The lowdown:
Grubbed on: 08/28/2009
Sets you back: $10-20/person, variant
What we're eating: Chinese
Where to find it:
Spicy City
4690 Convoy St Ste 107
San Diego, CA 92111
Yelp it!
I've been meaning to try this place out for a longggg time now.. like a year!? I'm always on the prowl for good smaller Chinese places to eat in San Diego, since I try to avoid the Convoy giants (Jasmine, Emerald, China Max...). So I finally found my way here when one of my coworkers brought it up. We got there and the place was packed! We had to wait a good... 20-30 minutes? before we could get our table. Granted we also had a party of 7, so take that as you will. The place can accommodate larger parties okay, but it is still a bit small.
Before we start, I apologize for the terrible picture quality! I was so hungry I forgot to snap up some pictures before we started eating, and they also came out blurry because I was all shaky and the lighting was pretty sucky :( I shall do better next time.
So let's see here... we got some...
Cold dishes: spicy pork ear (good, but could have been marinated longer in the chili oil), tofu strips (do fu shi, pardon my horribly inaccurate pinyin - not very good, really hard and not flavorful), and seaweed (alright, nothing special)
Szechuan Style Fish Fillet - not sure if that's was its exact name, but it was in the House Specials section. This dish was my favorite of the night! The fish fillets were cooked perfectly and it just broke apart. It was lightly breaded and topped with chili sauce and lots and lots of chili peppers. Delicious! Will definitely be ordering this one again and highly recommend it.
House style tofu (hong sao do fu) - this was my pick, but it turned out just alright. The sauce could have been more flavorful, and the tofu wasn't as soft and juicy as I was used to. It was good, but I don't know that I'd order it again. It's one of the few dishes I really enjoy at Jasmine though!
Mabo Tofu - I didn't try this one actually! So I can't really say, but the fellow diner who did order this dish did say she liked it! So give it a shot and decide for yourself!
Cumin Beef - Beef was a little tough and dry, but really good flavor! For cumin flavor lovers, I'd recommend the Cumin Lamb at Dede's Teajuice City, also on Convoy.
Pork Intestine Bao - I'm pretty sure that's not what it was called on the menu, but that's what it was :P This was really yum if you're an adventurous eater! We got it extra spicy, and it came with a lot of chili peppers, but the intestine pieces themselves really weren't very spicy at all. We suspect because it was fried separately and just thrown in with the chilies, so it didn't really absorb the spice. Other than that, it was really good!
Sweet and Sour Chicken - I didn't really try this because they forgot about it and it came out wayy late in the meal (boo on that) and I was so incredibly stuffed at that point. I did try the sauce, and it was rather tasty! And the fellow diner who ordered it said it was the best sweet and sour chicken she's ever had! So if you enjoy sweet and sour chicken, give it a shot here!
Soooooooo all in all, I had pretttty high expectations going in to this place, mostly because I had waited so long to go, and I'd say a couple of the dishes really met those expectations. Enough so for me to go back and try some other ones anyway! It was a good time, and everyone else really liked it, so I'd say it was a job well done! The service was pretty good, save the forgetting about the sweet & sour chicken... they didn't rush us, even though we were still there and eating after they closed, and they were keen to see that we were enjoying ourselves. Some last words... it's called Spicy City but you can definitely get non-spicy dishes here so for those who can't eat spice, don't be turned away by it's name! Although, if that's the case, you might want to go with friends who also don't eat spice, or don't mind eating non-spicy foods :) and.... they serve beer! and there are decent options for vegetarians. ok! That's all for now, folks. Give Spicy City a shot if you're looking for a new Chinese place to try :)
Expect more soon! I may have been lagging on posts, but I have been diligently capturing photographic evidence of my meals!
--fatty monkey is outtt
have you noticed that you have become rather exclamation point-y? haha glad it was good though :)
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