Bart P.'s Profile

I'll agree with a previous reviewer that it's definitely the better Mexican fare up here in Silicon Anus.  I've had a carne asada burrito, which was pretty tasty, though not forearm sized like most places offer.  But, again, tasty and not overpriced (as many places up in this area are).

But, seriously, you MUST try their Monster Breakfast Burrito.  This IS forearm sized with generous chunks of ham, bacon (God's Currency) and seasoned home fried potatoes along with eggs and cheese.  Not greasy like most breakfast blimps and tastes so delicious.  It's become habit here at the office to score these up on Friday mornings.

So, give it a shot.  If only for the breakfast burro alone.

I have been to many Submarina's but I shall never set foot in this one again.  The owner, and what appears to be his family on the assembly line, are cheapskates who don't appreciate the customers and business they get.  They seem to be more concerned about the customer trying to screw them over than they are about being polite and interested in customer service.

Today I cashed in my card to get my free sub and figured I'd add some bacon and a meal deal, you know, so I'd actually spend a little and not look like the cheapskate getting the freebie.  Well, turns out that you have to spend $5 to use your credit card, which was not posted anywhere in the entire establishment.  The owner graciously gave me the option of buying some more chips and/or chips in order to make my order $5.  I explained I don't want to do that and it didn't say anywhere that I needed to spend $5 in order to use my card.  He got loud and in my face and said he's not going to absorb the $1 fee for a free sandwich.

Then there was the time the Russian guy in front of me wanted milk with his meal deal (which costs a few pennies more, apparently).  Old jackass didn't take a moment to try and understand him and charged him for the regular meal price.  When Russian dude grabbed a milk, he was scolded and practically called a thief for trying to pay the soda price and get a milk.  As he walked away the owner and son commented on how you just can't trust those sneaky Russians.

Enough.  Done with this place.  These people don't deserve a lick of business and hopefully you're not going to give them any.  They don't even deserve any kind of success in any form.  If you hate the people and hate the whole idea of providing services to people in exchange for money, then sell the franchise to someone who cares and go live your miserable existence elsewhere.

And that is that.  I'll never go there again and will trumpet this story as loud as I can to anyone who wants to.  In their eyes, customer service means wrangling and saving any last penny they can, at your expense.

This place is a brand new addition to that food court down by Qualcomm off the 805 and Mira Mesa Blvd.  They lured me over with some free samples of their kung pao "chicken" and I've been hooked every since.  This is all vegetarian and they have these meat substitutes that have a firm texture, though you're not really fooled.  But, it tastes great.

I like to rock the Spicy Basil Rice Bowl, extra hot, with the phony chicken strips in it.  You get a decent amount of food for $7 and the service is very friendly and accommodating.  I hear their parent location in Clairemont can have some questionable service, but here it's just their walk up counter so they don't have to deal with a dining room full of impatient crybabies.  Just the occasional Qualcomm dork in his demon shirt and beige dockers that find eating a vegetarian dish some sort of novelty.

One thing they can use is a Club Card type thing where you get the 8th bowl free if you buy 7 or something like that.  I say this because I'm going to be hitting this place up pretty often.

This is like Super Henry's Marketplace without the mob scene of the Hillcrest store and about twice the size.  The Lindsey Special is a quality sandwich and they have a nice selection in the beer cooler.  They distance themselves from Henry's by having a gourmet section of sauces, marinades and other ingredients that the average Wild Oats market does not have.

Plus, it's seldom crowded.  The freewheeling queue at the sandwich counter can get a little testy if the sandwich artist gets a little behind and overwhelmed, but start swinging a baguette around and people will get out of the way.  If you time your trip there correctly, it's Sample City and basically a free meal.  They often have the bbq going outside so you can get tri tip sandwiches or kebabs to go.

I often will drive the extra few miles to go here over the Henrys just for all the added benefits.  If they only sold my preferred toilet paper, then it'd be the only place I need to shop at.

Ah, well, the infamous Antique Row Dead Zone crushes yet another dream as Tino's has recently shuttered it's doors at the cursed location next to Adam's Avenue liquor.  Had the owners had the foresight to get into the junk business, they would have made it, but no... they decided to offer above average Mexican fare at reasonable prices.

No doubt about it.  The food here was of better quality than your average taco shop and there was an interesting array of salsas to choose from.  The burritos were the size of your forearm and the rolled tacos were always a welcoming snack with it's mountain of fresh guacamole to seal the deal.

I almost feel it's my duty to warn anyone who might be foolish enough to try and open up shop in this place/area.  It's doomed for food.  The dead zone begins at 30th and goes down to Texas, with a few exceptions right there at 30th.  Everything else are junk yards cleverly disguised as collectibles.  

