Herringbone La Jolla: Maddening!

Herringbone is a bit maddening....it is SO delicious and SO flavorful, and yet ultimately so frustrating.

THE GOOD:
--beautiful decor
--outrageously delicious off-menu cocktail: I asked if the Vodka Something was still available even though it's no longer on the menu....score!! And just as outrageously subtly delish as I remembered
--super delicious kambocha squash soup, with delightful brie and honey crouton on side
--very delicious black cod
--very delicious tomato-mozzarella crust
--friend kept raving about his monkfish osso buco

THE BAD:
Well we all know that it's full of ridiculously dressed (divorced?) folks of a certain age on the prowl.  One can deal with that.  But....

--bad service when you're paying $38 an entree?
--extremely slow waits for food?
--and then to top it off, my friend (a bartender who knows her drinks) was charged $17 for her BAD cosmo (she didn't want to be rude and return it - she was rewarded for this by being charged $17; when we questioned the price they said it was necessary because it had so much alcohol in it - as she pointed out, the proportions were all screwed up precisely because it had too much alcohol in it).  You would think that when you're paying $200+ for a meal that folks might want to avoid pissing off the customer and adjust that. Oh well!

CH liked his steak but I think he won't return to the restaurant.  It's a crime, since the flavors are so delicious, but it's kind of annoying to be there when the servers just abandon you to your fate!  At that much per entree, you should feel taken care of, not forgotten!

Mediterranean Room at La Valencia (La Jolla): Review: Definitely not a must-try!

Decided to try the Mediterranean Room at La Valencia. Had never been, and had thought they had a redesign/relaunch.  Menu looked good and reasonable, and reviews on Yelp and Opentable were mostly good.

Verdict: Totally missable! We had a nice evening because it's quiet and we had a nice conversation, and service was friendly enough. It was a nice touch that the sous-chef brings the entrees out.

However, the atmosphere is totally: out-of-date fancy hotel where you take your great-aunt on her 80th birthday. Food, ranged from (one dish only) "tasty enough" to "totally meh" to (CH's entree and my dessert) "not very good at all". True, it was less expensive than other La Jolla restaurants.  But as CH said, "Tell me why you picked here instead of Nine-Ten?" "Because we hadn't tried it and it was half the price," I said. "Half the price, less than half the flavor!" CH declared.

The bar was hopping, and the patio might have had a nice atmosphere. But no one need feel they need to give this place a try! (Dessert was the best example: got a gelato sampler: chocolate, salted caramel, and strawberry champagn gelato.  Salted caramel = BARELY salted if at all. Sickeningly sweet. Tasted like Ralph's non-premium ice cream. Couldn't eat it.  Strawberry champagne sorbet = ugh. Again, sweet like a 5-year old would like. Chocolate = edible. Not that great. Ate it anyway because it was too depressing to have paid $9 for this bowl of horrible ice cream instead of having gone to Haagen Dazs next door for better ice cream).