Sipz Fusion Café

It may be far away from my home, but it's definitely worth the drive from Imperial Beach to Clairemont. It caters to vegetarians and vegans alike, and by far the best Asian food I have ever eaten. My best friend and I keep on going back for the Thai "Chicken" Curry and Philly Rolls. All their desserts are vegan and those are to die for too, we always walk out with a full belly after eating at Sipz, it's delicious!

Spring forward. Spring roll. One of the best things about Vietnamese food is cool, fresh spring rolls. Sipz Fusion Café offers two different kinds of these little vegetarian delights with their sheer rice paper negligees. The “Fusion Rollz” filled with carrot, jicama, basil and soy “beef” strips are hearty and filling. The “Fresh Summer Rollz” with lettuce, mint, bean sprouts, vermicelli noodles and tofu and are lighter and probably the more exemplary version. Both are served with homemade peanut sauce. They also have “Crispy Rollz” which are the fried version, sometimes referred to as egg rolls in other Asian restaurants to distinguish them from fresh spring rolls. Many places serve egg rolls, but Sipz’s “Crispy Rollz” are especially tasty. They’re definitely crisp, and not greasy or soggy. These cabbage filled tasties are the kind of thing that one craves in the middle of the night. All menu items at Sipz are 100% vegetarian, and many selections are totally vegan, including all of their desserts. Plus, Sipz is a veritable soup heaven! They have at least nine different varieties of vegetarian soups, including Pho, which is traditionally a beef-broth noodle soup, and Tom Kah, the velvety tart and savory coconut soup infused with lemongrass and ginger, but with no meat, fish or fowl to fowl it up. Then there are the “Bowlz”. There are salad bowlz, rice bowlz, noodle bowlz and main bowlz. Sipz features mostly Vietnamese and Chinese dishes served with mock chicken, beef or fish (even mock shrimp) tofu, or simply vegetables. The “beef” with broccoli and the walnut “shrimp” are two of my favorites. You will need to ask for plates if you want to share. They don’t mind. Sipz recently added vegetarian sushi to their menu, something I’ve yet to try. Guess I’ll have to spring back.

I finally got back down to Sipz Fusion Café in Kearny Mesa. A friend took me there for my birthday. I haven't been there since I wrote the last review about the restaurant in April and I really wanted to go back. We decided to try only items that we had never ordered before. Last time, I mentioned Sipz's sushi and that was exactly what I wanted. They have about ten or twelve different kinds, all vegetarian, but for this visit we opted for the shiitake mushroom sushi and the pickled daikon sushi. They were both really good and came with the requisite pink pickled ginger and wasabi. The pickled daikon sushi was really pretty, like a little Christmas ornament. The daikon is cut into a perfect little bright green cube, set into the middle of the seaweed and rice roll. The next thing we ordered came from the appetizers menu. It was described as a “crispy fish” appetizer and was served with sweet and sour sauce. I've been a vegetarian for a long time and before becoming one, I never ate any fish except for the occasional tuna sandwich, so I can't say with any certainty whether or not this dish tasted like fish or not. All I can say is that it was one of the best dishes I've ever eaten at any restaurant, period. There were six small pieces of the faux fish, each of which was about the size of one of those mini tootsie rolls that you hand out at Halloween, but they more resembled a slightly thick piece of beef jerky with a thin layer of super-crispy fried batter on the outside, which I surmise was panko bread crumbs. They were flash-fried and not greasy at all. Thank goodness there were only six pieces of this “crispy fish” because I could have eaten them all night until I swelled up like a puffer fish. And to drink, my friend ordered coconut water, which is not to be confused with coconut milk. Coconut milk is made by soaking freshly grated coconut meat in warm water, then squeezing the liquid through cheesecloth. The result is coconut milk which is creamy, white in color and has a high fat content. Coconut water is the clear liquid inside young, green coconuts and is naturally fat free. At Sipz, the coconut water is served directly out of the coconut. It was exotic, refreshing and delicious. I opted for the Korean barley tea, which is beer-colored and slightly bitter, but also remarkably refreshing on a hot night. Sipz has several new items on their menu and I still have to sample the rest of their vegetarian sushi offerings. I shall return.

My girlfriend loves this place. And I must admit, nothing on the menu excited me when I first glanced at it. But the few things I had, I loved. And I feel like I'm eating healthier when I go here.

This is the best vegetarian restaurant in San Diego. I've been to all the vegetarian restaurants in San Diego and this is the top of the chain in regards to taste. Sauces make foods and this place seems to nail the spot on spices. If you don't regularly eat vegetarian food, don't worry. You won't even know that you were eating faux meat.

I would have to agree with avery, this is the best vegetarian restaurant we have in San Diego. None of the vegetarian restaurants in San Diego offer such a large menu of vegan friendly dishes. This is what makes the difference with Sipz. It's also probably the largest vegetarian restaurant down here also.