Found myself in Hillcrest the other day at lunch. Bo's is in a strip mall with lots of parking. DELISH grilled fish tacos (some kind of tangy marinade and sauce). Not cheap, but reasonably quick and yummy. Would be toddler friendly.
Habibi's: OH BOY! Real Middle Eastern food in Escondido - real find. Not far from the Children's Museum at all. ST was overtired so it was a little stressful, but we had:
--amazing vegetarian lentil soup (had fresh ground spices: did I taste a hint of cardamon?)
--Greek salad: just eh, but ST loves feta
--hummus: super-yum, very thick and fresh. CH prefers thinner hummus but I thought it was very authentic and delightful.
--Felafel: I think I can safely call it the BEST I'VE HAD IN SD. Even better than Sultan Schwarma's. Very fresh, with delicious pickles.
--Chicken kebabs: CH thought they were good, though he wasn't as wild about the place as me. However, I tasted his rice pilaf. WOWZA! Yummy sliced almonds, raisins and vermicelli on top. Loved it!
I think they're Iraqi - they have kibbeh and bourekas and lots of other dishes whose names were unfamiliar to me on the menu.
Service not super-duper, but food was great and at a great price. Very toddler (and baby-) friendly.
Am so going back, if only I can find a time!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Katana (Carmel Valley)
Sushi, got a return visit from us one night.
Worth mentioning again because they are so kid-friendly for an adult place. Balloons everywhere: the hostess promised ST that if he was good he could get one at the end. That definitely helped his behavior. They also brought his food out very fast, and my sushi platter was yummy and well-priced.
Worth mentioning again because they are so kid-friendly for an adult place. Balloons everywhere: the hostess promised ST that if he was good he could get one at the end. That definitely helped his behavior. They also brought his food out very fast, and my sushi platter was yummy and well-priced.
Brian Malarkey to come to Carmel Valley
Word is that Malarkey and James Brennan are building a new restaurant in the DM Highlands Shopping Center in the old Wherehouse space. A kind of Searsucker II, one hopes? However, word is that it's going to be a steakhouse (there is supposed to be a different farm-to-table place coming to the same strip mall). And worse, word is that it's going to be called Bandit. Sorry, but foodgirl thinks this is a dumb name. My father always used the Yiddish word bandit to mean a misbehaving child. That does not sound like a good omen for fine dining in Kidsville CV, land of Pat and Oscars! But we'll see how it turns out!
Round-Up of Recent Visits: A. R. Valentien, Bibby's Crepe Cafe, The Stadium
Now here's a group of restaurants that no one would put together:
--Fine Dining at A.R. Valentien (Lodge at Torrey Pines)
--Breakfast with Boy at Bibby's Crepe Cafe (La Jolla)
--Sports-Bar Dining at The Stadium (Encinitas)
But I've been to all three recently and don't have time for full reviews, so here goes:
A. R. VALENTIEN: Still good, but didn't seem nearly as good as it used to. Both CH and I thought so. Enjoyed my kabocha squash ravioli and crispy-skin arctic char. But the char was swimming in butter. It was tasty but not the light food that Chef Jeffrey Jackson used to serve. The veg. that came on the side used to be spectacularly light and tasty: lukewarm broccoli sauteed in garlic that honestly wasn't better than most cheap places in town. Wudn't nothing like the grilled farm-to-table veggies at Tender Greens, for a fraction of the price. Did love the yummy Jordan Chardonnay (if it's going to be $15 for a glass of wine, I want it to be a spectacular glass). And liked the free mini-desserts at the end. But this was our fave restaurant once upon a time. Definitely ain't anymore, can't see going back for a few years.
