Review - Hungry Lu's

days and days and days went by that i passed by that random, run down looking sub shop two doors down from lucy's here in OB, and wondered.... "i wonder when thats gonna go under..." and alas. that time came about 4 months ago. and just this past week, its replacement finally opened. Hungry Lu's! its quite the fancy little build out. it looks really nice and clean and what not. its whole deal is that they bake all of their bread in house daily and make lots of fun looking cookies and italian treats in there as well.

now heres my concern with this. this place is FILLED with cookies and pastries and goodies, and yet, i cant imagine this place being SO busy that ALL those goodies will be sold today. or tomorrow. or the day after. so do i think they are baking fresh cookies and shit every day? no. should they? yet. because if youre gonna advertise that you make all this good stuff in house, you might as well do it everyday. well, now that i got that out of the way. onto the good news!

the sandwiches were great! they advertise that everyday they have a 5 dollar sandwich (usually 8 inches) and the past week they have had the torpedo as that deal. jeff got himself one of thems

for 5 bucks, its a helluva deal. it beats the pants off of a subway 5 dollar footlong. i snagged a bite of his sando while he wasnt looking. actually, i just asked if i could have a bite, and he said yes.

now of course for a decent review, i needed to try multiple things. so i got the number 8 sandwich, the Hungry Lu's Special (6.50)

rosemary PORKCHETTA, sweet capocolla, mortadella, havarti cheese, lettuce, tomato, pepperoncinis. this was a yummy sandwich. the meats were flavorful and nicely sliced. the lettuce was crisp, the house baked bread was good. it was soft, a little bit of chew to it, which is nice, and i didnt have it toasted, but i get a feeling that it would be a nicely toasted roll.

it was good.

now also i decided to order one of their 8 inch Personal Pizza's (all 5 bucks), i got the OB Special, it had ham, pineapple, mozz, tomatoe sauce, and a sweet and spicy pepper relish.

it was decent. topping wise it was plentiful and it had good flavor, but it wasnt very crispy on the bottom. the crust was actually fairly soggy by the time i got home to eat it (5 minutes) it felt as if it could have baked at a higher temp for a few more minutes to crisp it up a little more. that woulda been nice. but either way, for 5 bucks, its a good lil personal.

i highly recommend check out Hungry Lu's. i know ill be back and ill bring allison cuz i heard their eggplant parm sandwich is on point. check it out!

Hungry Lu's
4920 Voltaire Street
San Diego, CA, 92107

Review - Surfrider Pizza Cafe

when people ask me about pizza, i tell them Newport Pizza is the bizzness. but that doesnt mean i wont try other places, especially if they are in Ocean Beach. so i never went to this place when it used to be Casanovas, mainly because anytime i went by there, it was closed. so it closed down and reopened as Surfrider Pizza Cafe. offereing pizza by the slice, whole pies, sandwiches, baked goods, and of course, smiles. a few of my comrades have praised this place so it was only a certain amount of time that i could put off going in. so memorial day i rolled over there with Adam The Giant and i wanted to take advantage of their lunch special, which is two slices of any pie and a 16oz fountain drink for 6 bucks. its a pretty damn good deal honestly, so i figured i couldnt be let down. walking in you are greeted with a fatties wet dream

all baked in house, or so im told. so upon perusal of all the pies in the case i decided upon a slice of the Signature "Surfrider Pizza"(right), and a slice of the Roasted Chicken Barbeque(left).

the surfrider consists of roasted garlic, white sauce, gorgonzola, tomatoes and basil. then the BBQ Chicken consists of roasted chicken, gorgonzola, bbq sauce, red onion, and cilantro. so heres the thing, i like my thin crust pizza to be crispy. thats how thin crust should be, if you dont want it crispy, dont get THIN crust. this thin crust wasnt very crispy. it was decent, but it was fairly chewy. so i feel like they tend to overwork their dough. the other thing that bothered me was the sparsity of the toppings. the bbq chicken had maybe 6 or 7 small pieces of chicken on it? and all the toppings were small. so if youre gonna not put alot of topping on something, at least make them bigger toppings. which they werent. over all it wasnt bad pizza, but im very critical when it comes to such things, due to the fact that pizza is very near to my heart and as a pizza cook for almost 3 years back home in the bay, id like to feel like i know a thing or two. now something about Adam The Giant is that he is going one year without eating pizza. so as he goes into Surfrider alot, he has established a relationship with its employees and because of that, they always make him a custom "wrap" everytime. he always requests that whoever makes it, make whatever they want to eat. on this occasion, they made him this.

gorgonzola, chicken, basil pesto, and avocado i believe. now it sounds decent, but damn. picking it up and having pesto oil basically tattoo your entire forearm was definatly a downside. it was just ok. after all that i decided to try the baked goods.

i got a Carrot Cake Cookie, and a Rasberry Cupcake. MEH. yea. i said it. meh. just, meh. they were ok. not the best cookie cupcake combo ive ever had. the cupcake was fairly dry and didnt seem to rise much. it was pretty dense. and the cookie was just ok. so, whatever. overall, it wasnt bad, but im highly critical, so take it how you will. i still prefer Newport Pizza until someone conquers them. but honestly for 6 bucks for two big slices and a soda with free refills, its a good deal, if youre in the area and dont feel like walking to newport.

Surfrider Pizza Cafe
2163 Abbott Street
San Diego, CA, 92107

www.surfriderpizzacafe.com

Bay Area Review: Zachary's Chicago Style Pizza

Finally the other Travis is coming though with a Bay Area food review. Zachary's Chicago Style Pizza is located in the heart of Rockridge in Oakland. This is my third visit and well I must say if your into the chicago style pizza this place is definitley for you. I enjoy Chicago Style, but I seem to mostly consume thinner crusted pizza's, more east coast style than anything. I got the Large Deep Dish Style Zachary's Special, which consists of: Sausage, Green pepper, Onion, and Mushroom. This feeds roughly 4-5 (depending on appetite) and runs for $22.75, not bad considering the amount of pizza you get.

Now the way they constuct their pizza was kinda odd to me at first because they kind of do it backwards. Toppings on bottom Sauce on top. Whatever still delicious. If you have frequent bouts with heart burn or acid reflux i'd come readily equiped with ant-acid, because there's alot of tomato sauce, and depending on what pizza you get peppers jalapenos and all the fun volatile ingredients that make up a heart stopping pizza. Now this pizza should not be eaten by hand until the pizza has had time to cool down and set or else your in for a surprise of burning your face off and ruining your clothes.. could really fuck a first date.. so I suggest taking a fork and knife to the first couple slices.

Like i said before there's a lot of sauce.. and I was kinda weary at first, but its super delicious and deffinitley works. It has fresh tomato diced up in the cooked down sauce leaving for a very pleasant contrast. The toppings were evenly distributed making for a very pleasant eat. The crust was perfect, I personally am picky about the crust on pizzas, and felt that the crust was not only delicious, but it didn't leave you with a stick of flavorless pizza crust to chew on in case your that hungry. Finishing every slice in it's entirety was quite delish.

The ambiance is a typical popular neighborhood pizza joint, crowded and sorta noisy, but so what your there for pizza.. tons of beautiful girls. Something that did surprise me was there was not a television in sight which i felt impartial to at first (esp. considering giants were playing the A's, Sharks playoffs etc.), but in the end it breaks us away from our american habits of texting and televisions and promotes a little bit of conversation. Not a bad thing. Also people watching here is ace. I ended up eating way more than I should of.. but that just kinda goes without saying with anything that's this delicious. I will definitley be frequenting Zachary's more often.