foodgrip: Gaffey Street Diner

I really like the show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. I even like it better than that Man Vs. Food show. While similar in some regard, MvF is more about quantity over quality, at least to me it is. MvF is the show that would rather show a 5 ft pizza and DD&D would show you an authentic brick oven crusted pizza. I feel Guy does a good job talking about the ingredients, the preparation, the way certain flavors compliment each other and is animated enough to make me feel like I am the one sampling the food. Now, Guy is no Anthony Bourdain but that's a good thing. I cannot afford to fly around the world and visit the places that Bourdain goes to. Not that I don't want to go, I just cant afford to go. DDandD is more my speed, my people and my economic level.

Gaffey Street Diner in San Pedro is a place that Guy talked up on one of his shows last year. The food on the show looked amazing; homemade chorizo, the John Wayne plate, biscuits and gravy...this is my type of place! And I could tell that the owners were people I respected - homemade cooking, hard working, old school type of people. I was sold. This is a place to visit next time I would be in So. Cal.

The wife and I made the trek to San Pedro. South of LA, near Long Beach - the South Bay. Side note - I really like San Pedro. Its like the town that LA forgot about. Tucked away in the corner SP is a good old fashioned town, mixed in with surfers, artists, hot rodders, low riders and blue collar working class. We ordered the eggs Benedict, the Gaffey Street Special (spicy chorizo pork scrambled with eggs and cheese with a generous helping of home style fries) and a side of biscuits and gravy. I hadn't eaten all morning and after the 1hr+ drive I was hungry.

So now I am sitting in a place I heard about form a show I respect in a town that i admire and how was the food you may ask....eh. Much to my surprise the food was just OK. The eggs Benedict did come with a huge slab of ham, which was tasty, but the hollandaise sauce (homemade) was bland and uninspiring. The home style fries tasted undercooked and bland as well. The chorizo (homemade) tasted store bought (while I love me some store bought chorizo, I was expecting something more - especially based on Guy's reaction - see video below). The biscuits and gravy were, once again, just OK and nothing special. The biscuit was generous and fluffy and the gravy was filled with a lot of sausage but again bland.

I am not going to get into the service on this one since my momma always said "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all".

Here is the twist - I took the leftovers to my sisters house and they liked everything. Whatevs.

Verdict - Skip it. Maybe if I lived nearby it would be different, but not worth the hour+ drive. I will, however, still listen to Guy and take his recommendations. I don't want to throw the race card around, but maybe since he is a white guy he doesn't know good chorizo when he tastes it...but then again, I am the whitest Mexican who doesn't even speak Spanish, so what do I know.