Poway BBQ and more...

You might recall Leanne mentioned Poway BBQ (located next to Del Taco) a while back – I got curious and decided to stop in for takeout one evening. After a quick look at the menu I decided to get a sampler platter of the St. Louis Style ribs. Big problem with the picture. Like the boob I am, I accidentally deleted the photo before I loaded it onto the computer. Oooooops! But you can just barely see the ribs beyond the beans pic I took - follow the arrows!


Yummy! (Yet, I probably need a lesson or two in photography.) Very meaty and delicious but the sides (slaw and beans) were pretty much worthless. I pretty much agree with the review I saw online (via the very ancient newsgroup sdnet.eats – available via Google groups. I’m old school, I go to dejanews (which redirects to Google anyhow) to search and read these boards. But I’m not so old school to actually use a newsgroup reader.) Sorry, that was a bad tangent. Here’s that review. Sounds like the St. Louis style ribs are they best thing they’ve got going.

I thought about doing a side by side comparison between Poway BBQ, Joey’s BBQ Joint (whatever exactly it is called – I’ve mentioned them a few times) and good ol’ Abby’s Real Texas BBQ but money and time prevents me from doing a same day comparison. But maybe a blogger rundown sometime in the future but with that deleted picture I think I will scrap the whole thing.

I really liked each of the 3 sauces – there was a sweet, a Cajun and a one smokie flavor. I probably got them mixed up with each section of ribs. Sadly no bread with this (Joey’s ribs comes with tasty corn bread. I think the sides at Joey’s were better too.) Yet, the ribs was meat and quite tasty.

On to other recent eats:

Pho Viet Cali
This one is in the food court in Mira Mesa near the San Diego Credit Union. I’ve had pho here once – pretty decent and filling. Was it different than the other pho place I’ve been to in the converted Coco Restaurant just east of Camino Ruiz on Mira Mesa? No, not really – even the menus look alike.

I also had my first Banh Mi here – ehh, so-so. I’ve read about them on Chowhound and on Kirk’s blog. I guess I fall in with the people that think “what’s the big deal with them”. It’s a pretty good spot to pick up a quick dinner – go for the spring rolls and maybe an order of a stir fry of chicken and veggies with noodles.

East Buffet
This used to be (I believe) an Acapulco restaurant on Miramar - you know, next to that one furniture store. That place failed miserably. But from that rubble someone somehow turned it into what is marketed as the largest Chinese Buffet this side of the Mississippi. And man, it is large. And cheep. (Yes, so inexpensive I have no problem spelling out “cheap” with two “ee’s”.) I guess it must be “authentic” because I saw fried fishheads, tripe and chicken feet. Good God, chicken feet?

I definitely had a quite a few plates of pretty okay food – nothing too great yet there was a lot of it, which always (hey, nearly always) makes up for the other. And did I mention that the lunch price is just $7.49? Wow.

I have my eye on a couple of other area buffets: Taste of India and Thai Café. It’s not that I’ve heard anything particularly great about them – or anything at all really but I’m aware that they exist.