Pentagarn's Profile
Blue Ribbon Pizzeria
I've been to URBN. I liked their crust better than Blue Ribbon's, but I'd say it still didn't have the flavor impact I like. It also practically turned to stone as soon as it cooled. We had a large party that spent a few hours there ordering drinks and pizzas throughout the night, and any that were no longer warm had extremely tough crusts. Of course, Neapolitan tends to do that if you put it in the fridge, but you usually have at least a few hours.
That's a good idea about not cutting the pizza at Bruno's. Come to think of it, I can't remember any of the places we went to in Naples that pre-cut your pizza. They always came out whole. Thanks, we'll try that next time!
Blue Ribbon Pizzeria
My wife's pizza and mine had the same texture, but I suppose it could have been just an off batch of dough or been overcooked. It's hard to justify a return visit unless we happen to be in the area, and I'd probably rather go to Q'ero or one of the other restaurants we enjoy around there in that case.
Blue Ribbon Pizzeria
Well, we ended up going there this weekend. I have to say we were disappointed overall in the pizza there, mainly because of the crust.
They use a thin, crisp crust with a more crunchy rim. Not my personal favorite texture for a wood-fired pizza, as I prefer the more substantial chew you get with traditional Neapolitan pizzas. I do appreciate the crisp-yet-airy style they have at Mozza, but Blue Ribbon's wasn't like that, either. It was more of the thin-and-crackery type.
I think I could overlook the texture if the crust were more flavorful, but it disappointed in that area as well. It had little of the slightly-sour fragrance and taste of leavened dough that makes well-made bread and pizza so delicious. I ended up simply skipping the edges of the crust, normally one of my favorite parts of a good pizza.
I did enjoy the tomato sauce, which had just the right levels of spice, sweetness, and acidity. The toppings were also solid - we tried the mushroom and fennel sausage pie as well as the prosciutto (La Quercia), arugula, and ricotta one. I did think the texture of the cheese seemed a bit chewier and less creamy than I'm used to with pizzas made from fresh mozzarella. We both noticed this in one of their appetizers that included their "house-made mozzarella," but I never found out if they used the same one on the pizzas.
The butterscotch pudding was good. Yes, it's a ubiquitous dessert right now, but I enjoy it and I've tried several around California. It was one of the better ones. It was a bit unusual in that most are accompanied with some kind of cookie or brittle to provide a textural offset to the smooth, creamy pudding. This one was just served by itself.
The food came out somewhat slow, but the waitress did apologize for it and comped us the pudding for it. I understand that it takes a while to cook all those pizzas when the place is packed, anyway, so it didn't bother me too much.
One point of the service was a little disappointing, though maybe we expected too much. My wife ordered a glass of wine when we were first seated. She took one sip and grimaced, then one more and put it down. She told the waitress that she didn't like it at all and asked for a different one. They whisked away her old one and brought the new soon after, and all was well. When we got the check, though, they had charged us for the first glass. They were well within their rights to do so, of course. However, the very few number of times we've ever sent back a glass of wine at restaurants in the past, it hasn't appeared on the bill. Maybe we've just been very lucky, though?
Blue Ribbon Pizzeria
I saw this mentioned in another thread for its butterscotch pudding, but how is their other food? Does it compare favorably to Bruno's? It's a bit of a trek for us, but we're willing to go if it's great.
McCabe Leaves 1540
We didn't have a good experience with the newer style of sample/savor/share menu they offered, so I don't think that's necessarily a bad decision. There are plenty of places in the U.S. that do the appetizer/entree style and put out superb food, so I don't think there's anything wrong with that in itself.
It's disappointing to hear they feel they have to dumb-down the food at the same time, though. I thoroughly enjoyed Kitchen 1540 before the newer-style menu and I'll be sad to see them lose everything they had. Perhaps they just don't know what they'll be until they actually get a new chef?
I'll be curious to see what Delicias does with McCabe, though it's a bit more of a drive for those of us not living in North County.
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Delicias Restaurant
6106 Paseo Delicias, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
Foie Gras and Black Truffles
Specialty Produce carries truffles when they're in season.
Iowa Meat Farms may have foie gras. You should call ahead.
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Iowa Meat Farms
6041 Mission Gorge Rd, San Diego, CA 92120
Specialty Produce
1929 Hancock St, San Diego, CA
San Diego New Places Opening Thread, Part Deux
That particular dessert tends to be. Do you like the one at Mozza?
