Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Stop eating poke bowls

Choose donburi instead, at the new Little Italy Food Hall

The Single Fin rice bowl eats like omakase sashimi and vegetables served on a bed of rice.
The Single Fin rice bowl eats like omakase sashimi and vegetables served on a bed of rice.

After years of construction, Little Italy’s pedestrian-friendly Piazza Della Famiglia has opened, and the ten-thousand square foot, Euro-styled plaza has proven an ideal venue for the neighborhood’s Saturday farmers market. When I showed up on Wednesday, I found the piazza bustling while market stalls sold produce and — wait, Wednesday?

Little Italy Food Hall, on the Piazza Della Famiglia

Yes, as of now there’s a more compact and exponentially less crowded farmers market in the same spot, Wednesdays from 9 am to 1 pm. Good to know.

But I bypassed it for lunch at Little Italy Food Hall, the food court that just opened on the northeast corner of the piazza, populated by six locally-owned food vendors and a full bar. Community tables sit inside the hall, and on the piazza outside.

Options range from pizza to tacos, but I went straight for the donburi counter, Single Fin Kitchen.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The word donburi means bowl, and in Japanese cuisine refers to a bowl of rice topped with assorted meat and vegetables. In the case of Single Fin, the rice bowls feature the likes of sashimi and ceviche.

I appreciate the use of donburi here. A lesser restaurant might have taken to calling these poke bowls. As poke restaurants have proliferated beyond reason, they have adulterated Hawaii’s traditional poke salad, and I fear American diners have been trained to identify poke as any pile of raw fish mixed with add-ins like avocado, sriracha, or flaming hot cheeto dust.

Single Fin’s donburi far surpass these dishes in concept and execution. With most rice bowls, my tendency would be to immediately stir up all the ingredients, so every bite could be a uniform mix of rice, veggie, and meat.

That's absolutely not how to approach these donburi.

Place

Single Fin Kitchen

550 West Date Street, Suite B, San Diego

Single Fin cofounder and chef Antonio Quindere hails from Brazil, but has rich experience in sushi and ceviche, including time working for famed sushi chef Nobu Matsuhisa. Whereas I have beef with poke bowls, he’s concerned that American sushi restaurants too often pile three or four different kinds of fish in a sushi roll, the attempt at largesse shrouding the same deliciously delicate flavors that make sushi worth the cost.

So each of Single Fin’s donburi invite diners to experience such flavors one a bite at a time. The $13 Salmon 360 bowl tops rice with discrete servings of salmon sashimi, belly, marinated roe, and tartare. The $14 Tuna 3 offers tuna three ways, and the three ways may change depending which cuts of fish are available any given day.

Then there’s the signature Single Fin bowl, which lets you try a little bit of everything for $16. This day, my bed of rice was topped by a patchwork of salmon, ahi tuna, seared albacore spiced with a carne asada rub, a sampling of the daily ceviche, hamachi tartare, mackerel, pickled eggplant, sesame encrusted seaweed, smoked bonita flakes, chili threads, daikon radish, and a shiso leaf, aromatic with mint- and basil-like flavors.

It’s the most beautiful dish I’ve ever been served in a disposable bowl. Every bite offered a different treat for the palate, creating a unique dining experience that could be read almost like a collection of love poems in ode to Japanese cuisine.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tyler Farr, Blue Water Film Festival, Mustache Bash

Events March 21-March 23, 2024
Next Article

Looking back at race relations in Coronado

A former football player recalls the good and the bad
The Single Fin rice bowl eats like omakase sashimi and vegetables served on a bed of rice.
The Single Fin rice bowl eats like omakase sashimi and vegetables served on a bed of rice.

After years of construction, Little Italy’s pedestrian-friendly Piazza Della Famiglia has opened, and the ten-thousand square foot, Euro-styled plaza has proven an ideal venue for the neighborhood’s Saturday farmers market. When I showed up on Wednesday, I found the piazza bustling while market stalls sold produce and — wait, Wednesday?

Little Italy Food Hall, on the Piazza Della Famiglia

Yes, as of now there’s a more compact and exponentially less crowded farmers market in the same spot, Wednesdays from 9 am to 1 pm. Good to know.

But I bypassed it for lunch at Little Italy Food Hall, the food court that just opened on the northeast corner of the piazza, populated by six locally-owned food vendors and a full bar. Community tables sit inside the hall, and on the piazza outside.

Options range from pizza to tacos, but I went straight for the donburi counter, Single Fin Kitchen.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The word donburi means bowl, and in Japanese cuisine refers to a bowl of rice topped with assorted meat and vegetables. In the case of Single Fin, the rice bowls feature the likes of sashimi and ceviche.

I appreciate the use of donburi here. A lesser restaurant might have taken to calling these poke bowls. As poke restaurants have proliferated beyond reason, they have adulterated Hawaii’s traditional poke salad, and I fear American diners have been trained to identify poke as any pile of raw fish mixed with add-ins like avocado, sriracha, or flaming hot cheeto dust.

Single Fin’s donburi far surpass these dishes in concept and execution. With most rice bowls, my tendency would be to immediately stir up all the ingredients, so every bite could be a uniform mix of rice, veggie, and meat.

That's absolutely not how to approach these donburi.

Place

Single Fin Kitchen

550 West Date Street, Suite B, San Diego

Single Fin cofounder and chef Antonio Quindere hails from Brazil, but has rich experience in sushi and ceviche, including time working for famed sushi chef Nobu Matsuhisa. Whereas I have beef with poke bowls, he’s concerned that American sushi restaurants too often pile three or four different kinds of fish in a sushi roll, the attempt at largesse shrouding the same deliciously delicate flavors that make sushi worth the cost.

So each of Single Fin’s donburi invite diners to experience such flavors one a bite at a time. The $13 Salmon 360 bowl tops rice with discrete servings of salmon sashimi, belly, marinated roe, and tartare. The $14 Tuna 3 offers tuna three ways, and the three ways may change depending which cuts of fish are available any given day.

Then there’s the signature Single Fin bowl, which lets you try a little bit of everything for $16. This day, my bed of rice was topped by a patchwork of salmon, ahi tuna, seared albacore spiced with a carne asada rub, a sampling of the daily ceviche, hamachi tartare, mackerel, pickled eggplant, sesame encrusted seaweed, smoked bonita flakes, chili threads, daikon radish, and a shiso leaf, aromatic with mint- and basil-like flavors.

It’s the most beautiful dish I’ve ever been served in a disposable bowl. Every bite offered a different treat for the palate, creating a unique dining experience that could be read almost like a collection of love poems in ode to Japanese cuisine.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Mid-range fleet scoring bluefin limits off Ensenada

Rockfish to open at all depths April 1st (no foolin’)
Next Article

Looking back at race relations in Coronado

A former football player recalls the good and the bad
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.