The Fire Spot, 4646 Convoy Street, San Diego, California 92111
By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — As my time with my older son gets shorter and shorter as we prepare for him to start UC Berkeley in the fall, I’m trying to save up as many experiences as I can for him, his brother and me as a family.
One such outing had us in Kearny Mesa looking for some good Asian food. We thought we were going for Korean BBQ, but it turns out that The Fire Pit is that plus a Northeastern Chinese BBQ place. The differences are subtle, but delicious.
The first big difference was the way you cook the meat. Like Korean barbecue, there is a grill in the middle of the table. But unlike typical Korean barbecue, the grill had coals and a movable vent that went right over it.
It’s a little awkward to cook with so little space between the grill and the vent, but the resulting flavor was so worth it. The food was excellent — really good quality meat- better than what you usually find at an all-you-can-eat place. Besides the usual short rib and steak, they have other delicacies like chicken gizzards on the menu as well.
The sauces are a little different than what you might expect at a regular Korean barbecue place. Again, subtle differences, but a difference all the same.
The thing that really got me though, was the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but unfortunately didn’t. It was… amazing! Seriously, I will dream about it. There weren’t really many noodles in it, and we added more meat from the grill to it, but the flavor of the broth itself was incredible. It was rich and full-bodied. There was a bit of spice to it, not so much that it hid the flavor or burned your mouth, but enough that it wasn’t of interest to my younger son. For me and my older son though, it was a home run. I really don’t have anything to compare it to, so I’m going to have to say this is one you have to try for yourself.
We will definitely go back there again. The food was great. Alas, the service, was not nearly as great. They seemed to be busier than they were prepared for (though there weren’t very many people in the place) and we had to ask for a cup and extra napkins several times before we got them. Usually, bad service will make me reluctant to go to a restaurant again, unless the food is amazing, and for this place, it was. The service did get better towards the end of our visit when a new guy came on. I don’t know if we just hit the shift change and the first waiter was tired or what happened there, but it did improve, so we’ll give them credit there.
One other little annoyance with The Fire Spot, it’s in the most difficult parking lot of all of San Diego. Every storefront in this strip mall is a restaurant and there is not nearly enough parking there. So be prepared to search for a spot on the street or circle for a while.
Those were really the only drawbacks. I’m already dreaming of my next visit to that soup.
So what did we rate it you might wonder? Well, it was a solid 8.75 for me, a 9 from my older son, and an 8.84 from my younger son. I will be back, and I highly recommend you give it a try as well.
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Masori is the food and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World. When she’s not hanging with her kids or trying new places to eat, she’s busy helping aspiring authors self-publish their books. If you want to reach Sandi either for a review or to talk about self publishing she can be reached at sandimasori@gmail.com