The other night, we went to 168 Restaurant for dinner. I haven’t visited 168 for dinner in a long time. Usually if I’m there, it’s just to get a quick lunch bite. Located inside Ranch 99 market,168 is a small Taiwanese restaurant.
168 has an extensive menu, most of which I have not yet explored. You can see the full menu on my previous post here. We had seven people in our group and everyone chose one dish.
We ordered the pan fried seafood noodles.
I was a little worried about this dish. Normally I love it, but I’ve had so many bad versions in San Diego, that I’ve stopped ordering it. I thought the version here was pretty good. The noodles came out pretty and were crispy. The sauce was thick and smooth to my relief. Many ones I have ordered have had thick cornstarch sauces with uneven chunks of cornstarch inside the sauce. Yuck.
We also ordered the yang chow fried rice, which is BF’s favorite.
I enjoy the fried rice here. It reminds me a lot of the one I make at home.
Dry sauteed green beans with ground pork.
The beans looked a little brown/green like they had been cooked too long. They still tasted pretty good, though I wish there were a little more of them.
Kung Pao Beef with assorted goodies.
There was beef, peanuts, and shrimp in this dish. The sauce was slightly spicy.
Fried Stinky Tofu
The version here is decent. It’s not as pungent and flavorful as the ones in LA, but I still order it whenever I come here.
Spicy tripe
This was my first time having this and I actually thought it was a pretty good cold dish.
Sizzling assorted goodies
Beef, chicken, peppers, shrimp and broccoli.
Near the end of our meal, we were given another dish, complements of the owner. It was a spicy fried chicken dish, similar to the spicy chicken that is served at tapioca tea cafes. I was surprised and happy with the gesture. We’ve always gotten good service here, but this was the first time we got a free dish. I think it was because we had such a large party.
It’s been a while since I’ve eaten here and I had a pleasant experience. I always feel a sense of comfort when I eat here. With the staff speaking Taiwanese amongst themselves, the tv satellite tuned to chinese news, and the Taiwanese style of cooking, it makes me feel like I’m in Taiwan.
168 Restaurant
7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, #102
San Diego, CA
(858) 268-1168
Hey Kirbie – Funny about that Chou Doufu……. because I’m able to eat it, the Missus says it’s no good…. in other words, if I can tolerate the stinky tofu, it can’t be any good!
Haha, that is funny. Most of the ones I’ve had in the US are pretty mild. I still need to try the place in LA you recommended to me last time.
I feel exactly the same way when i am there too 🙂 My family and I have been come here for ages and the owners are just great.
Food is good and it usually hits the spot (when I’m craving Taiwanese food). Do you know if they have the Taiwanese meatball (ba-wan) there?
I don’t know if they make all their stuff from scratch thou. This one time I think i saw frozen packages of green onion pancake sitting on the counter. So I’ve always wanted to ask if their xiao long bao are homemade as well (any idea?).
How was the popcorn chicken??
Nice post!
I see Ba-Wan on the menu, but I don’t believe I’ve ever tried it here. I haven’t asked, but I believe a lot of stuff they don’t make from scratch like the xiao long bao. I should ask next time though to confirm. The xiao long bao have always tasted like the frozen ones to me.
The popcorn chicken was pretty good. It wasn’t anything special, but it tasted like normal popcorn chicken you would get from Tapioca Express.