California Pizza Kitchen in LAX: Los Angeles, California

Well, I'm on my way back to Washington. United decided the best place to connect was LAX for a flight to Portland. Unfortunately I have almost a 3 hour layover, even though my San Diego flight was delayed.

By the time we got off the plane it was 6:40 and I was ready to eat. Wandering around the terminal I found a California Pizza Kitchen (CPK). I've had good experiences at CPK in the past so I had high hopes. Their prices were ridiculously high; no surprise there. I paid $13.50 for a personal size pizza and a drink.

The quality was mildly disappointing. When I ordered "The Original BBQ Chicken" pizza I thought I was in for a treat. What I ended up with was something that was about as good as a pizza that had been microwaved. I know for a fact that they didn't microwave it because I saw them put it in the oven. I don't know if they didn't leave it in long enough or what but it didn't turn out well.

The crust was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. This odd combination made for a pizza that basically fell apart when I tried to fold it in half. The pizza was warm but not hot. Shouldn't pizza that just comes out of the oven be hot? Overall it was a very mediocre experience. I guess thats to be expected from airport food right? Oh well, I'll be living with the best cook in the world for the next couple of months so I guess I can stomach some mediocre pizza.

Studio Diner: San Diego, California

Shout out to my Aunt Rachel who suggested we go to the Studio Diner in San Diego. This diner has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives which is a television show on the Food Network. We were pretty excited to have an opportunity to go to one of the places featured on that show because the food always looks SO good.

Parking was a bit of a hassle because there are only a handful of spaces right in front of the diner itself, we ended up parking on the side of the street. We were surprised at some of the quirky names on the menu. The "Boob" was something with a chicken breast, and "Jewish Penicillin" was what they called traditional chicken noodle soup. There was a wide variety of food ranging from seafood to more traditional diner food like burgers and breakfast.

Ultimately I decided to go for the Baja Burger with a side of Clam Chowder and Rachel went with the Club Sandwich. As you can see the burger came out with a generous helping of fries. Unfortunately neither the clubhouse or the clam chowder are pictured because the food blog pictures were a bit of an afterthought (we were both hungry). The burger was decent, nothing too special. The guacamole didn't have much flavor and the salsa wasn't of the spicy variety. Rachel's clubhouse sandwich was good, as was the clam chowder.

Overall, if you're looking for a decent place to eat at any hour this is a good place to go. However, if you're looking for a gourmet restaurant you should look elsewhere.

Studio Diner

4701 Ruffin Road
San Diego, CA 92123

The Big Squeeze: San Diego, California

Angle Shot of the Acai Bowl and Extra Granola

Top Shot

I have a number of friends who have attended Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, CA. When we were visiting recently they mentioned that they were going to The Big Squeeze. They couldn't believe I'd never heard of it before. They said I HAD to go when I got a chance.

Well, the other day I finally had the chance. The Big Squeeze is located in the Pacific Beach area. From what I understood this was a local version of Jamba Juice. I found that there is a big difference in quality between the franchise shops (Jamba, Juice-It-Up, etc) and this place. We all ordered Acai bowls. For those that don't know, Acai is an extremely nutritious berry. Acai bowls are frozen berries ground up to a juice consistency. Then chunks of fresh fruit (in this case strawberries, bananas, peaches, and mangoes) are mixed in along with granola. Many people (myself included) also add honey. This treat is a great breakfast and you can feel great about eating it because it is really healthy.

I'm a big fan of Acai bowls in general. This one was particularly tasty. They keep everything nice and cold, I actually got a brain freeze from eating too fast. The fruit was all fresh and tasted really good. As for the granola, well, it was granola. Nothing too exciting other than the fact that it had almonds (I'm allergic). Luckily they were few and far between, otherwise this short trip for breakfast could have turned into a trip to the ER.

Location:

1826 Garnet Ave
(between Kendall St & Lamont St)
San Diego, CA 92109

Bubba's Smokehouse Barbecue: La Jolla, California

Sides on the Rib Platter: Mac and Cheese (7/10), Baked Beans (7/10) and Cornbread (5/10

Ribs (8.5/10)

Bubba's Smokehouse Barbecue is probably my favorite place to eat barbecue in the San Diego area so far. We first went there from a recommendation from a friend who has lived in the area for a while. However, he told us to go to a place called Joey's Smokin Barbecue. Apparently it hasn't been called that for some time now.