Kitchen 1540 vs. Lodge at Torrey Pines vs. Rancho Valencia?
Kitchen 1540 has been one of my favorites, but my recent visit, after they reopened, was not up to par.
For starters, the service was really off. We had a decidedly brusque waiter, forgotten drink orders, and various dishes coming out in no discernible order. I guess the idea of the sample/savor concept is that they're served tapas-style, whenever they are ready? We as a group asked for them in more of an appetizer / main flow, but we ended up with some people getting the dish they ordered 20 minutes after the next person -- for the same dish. I was a also disappointed with the minimum-person requirement for dishes like the pork shoulder. I wanted to try it, but since I couldn't convince three other people, it wasn't an option.
As for the dishes themselves, the foie gras was very underwhelming. The "cake" and sauce didn't go with it very well at all and the "stone seared" concept just seemed out-of-place at a restaurant like this. I expect the kitchen to cook it appropriately at a restaurant like this, not to try and figure out how long it needs to stay on the hot rock before I pull it off.
The sweetbreads were also disappointing. I thought the dish sounded quite creative, but I thought the flavors ended up far too subtle. The texture of the sweetbreads themselves was mushy and the toasted rice cake that accompanied seemed out of place.
It wasn't all bad. I enjoyed the white corn agnolotti and the five-onion consomme. I got to try some of my friends' dishes and the rabbit, I thought, was excellent. The salads, especially the farmhouse one, were also good. Other people said that the heirloom tomatoes and cheese fries side dishes were tasty, although the ribeye was universally derided as boring.
It makes me sad. This was one of my favorite restaurants in San Diego before that trip. I really hope it was just them getting settled into the new menu and that my next visit will be better.
Any Guanciale in North County?
Also not quite North County, but they sometimes carry it at the Whole Foods in La Jolla.
Kitchen 1540 Changes?
They posted a new dinner menu with a lot of new dishes. It looks like it's more oriented towards tapas / sharing, with many plates available in small or large portions. Their cocktail menu is completely new too, it appears. Their blog days they picked up a new mixologist.
Kitchen 1540 Changes?
I tried to call to make a reservation here the other day and I was told they are closed for renovations. Has anyone heard what's going on?
Ice Cream-like Filling?
Good call on the simple syrup. That'll help get some of that flavor in there.
I realize nothing will be exactly like ice cream, but I'm just trying to get the closest thing that will work at room temperature. Could I use the pate a bombe / whipped cream mix without freezing it? Or would it be really runny? I've made it as the base for french buttercream before, but I've never used it for anything else, so I don't know how well it holds.
Ice Cream-like Filling?
I am trying to come up with a recipe for Bananas Foster cupcakes. The original dessert is a New Orleans classic featuring bananas cooked with brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and rum, flambéed and served over ice cream.
I figured I'd make banana cupcakes (with a bit of rum), a vanilla filling of some type, and a brown sugar-caramel buttercream or glaze. I want to evoke the idea of ice cream in the filling, but I can't decide the best way to do it. Vanilla pastry cream is the closest ingredient-wise, but of course will feel much more custardy. Could I lighten that with some whipped cream? Bavarian cream is also similar, so that's an option. I've also considered vanilla mousse, or just some simple whipped cream.
Any thoughts?
Knife sharpening in San Diego?
Are there any good places open on the weekends? Or at least closer to the Mira Mesa area if they are only open during the week? The True Sharp and Pro Edge Knife places both sound nice, but their hours and location don't work so well for me.
Best croissants in San Diego?
My wife got a lemon pastry there that had the same sort of problem. It tasted like raw flour. What gives?
Need recommendations for Chinese, Korean, Italian, Taiwanese, Japanese etc within 20+ mins of Legoland
For Japanese, I've heard great things about Yu Me Ya up in Encinitas, which isn't far from Legoland at all. Haven't actually made it up there yet, but I have a few friends who rave about it. That might be a good option.
Birthday Dinner (Friday Night, Great Wine List)
I disagree. Kitchen 1540 and Market are about equal in terms of quality of preparation and creativeness. We've gone to both of them several times and they are excellent. We never got pesky Kobe upsell recommendations, though, and I agree that would be annoying. Just never seen it.
