Wa Okan Dining (Lunch)

Wa Dining Okan
3860 Convoy St #110
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 279-0941

okanus.com/

I’ve been wanting to visit Wa Okan Dining for lunch ever since they began offering it but I wasn’t able to because it was only offered on weekdays. I’m not sure when, but at some point, they began to offer it on Saturdays as well. I learned of this through Cathy of mmm-yoso.

When I realized they now serve the lunch menu on Saturday, I was extremely excited and went to visit as soon as I could.

The lunch menu offered is very limited. There are only a few items to choose from and there are no choice in the tapas. But the prices are pretty good too, with a lunch set being around $10.  I’ve liked almost everything I’ve eaten at Okan so I was pretty sure I’d like the lunch even though I wouldn’t have many choices. Plus, I liked how much cheaper it was.

We arrived at the end of lunch and got a seat at the bar. The menu works like this: there is a “basic” for $6.50.  This consists of three small tapas, rice, soup and homemade pickles. Then you separately order the main entree, which there were four choices that day.

I ordered the set lunch with the marinated short ribs. BF ordered the set lunch with the spicy tuna bowl.

We were served a strong cold brewed tea.

Here is the set of tapas, rice and soup:

The tapas: a marinated eggplant that had a hint of wasabi; shirataki noodles with roe eggs; stewed daikon and carrots.

I loved all of them, though my favorite was the shirataki noodles with roe eggs. Every time I eat here, I am always amazed at how tasty everything is. The tapas are so simple, and have the feel of a homestyle dish rather than restaurant style, and yet they are so delicious. I am as pleased eating these simple dishes as I am eating at a fancy restaurant.

The tapas I’ve had are always well made and I love the creativity too. I’ve had shirataki noodles many times and served many different ways, but I’ve never had them topped with roe eggs. I really loved this combination. The saltiness of the roe eggs was a perfect match for the plain shirataki noodles. This is my favorite way I’ve seen shirataki noodles served.

I glanced over at BF’s set, and his tapas were completely gone before I was even halfway done with mine. Normally, getting him to eat these type of dishes or anything with vegetables is like a chore. But he loves the tapas here as much as I do.

I was even a fan of the miso soup. Normally, I’m not a big fan of miso soup. I’ll drink it if it’s put in front of me, but it’s not something I particularly enjoy.  This miso soup was full of goodies: carrots, onions, fried tofu, and bits of konjac. I loved all the ingredients in the miso. This was the first miso soup I’ve enjoyed in a long while.

My brown rice was mixed with seaweed. I loved the look. The rice ended up going perfectly with my marinated short ribs.

My ribs were nicely marinated and well flavored. I liked that the pieces I was served were pretty lean cuts of the meat. Sometimes when I order this dish at restaurants, it seems half the meat is just chunks of fat.

BF ordered the spicy tuna bowl which wasn’t on the menu. I only had a bite, but I liked what I ate.

All in all, it was a good lunch experience.  Dennis of A Radiused Corner has done several lunch posts of Okan which can be found here, here and here.

You can read my previous dinner visits to Okan here and here.

On my way out, I made note to pass by the new restaurant that has taken over the old Shanghai City, which Kirk of mmm-yoso had reported about. The new sign is already up and it’s called Spicy House.

They were vans and things looked busy busy inside as they set up the place. I don’t know too much about the restaurant yet, but while I was passing by, who should pop his head out of the restaurant, the owner of DeDe’s! I don’t know for sure that Spicy House is owned by the owner of DeDe’s, perhaps he was just paying it a visit.