If you have ever been to a chip shop in the UK you know what we call fish and chips here is nothing like the real deal in the UK. In Las Vegas we found a proper fish and chip shop brought to us by someone who should know how proper fish and chips should be made-Chef Gordon Ramsay.  For $15.95 you get 3 pieces of cod along with a heaping of hand cut chips which you can augment with gourmet flavors such as truffle parmesan and chipotle jalapeño. You also get your choice of two sauces: curry mango, Sriracha Aioli, European Mayonnaise, Gordon's Tartar Sauce, Artisanal Ketchup and Southwest Ranch. My friend who lived in London for a number of years said that Gordon Ramsay finally brought proper fish and chips to America.

Happy Cinco De Mayo Amigos y Amigas!
Nate's Korner in Santa Ana is famous for their breakfast burritos. Orange County breakfast burrito aficionados all know about Nate's. What you see below is a 3 egg, 3 meat breakfast burrito. It has bacon, sausage and ham with 3 fried over easy eggs and crispy, shredded hash browns all wrapped up in a large flour tortilla. Served with fresh salsa it perfect breakfast for 2 or a breakfast and lunch for one person. www.nateskorner.com

Old school Cash only Chinese food in hipster Kearny Mesa. Sam Woo has many outlets across Southern California and even some in the Chinese enclave Vancouver, B.C., Canada. It wouldn't be an old school Chinese restaurant without the requisite elderly Chinese waitress or waiter. Our waitress was a sweet older lady who couldn't have been nice to us. We ordered Shrimp Chow mien with crispy noodles, rock fish fillet with black bean sauce and fresh mushrooms with the famous or infamous X.O. sauce. The food was in large portions and was flavorful and spiced just enough. 

In China Pizza Hut is one of the fancier western restaurants you can eat in.  They have waiters, a wine list and and extensive menu that also just happens to have pizza. We actually didn't see anyone eating pizza at Pizza Hut they were eating every but Pizza it seemed like. 

Q'ero (www.casadelqero.com)is a family owned Peruvian restaurant in downtown Encinitas. It's run by a mother and daughter using a family recipes. They have two locations, the original one in Encinitas and another down the street in Cardiff which is called Casa del Q'ero. The Cardiff spot is larger with a larger menu and bar.  If you haven't tried Peruvian cuisine we suggest you run, don't walk, to your nearest Peruvian restaurant or if you're lucky enough to have a Peruvian friend invite yourself over to his/hers mother's house. Peruvian cuisine is not at all like Mexican food. They use a discreet set of seasonings and fresh ingredients. Perhaps the most famous seasoning is Aji Amarillo-a delicious sauce that uses yellow Amarillo peppers and walnuts. Aji Amarillo is not a burn your face off spicy sauce, it's piquant, rich and white girl spicy.  It goes good with rice or quinoa 

Octopus Balls aka: Takoyaki is one of Japan's favorite street foods. Originally from Osaka, Takoyaki balls are fritters filled with chunks of octopus, tempura crumbs, pickled ginger, and green onions. Then they slather them with Japanese kewpie mayonnaise and Japanese Worcestershire sauce, and cover them with dried seaweed shavings and dried bonito shavings. 

We went to Tajima Izakaya, www.tajimasandiego.com, on Convoy for Japanese style tapas. Tajima is a prolific family owned restaurant chain with multiple locations in the San Diego area as well as spots in Tijuana and Long Beach. Izakayas were hipster gastropubs before there where gastropubs. Izakayas could be found in larger Japanese towns dating back to the 18th century Edo Period. 
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We stopped in Cake de Partie (4685 Convoy St. San Diego, CA 92111) a dessert cafe across the street from one of our favorite Chinese restaurants Spicy City. Their specialty is something called a crepe cake, which have been made famous by Lady M Confections (https://www.ladym.com/collections/cakes). A crepe cake is a pretty much a stack of thin crepes layered with pastry cream filling in between each crepe layer. A proper crepe cake has no less than 20 crepe layers per cake. It was the first time we had heard of such a thing. While we were deciding what to get, a gentlemen came in and ordered a slice of matcha cake and a lychee rose soda to go. He said he was craving this and this was the first time he'd gotten it without having his wife and/or kids in tow. Wow! we thought it must be crazy good if this dude came in on the down low to get this by himself, we pictured him sitting in the car eating the whole thing and washing it down with the home made soda before he walked into the house, the wife and kids none the wiser.

With an antlered stag as their mascot, the place had a definite hipster lounge vibe to it, however they close at 10:00 so not a late night hipster spot. They have a variety of interesting desserts on the menu as well as a collection of savory snacks like chicken wings and pasta dishes, coffee drinks and hand crafted, home made sodas and lemonades. We asked the young lady working behind the counter what crepe cake was her favorite and she steered us towards the strawberry one with strawberry coulis. 

The Verdict:
Well if you like desserts that are not too sweet, crepe cake might be for you. For us the texture was unusual for a dessert and as neither of us is a big fan of pastry cream it wasn't a transcendent taste sensation. The Lychee Rose soda, however was refreshing and a bit on the sweet side but the flavors went well together. Overall this is a place with a cool vibe and would be a nice place to hang out with friends debating the merits of the different flavors of crepe cakes vs. European style conventional cakes.