The Crack Shack - Little Italy — Restaurant in San Diego

I don’t like giving non-5-star reviews unless something is really bad, but this is a tough one. I travel to San Diego 1-2x per year and I’ve been seeing The Crack Shack for a while, but never really had a chance to try it.

So, after a long day at the convention center, I got a bunch of different things take out to try. I got a side Baja chop salad, the jidori chicken tenders with fries and sriracha thousand island + ranch, double peck, coup deville, and firebird.

The reason it’s hard to review is because I had very high expectations, and almost none of the items reached these, but also some of them were much better than others.

I’ll start off by saying I don’t like chicken or fries to be too oily, so if you don’t mind that, then take this with a grain of salt. Also, when it comes to fried, I’m not a fan of dark meat (as opposed to roasted chicken where I am) so that also influenced me.

-Baja Salad: 10/10, this was the best thing I ordered and I wish I got a big one, amazing dressing and mix of fresh ingredients - never expected a salad to be my fav thing here haha -Jidori Tenders: 7.5/10 they were good and flavorful but a little too greasy/oily and became quite soggy bc of it. It’s not just bc of takeout either, bc other stuff like the fries weren’t soggy at all -Fries: 7/10 good taste and texture but wayyy too oily idk what that was all about it was like someone put olive oil on them -Sriracha 1000 Island dip: 10/10 this was amazing and made me like the fries and tenders more than I would’ve otherwise, I wanted to buy some of it and take it back to East coast with me. I barely touched the ranch bc of this. Sooo good. -Coup Deville: 7.5/10, the flavor was maybe a little bland compared to what I expected but overall not bad just mild flavor and great chicken, the bun fell apart before I finished but I enjoyed this most of the chicken items it was the only one I finished -Firebird: 3/10, I thought this would be my fav but it just was not good imo, way too much fried onion and thick pickles etc to where it ruined the texture and the chicken itself was kind of gross it was like darker meat plus the wet chicken from the spicy stuff on it. The texture was terrible but the flavor was ok, took a couple bites only. -Double Peck: 1/10, this thing was inedible. I got takeout but my hotel was only 6 min away so that’s not the problem, this was so loaded with sauce and cheese that it literally was a pile of mush. I couldn’t even pick it up, and if it was delicious I would forgive it, but the sauce was so bland, it was wayyy overloaded with melted cheese, and the chicken patties were grey and kind of blah. I took two bites and basically spit them out. I’m not proud of it but that’s...

Way overate at a delicious private party brunch for Mother’s Day, but kids insisted to do out to eat after the Beach at Crack Shack because they love it. I had never eaten here before because I do not like fried chicken out, but hey! I was being a good Mom! SOOOO!! What an amazing surprise! The food is sourced from local farms and every bite evidenced this! **also came to find out Crack Shack was created by the Juniper and Ivy restauranteurs, so I could tell that, too!! The menu is creative, with generous servings. We tried the Sunny Daise, the Cali Drip, the Firebird, the Power Bowl, the mini biscuits (which taste like the perfect hybrid of a classic Parker House roll and a southern biscuit!) with maple butter, the regular fries, a side of coleslaw , a tenders kids meal and a nuggets kids meal! I tried both a bite of tender and a bite of nugget; the nuggets had a buttermilk breading taste and the tenders had a slightly spicier coating with a tighter crumb! I preferred the tenders. Although honestly, Every item was five star!

The kids meals can’t be beat. The choco chip sea salt cookies which are monster size in the kid’s meal are Bakery Heaven!!

~A very humerous event at this yummy fried Chicken extravaganza were three young guys visiting from Asia, who lip smacked and groaned little mmm, mmm, mmm’s through their entire meal! The seasonings really are that superlative and quite tasty! AND Our food was piping hot which I Love!! I will be back!

**bussing staff was genuinely caring and cheerful and constantly clearing tables and wiping everything down and checking to make sure everything is just right, so remember to tip generously at the point of sale payment! And at these super reasonable prices for quality food, you can really do a generous tip!!

Pleasant, spacious outdoor seating! And a great little Astro turf play area with corn hole game for children to get their wiggles out!! It was a perfect visit! Sorry no pictures of the delicious food, Fam was not up for it, and wanted to...

My fiance and I came here for our weekly burger tweet and were definitely satisfied!

I got the Caesar's Chick Burger. It was a grilled chicken breast with some caper mayo, arugula, romaine, pickled onions, pepperoncini and Caesar Dressing. I got no tomato on there. Basically like eating a chicken Caesar salad as a burger. What a beauty! The flavor was so so so good! Chicken biscuits perfectly and generous amount of the dressing. Not too much of those so it went really well together. I definitely would have this again.

My fiance got the Cali Drip (pollo asado, fries, chipotle-bacon mayo, bacon, pickled onions and jalapeños, melty oaxacan queso all on a Torta). This looks like a grill panini sort of a concept and was literally a flavor bomb! It actually had fries in there! Bacon and jalapenos and that melty cheese. Oh my gosh! There was just so so much going on. But definitely in a good way. The combination was very unexpected and also very good! He actually couldn't finish it all in one serving haha.

We also got side salads with this: Baja Chop Side Salad (Guac, radishes, pickled onions, cotija cheese, tortilla strips, charred poblano dressing). Ended up not having any of that dressing because it wasn't needed. The pickled onions and cotija cheese did enough to add flavor. A really good one as a side salad for sure.

Fiancé And I also split an order of the Downward Dog( bowl with seasonal grilled vegetables, quinoa, hummus, crunchy chickpeas, lemon yogurt vinaigrette). We asked for no quinoa and extra cabbage but they messed it up and got us a regular bowl. The quinoa was all underneath so we couldn't see it but returned it when we realized. They've already quit with service and go to the new version soon. I really love this bowl. It went so well together. That hummus was so classy! We asked for the lemon yogurt vinaigrette on the side and added it on as we needed. Everything just was amazing. A good crunch. It also had crunchy chickpeas which we were not expecting! Such...