Kip’s Café brings 50 years of tradition to Hillcrest

By David Nelson
SDUN Restaurant Critic

Not many restaurants in this county are older than the new Kip’s Café on Fourth Avenue near University Avenue, and anyone who actually remembers when the original Kip’s opened in El Cajon may well have a trove of Elvis records stashed at the back of the garage.

A fixture since 1956, Kip’s is known for serving dual menus of Chinese and Japanese cuisine. The restaurant continued in El Cajon for more than 50 years before closing that location, enjoying a brief hiatus and then reopening in Hillcrest. Housed in a unique space – the long and narrow front room leads to a longer and narrower main dining room – Kip’s chose a location on one of the neighborhood’s more varied blocks. With Tapas Picasso next door, the Kous Kous Moroccan restaurant, Martinis on Fifth and Bread et Cie across the street, and a branch of Burger Lounge scheduled to open a few doors away at the intersection with University, Kip’s is somewhat like the centerpiece of an international buffet.

The proprietors did an exceptionally good job redecorating the premises, which now are bright, cheerful and comfortable. Booths line one wall of the main room and provide good views in all directions; ask for one of these should you visit the restaurant. Servers are pleasant and personable in the way San Diegans usually are, and guests can expect a warm welcome and smiling service.

Between the Chinese and Japanese segments of the menu, Kip’s offers more than 300 dishes, and first-timers may well get through the better portion of a beer or glass of wine while reading through the possibilities. Mixing dishes from the two cuisines of course is possible, but from the culinary point of view it frankly seems more harmonious to build a meal exclusively from one or the other. For this review, the coin toss went to the Chinese side of the list.

Kip’s origins in 1956 are reflected by categories listing the old-fashioned, Chinese-American specialties that were immensely popular then, like chow mein, chop suey and egg foo yung. These dishes maintain numerous fans at present, and at Kip’s they are well priced and abundantly served, a comment true of the menu in general. Ask for subgum chop suey ($7.95) and expect a heaped platter of stir-fried vegetables and meats, bound with a mildly flavored sauce and accompanied by steamed rice. Foo yung, basically an omelet in a distinctive type of brown gravy, is available in guises that range from plain and simple ($6.25) to eggs mixed with pork, ham, shrimp, chicken or beef ($7.50-$8.25).

The Chinese menu also claims plenty of the dishes that became popular commencing in the 1970s, when regional styles of Chinese cuisine were introduced across the United States. At Kip’s, these include spicy kung pao dishes, as well as a range of the restaurant’s signature entrees and chef’s recommendations. A fair number of the signature entrees strike a spicy stance, like the garlic chili dishes (available with chicken, shrimp or scallops, $9.75 – $14.95), the well-varied kung pao trio ($10.50) and the famous dish called General Tso’s chicken, which costs $9.50 and memorializes the general’s fondness for piquant flavors. Among chef’s recommendations are such Kip’s specialties as Peking-style pork chop ($10.95), curry chicken in a clay pot ($10.95) and for something that combines sweet and savory notes, the pineapple steak ($13.95).

Chinese meals always are enjoyable because of all the appetizers and soups, courses that formerly weren’t daily events on American dinner tables. Kip’s offers many, many choices, from barbecued pork cut in meaty slices ($6.75) to crisply fried shrimp (dip them in a sweet-sour sauce or in hot mustard; $7.95), paper wrapped beef ($6.50) and rumaki ($6.25), tasty, tender-crisp tidbits of chicken liver and water chestnuts that aren’t all that easily found these days. Hot and sour and egg flower soups are offered both by the cup and bowl ($1.75 to $5.75), while other soups are prepared to serve two or more, including chicken vegetable and pork won ton soups (both $4.50 for a half-bowl that feeds two diners quite well).

It does take quite a while to read all the possibilities, which include many types of noodle dishes; Mandarin double pan-fried noodles and fragrant Singapore noodles both grab the attention ($9.95) among the various choices. And then there are sweet-and-sour dishes, fried rice preparations in many guises and entrees like beef with oyster sauce ($9.75), moo shu pork ($8.95), Mandarin-style cashew chicken cooked in a red sauce ($9.50) and hot braised shrimp ($12.50). Vegetable choices include the Mandarin “vegetable delight” and Szechuan string beans (both $7.95). After any and all of these, fortune cookies arrive along with the check.

The Japanese menu was not sampled, but it’s just as varied as the Chinese list. Simple and filling, rice bowls starring teriyaki shrimp or meats are garnished with vegetables ($5.75-$7.75), while substantial bento plates cater to big appetites with such elaborately garnished arrangements as the pairing of chicken and beef teriyaki with fried seafood and a special California roll. Sushi, sashimi and many, many kinds of deluxe sushi rolls also star on the Japanese menu.

Kip’s Café
3925 Fourth Ave.
Hillcrest
298-0127