Lei Lounge

Lei Lounge has an inside bar with seating for dining outside. If you have at least 6 people, try reserving one of their white cabanas.

Like great tasting food at bargain prices? Check out Lei Lounge’s Happy Hour special on Mondays from 5 pm to 10 pm: 50% off their samplers!!! (The following prices are already discounted.)

Tempura Sampler ($6) - rock shrimp, veggies, and lobster. The rock shrimp and lobster tempura were very good, but I didn’t like the broccoli tempura. Veggies are supposed to be healthy and there’s nothing healthy about deep frying them. I’d rather have steamed veggies instead of all that extra oil.

Skewers Trio Sampler ($6) - ahi tuna, lemongrass chicken, and beef kabob. The ahi tuna was seared, so I didn’t try it. I like my fish fully cooked. I didn’t try the beef kabob either. The lemongrass chicken was a little bland so make sure you dip it in one of the sauces. It was topped with very fresh, sweet, delicious pineapple.

Dumplings Sampler ($5.50) - scallop, beef and scallion, and ginger vegetable with assorted sauces. This was the only sampler that I didn’t like. Even with the discount, it was not worth $1 per piece, especially when comparing it to the other samplers. Beware, the ginger vegetable dumplings were very spicy hot!

Lei Cabana Sampler ($6) - 5 pieces of the chef’s selection of daily menu items. Our sampler had more of the ahi tuna skewer, lemongrass chicken skewer, veggie tempura, and veggie dumpling. The only new item was the Philly Cheese Steak Spring Rolls (brown thing to the top right of the sauce).

They even have drink specials! Mondays through Fridays from 5 pm to 7 pm: 50% off their signature cocktails. Lei Tropical Cooler ($3.50) - coconut rum, creme de banana, melon, syrup, pineapple and lemon juice.

Thai Sticky Coconut Rice ($5) - It doesn’t look good, but it tastes delicious! You can even see the whole strands of coconut.

Chocolate Bento Box ($16) - Definitely not worth it! Their dessert menu is a verbal menu, which means your waiter will describe their sweet offerings, but they don’t mention the outrageous prices! They were out of the Chinese-style fried doughnuts, so they gave us another piece of the pistachio cake, which wasn’t good, and another cream puff, which tasted like it was frozen and hadn’t completely thawed yet. The chocolate dipping sauce and the raspberry cake was ok. The standouts: the dark chocolate piece was sinfully decadent, very smooth, melts in your mouth… The circular creme brulee had a cheesecake like consistency, nice and thick… The last piece was white chocolate lemon cake? The smooth finish was sweet.

And… do you want an even better deal? Go to Costco and purchase their $100 San Diego Gift Card for only $80! You can also use it at over 100 restaurants in San Diego. http://www.sandiegogiftcard.com/

The service wasn’t the best. We got there right as they were opening. There was only one waitress and it was a little difficult to get some service at times.

Lei Lounge also serves brunch and champagne cocktails.