwich for you. An entire sandwich with a fried shell. (see above: fried) They will fry strings of onion, they will put blue cheese on a very good burger, and make it even better. They will even cook blue cheese on potato chips, too. (Man that sounds good. I’ll be right back.)


8. …


9. Antique Row Café – on weekends, while you wait on the street outside, they will put out coffee and cut pastries for you to snack on until a table is ready. It’s like they’re hosting a party. A highly caffeinated party, but a party nevertheless.


10. DeMille’s Pizza – My friend Bill and I are licensed medical pizza doctors certified by the Board of Cheese. While our combinations were once feared as “the weird pizza,” as time went on, and more and more people tried them; let’s put it this way, if everybody is eating the “weird” pizza, and only a few are getting the regular pizzas, are the weird ones still called “the weird pizza” In addition, the service is the best around. They make you feel like you are family. If you are still eating or drinking at closing time, they let you linger while they clean. (Family that comes out of the kitchen and busts you, because you are the only person around that orders pesto sauce to dip your garlic cheese bread.) I have seen many staff come and go, but they must know that they have a good thing going, because even the new people are just as nice as the old timers.


11. Mira Mesa – it ain’t a restaurant. It’s a part of San Diego where I stoped counting the number of fast food locations at 66. (They might be to 100 by now.) If it ain’t in Mira Mesa, it ain’t been opened yet.


12. Corvette diner – a 50’s diner that offers the Rory burger; a burger with peanut butter and bacon on it. Sure, I first ordered it for the shock value (and I got it), but now it’s the only thing I get when I go there.


13. Shakespeare’s Pub – an English pub where I recently discovered that their curry gravy goes better on their chips as well as their fish. Mmmmm... more gravy. “WAITRESS! I NEED A STRAW!” Last time I was there, I think I had five converts to curry gravy.

Ok, there’s more.
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Hold on! I’m thinking!