Review #45
Last night was fun. We drove back to our rental, Airbnb #9, around 10pm and noticed THE SMELL long before we pulled up to our house. Skunk. The closer we got, the stronger the smell. We got out of our car, and rushed to open the front door to get away from the foul odor. When the door opened, I was leveled. There are no words strong enough to convey the potency of skunk that was inside the house. I looked around and quickly noticed the back door to the yard was open and knew for certain that the spray happened inside. I ran to the small dog. He was ok. Then I tried to get near the big dog and couldn’t. A cloud of evil stench stopped me in my tracks. He took it to the face, I am sure. I was getting ill. Seriously, I was gagging and heaving and couldn’t stay in this house for one more minute. With one big breath, I ran into the bedroom to grab what I could: 1 change of clothes, 1 toothbrush, 1 shoe, 1 small dog, and 1 kid. Then we were out of there! As I peeled the car out of the driveway I heard a faint voice trailing behind us, “Mom, please wait for meeee…”. ” I love you!” I yelled out the window, but my time there was up. We would find somewhere else to sleep this night.
Waking up this morning, hungry for Ki’s, I dreaded going back to Skunk City but had to drop off the dog, pick up my other stranded family members and get my other shoe. I did all of this in record time. Man I was ready for a cup of coffee!
Ki’s is one of the few restaurants that we have been to multiple times and we’ve watched them change throughout the years. It used to be that you could order and sit downstairs for a light bite, or be seated and order upstairs for more of a real meal. But they did away with that. Now, you order downstairs and go upstairs to wait for your food. They also stopped serving their Sunday buffet brunch, so you need to order off of the menu, which keeps changing as well.
Their juice selection is solid, and Debbie got a Supermix.
Ain’t it purdy? It looks like a glass of thin sludge, but she said it tasted great. I stuck with the coffee which tasted as good as it smelled. I had to keep smelling it you see, because the skunk oils have been stuck in my nose hairs, and skunk is all I can smell!
BP ordered a blueberry muffin to start. I reminded him that any baked item shared at a table before breakfast doesn’t have any calories. He wasn’t sold. “Look at that cool car!” yelled Hubby and when he turned to look, the muffin was not-so-carefully divided for him. What a sucker. It was ok, just kind of average. Honestly, I would have rather just sat there smelling it.
There’s plenty of seating upstairs, even outside, and most tables have an ocean view that just never gets old.
The wall above the self-serve coffee station (me likey!) informs you of upcoming events like Happy Hours and live music.
As soon as my Heuvos Rancheros arrived, I took my nose out of my coffee mug and stuck it in my plate. Was it the most special Heuvos Rancheros I have ever had? No, but it was good and I really appreciate the organicness of ingredients they use.
Our eldest ordered the California Omelet which was loaded with veggies.
This is the only restaurant where you will see BP order something other than French Toast if it’s on the menu. The reason being that the French Toast portion is just too small for him. It was blueberry pancakes for him today. Again, the pancakes were good just not great. BP finished every morsel, and then the rest of his brother’s California Omelet, and then the remains of my Huevos Rancheros.
Hubby went with the oatmeal. For me, there is only one oatmeal in my life now. And that is at Java Hut, Hula Monkey style! I’ve been back for that quite a few times. Ki’s oatmeal was pretty average…no comparison to the Hula Monkey!
Keeping up with the local trends, Ki’s now has Avocado Toast on their breakfast menu which Debbie ordered over an Acai Bowl! This one had a fried egg, tomato and micro-greens. Beautiful and delicious!
You can look at beach scenes of the local art:
or just turn around and see the real deal:
Bottom Line:
What we really love about Ki’s: You can get a healthy meal that tastes really good while being right across from the beach. Some things they do are great. They use lots of organic ingredients, have plenty of gluten-free options, and have tons of healthy choices on their menu. Their salads, juices and burgers that I have had in the past have all been really good. Their breakfast items and some of their other entrees are just average. Last time I came I ordered the Chicken Stir Fry which I would not order again. All in all., the food isn’t amazing, but sometimes it’s nice to go out to eat, get a reasonable size portion of food and leave feeling good, knowing you won’t be having a food hang-over from this meal. Ki’s is a staple for our family for times when I just don’t feel like cooking, but we want to stay “on track”.
Ki’s is also a great social hang out. They have live music some nights, and have great tables for games. I have seen long Scrabble games here and often come with friends for lunch and mahj jong. They don’t mind. And if your rental house stinks to the heavens like skunk, you can just plop your computer down at a table and hang out for as long as you need while writing your blog. And it smells just fine.
Join us this Sunday for what is sure to be a great time, July 1st at 6:30pm for food, drinks, shenanigans and blogging at
THE KRAKEN!!!!
2531 S Coast Hwy 101, Cardiff
Dining on the 101 
Omg! Some years ago, my poor dog was skunked. The best advice I got from the vet was (so embarrassing)- a medicated POWDERED douche. Mix it up, put it on the dog, let it dry, and comb it out. These are impossible to find at a local drug store but maybe Amazon?? Anyway, I would love to tell you the horror story of when I was 25 and trying to buy my first douche (for my dog, 🙄). Good luck and thank you for your hilarious blog!
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Years ago Sally got skunked. I had woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. As I’m sitting on the toilet half awake and I’m thinking that I must be really sick. Because, what it coming out is smelling so foul! I finally wake up enough to realize that I am not creating the smell. I realize that when I had woken up, my dog went out to get a drink of water and got skunked. I quickly ran to the bedroom where she was trying to roll the smell off onto all my bedding. Then I wasn’t sleepy any more. Spent the rest of the night washing everything including the dog. Took forever to stop smelling that smell. You can wash the fur with the Natures Miracle product, which is ok but not great but it will linger in areas hard to wash like around the eyes, ears and nose. Not much to do about the eyes but for the ears and nose you can mask the smell by taking a cotton swab dipped in vanilla essence and rubbing it gently around ear and nose opening.
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Ewww!! Only you, with your gift of words, could convey the gagging awfulness with humor!!!
Love you & love your blog!
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