Ikura Sushi & Ramen just opened up last month in the Poway/Scripps Ranch area of inland San Diego. Do a Yelp search on the restaurant and the top two comments are:
Yea! Now we don’t need to drive all the way to Kearny Mesa and Convoy Street for our ramen fix!
Try the Tonkotsu Ramen, it is fabulous!
With four teens to taste test with me, I knew I’d get a good overview.
When the Chinese kid gives it a thumbs up, you know that the restaurant doesn’t stink (this gets tricky, because he says he isn’t picky and will eat anything…).
The Girl wasn’t wowed by her Miso Ramen, but…
I ordered the same and LOVED mine.
The Boy liked his Teriyaki Chicken, and was jazzed that they let him swap out the salad for edamame.
The Boyfriend gave his sushi roll high praise, and liked his Miso Ramen just fine.
Props to Ikura Sushi & Ramen for their online coupon offering a free California Roll with over a $12 purchase for an eat in special. They also offer a 10% discount coupon, also available online, for takeout orders. Our California Roll was one of the best I’ve had in a long time- I highly recommend it. Bottom line: I liked Ikura Sushi & Ramen better than the last Ramen joint, Rakiraki Ramen & Tsukemen.
Chicken TeriyakiMiso Ramen12205 Scripps Poway Parkway Suite 106 Poway, CA, 92064
Plans for a nice family dinner at a favorite Japanese restaurant just didn’t materialize in the way I had hoped for. I haven’t seen the teens much lately, which sometimes is NOT a bad thing- am I right, fellow moms of teens??? However, I do enjoy these people an overwhelming majority of the time. There are subjects to cover, jokes to hear, stories to catch up on that you can’t hear in the fifteen minutes you see them in the morning before they dash out the door, or pry out of them as they are poring over their studies.
We try really hard to sit down together at dinner every day of the week… by “we try,” it’s really “I try.” All this effort results in maybe three family dinners per week. With fencing, guitar, theater, church leadership, Academic Decathlon, and sneaky Netflix binging, (and this is just The Teens) I feel like I have to out-plan everyone in order to bring us together on a regular basis. That should be a college course for parents! “Family Togetherness 101: Stealthy and Inconspicuous Planning and Gathering- Techniques and Practices Explained.”
No le gusta el atún. Pobrecito. Part of the the catch of the day last July. It was Poke City here. Click the pic for a recipe similar to oursFurther evidence of how deep his distaste for tuna runs…
It is probably a good thing that The Teens stayed home… one doesn’t like sushi or any fish for that matter, the other racks up quite a bill. We had half the usual bill by leaving half the family at home. Look at The Boy. He’s not kidding. This is the poster child for Mac N Cheese. And fillet mignon. His tastes run amok.
Hamachi (Yellowtail) Sashimi, caught that morning
My favorite selections for sushi are always salmon and yellowtail nigiri. Tuna used to be a top choice, but we are extremely fortunate to catch our own on a friend’s boat or receive some of his haul and we have a freezer full of ahi. It. Is. HEAVEN!!
Tobiko and Scallop…
So, we lost the teens and instead were able to have a nice dinner date with just the two of us. Not a bad consolation prize, huh?! Where The Girl was going to have carte blanche with the sushi menu and do the choosing for me, in hindsight, maybe it is a good thing that she wasn’t there? Hmmm… hadn’t thought of that. Who knows what she would have tried to get me to eat? (*shudder*)
The Husband got to choose instead, and we ended up splitting orders of scallop nigiri and tobiko. Holy Yum. The scallops, especially, they were so sweet! I thought that shellfish would be on the tough side if prepared raw, since I’ve only had giant clam sushi… I don’t recommend it. Our favorite little neighborhood sushi joint prepares the scallops with a very light dressing, probably mayo based- I loved it, and so did the mayonnaise-hating husband. And I really did like the tobiko, too. Fresh and ocean-y tasting, lots of fun, salty popping going on, and very yummy.
Those were some great prices on noodles, appetizers and sushi, and the winner was the Yakisoba. Lots of vegetables cooked just right, great flavor to the sauce and good chicken, too. I’d pass on the Udon soup there, the tempura was good with it, as was the broth, but I think the noodles were prepared ahead of time and just reheated in the broth… that might explain the low price. Good overall, but for the noodles. Sushi Deli seems to be known for its specialty rolls, and they did look great as the servers brought them to other tables.
On our quest to try some new eats! This time we tried a restaurant that many people have been telling us to try, a chain called Pho Ca Dao. According to one of my kid’s teachers, if you aren’t swearing, you aren’t pronouncing it correctly… I hope she wasn’t pulling my leg.
The daughter’s boyfriend helped us order and he picked some winners. We loved the soups, the pork with rice noodles were meh. Egg rolls- fabulous, spring rolls- less so. I think I am spoiled by having friends make home made spring rolls on many occasions, though.
Yum! Beef with rice, pork with rice noodles and egg rolls, spring rolls, beef pho and chicken pho with all the condiments- love the sprouts, basil and cilantro!
I’m really glad I finally tried some of the dishes from Pho Ca Dao, and am sure that we will hit it again- great dishes at a surprisingly low price. Here’s the menu, via allmenus.com:
Pulled pork is fabulous in the crock pot; sprinkle a lot of onion and garlic powder, salt and pepper on a pork shoulder butt and 4-8 hours later you have a magnificent meal. With BBQ sauce for the meat, we round it out with a baked sweet potato and maybe green beans. We all love it.
Tonight we are making carnitas with the same cut of pork and swapping out the sweet potato and green beans for a boat load of cilantro, chopped onions, pinto beans and tortillas.
I changed up the recipe only a bit- freshly made mini corn tortillas instead of the suggested flour, and I tossed everything together on the baking sheet- the onions, garlic and I squeezed the citrus juices and 1/3 cup of bacon grease over everything. I only used oregano, salt and pepper, too, and skipped the other spices. I don’t think we missed the one pound of lard to cook the meat in, either… the bacon grease and pork fat from the meat was puh-lenty. But read the original recipe, it looks great as-is.
It was FABULOUS!! Seriously, try the recipe, and if someone really does cook it in the lard, I’d love to know how it turned out.
This was so good, I’m going to serve it to my mother-in-law. Yep. That good.
branching out... on a limb 