Casual eateries in San Diego (1 of 2)…read more I knew of the The Habit, but I had never been to one. This one is in La Mesa, not far from SDSU and before El Cajon. The first one I've ever seen was on Sunrise Blvd. in the Citrus Heights / Fair Oaks area east of Sacramento and it hummed with customers, with the scent of grilled meat sometimes wafting through the air if you should be that lucky. Los Angeles may have them, too, but I've never seen one. The Habit, specifically this one in La Mesa, serves up hearty sandwiches that are robust and tasty. While 2 burgers on sesame seed buns were ordered by friends and deemed to be good, I went with the Chicken Club, which is presented on sandwich bread and, if it was offered, I would have gone with sourdough. My sandwich was definitely very tasty and filling. If not going to the top of list in terms of doubling up patties and excessively decking out the sandwich, most of their burgers and sandwiches come in somewhere between 500 and 1,000 calories. (When The Outback's Blooming Onion comes in at over 2,000 calories, you will easily find comparatively more sensible options at The Habit.) The service was fine - arms length, but polite. I will say that the store, and we took the ordered food to go, was very nice and clean. It's in a nice neighborhood east of San Diego and SDSU and there is an amply sized parking lot. The prices were in the ball park for its quality and for being in a suburban California location. There aren't many things on the menu that interested me since I don't eat much ground beef anymore, preferring chicken and fish. However, I'd happily return to this location and might be open to trying others in The Habit portfolio. I'm going to go with 4 stars.

I do really love the Habit for their food however I don't think the service here is the best. I…read moreordered on Yelp and when I went it to pick up my food (5 mins past my original pick up time) they said they were still working on it. Even though my Yelp app said my order should be ready, I sat down and waited for them to call my name. After another 5-10 minutes, they still hadn't called my name so I went up and they said they were still working on it. When I showed my Yelp app saying the order was ready, they finally looked in the bad and realized that the order was already finished. Again, I do really like the Habit and their food, it was just a shame that even though I ordered online and my order was ready, I wasn't able to pick it up until around 20 mins past my original pick up time.

I grew up on Costco food court pizza and hot dogs. Amazing how they can keep great prices in this…read moreeconomy. I will never turn down a slice of Costco pizza. Y'all remember the chocolate dipped vanilla ice cream bars with almonds? Yeah they need to bring those back.

Live a few minutes away so I come here often, I love costco's food court, a slice of pizza and a…read moredrink for $3! I suggest eating your food there because it's part of the people watching experience, the overall logistics at the food court are a lot better now, lines move faster and now the soft drink dispensers are Coca Cola products. I got myself a pepperoni pizza slice, it's so delicious, nice and warm with a little crunch, perfect amount of toppings and sauce, go get yourself a slice today!

I went on an adventure trying to find a new lunch spot.  I found this place on Yelp as Janna's…read moreBurgers, Fish, and Fries and the map took me to the Aztec Food Hub.  Using the street address I was taken to Grossmont Center.  The signage indicates this place is called BFF Burgers, Fish and Fries. I was feeling lucky today.  So I ordered my fried fish with onion rings and paid $1 upcharge.  The problem with onion rings is they range from not good to great.  With fries they are usually fine. White fish was fried in a tempura batter infused with herbs.  White fish had a mild flavor and was nice and moist.  Batter was crunchy. Onion rings were mostly crunchy except the batter was too thick so some parts of the batter were not transformed by the frying process into crunchy goodness.   I didn't like the flavor of the herbs in the batter which distracted from the fried onion flavor. Service from the guy in charge was friendly and efficient.  My combo was $12.99 which is a great deal.  I'd order the fish again but not the onion rings.  Doing further research I found they are also listed on Yelp as BFF Burgers, Fish and Fries.  So that's the story on my lunch adventure.

I went here after work for a double cheeseburger. I had read the reviews, and they were very…read morepositive, so I took a chance--and I must say, I was very satisfied. Everything was fresh, and the service was fast and friendly. I definitely recommend this place if you're in the mood for a hamburger.

We did a mobile order for drive thru. They were efficient with our order. Although, the tacos were…read moreridiculously greasy. I expect them to be greasy but when the grease is leaking through the bag it's not good. The fries and mozzarella sticks on the other hand, were freshly made and served perfectly. Our mobile order was expected to be ready at 9:30pm but we waited at the drive-thru window for a while.

They could improve order accuracy. I ordered two "Grilled" chicken sandwiches. Got some sheet…read morecalled "Cluck" chicken sandwiches. I mean grilled and fries are a pretty obvious difference. Fucking idiots.

