I first heard about Curry House from Dan. He told me about this little restaurant he used to go to when he was working in Irvine. They served curry…and spaghetti. What??!?! Spaghetti?!?! How do those two go together? I was trying to figure out how the Japanese interpreted spaghetti. All I could think of was how Filipinos put hot dogs in theirs. Ick.
Anyways, fast forward a few months. I had forgotten all about that conversation. So when driving down “Asian Row” one day, I spotted a sign for Curry House Japanese Curry and Spaghetti. Once again, I was baffled by the concept of Japanese spaghetti. But since I love curry and this was a curry restaurant, I had to try it. The next time Dan came into town, we went. He realized it was the same as the one he frequented and was quite happy in the pants…or stomach, I should say.
There were quite a few choices curry wise. I was in a mood for something spicy so I went with the chicken and ginger curry. Okay, yeah…spicy for sure which made me happy as too many Asian restaurants wuss out on the spice. It was tasty but I think the ginger overpowered the curry for me. I haven’t ordered it since though it still tempts me.
On my many visits back, I’ve had:
- Chicken curry: a guaranteed yummy plate of fowl brown. Can’t go wrong with this. It’s a good dish to try as your first, especially if you are not familiar with curry.
- Hamburger curry: the curry sauce provides moisture for a flavorful hamburger patty that sometimes is a little bit on the dryer side.
- Chili Shrimp and Spinach Spaghetti: I had to try a spaghetti dish. It had a good spicy bite to it (if you can’t tell, I like spicy). The only reason why they call it spaghetti is because they use spaghetti noodles. With the sauce, it’s more like a Asian noodle dish…a tasty Asian noodle dish, that is.
- Stone Grilled Curry Rice (seafood, unagi): My first thought when I saw this on the menu was that they were stealing the concept of Korean dolsot bibimbap, a dish where rice, meat and various vegetables are mixed together with a spicy red paste in a hot stone pot. Given that dolsot bibimbap is one of my favorite Korean meals, I had to try this curried concoction. Oh yayness! A combination of two of my favorite foods resulted in an ecstatic tummy. And it’s rumored that the unagi bowl has magical healing powers.
With some of the dishes such as the chicken and hamburger curry, you have the option of substituting the rice with spaghetti. The spaghetti’s cooked with some mushrooms and onions and surprisingly, it’s really good with curry. The noodles manage to do a decent job in capturing enough sauce so that you don’t taste bland spaghetti but rich curry. I’d suggest giving that a try if you’re feeling a need to break away from the traditional white rice.
Some dishes come with a house salad or you can order it as an add-on. Their house salad is some of the best ever. It is not some skimpy bowl of lettuce drowned in dressing. They actually top the lettuce with kidney beans, green beans, corn and a tomato wedge and they use just enough house soy dressing to flavor the greens.
They also had a steamed curry bun as an appetizer for a short period of time. I absolutely loved it as it was similar to a char siu bao (chinese bbq pork bun, a favorite munchie of mine), except curry-flavored. They still carry a fried version of it.
Curry House also offers desserts, such as a sweet potato cake (yum), tofu cheesecake (also yummy and tastes just like cheesecake), green tea ice cream and coffee jelly.
The great thing also is that the portions are quite filling and the cost is reasonable ($7-9 for all the main dishes I’ve listed).
Curry House = lots of tasty food + reasonable prices + fast service.
For locations and menu visit their website.
The Catty Critic rates Curry House at 3 NOMs.
Filed under: 3 NOMs, japanese, Los Angeles, restaurant review, San Diego | Tagged: 3 NOMs, asian, curry, curry house, food review, japanese, restaurant review, San Diego | Leave a Comment »
