Stopped in here for a (yummy) espresso and some (yummy) drip coffee (free after the espresso, and very good!) after my feast at Native Foods.
Used to come here years ago, but I didn't remember that they have BUCKWHEAT CREPES. Must return - LOVE BUCKWHEAT!!!!!
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Native Foods (Encinitas): Best restaurant ever
Ok, I don't mean there are no restaurants better. I just mean for what I'm trying to eat right now, this place is the best invention anywhere.
All healthy plant-based (vegan) foods.
Tons of choices.
VERY delicious.
Very fast.
Very reasonable
Great servers!
Great drinks!
We enjoyed: lavendar lemonade and watermelon fresca (free refills!!)
Kale jerk salad: yum - sesame and coconut and tempeh cubes instead of caesar dressing, parmesan cheese and croutsin
Scorpion burger: delish, could have been bigger - not enough on its own for lunch
Split pea soup of the day: delish
Also got a double-chocolate brownie: not the most dietetic, but a healthy brownie considering: fair-trade cocoa, maple syrup, and chocolate chips (no eggs, butter, etc.)
Love, love, loved it. Can't wait to go back and try more of the menu!!
All healthy plant-based (vegan) foods.
Tons of choices.
VERY delicious.
Very fast.
Very reasonable
Great servers!
Great drinks!
We enjoyed: lavendar lemonade and watermelon fresca (free refills!!)
Kale jerk salad: yum - sesame and coconut and tempeh cubes instead of caesar dressing, parmesan cheese and croutsin
Scorpion burger: delish, could have been bigger - not enough on its own for lunch
Split pea soup of the day: delish
Also got a double-chocolate brownie: not the most dietetic, but a healthy brownie considering: fair-trade cocoa, maple syrup, and chocolate chips (no eggs, butter, etc.)
Love, love, loved it. Can't wait to go back and try more of the menu!!
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Chef shuffles: Rachel King etc.
San Diego Eater is reporting a lot of moving around among the chefs who worked for Brian Malarkey.
http://sandiego.eater.com/archives/2013/06/21/la-villa-scores-anthony-sinsay-nineten-snags-rachel-king-1.php.
For some reason, they let Amanda Baumgarten go from Herringbone. She was excellent - the food there was much better than the service or the "scene."
My beloved Rachel King is moving to Nine-Ten (the last pastry chef there seemed good, the guy after Jack Fisher's last turn).
Anthony Sensay who was at Burlap is now going to La Villa (which I loved before). I don't know his food very well (I don't think I had savory food at Burlap after he joined there and never went to Harney Sushi when he was there) so I hope he won't change the style and make it less yummy! (Oy, the report says he is redoing their menu - too bad!!!)
http://sandiego.eater.com/archives/2013/06/21/la-villa-scores-anthony-sinsay-nineten-snags-rachel-king-1.php.
For some reason, they let Amanda Baumgarten go from Herringbone. She was excellent - the food there was much better than the service or the "scene."
My beloved Rachel King is moving to Nine-Ten (the last pastry chef there seemed good, the guy after Jack Fisher's last turn).
Anthony Sensay who was at Burlap is now going to La Villa (which I loved before). I don't know his food very well (I don't think I had savory food at Burlap after he joined there and never went to Harney Sushi when he was there) so I hope he won't change the style and make it less yummy! (Oy, the report says he is redoing their menu - too bad!!!)
Romesco (Bonita) Review: Wonderful!!!!! (Worth a drive!)
Finally made it to Tijuana celebrity chef Javier Plascencia's outpost on this side of the border, Romesco Baja Mediterranean Bistro. http://romescomexmed.com/. Fantastic experience!
It is in a strip mall next to a Baskin Robbins.
And yet....once you are inside, it feels like you have escaped San Diego and are in a chic restaurant in a lively Mexican city like Puertao Vallarta - or in a French bistro. Very nice bistro setting. EXCELLENT service (there are no "hey, how are you?" teenagers here - very efficient men in formal wear). Extremely tasty and innovative food.
Theme: "Baja Med" - so a mix of Spanish and Italian, with some Mexican touches.
Wine list: very interesting, lots of choices you don't see elsewhere in San Diego. They gave me a taste of the tempranillo (love tempranillo, but this bottle was ROUGH) and a Spanish red blend which is not on the online menu. It was *delicious*, very fruit-forward, for only $7/glass.