A dream... dashed away.  Ambition crushed. Debt mounting.  Insolvency the reward for hard effort.

Welcome to the Dead Zone.

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Hooray for Doner Kebab!  It's about time someplace like this opened up.  Between Australia and Europe and both sides of Istanbul, I was inundated with this tasty dish and while I've had to settle on gyros here in the states, this is different enough to warrant it's own spot in culinary masterpieces.

I had the Iskender kebab and it was simply delicious.  Maybe not as insane delicious as I had in Istanbul where they used goat meat instead of lamb, but I reckon this will be as close as I get here in San Diego.  Layers of chopped pita, shaved lamb, tangy red sauce and yogurt piled  high on my plate like a portrait of a beautiful mountain.  A beautiful EDIBLE mountain of which I destroyed like an angry ancient god, bent on destruction of beauty for my own evil intentions.

The hummus was a might bit tasty as well.  And the saffron rice was genuine as you could see the bits of saffron fiber mixed in as opposed to the standard yellow rice you get most places.

Only thing missing were the dolmas.  But I would hope those eventually find their way into the menu.  Granted, a good homemade platter of dolmas can be quite the undertaking, but for heaven's to Betsy are they ever delicious.

The price is right, the place was clean, and the food was great.  Color me sold on this place.

This place is exactly what I've needed since I've been jaded with the Mex food scene here for a while now.  Don't get me wrong, I love it all, but the options have worn thin.  I needed something new, something exciting, something challenging to my taste buds.

This is the place.  I have done a pretty extensive tour of the menu and have not had anything I was not completely crazy for.  That said, it's always an uphill battle when I step in here because it's so hard for me to pick something out.  But, after several months of testing out the foods and sampling with various concatenations of tacos and salsas, I've determined that my favorite dish is the Yucetacos.  Delicious.  

Uh, and let me add this gem of culinary genius just in case you're on the fence... all you can eat chips, salsa, onions, carrots and, sit down for this, all you can chug horchata.

Mama, how I adore thee.

Well, alright.  Trader Joe's.  Where do I begin?  I shop here a lot, and obviously like the wares that they're offering, but it sure can be a cumbersome task at times.  It's like any other Trader Joe's... overcrowded and organized like my office... all over the place.  And, just when you think you've got your system down, they go and change everything around on you.  No longer can you squeeze your way on in, grab your tenderly marinated tri-tip, tea tree oil soap and a bottle of Chimay.  Now, you have to weed your way through about a hundred other people who are also baffled at the realignment of the products.

Then you HAVE to stop at the sampler bar and taste what they're promoting because it's nice to get a free bite of food and cup of juice in the middle of complete bedlam.

But, you know, all crankiness aside, I believe I can solve the issue with Trader Joe's crowd control problems.  And while I don't usually dole out free advice to corporate stools, I'm going to break character and do so today.  While this isn't the be-all-end-all solution, I do believe that this will exponentially make the entire experience more pleasant for the end user.

Ready for this earth shattering revelation?  You sure?  Here it goes... wait for it...

Stock your shelves after hours..

There.  Nothing too crazy.  Not asking a hell of a lot but I think that by taking the pallets of products and disinterested employees out of the aisles, while the customer is trying to practice some solid consumerism, would not only increase throughput on traffic, but increase the bottom line on unrealized revenue.

Plus, it might make the whole experience less ravenous.

All bitching aside, I sure like the goodies I fetch from there.

If you're the type that knows their way around an operating system or source code (that would be me) but knows nothing about what makes cars continue to work properly (hey, that's me again!), then you'll be good to know that Advantec is THE place to take your car when you need any kind of checkup or repair.

Why?  Honesty.  And that seems to be something really hard to come by in the world of automotive repairs, especially if you aren't 100% up on the subject.  I've taken my car there twice for menial things.  First time was for new brake pads, which was as inexpensive and painless as it gets.  Plus he was done in a half hour, on a Friday afternoon, with no appointment set.  Second time, my car was idling pretty funky so I swung on by and he noticed a hose had a hole in it.  Did I have to drop the car off and wait around?  Nope!  He replaced the hose right there on the curb side.  Did I have to shell out for this kind of service?  Nope. He did this for me gratis.

He's in the neighborhood, he's honest, hard working and this is why my car will go no place else for any kind of service.  

Support the honest, neighborhood guy and give those big, dishonest, snake oil peddlers a kick to the jimmy, why don't ya?

Quality.  I'm glad I found this place.  I mean, it's not hard, it's the closest place to my house, but I'm, glad I found it AND it worked out great.