Reviews of Restaurants in San Diego and everywhere I go... » Mike

Sapori Restaurant Coronado – Great Italian Food in Coronado

Mike — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:29:52 +0000

So I’m in Coronado with the wife and 2 month old baby in tow and we decide it’s time to eat. However, going out to eat when you have a young baby is just not that easy so we figured our options were a bit limited. Candela’s is there and I’m a big fan of that place (I’ve only eaten at the Downtown SD location) but I figured it’s a little too nice to take a baby into. I love going out to dinner and I’d be pretty pissed if I was out at a nice place and there was a screaming baby next to me so of course that’s my big fear. So we passed on any of the high end places in Coronado and was walking by Sopori and instantly I thought it was Japanese. Turns out it’s actually Italian. Damn good Italian food if I might add.

So the ambiance is great here, dimly lit, small and cozy. Once seated I kind of felt like I was back in Italy again. Their menu for the evening was written in chalk on the wall. The entire place was staffed by real Italians who spoke to each other in Italian and to their tables in Enlish with heavy accents, just like back in Italy. We started out sharing a caprese salad with prosciutto that was absolutely delicious. This was an actual salad-salad (not your regular caprese salad), with greens in an oil and balsamic vinegar dressing, fresh buffalo mazzarella topped with home made pesto and served with some incredible proscuitto. Every single ingredient was at its freshest and that’s a big reason why this salad was so delicious. For entres I had the spicy shrimp linguine and Steph had the risotta with asparagus. I added some fresh squeezed lemon on my shrimp linguine and I thought it was perfect. The risotta was absolutely loaded with flavor and the asparagus added a nice touch. We had some Chianti Superiore with dinner and it was nice but it’s no Duckhorn Cab or anything. My wife is what you might call a desert freak so of course we had to order a desert. I’m so glad we did because we had a dark chocolate tart served with a bit of coffee flavored gelato on the side and it had to be one of the best deserts I’ve had in quite a long time. Not to sweet, not to heavy….just perfect. We had cappucinos with desert which had to be the best I’ve had since the last time I was in Rome. All in all…just a perfect meal for our first night out as a family. Damn, I sound a little sappy don’t I? Oh well…when the food is that good it’s ok to be sappy.

Cafe 21 in University Heights

Mike — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 05:25:27 +0000

After eating here this morning, Cafe 21 is officially my new favorite breakfast spot in San Diego. Talk about food presentation, every single item on the menu looks incredible. As I waited for my food to be delivered, I watched all the delicious looking entres being served. French toast stuffed with cream cheese, strawberries and fresh apple slices, savory ommelettes served in case iron skillet, coconut pineapple pancakes, crepes…every single thing looked freakin’ amazing. I ordered the breakfast special which was potato pancakes with shrimp served with a pesto cream sauce and topped with poached eggs. Poached to perfection by the way. The wife, at 40 weeks pregnant by the way, ordered a breakfast crepe stuffed with ham, mozarella cheese and fresh pineapple. It didn’t sound that great to me to be honest but it was incredibly tasty. The flavors in that reminded me of a Hawaiian pizza and it was outstanding. My potato pancakes however were the star of this show. My wife pretty much had half of my plate because she was in love with my dish. If she wasn’t pregnant I wouldn’t have let her get away with stealing my food like that but it’s not wise to mess with a pregnant women who is due any second now. Especially when you are the cause of that. In any event, we both absolutely loved our meal and both decided we have to take our friends and family to this place. It’s that good, really. Don’t be fooled by the locaiton either. It’s off of Adams St. in University City, just west of the 805. You pull in and there’s a liquor store right next door with bars on all the windows. Doesn’t exactly yell high class but Cafe 21 really is amazing. The owner Alex greeted us and chatted us up quite a bit while we were there, and he’s a pretty funny guy. From what I read in other reviews, he’s there all the time. You can tell he takes great pride in his place. It is pretty small unfortunately but sometimes those places are the very best. You know what I mean, the places that always have a wait because the food is so good and the restaurant is pretty tight overall. Don’t let it stop you. You gotta try this place and you will fall in love. I guarantee it.

Rama – Downtown San Diego’s Best Thai Food

Mike — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:08:34 +0000

So if you are looking for the best Thai food in San Diego, I’d tell you to head downtown to Rama Restaurant. The food here is outstanding and the atmosphere is hip and trendy. Kind of reminds me of a smaller version of Tao Restaurant. It’s a different kind of food but it’s a really good vibe and cool atmosphere. I’ve been here a few times now and I’ve never had anything I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. Some of my favorite items that I’ve tried here include:

Cream Cheese Wontons (cream cheese and king crab meat wrapped in a puff pastrey)
Spring Rolls (cabbage, carrots, celery, mushrooms, glass noodles, perfectly wrapped and lightly fried to a golden brown served with a delicious plum sauce)
Summer Rolls (steamed rice noodle envelopes sauteed tofu, pickled cabbage & bean sprouts dressed with fried garlic, cilantro, and a special Thai sauce) if you want to go more healthy.
Tom Yum Soup (Lemon Grass) and Tom Kha (Coconut Lemon Grass)
Garlic and Pepper (Stir-fried garlic and pepper enhanced with a secret sauce)
Red Curry (coconut milk, bell pepers, eggplant, bamboo shoots & basil)

So many more I want to try because everything is always so amazing here. 5 stars.