French Bread: Excellent.
Tapas: Very extensive list. We opted to do the regular menu instead, but I tried the mushrooms in garlic sauce which yelpers (and my waiter) recommended. On its own there is too much sauce (like salad dressed too heavily) BUT if you follow the waiter's recommendation and put it on the bread, it is perfect - the sauce soaks down into the bread and the mushrooms can be eaten alone (and the sauce tastes great on the bread).
Salads (free with entrees): Not that impressive. Boring caesar with iceberg lettuce. They have more exciting sounding salads on the menu for extra money.
Soup: Got the spiced pumpkin soup following the recommendations on Yelp. Fantastic! This is why Plascencia is a celebrity chef who gets international attention: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/dining/09tijuana.html.
Entrees: CH got a carne asada plate that he thought was excellent (there's the Mexican food). Too big a portion for him to finish.
--I skipped the pasta (Italian) options and got the fish of the day (escolar) al ajillo. Superdelicious. I liked the preparation too - with just some new potatoes and some baby vegetables, so not too heavy (I wasn't a huge fan of the baby zucchini and yellow squash, but they were healthy).
Dessert: Cute Husband talked me into getting the churro dessert. I'm not a big churro person; he LOVES churros. They turned out to be excellent, a TV-food-show-worthy dessert. They took a basic street food and elevated into something elegant. Perfect churros (crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside, and full of a perfect amount of cinammon and sugar), with a dulce de leche dipping sauce, excellent vanilla ice cream (with pistachios or some other sliced nut) and then a little cup of Mexican hot chocolate with whipped cream). CH would have liked a chocolate dipping sauce too but I was too full.
Decor: I was expecting this to be a glam, dress-to-the-nines place. But even though the atmosphere is very romantic, there are well-behaved kids there too. So there were some people like me in dining-out dresses, and others in stylish jeans (with fancy handbags!) along with their children. You can choose how to go.
Overall, this is absolutely worth the drive, and I'm glad to be moving this from my "Places I'm Thinking of Trying" list to my list of places I have been to and can remember to go again!
Oh - and I passed Caribbean Pleasures (the Haitian restaurant) on the way there. I need to figure out a time to go there - and a willing companion!
It is in a strip mall next to a Baskin Robbins.
And yet....once you are inside, it feels like you have escaped San Diego and are in a chic restaurant in a lively Mexican city like Puertao Vallarta - or in a French bistro. Very nice bistro setting. EXCELLENT service (there are no "hey, how are you?" teenagers here - very efficient men in formal wear). Extremely tasty and innovative food.
Theme: "Baja Med" - so a mix of Spanish and Italian, with some Mexican touches.
Wine list: very interesting, lots of choices you don't see elsewhere in San Diego. They gave me a taste of the tempranillo (love tempranillo, but this bottle was ROUGH) and a Spanish red blend which is not on the online menu. It was *delicious*, very fruit-forward, for only $7/glass.
French Bread: Excellent.
Tapas: Very extensive list. We opted to do the regular menu instead, but I tried the mushrooms in garlic sauce which yelpers (and my waiter) recommended. On its own there is too much sauce (like salad dressed too heavily) BUT if you follow the waiter's recommendation and put it on the bread, it is perfect - the sauce soaks down into the bread and the mushrooms can be eaten alone (and the sauce tastes great on the bread).
Salads (free with entrees): Not that impressive. Boring caesar with iceberg lettuce. They have more exciting sounding salads on the menu for extra money.
Soup: Got the spiced pumpkin soup following the recommendations on Yelp. Fantastic! This is why Plascencia is a celebrity chef who gets international attention: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/dining/09tijuana.html.
Entrees: CH got a carne asada plate that he thought was excellent (there's the Mexican food). Too big a portion for him to finish.
--I skipped the pasta (Italian) options and got the fish of the day (escolar) al ajillo. Superdelicious. I liked the preparation too - with just some new potatoes and some baby vegetables, so not too heavy (I wasn't a huge fan of the baby zucchini and yellow squash, but they were healthy).
Dessert: Cute Husband talked me into getting the churro dessert. I'm not a big churro person; he LOVES churros. They turned out to be excellent, a TV-food-show-worthy dessert. They took a basic street food and elevated into something elegant. Perfect churros (crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside, and full of a perfect amount of cinammon and sugar), with a dulce de leche dipping sauce, excellent vanilla ice cream (with pistachios or some other sliced nut) and then a little cup of Mexican hot chocolate with whipped cream). CH would have liked a chocolate dipping sauce too but I was too full.
