The Shores Restaurant Review (La Jolla)

Reasonable amount of hype on The Shores Restaurant, since Augie Saucedo left and Amy diBiase has come on board: she formerly of Laurel, formerly of Roseville, formerly of the Glass Door, formerly of the Cosmopolitan.

Despite the bad luck she hit at Cosmopolitan (crazy owner, if the U-T reporting is accurate), she's still considered one of the top chefs in town, even if we were never 100% crazy about her food (it was always good, never cravable for us). And since she has settled in at The Shores, with a beautiful ocean view and reasonable prices, I've been meaning to try it.

Verdict:
I loved it!
Cute Husband: not so much!

I ordered from the "Sip and Savor"menu. Great deal, I think - 3 courses for $30, add wine pairing for $15. Lisa Redwine (ha!), the sommelier at the Marine Room, also does the menu here (this is the jr. restaurant of the Marine Room).

APPETIZER: me: very tasty kumbacha squash soup with tangerine infusion, paired with a very respectable and yummy French rose
CH: green salad with goat cheese and sherry vinaigrette: I thought it was very good, he thought it was ok

ENTREE: me: cocoa nib crusted albacore etc. Fish was perfectly well cooked, yummy rice, spectacular pickled bok choy. Otherwise it would have been a cliched Asian-style seared tuna with bok choy. The pickled vegetable really elevated the dish. I ate the whole thing up. I had a choice of pairing it with an excellent Chardonnay, or a Spanish grenacha. The nice waiter let me taste both - it was a tossup, but I went with the Chardonnay, which was the sommelier's set pairing. Worked nicely.
CH: herb roasted chicken breast. He thought it was ok. He was not crazy about the celery root and artichoke gratin it came with. I thought it was rich, but very tasty.

DESSERT: trio with mixed results.
--"Brandied cherry white chocolate parfait": a bit of a hot mess; I couldn't remember what the menu had said, and I thought it was rice pudding with some red stuff and a bunch of sticks of crispy pastry dough sticking out, til I checked the menu again
--"milk chocolate chai pot de crème": sorry, didn't taste the chai - was a decent enough chocolate pudding
--dark chocolate peanut butter truffle: this was the yummiest part. Amy diBiase was roaming (was fun to meet her - she's so young and accomplished!) said this was a family recipe.
--not a fan of the madeira it was paired with, but then I don't like madeira! I gave it a try but still no dice, even paired with chocolate.

ATMOSPHERE: CH is right, that it seems very upscale 50s motel. Really, they need to redo this if they want to elevate the restaurant.

SERVICE: Very nice, came by when we needed them, checked on us, hostesses also pitched in when needed. Certainly better than Flavor (and rivalled Grant Grill).

OVERALL VERDICT: I loved my fun dinner and fun wine pairings (though dessert was the weakest link, the pudding was fine and the truffle was yummy). CH thought it was meh. I would have loved for this to be our new pre-La Jolla Playhouse spot, but CH is vetoing that idea. We are still on the lookout for new openings in the Shores/UTC area!