Teriyaki Grill

After our quick stop at La Concha, we walked south on third, pas the Chula Vista Heritage Museum (post is forthcoming) for our lunch destination...

There's construction going on and it's right next to all the road work. If you walk further down, you will hit the Social Security Office, a place I haven't been to since I had to change my last name...

None of us had ever been here before despite this place being around for at least four years. Well, for me at least, the name itself didn't excite me. It turns out that their website hasn't been updated either. I was looking forward to getting their Korean cold noodle dish (it wasn't named) which was only available in the summer. When I asked our waitress, she said they no longer serve that and that the website was old! I think they need to retool their websiteto avoid misunderstandings.
Teriyaki Grill serves a mixture of Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese dishes including sandwiches, salads, and bentos.


Their maneki cat on their counter (above) and on the coupon (below):

Our complimentary appetizer - salted edamame. We weren't given an extra bowl to put the pod shells so we had to place them, unceremoniously on the saucer, surrounding the bowl.

Here is 3/4 of our lunch...

KD's Grilled Teriyaki salmon bowl with vegetables and brown rice. There were two sizable pieces of grilled  skin-on salmon in there which she enjoyed). The vegetables were zucchini, red bell pepper and kabocha squash. We saw one of the cooks slicing into it; my friend didn't know what he was going to use it for so she asked. We were told that it was Japanese pumpkin and he'd be using it for our entrees.

I had the grilled beef teriyaki bowl with brown rice as well. Same vegetables. I ordered the meat medium rare (I normally do 'medium'). While the meat was buttery soft and tender, it could have used more seasoning. I was still a bit freaked out by the pinkness. I'm such a wuss when it comes to that I guess. My problem with the vegetables was that the vegetables seemed to be cooked unevenly. Thered bell pepper pieces were still kind of hard. The squash pices seemed a bit burnt and also a bit too 'firm'.

TC had the short ribs bento which came with salad, two fried egg rolls, brown rice and the same vegetables. While she liked her food, I found the short ribs meat portion too skimpy and fatty.

KD's daughter had the Hawaiian burger (with pineapple and onions) with a side of fries.

She seemed to like it. My friend KD really enjoyed her salmon dish.  My dish, on the other hand was a disappointment. While the meat was tender, I didn't have as much flavor as I hoped it would have, plus there were those unevenly cooked vegetables.  This whole Fall Break, Bert has been the lucky recipient of our leftovers and of course, he had no complaints. He liked the beef and the vegetables just fine!

Another thing that irked me was that our iced coffees came towards the end of the meal. Seriously, this sucked. At least it was in a 'to-go' cup, but we would have liked it to come earlier so we could enjoy it with our meal.

Will we come here again? Most likely not. Our server was really nice, but I wasn't impressed with the food here. I'll be honest and admit that the coupon is the main reason we came here, but I also wanted to make this a day of doing downtown Chula Vista with KD and our girls.

The other restaurants down here include Jimmy's by the Park (homestyle diner type food), Talavera Azul (which appeared on the Food Network as having "the best chilaquiles", according to chef Marcella Valladolid on the show, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate"), Mangia Bene Italian restaurant, and La Bella's Pizza (an institution here in CV). There are a few other smaller eateries, but those are the ones I remember at the top of my head...

Our next stop would be a cute little bakery across the street before we'd cross again to check out the latest exhibit at the Chula Vista Heritage Museum...