restaurant review: Paradise Lounge

restaurant review: Paradise Lounge & Grill
(full bar, & next door: Deja Vu Showgirls)
2730 Midway Drive, San Diego
phone: 619-225-8110

review by Kent Manthie

Next door to the Midway area Déjà Vu, where the old Boll Weevil Restaurant used to be, new life has been breathed into this colorful little building, in the form of Paradise Lounge and Grill.

In the front part of the place is the “Grill” part – literally, as they have a little kitchen area – a prep counter and a frying counter – to make burgers. Delicious, made to order burgers that are big and huge, available in two sizes: 1/3-pound and half-pound. More than one style too: they make “plain” hamburgers, cheeseburgers, Hawaiian burgers, burgers made with chicken (the “Chicken Sando”). Also available are chicken wings, fish tacos and even a Greek Salad, plus more… right now for $6.00 you can get a “Burger, Fries and Coke”, the current special.

Separating the front area from the back “Lounge” part of the Paradise is a little section with two bar-sized pool tables for those who have a bit of the pool shark in them.

In the back, where the bar is, you can sit at the bar and chat up the cute female bartender or you can opt to chill out in a big, relaxing booth. Either way you serve it, the lounge is a comfortable space.

The Paradise Lounge and Grill is not a fancy place, not a shiny bright plastic fast food place. It has a dark ambience inside, juxtaposing the brightly colored paint job outside – a kind of bright orange with a powder blue trim. The tables are all wooden square things with dark, hard chairs surrounding each; they’re comfortable, though; better than those ugly plastic things one sees at McDonald’s or Burger King. The bar in back was a little sparser – only 2 booths and a bar that was an all-around, square bar, about maybe 12’ x 12’, more or less. In fact, one might say that the back bar area looks like it’s still a work in progress.

Come in for lunch if you want, or stop by after work for a drink and some grub. Paradise opens daily at 11:00 am and the grill stays cooking until 10:00 pm, while the bartenders pour until 2:00 am nightly. Live entertainment is occasionally offered in the form of a three-piece band.

If watching naked strippers makes you hungry, you can stop by after a hot time at Déjà Vu, which is, as I said, next door. Or maybe eating burgers and fries makes you horny, well, you won’t have to go far at all. Strippers and food, food and strippers… a good, symbiotic combination, especially since this particular Déjà Vu has girls but doesn’t have a kitchen or liquor!

The afternoon I stopped in the bartender was pouring away in the back. I helped myself to a quick tour of the place – there were tables and chairs and a grill in front and I had the pool tables all to myself in the middle of the restaurant. You can come back on the weekend when the crowd in here for some excitement or stop by anytime during the week for a good lunch. Paradise is waiting for you. KM

(Editor’s note: Just a bit of background – this building is actually where the first Boll Weevil restaurant was, and where the San Diego-based chain of the same name was started. Next door, where the Déjà Vu is now, was the Cotton Patch Steakhouse. It was an upscale steak restaurant but they had plenty of ground beef that was produced by the kitchen so the owners wanted to make a separate place where the beer and burger crowd could eat. And that folks is how the first Boll Weevil restaurant was founded, many years ago. RR)