Spices Thai – Mira Mesa

Mike — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:41:43 +0000

Not exactly a lot of great options for lunch in Mira Mesa but Spices Thai tops that short list in my opinion. Their lunch specials are fast, fresh and very affordable. For $8.95 you get a lunch item served with Tom Kah Kai soup, tossed salad, spring roll, fried won ton and steamed rice. I usually go with my employees and some of our favorites include:

Phad Thai Noodles……….. Pan fried rice noodles with eggs, bean sprouts and crushed peanuts.
See-Eyew Noodles …………………………Pan fries rice noodles with eggs, carrots and broccoli.
Green Curry ………………………………………………..With bamboo shoots, peas and carrots.
Pineapple Curry …………………………………………………….With red curry and pineapple.

You order your food 0-10 on the spicy level. I love spicy and usually go for 5 or 6. One of the guys orders an 8 and is always sweating during his meal. And of course that’s always attractive. No, that guy is not Chris Valcarcel if you are wondering.

Spices Thai also has a Carmel Valley location and both are outstanding. Now it’s not exactly Rama (best Thai in San Diego in my opinion) but you will be satisfied after your meal, I promise you. If not, too bad.

La Puerta – Downtown San Diego

Mike — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:17:55 +0000

So I hit up La Puerta recently for a bite while downtown with some friends. La Puerta is right next door from Las Hadas I’ve eatan as Las Hadas for lunch and thought it was ok….nothing to write home to mom about.So I was hoping for a better experience from La Puerta. I was Friday night about 7pm and there was a one hour wait as we just stumbled in without reservations. I say stumbled in because we had a handful of drinks over at Hard Rock bar 207. Actually I wasn’t stumbling but my buddy from out of town was. I don’t like naming names so I won’t…but his name is Doug Poppen. La Puerta was hopping, literally standing room only we we ordered up while standing at the bar.

We didn’t want to fill up but we definitely needed something solid in our bellies so we ordered up the Chips and Guacamole (Fresh Avocado-Serrano Peppers-Tomato-Onion-Panela Cheese-Cilantro-Lime-House Chips) and the Carna Asada street tacos (Carne Asada-Avocado Cream-Cilantro-Onion). The guac was cool, tangy and fresh…awesome. The Carne Asada tacos were outstanding. Soft, fresh corn tortillas with perfectly marinated and tender meat and fresh cilantro/onion/guacamole.

I need to go back for another meal there to try some more but we all thought the food was great. Yea, yea…I know. We had drinks and everything taste better when your buzzing. I was plenty sober (at least at this point in the night) so my taste buds were not swayed by the adult beverages from earlier in the night. Two thumbs up, try it out and let me know what you think.

Tribeca Grill – Tribeca NYC

Mike — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:53:20 +0000

I love going to New York for many reasons, but reason #1 is undoubtably the never ending selection of incredible restaurants. No matter what part of NYC you are in, you will be surrounded by restaurants that alone can make your trip to New York something to remember. The tough thing is actually finding those places so for me, online research (Yelp, Chowhound, etc.) and talking to locals is absolutely crucial to finding the right spot. That’s exactly what led me to our visit to Tribeca Grill in Tribeca, which is actually co-owned by legendary actor Robert DeNiro (I call him Bobby).

This was my our (my wife and I) first trip to NY this year so we wanted to stay somewhere different then the last few times we’ve visited. We’ve stayed in Midtown a couple times, the Upper West side but never Downtown in the Tribeca or Soho area so we chose to stay at the Smyth Hotel, a shiek little hotel that reminds me of a W style hotel. Modern, clean, great neighborhood and right next to the Chambers St. subway entrance which has 1,2 and 3 trains for easy access to anywhere. But enough about that….let’s get on to the food.

Everything on the menu looked good so we asked our waiter what he recommended for an appetizer to start. He suggested the Sautéed Jumbo Lump Crabcake ($19) served with Corn, Lardons & Chanterelles. It was the most expensive appetizer on the menu if you’re curious (most were around $13 or so) but I had noticed other tables ordering that as well so I figured why not try it. It did not dissapoint. The flavor of every bite was pretty incredible. Lardons if you’re curious are very small pieces of fat (normally pork fat) which are used extensively in French cooking, as well as in some cooking from other regions. Chanterelles are delicious, delicately flavored mushrooms. Those ingredients along with sweet corn kernals and a light creme sauce are what made the crab cakes unique and loaded with the perfect combination of flavors in every single bite. After the first taste I was filled with evil thoughts of greed and no longer wanted to share but my wife is pregnant after all so for my safety I figured maybe sharing was a wise option. I think she enjoyed it even more than I did.