Decor: I was expecting this to be a glam, dress-to-the-nines place. But even though the atmosphere is very romantic, there are well-behaved kids there too. So there were some people like me in dining-out dresses, and others in stylish jeans (with fancy handbags!) along with their children. You can choose how to go.
Overall, this is absolutely worth the drive, and I'm glad to be moving this from my "Places I'm Thinking of Trying" list to my list of places I have been to and can remember to go again!
Oh - and I passed Caribbean Pleasures (the Haitian restaurant) on the way there. I need to figure out a time to go there - and a willing companion!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Burlap closing, Reopening as Searsucker (Del Mar/CV)
So Burlap-the-concept proved not to be as popular as Searsucker for Brian Malarkey. He and James Brennan are simplifying the fashion metaphor restaurants and sticking with Searsucker and Herringbone. Burlap "Del Mar" (really Carmel Valley) already seems to be temporarily closed, while they redo decor and reopen as Searsucker Del Mar. We always liked the food better (other than desserts) at Searsucker downtown than at Burlap Del Mar, so let's see how it does! It's closed now til July for racing season.... http://www.burlapeats.com/
Healthy Vegetarian Food at the San Diego County Fair (Del Mar Fair): Some Vegan Food too!
Here's my classic post on veg. food at the Del Mar Fair: http://sdfoodgirl.blogspot.com/2011/06/healthy-vegetarian-food-at-sd-county.html. It's one of the most visited pages at my blog.
Updated for 2013: the Albertson's shack (not far from Kiddieland) has a ton of great fresh food choices, from Greek yogurt to packaged salads with calorie counts. Haven't tried them yet but they look like great options.
The new "Del Mar Diner" in Plaza de Mexico has some interesting grilled cheese choices which I may try this year.
Went to Roxy's on my first visit: baked falafel burger wasn't quite as delicious as I remember, but it's still always an excellent choice at the fair and worth eating at least for one visit. I may try the yummy veg burritos at the Palapa Shack on my next fair visit. (tonight hopefully!).
***
UPDATED NEXT DAY
Veg burrito at Palapa Shack was excellent for the fair. Even PRGirl, a healthy veg who normally would not even think of eating at the fair, was impressed. (it's VEGAN too - non-dairy cheese).
We also discovered Dee's, which sells grilled asparagus and grilled artichokes. They showed us that they grill them separately from the meat, within foil. We didn't try them last night but we were impressed.
Now if I could only get the Paddock bar to sell some decent wine. BV only? (they have great beers but I wasn't in a beer mood!)
***
UPDATED A FEW DAYS LATER
This is not technically healthy. BUT among fair desserts, I have to give a shoutout to Dave's Coffee (in Plaza de Mexico). It's run by Dave, the son of the Roxy owner. They have some yummy desserts that are not as disgusting as the regular fair stuff. (And if you say: why are you going to the fair if you don't want to eat fried food? I'll say: when you go as often as we do in the summer (whether for fun with SuperBoy or concert date nights we look forward to all year long), you do not want to eat gross fried food every time you go.). Got a very moist, fresh and tasty carrot cake. They also have a flourless chocolate cake, tiramisu spongecake, chocolate mousse cake, and new york cheesecake that look good. PRGirl got a soy chai from them the other night and was very impressed to find that at the fair. They also have a cart right near the O'Brien Gate entrance, but it only has muffins, not the plated desserts. Shoutout to Dave and his mom Roberta for the yummy drinks and dessert served with love!
And can someone at the fair please get wine in the concert areas other than BV? The bar lines were ridiculously long at Steve Miller tonight, and there was no way I was going to stand on line for that!
Updated for 2013: the Albertson's shack (not far from Kiddieland) has a ton of great fresh food choices, from Greek yogurt to packaged salads with calorie counts. Haven't tried them yet but they look like great options.
The new "Del Mar Diner" in Plaza de Mexico has some interesting grilled cheese choices which I may try this year.
Went to Roxy's on my first visit: baked falafel burger wasn't quite as delicious as I remember, but it's still always an excellent choice at the fair and worth eating at least for one visit. I may try the yummy veg burritos at the Palapa Shack on my next fair visit. (tonight hopefully!).
