168 Restaurant
168 Restaurant
7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, #102
San Diego, CA
(858) 268-1168
168 Restaurant is a small Taiwanese cafe located inside Ranch 99 supermarket. It’s one of the few spots in San Diego that serves Taiwanese food. I used to come here every so often, before or after shopping at Ranch 99, or when I was missing Taiwanese cuisine.
However, since finding some great Taiwanese eats in LA, I haven’t been back here in a while. We decided to pay a visit for a late lunch this weekend.
The menu selection here is quite large, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are capable of making all the dishes they offer well. The menu offers a lot of my favorite Taiwanese snacks, but I’ve tried a few of them and wasn’t very happy with how they were. So now I pretty much avoid their Taiwanese cuisine section.
We ordered the Yang Chow Fried Rice, which is one of the dishes I really do like here. I think it has just the right amount of oil and saltiness.
We ordered the fried stinky tofu. I remember enjoying this more before, but this time I found that the tofu was barely fermented. It tasted almost like regular fried tofu.
We also ordered the pork chitterlings with pork blood. The dish is served bubbling and boiling. There is usually sour pickled vegetables, green onions, tofu, pork chitterling and pork blood.
Since our last trip to 168, they’ve done some renovation and spruced up the place. They also now offer a variety of milk tea and slush drinks. BF got a Thai milk tea. I got a taro milk tea.
While I don’t love the food here, I do enjoy coming here occasionally. The staff is always nice and I love hearing the Taiwanese dialect being spoken.
When I think of taiwanese street food, I always think of stinky tofu. =) I love taro drinks too. The one here isn’t as super fake purple as some other places, though they still use a powder mix.
Seems like you really enjoy your stinky tofu huh? Haha. I really like taro drinks, so ill definitely stop in to try that. Nice post as always!
I think the old lady is so funny. The Yang Chow fried rice is regular price during lunch I think, but the portions are pretty big.
Hmm, hard to describe the pork blood taste. I’m actually not much of a fan. I just like this dish because of the chitterlings. The texture of the pork blood is like slighter harder than soft tofu, but it sort of breaks down like tofu. But it has a taste to it, very mild, but enough that I don’t really enjoy it. I guess it’s the blood taste. So it’s like blood tofu. haha. I don’t know if I’m just squeamish because I know it’s blood.
I like getting takeout from Sam Woo. Huge portions, lasts quite a few meals. 168 is more of a sit down, casual place with homestyle taiwanese dishes.
I always smile when I read your blogs and see a restaurant that I’ve been to or want to go to. 168 is a place my family and I have been going to for years. The owners (now) always are so cool and funny.
Never tried the Yang Chow fried rice – is it a good price during lunch?
We usually get the XLB (not sure if it’s home made there), fried tofu, and some sort of ground pork over rice.
Weird question but what does pork blood taste like? My parents ate is all the time and I would just watch them in awe.
Not too many Taiwanese restaurants here in SD unfortunately. But I’ve always stayed loyal to this place 🙂
Nice post!
(I was showing my sis this post and said to her ‘we should do 168 for lunch today and then make some PB banana chocolate muffins’)
I used to go to Ranch 99 a lot when I was in college but we always hit up Sam Woo or the place inside for take out…cheap and a lot of food! 2+ meals for ~$5. 😀 Never did try 168…