BIBBY'S CREPE CAFE: Decent place to bring ST, though it was mobbed: when ST went for a while on Cute Husband's lap, they took his own chair away because they needed it to use at other tables. Took a while for food to come and ST was in a bad mood, but when it came it was very good. REAL BUCKWHEAT CREPES, portions much larger than at Fabrison's in Little Italy. At the same time, I suspect that the crepes weren't 100% buckwheat. Even though Fabrison's crepe fillings are much less generous and well-priced and I was hungry after eating there, the crepe itself there was pure buckwheat pleasure and very delicious. The Bibby's crepe tasted less nutty, complex, etc. Buckwheat cheaters? But I would go back there if I was in the neighborhood. It wouldn't really satisfy a buckwheat craving, though!
STADIUM: Was very pleasantly surprised with this under-the-radar toddler-friendly place. Has a little kids' room with some toys and Cars the movie showing. Probably would work better if you went with more than 1 child, since ST didn't really want to stay in there by himself, which meant one of us was still sitting at the table alone. Food MUCH BETTER THAN EXPECTED for a loud sports bar with screens everywhere. Very large menu; enjoyed my portabella mushroom sandwich with sweet potato french fries a lot, and there were many other veg choices I could have gotten. Great beer selection and very friendly, efficient service too. But CH (he of the unpredictable stomach) got a tummy ache afterwards so it may not get a return visit from us. Definitely worth a try with kids!
--Fine Dining at A.R. Valentien (Lodge at Torrey Pines)
--Breakfast with Boy at Bibby's Crepe Cafe (La Jolla)
--Sports-Bar Dining at The Stadium (Encinitas)
But I've been to all three recently and don't have time for full reviews, so here goes:
A. R. VALENTIEN: Still good, but didn't seem nearly as good as it used to. Both CH and I thought so. Enjoyed my kabocha squash ravioli and crispy-skin arctic char. But the char was swimming in butter. It was tasty but not the light food that Chef Jeffrey Jackson used to serve. The veg. that came on the side used to be spectacularly light and tasty: lukewarm broccoli sauteed in garlic that honestly wasn't better than most cheap places in town. Wudn't nothing like the grilled farm-to-table veggies at Tender Greens, for a fraction of the price. Did love the yummy Jordan Chardonnay (if it's going to be $15 for a glass of wine, I want it to be a spectacular glass). And liked the free mini-desserts at the end. But this was our fave restaurant once upon a time. Definitely ain't anymore, can't see going back for a few years.
BIBBY'S CREPE CAFE: Decent place to bring ST, though it was mobbed: when ST went for a while on Cute Husband's lap, they took his own chair away because they needed it to use at other tables. Took a while for food to come and ST was in a bad mood, but when it came it was very good. REAL BUCKWHEAT CREPES, portions much larger than at Fabrison's in Little Italy. At the same time, I suspect that the crepes weren't 100% buckwheat. Even though Fabrison's crepe fillings are much less generous and well-priced and I was hungry after eating there, the crepe itself there was pure buckwheat pleasure and very delicious. The Bibby's crepe tasted less nutty, complex, etc. Buckwheat cheaters? But I would go back there if I was in the neighborhood. It wouldn't really satisfy a buckwheat craving, though!
STADIUM: Was very pleasantly surprised with this under-the-radar toddler-friendly place. Has a little kids' room with some toys and Cars the movie showing. Probably would work better if you went with more than 1 child, since ST didn't really want to stay in there by himself, which meant one of us was still sitting at the table alone. Food MUCH BETTER THAN EXPECTED for a loud sports bar with screens everywhere. Very large menu; enjoyed my portabella mushroom sandwich with sweet potato french fries a lot, and there were many other veg choices I could have gotten. Great beer selection and very friendly, efficient service too. But CH (he of the unpredictable stomach) got a tummy ache afterwards so it may not get a return visit from us. Definitely worth a try with kids!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Barrio Star: Foodgirl, meet Foodgirl (Bankers Hill)
So, when I picked the name for this blog, I had no idea Isabel Cruz of Coffee Cup and the Mission called herself Foodgirl. I'm just a SD girl who likes food. :) Naomi Wise's tearing into Cruz for choosing such a name (http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/aug/04/restaurant-review-food-girls-mexican-soul/) made me feel rather lame....