Anyway, on to the food. The ribs here are fall-off-the-bone meat with a dry rub and two different sauces. You can go for sweet sauce, which is pretty good or a spicier sauce which is also good. They have a pretty wide variety of things on their menu for a barbecue place including Frickles (fried pickles). Last time we were here my mom got some chicken which she wasn't too impressed with. However, if you're going to a barbecue place to eat chicken you probably shouldn't be going there at all.

This time she had a brisket sandwich and enjoyed it quite a bit. Typically she's the healthy eater in the family and never finishes her plate but this time she ate the entire sandwich.

The prices are pretty typical of a barbecue restaurant but we had to pay $10 to park in the middle of the day which added to the cost a little bit. The restaurant is located in a great shopping area which is only a couple of blocks from the beach. For those of you that live outside of San Diego, La Jolla is a great place to visit.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Five Guys Burgers and Fries is a national burger chain. They have a pretty simple menu but we had heard that this place was really good. While waiting in line you realize that all of the decorations in the building are cutouts of newspapers and magazine articles where they've been called "best burger joint," "best burger value," and "other random burger related award."

At this point I was pretty excited. I love hamburgers so the prospect of having the BEST was making my mouth water. Unfortunately my excitement was met with disappointment.

When the burgers came out they looked good. Their "regular" burger is two quarter-pound patties. I got mine with bacon, cheese and a ridiculous amount of vegetables. The burger was fine but "fine" definitely didn't meet my expectations.

Their fries come in two variations; simply salted and Cajun. Both styles of fries are thick slices of skin-on potato. We opted for the simply salted. The portion size of fries was fairly generous but that didn't really make up for the fact that they didn't taste great. Apparently at Five Guys, "simply salted" means "doesn't taste salty at all." This is a great example of, "I don't care if its healthier if it doesn't taste good."

Overall I wasn't extremely impressed. This place probably falls somewhere in the middle of my fast food burger rankings. Maybe I didn't order the right thing, maybe they were having a bad day but either way this burger wasn't my favorite.

Fireside Cafe: Vancouver, Washington

Fireside Cafe is a restaurant in Vancouver, Washington that recently opened. They are occupying the space where Cafe Divine used to be located. Our family is friends with friends of the owners and we heard it was a pretty good place to eat. More importantly, we heard they served mountainous nachos on a pizza dish. I'm a sucker for nachos so we decided to go there for dinner.

Mom is the healthy eater in the family and she got a salad. I don't really know what kind it was, looks like there was vegetables, fruit, bacon and dressing.

Joshua, Dad and I decided to share a plate of wings and the legendary nachos. The boneless wings were okay, nothing special. However, we did get them with barbecue sauce. They may have been better with hot sauce.

This is the glorious plate of Fireside Nachos. It is a 14" pizza pan filled with nachos that were at least 6" tall in the middle. The chips were multi-colored which added a lot of flair to dish. The nachos had cheese, tomatoes, jalapenos, black beans, chicken and guacamole (on the side). The chips also had some sort of seasoning on them but since it wasn't listed on the menu we're going to assume its some sort of secret ingredient.

This picture probably doesn't do these nachos justice. There was a LOT of food on that plate. We were able to get through most of the plate but it was tough. These monstrous nachos could easily be a meal for 4-5 people and could be a snack for 10. They are a great value at the low price of $12.99.

Fireside also has more "traditional" cafe dishes such as sandwiches, soups, and burgers. They also have a wide selection of beverages from coffee and smoothies to wine and beer. It's a nice quiet atmosphere and they offer free wi-fi. Whether you're in the mood for coffee, want to try something new, or want to feed nachos to a small army you should definitely check out Fireside Cafe.

Mo's Chowder: Cannon Beach, Oregon

Everybody loves going to the coast. We love going to the coast so much that we went on a day when it was 55 degrees and misting. In July.

After the long drive on Highway 26 we were ready for lunch. Luckily there weren't too many people at Mo's and our food came out quickly. It was a glorious moment when that bowl of clam chowder landed on on the table in front of me. From what I remember it was REALLY good but you probably shouldn't take my word for it since I ate an entire bowl in less than a minute...

If you go to Mo's you've got to try the chowder. The grilled chicken cesar salad is not worth trying, but the chowder is great.