***
UPDATED NEXT DAY
Veg burrito at Palapa Shack was excellent for the fair. Even PRGirl, a healthy veg who normally would not even think of eating at the fair, was impressed. (it's VEGAN too - non-dairy cheese).
We also discovered Dee's, which sells grilled asparagus and grilled artichokes. They showed us that they grill them separately from the meat, within foil. We didn't try them last night but we were impressed.
Now if I could only get the Paddock bar to sell some decent wine. BV only? (they have great beers but I wasn't in a beer mood!)
***
UPDATED A FEW DAYS LATER
This is not technically healthy. BUT among fair desserts, I have to give a shoutout to Dave's Coffee (in Plaza de Mexico). It's run by Dave, the son of the Roxy owner. They have some yummy desserts that are not as disgusting as the regular fair stuff. (And if you say: why are you going to the fair if you don't want to eat fried food? I'll say: when you go as often as we do in the summer (whether for fun with SuperBoy or concert date nights we look forward to all year long), you do not want to eat gross fried food every time you go.). Got a very moist, fresh and tasty carrot cake. They also have a flourless chocolate cake, tiramisu spongecake, chocolate mousse cake, and new york cheesecake that look good. PRGirl got a soy chai from them the other night and was very impressed to find that at the fair. They also have a cart right near the O'Brien Gate entrance, but it only has muffins, not the plated desserts. Shoutout to Dave and his mom Roberta for the yummy drinks and dessert served with love!
And can someone at the fair please get wine in the concert areas other than BV? The bar lines were ridiculously long at Steve Miller tonight, and there was no way I was going to stand on line for that!
Quick eating notes with SuperBoy: Vittorio's (Villa Capri 2) and Mia Francesca Del Mar (CV)
Have had two good experiences eating out with SuperBoy lately.
1. Vittorio's (Torrey Highlands): I didn't love it as much as the boys. SB pronounced his pizza (with shock) as BETTER THAN BONGIORNO'S!!! Since nothing is ever better than BG's for him, this was high praise. He wanted to go the next night too. Good atmosphere too with a kid, very airy but not stuffy. CH *loved* the lasagna. I thought the eggplant parm was good but not dreamable; ditto the pasta dish I had (capellini). I did enjoy that they had a white Bourgogne by the glass (one of the negociant wines; Louis Jadot maybe?), though they call it a chard. It was very tasty and reasonable. Bread was good too.
2. Mia Francesca Del Mar: we got in here without too long a wait on a Wed. night when every restaurant in DMH was hopping and it would have been 45 min. wait at Rimel's. We actually had a great time and great meal. Good bread. They didn't make the spinach like they had before (not enough garlic, not sauteed long enough either). But it was still ok. Linguine with tuna and olives was terrific, and I enjoyed the A to Z chard from Oregon that was the suggested pairing. SB thought his pizza was fine, and he enjoyed the great scenery (people watching toward Cineapolis). SH liked his chicken with eggplant (he gave me all the eggplant, which was super tasty), but he noted that the menu always changes so they might not have a dish he likes next time. I thought this was a super place to eat with your kid!
1. Vittorio's (Torrey Highlands): I didn't love it as much as the boys. SB pronounced his pizza (with shock) as BETTER THAN BONGIORNO'S!!! Since nothing is ever better than BG's for him, this was high praise. He wanted to go the next night too. Good atmosphere too with a kid, very airy but not stuffy. CH *loved* the lasagna. I thought the eggplant parm was good but not dreamable; ditto the pasta dish I had (capellini). I did enjoy that they had a white Bourgogne by the glass (one of the negociant wines; Louis Jadot maybe?), though they call it a chard. It was very tasty and reasonable. Bread was good too.
2. Mia Francesca Del Mar: we got in here without too long a wait on a Wed. night when every restaurant in DMH was hopping and it would have been 45 min. wait at Rimel's. We actually had a great time and great meal. Good bread. They didn't make the spinach like they had before (not enough garlic, not sauteed long enough either). But it was still ok. Linguine with tuna and olives was terrific, and I enjoyed the A to Z chard from Oregon that was the suggested pairing. SB thought his pizza was fine, and he enjoyed the great scenery (people watching toward Cineapolis). SH liked his chicken with eggplant (he gave me all the eggplant, which was super tasty), but he noted that the menu always changes so they might not have a dish he likes next time. I thought this was a super place to eat with your kid!
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