Blanca does more creative dishes, but that doesn't always cut it. The three times we've gone, we've had issues with the service, the preparation (e.g. overcooked steak), or just the quality of the final product. It sounds awesome on the menu, but it just doesn't always pan out when you try it. I can appreciate what the chef is trying to do, though, so I hope they succeed. The "Day at the Farm" dish was great.
North County Pasta
Why do you continually recommend places in other cities on the San Diego board? Might as well tell people to fly to Italy.
New restaurant opening in RSF
Wish I'd read this earlier. We tried it for lunch the other day since we were in the area. My salad was edible, but my wife's sandwich was pretty bland. I did get a fairly tasty croissant, but the lemon bar was awful. It tasted like uncooked flour. As it is, I'm in no rush to return for lunch, at least.
We Olive La Jolla?
My sister and I went there this weekend and were really impressed with their 18 year balsamic - the basic one as well as the various infusions. It made me realize how bad some of the balsamic vinegar I've had really is.
Thanks for this recommendation!
Del Mar Area for a Few Days
I've been to Market several times and the menu is usually completely different each time. The only items I've seen stay on are the short ribs and some kind of blue cheese souffle, though usually with different accompaniments.
Best place for Indian Butter Chicken (Chicken Makhani)?
Second this. Theirs is the best I've had in San Diego. The family that runs the place is usually quite friendly, too.
Cassoulet on the Brain
Has anyone been to Flavor yet? I haven't seen or heard much about it since it opened. The online menu looks a bit humdrum.
Restaurants that transport you to another country.
Where is this better German food to be found? I lived in Germany for about 6 years of my youth and loved a lot of the food there, but I've found only disappointments like Kaiserhof around here.
Taste of North Park
Urban Solace's dessert was indeed a homemade s'more. It looks like the same one that's on their menu, though I hadn't tried it before. It was delicious, though - the hazelnut/almond flavor was great.
Ritual Tavern had a gumbo, which was mediocre, and a butternut squash soup that was probably my favorite dish of the whole event.
Rancho's had some sort of tasty fish taco when we went by. They were offering quite a bit of food compared to others, though.
The Smoking Goat was closed up by the time we got there (around 3).
We had different offerings at a few places than the above, so some restaurants must have run out of one dish and moved to another. The Linkery had some lamb burgers that were very dry and Sea Rocket Bistro had tuna melts and some kind of vegetarian stew.
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Linkery
3794 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104
Urban Solace Restaurant
3823 30th Street, San Diego, CA 92104
Ritual Tavern
4095 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104
Sea Rocket Bistro
3382 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104
Dare I ask...cheesecake?
I'm not much of a cheesecake fan, but my wife is and she is quite fond of Costco's.
In-Fluence La Jolla
I just received another email from Opera saying that In-Fluence now has their liquor license. It mentions that they also serve breakfast and lunch and states emphatically that dinner is by reservation only.
They are hyping it pretty hard. I like Opera well enough for lunch since it's right near my work, and the email list is nice for upcoming lunch specials, but I'm not sure I trust this random glowing recommendation. First time they've done anything like it.
Restaurants with No Alternative
Are there any other restaurants like Pomegranate Russian-Georgian? I haven't been to any yet.
The Big Easy
Now, I'll confess that my parents are from New Orleans and we'd visit my mom's family often when I was young. So I grew up eating quite a bit of cajun/creole home cooking and I like to make it myself.. It's possible I'm a bit biased when it comes to this style. That said, when my wife and I tried this place a few weeks after it first opened, we were pretty disappointed.
The Red Beans and Rice was almost unrecognizable. It tasted like bad barbecue sauce, too sweet with some really off flavors. The Jambalaya was dry and quite bland. The shrimp on my Shrimp Creole were overcooked. My wife said her Crawfish Etoufee was okay, but I thought the seasonings really clashed. You could barely taste the crawfish.
Sorry if it seems overly negative, but I really couldn't recommend it based on my experience. Maybe some of their other dishes are better.
Fresh Peach Pie @ Bankers Hill
My wife loved the burger and put it 3rd in her personal list (she likes Cucina Urbana's and Whisknladle's more). Seemed solid to me.
I agree about the butterscotch pudding; it is absolutely delicious! It's served with salted caramel sauce and I think a bit of creme fraiche, with some shortbread on the side. Mmm, I'm craving it now...
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Whisknladle
1044 Wall Street, La Jolla, CA 92037