El Azteca is still number one in my heart. They have my absolute favorite dish at any taco place,…read morethe Rosarito plate, I've even gotten my mom hooked on it. It's delicious chicken with tomatoes, onions, and peppers served with rice and beans and your choice of tortillas, plus a drink. All at a reasonable price. It makes two meals for me every time. My son swears the quesadillas here are magical and always eats most of it in the car on the way home because he can't wait. Service is always great, it's a family owned restaurant and they're consistently friendly and fantastic. It's a small business, but there's a few tables inside and chairs if you're getting takeout. They take phone orders too. There's plenty of parking in the lot and on the street. When I first started coming here a long time ago it was cash only, but you can use plastic now too. They do close early on Sunday, don't be like me and show up after 3 because you forgot..

The prices here are fair (compared to all these other places charging over $16 now), but the food…read morewas very bland and tired. I feel like the reviews are biased to the portions and price but not quality. I want to contribute my honest review without coming off as some food snob. I had no issues with the service (the staff seemed like people I could vibe with daily) and really wanted this place to be my loyal go-to. I've lived in the area for over 23 years and wanted to try something different after exhausting pretty much all butrriro options, so I checked out some online forums for recommendations. There are a lot of burrito spots around, so it's easy to overlook this one. Still, it kept popping up in people's suggestions, so it seems to have a loyal crowd. The California burrito and the breakfast burrito were mentioned as the best options. Maybe I'm late to the party, but after trying their California and breakfast burritos, I was surprised by how bland and dead the food tasted. The carne asada lacked flavor and freshness, and the potatoes in both burritos were very stale, mushy, and bitter (as though eyes / dark spots were present). Both burritos were missing something. People said the red salsa was supposed to be great, but it didn't add anything, and neither did the green salsa. Both just tasted flat. What really surprised me was the "famous" breakfast burrito that so many people rave about. It should be one of the easiest things to get right, but it tasted watered down. Maybe it was the onions and potatoes? I couldn't enjoy it unless I covered it in the bland red and green sauce just to make it edible. I even wondered if the eggs were processed or imitation (I'm no stranger to cafeteria food). I do understand that the majority are struggling, so this may reflect the quality and lack of taste. I've been all over San Diego and been in some financially rough areas that managed to stay afloat while still providing life and love by using locally sourced ingredients. So I feel like this place just lost motivation and wants to fill you up instead of giving you an experience.

Got the demon hunter meal and it was okay. They forgot to include the sauces in the meal which was…read morereally disappointing.

I got a vanilla cone but it looked more like a baby cone. We placed a mobile order for an ice cream…read morecone. When we gave them our code and arrived to the pickup window they were confused as to what we ordered. I had stated I had a mobile order for an ice cream, but they couldn't see it? It took them about 6 minutes to find the order and on top of that gave us a mini cone.

We like them because of the drive thru. The service was relatively fast. We got the surf and turf…read moreburrito and it was good, with a large horchata. They offer menus to go but they don't have prices which leads me to believe locations either set their prices, menus are generic from corporate or prices may change frequently. $14.80 for a burrito seemed a bit high but it was tasty with good quality ingredient. The large horchata was $4.85, again a bit on the high side. A good place if you are in a hurry and don't want to have to leave your car although you can dine in and they have dedicated parking.

How do you rate a restaurant where the food is typically fantastic, but can never seem to get…read moreeverything you ordered into a bag. What if they get the right number of items but incorrect items? Mistakes happen, no doubt. I understand that as well as anyone. They happen at Vallarta a disproportionate amount of the time. Literally more often than not. We've always went back through the order at the window with them just to make sure, and still would find items missing when we got home. I've advised them before that having a sharpie at the packing station to check off against the receipt would probably serve them well. All of this is known, and in and of itself, despite the real frustration one feels when this happens once, much less dozens of times, it would not lead me to updating with a one-star review. What did happen is that, the last time they forgot my order of rather expensive guacamole, we called. The phone rang for sometime before being picked up by a gentleman we believed to be the owner-- clearly a cell phone, and he was not onsite. We told him what had happened. He apologized, like one does, and told us to just let them know the next time we went through the drive-thru and they would replace it. He took our name. That was that. Except it wasn't. When we next went back through the drive-thru, we reminded them of our missed guac, and they refused to honor the owner's promise. Beyond that, they became rude and hostile at the idea. Obviously, we canceled that night's $50+ order and left. We have not been back. We used to go in once or twice a week. Maybe the message was not relayed. Possible. It does seem to me, however, that if your error rate is as high as there's is-- and it's not like they don't know this-- instead of arguing with the guest that has come back to your establishment anyway, you should probably bend over backwards to accommodate them. They used to make up for their horrible order fulfillment with friendly service and pretty darn good food. As the service tent pole fell, so did the tent.

Same good food, hidden gem! We tried chili rellenos 3#…read moreplate, authentic- reminds me of that border town I grew up in!! And the chicken hard tacos-did not disappoint!

It's been about 12 or so years since I worked nearby and would frequent this shop at least three…read moretimes a week because of how good they were. Recently moved back and tried again today. What happened!? I ordered three rolled taco meal. The tacos were tiny, hardly any meat, beans were dry and bland and so was the rice. Not the return I was hoping for. Two stars for the aguacate salsa.