Moving week! The dishes and cookware were all packed, so we finally hit a couple of the neighborhood joints, just in time to know if we’d be sad to be leaving them. First up, Gen Lai Sen, the self-proclaimed “Best Chinese Restaurant” in San Diego:
We’d been watching the restaurant from our balcony across the street for 4 months, and often saw buses and vans full of people stop there to eat- that many people couldn’t be wrong, right?
Our dinner: Orange Chicken, Pork Fried Rice, Fried Wontons
Overall, my Gen Lai Sen experience was pleasant but not earth-moving. The crispy goodness of fried wontons is always welcome on my plate, the pork in the fried rice was plentiful but a bit too tough, and the orange chicken had good flavor that was nicely offset by the mild bite of the onions. It was a decent meal and could be an option for dinner on a lazy weeknight. I do wonder if ordering something more exotic/authentic would have resulted in my agreement with its best-in-town claims, but I don’t quite wonder it enough to make the trip across town with this destination in mind.
Next up: La Casita!
A cute little Mexican restaurant located in a blue house right behind Gen Lai Sen, La Casita has a little courtyard in addition to the indoor seating, but difficult hours: M-F, 6am-4pm only, so we made a moving-day breakfast out of this one on Friday.
The grub: Breakfast Burritos with eggs, bacon, potatoes, and cheese.
Sadly, the verdict on La Casita was similar to Gen Lai Sen – it made a good meal, but won’t be added to my list of favorites (on the other hand, if it HAD been brilliant, I would be mourning all of the lost breakfast burrito opportunities of the past four months, but it’s always good to have a go-to Mexican place, and I so wanted to love it). The burrito was tasty, but just a bit off from my preferences in a few ways: most significantly, the tortilla was extremely chewy, and I am a big big fan of the flaky flour tortilla (Cotijas, Lucio’s #3, Cuatro Milpas), and the tortilla flavor/texture accounts for about 40% in my personal burrito evaluation scheme; second, the filling ratio was too skewed toward potato, not enough toward egg/bacon, making it a little bland and even more chewy; third, and least critical, was the hot sauce – it was a tasty one, but had strong roasted-chile flavor, while my breakfast burrito preference is for the crisper finish of more vinegary sauces. I like the roasted chile flavor with fish tacos and beef, but not so much for other dishes.
Also, La Casita did not have Horchata at the ready when I visited, and so I was sad.
Coming soon – adventures in cooking (the kitchen is almost unpacked – yay!) and finding the best restaurants in Little Italy.