But, who cares, you ask: whatever your name is, Sdfoodgirl, how did you like the famous Foodgirl's restaurant?
Barrio Star: Yelpers love it or hate it. Wonderful flavors, they say, or totally overpriced.
I have been now: they're both right!!!
a) Super-duper yum. Awesome, complex Southwestern flavors. Tons of veggie options. Great happy hour. Got $5 sangria and $5 decent malbec, awesome $4 salad (super-duper smokey dressing on a simple salad with corn and tortilla strips), delectable $2.50 cucumber salad (awesome spicy vinaigrette). My $15 (non-happy-hour priced) Brazil bowl was outrageously tasty. Amazing marinated tofu, black beans, power rice, coconut chili sauce, super-yummy steamed greens. Delicious coconut flan for dessert. Would happily go back for those awesome flavors.
I love Naomi Wise, but her review (written not long after the restaurant opened) seems a little fussy to me - those cucumbers were so yummy that I could never say they were overpriced!
And yet....
b) Was still hungry afterwards. The person next to me got the infamous 3 tiny tacos for $15 that yelpers talk about. CH was less a fan of his dish ("it's just not my kind of Mexican," he said - probably because it's Southwestern and more complex spice rubs than most Mexican places we go).
Would I go again? Happily. Is it a good value? Not exactly. But for any tofu-eaters amongst my readers, you must go at least once and get the Brazil Bowl or the Barrio Bowl - it's a San Diego veggie standout, the kind of dish that will remind you how wonderful it is to live in a city with such wonderful restaurant variety!
But, who cares, you ask: whatever your name is, Sdfoodgirl, how did you like the famous Foodgirl's restaurant?
Barrio Star: Yelpers love it or hate it. Wonderful flavors, they say, or totally overpriced.
I have been now: they're both right!!!
a) Super-duper yum. Awesome, complex Southwestern flavors. Tons of veggie options. Great happy hour. Got $5 sangria and $5 decent malbec, awesome $4 salad (super-duper smokey dressing on a simple salad with corn and tortilla strips), delectable $2.50 cucumber salad (awesome spicy vinaigrette). My $15 (non-happy-hour priced) Brazil bowl was outrageously tasty. Amazing marinated tofu, black beans, power rice, coconut chili sauce, super-yummy steamed greens. Delicious coconut flan for dessert. Would happily go back for those awesome flavors.
I love Naomi Wise, but her review (written not long after the restaurant opened) seems a little fussy to me - those cucumbers were so yummy that I could never say they were overpriced!
And yet....
b) Was still hungry afterwards. The person next to me got the infamous 3 tiny tacos for $15 that yelpers talk about. CH was less a fan of his dish ("it's just not my kind of Mexican," he said - probably because it's Southwestern and more complex spice rubs than most Mexican places we go).
Would I go again? Happily. Is it a good value? Not exactly. But for any tofu-eaters amongst my readers, you must go at least once and get the Brazil Bowl or the Barrio Bowl - it's a San Diego veggie standout, the kind of dish that will remind you how wonderful it is to live in a city with such wonderful restaurant variety!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Datenight: Farmhouse Cafe!! (University Heights)
Tired....Foodie Mom's blog is much less detailed on restaurants than the other foodie blogs....because working moms are tired! :) It's enough trouble to get out for a date, let alone type about it (let alone take glorious scrumptious pictures and upload them). So I ain't no mmm-yoso. But here's a quick take on my glorious visit to Farmhouse!
THANK YOU, MUSEUMGIRL!! FARMHOUSE CAFE IS LE BOMBE!
Was suspicious of this place for a while. Annoying music on website. Menu never looks that good to me.
But Museumgirl said: "It's scrumptious....Trust me and go!"
Naomi Wise: kept pimping Chef Olivier. He's always with the Confab too....
So today, Cute Husband and I hit Next to Normal while grandma watched Super-Toddler (best musical about mental illness EVER - no, seriously, it was amazing). Then we went to Farmhouse.
