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However, the atmosphere is totally: out-of-date fancy hotel where you take your great-aunt on her 80th birthday.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).
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