SCRUMPTIOUS-O!!!!! Loved everything about it. Cute, chill, small...like a real neighborhood restaurant in France, not all glamour-y like Tapenade.
Bread: Yum (Bread & Cie)
Mustard-Greens/Cured Yolk/Anchovy Salad (takeoff on Caesar): crazy good. Mustard greens were amazing. Loved the cured yolk. Almost left the anchovies on the plate (eating them all by themself - normally too much - so salty). BUT best...anchovies...I ever ate. Totally clean and light, not too salty. Farmhouse really does source things from the best places.
Seabass/fingerlings/mushrooms: Chef Olivier did a spectacular revision of the menu for me - this was a special and is normally made with mussel broth. He did it with a plain ol' beurre blanc for me. IT WAS SO PERFECTLY COOKED AND DELICIOUS.
CH's Steak with broccoli and pommes dauphinés: He liked his but was less wild than me. However, he left his pommes over, so I scooped one up. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It was, as the young folk say, SICK! Delightful texture - and was that some cinammon? Crazy delicious, never had a pomme dauphiné like that ever.
White Burgundy by the glass for me: a delish Macon-Vinzelles. YUMM!!!
DESSERT
--Finally I hit something that wasn't perfect. I wasn't that crazy about his butterscotsch pot de crème. After eating Blue Ribbon Artisan's butterscotch pudding, this clearly was nothing special. However, CH loved it and thought it was the best part of his meal.
I ordered almond panna cotta. MMMMMMM.....
I left Farmhouse a very happy Foodgirl (though I was somehow wishing for a 4th course).
I hope to go back - thanks, MuseumGirl and Naomi Wise for pushing the restaurant!!
THANK YOU, MUSEUMGIRL!! FARMHOUSE CAFE IS LE BOMBE!
Was suspicious of this place for a while. Annoying music on website. Menu never looks that good to me.
But Museumgirl said: "It's scrumptious....Trust me and go!"
Naomi Wise: kept pimping Chef Olivier. He's always with the Confab too....
So today, Cute Husband and I hit Next to Normal while grandma watched Super-Toddler (best musical about mental illness EVER - no, seriously, it was amazing). Then we went to Farmhouse.
SCRUMPTIOUS-O!!!!! Loved everything about it. Cute, chill, small...like a real neighborhood restaurant in France, not all glamour-y like Tapenade.
Bread: Yum (Bread & Cie)
Mustard-Greens/Cured Yolk/Anchovy Salad (takeoff on Caesar): crazy good. Mustard greens were amazing. Loved the cured yolk. Almost left the anchovies on the plate (eating them all by themself - normally too much - so salty). BUT best...anchovies...I ever ate. Totally clean and light, not too salty. Farmhouse really does source things from the best places.
Seabass/fingerlings/mushrooms: Chef Olivier did a spectacular revision of the menu for me - this was a special and is normally made with mussel broth. He did it with a plain ol' beurre blanc for me. IT WAS SO PERFECTLY COOKED AND DELICIOUS.
CH's Steak with broccoli and pommes dauphinés: He liked his but was less wild than me. However, he left his pommes over, so I scooped one up. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It was, as the young folk say, SICK! Delightful texture - and was that some cinammon? Crazy delicious, never had a pomme dauphiné like that ever.
White Burgundy by the glass for me: a delish Macon-Vinzelles. YUMM!!!
DESSERT
--Finally I hit something that wasn't perfect. I wasn't that crazy about his butterscotsch pot de crème. After eating Blue Ribbon Artisan's butterscotch pudding, this clearly was nothing special. However, CH loved it and thought it was the best part of his meal.
I ordered almond panna cotta. MMMMMMM.....
I left Farmhouse a very happy Foodgirl (though I was somehow wishing for a 4th course).
I hope to go back - thanks, MuseumGirl and Naomi Wise for pushing the restaurant!!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Toddler Review: Tio Leo's (Carmel Valley), plus Viva Pops redux
What would you get if you took Coco's, and:
--added a full bar
--had better service
--made it Mexican
--put it smack in the middle of Carmel Valley by the 5?
That's right: you'd get Tio Leo's!
Super Toddler decided tonight that he wanted to try Tio Leo's. We went to a park in Carmel Valley and on the way home, he inquired about that "reh-trant", and said he had never been there before and wanted to try it. Sure, it's next to the Area Formerly Known as the Pumpkin Patch, but how he noticed it and knew it was a restaurant was a puzzle (til he confessed that he asked his nanny and she clued him in).
Tio Leo's....huh....we pass it all the time but never tried it. Yelp has some mixed reviews ("Awesome chips and salsa! I still come from LA!" v. "Are you on drugs? It's worse than Chevy's). So why the hell not see for ourself, esp. because ST was pretty well-behaved today.
As I said, it's like Coco's with all the stuff above (which is not a bad thing when dining with ST). VERY relaxed but at the same time kind of unhip and diner-like. NOT VERY crowded on a Sun. night, VERY friendly and efficient service. It was the anti-Chevy's! (In our experience, you wait forever there and it's mobbed).
We all started with:
--yummy chips and salsa (not sure I'd drive from LA, but perfect level of spiciness and very tasty), plus some smooth and non-spicy guac for ST
Foodgirl got:
--grilled eggplant tacos w/black beans (not bad! very healthy too)
--sangria (why the hell not? and it was pretty good)
CH got:
--carne asada plate: he liked it but it was way too much food
ST got:
--quesadilla (gobbled it up)
--strawberry smoothie (first time trying a smoothie: he liked it but pronounced it too cold-->he'll be back to lemonade next time).
Overall, a perfect toddler option. Assuming no one gets sick (see some other yelpers :)), we'll be back
Oh, and we hit Viva Pops again this weekend (so hot!). Foodgirl likes to try something different every time; ST likes always strawberry, but they were out of it.
So ST got blueberry-lemonade-mint, and his Mom got Earl Grey (bergamot on a popsicle - YESSSSS!). We were both happy campers.
--added a full bar
--had better service
--made it Mexican
--put it smack in the middle of Carmel Valley by the 5?
That's right: you'd get Tio Leo's!
Super Toddler decided tonight that he wanted to try Tio Leo's. We went to a park in Carmel Valley and on the way home, he inquired about that "reh-trant", and said he had never been there before and wanted to try it. Sure, it's next to the Area Formerly Known as the Pumpkin Patch, but how he noticed it and knew it was a restaurant was a puzzle (til he confessed that he asked his nanny and she clued him in).
Tio Leo's....huh....we pass it all the time but never tried it. Yelp has some mixed reviews ("Awesome chips and salsa! I still come from LA!" v. "Are you on drugs? It's worse than Chevy's). So why the hell not see for ourself, esp. because ST was pretty well-behaved today.
As I said, it's like Coco's with all the stuff above (which is not a bad thing when dining with ST). VERY relaxed but at the same time kind of unhip and diner-like. NOT VERY crowded on a Sun. night, VERY friendly and efficient service. It was the anti-Chevy's! (In our experience, you wait forever there and it's mobbed).
We all started with:
--yummy chips and salsa (not sure I'd drive from LA, but perfect level of spiciness and very tasty), plus some smooth and non-spicy guac for ST
Foodgirl got:
--grilled eggplant tacos w/black beans (not bad! very healthy too)
--sangria (why the hell not? and it was pretty good)
CH got:
--carne asada plate: he liked it but it was way too much food
ST got:
--quesadilla (gobbled it up)
--strawberry smoothie (first time trying a smoothie: he liked it but pronounced it too cold-->he'll be back to lemonade next time).
Overall, a perfect toddler option. Assuming no one gets sick (see some other yelpers :)), we'll be back
Oh, and we hit Viva Pops again this weekend (so hot!). Foodgirl likes to try something different every time; ST likes always strawberry, but they were out of it.
So ST got blueberry-lemonade-mint, and his Mom got Earl Grey (bergamot on a popsicle - YESSSSS!). We were both happy campers.
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