For entres, Stephanie ordered the Herbed Ricotta Raviolini ($19) which were served with Braised Artichokes, Fava Beans & Cherry Tomatoes over a flavorful broth and not a typical thicker sauce which was a nice change of pace to normal pasta dishes. The raviolinis were fresh, cooked to perfection and the ricotta filling was seasoned perfectly. I ordered the Grilled Filet of Beef ($33), served with garlic whipped potatoes, sauteed spinach & crispy onion rings. The filet was incredibly tender and flavorful and it was excellent. It didn’t compare to a Ruth Chris or LG’s Steakhouse Filet where it had tons of butter on it but then again I like the fact that I’m not wondering if my arteries are going to close on me right in the restaurant. I didn’t care for the spinach but the garlic mashed potatoes were perfect and loaded with garlic.

We didn’t order any wines, drinks or desert so I can’t tell you anything about that but the atmosphere was pretty cool . Good looking crowd, great ambiance and excellent service. Try this place out if you are ever in Downtown NYC and youwon’t be dissapointed. I give this place 4 stars overall.

Burger Lounge La Jolla – Best Hamburgers in San Diego

Mike — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:43:47 +0000

Who doesn’t love a fresh, juicy burger? Well, vegetarians of course but who the hell cares what they think about food? Hands down one of the best burgers in all of San Diego is at Burger Lounge in the La Jolla cove area. Everything about these burgers are great starting with the juicy, tender, grass-fed Tallgrass beef and right down to their fresh, super soft homestyle baked buns. “Grass-fed beef…why do I care about that?” Well grass-fed beef is loaded with Omega- 3’s, CLA’s, and powerful antioxidants. Compared to organic grain- fed beef, Tallgrass grass- fed beef has significantly higher levels of favorable essential fatty acids. If you’re still not getting, there’s health benefits to eating grass-fed beef compared to regular beef. Not to mention the cows are kept where they can roam, not crammed into a feedlot like you see in those terrible newscasts covering animal cruelty. Believe it or not, that actually makes a difference in the quality of the beef because the cattle are not under a condition of stress. That makes for happy cows and happy cows means great……oh wait that’s cheese. Nevermind. It just tastes better. Once you take a bite into one of these burgers you will become a believer in the difference of grass-fed, all-natural beef. Try it yourself and tell me these burgers are not the best you’ve had. You also have the option of fresh cut or grilled onions, crisp lettuce, tomato, house made special sauce (1000 Island), white cheddar or american cheese. Add an order of their fresh cut fries and onion rings and it’s my idea of burger heaven (although the fries/onion rings are $4.95 per order which is definitely overpriced in my book).

They also have veggie burgers for you weirdos out there, turkey burgers for the health nuts and salads as well. There is also a kids menu (hamburgers or chicken tenders) so you can take the kids there. The only negative about this place is the size. It’s very tight and only fits about 20 people or so.

Sorry all you Rocky’s fans…this is the best burger in San Diego. 5 stars.

Tabule – Downtown San Diego

Mike — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:21:40 +0000

In the mood for fine dining in Tijuana? How about you just stay on this side of the border and hit up Tabule San Diego. What’s that? You didn’t know there was fine dining in Tijuana? Yep, believe it or not you can actually get more than just street hot dogs wrapped in bacon and incredibly delicious carna asada tacos. Tabule (pronounced Tah-boo-lay) has both a Tijuana location and the Gaslamp location on 4th.

The food however is not Mexican food but more of a fusion of food from around the world with items like Thai baby back ribs, Tabule rice (sushi rice, avocado, cream cheese, crab, plantain bananas and eel sauce), caprese salad, chipotle fettucini, duck breast with pomegranate and many different ceviches. I’m a big fan of ceviche (when it’s done right) and Tabule ceviches are great. Their selection of ceviches include tuna ceviche, salmon ceviche, white sea bass ceviche, abalone ceviche, caracol ceviche and shrimp ceviche. They have some pretty tasty drinks as well including a Tamarino martini ($9) which is a little too sweet but still very good. I especially like the candied chili powder they put on the rim…sweet and spicy at the same time. And no, I didn’t get a pink umbrella in my drink if you were wondering.

I was there with a couple buddies and we wanted to start out with a ceviche so we ordered the White Sea Bass Ceviche ($15) and it did not dissapoint. The ceviche was marinated in citrus juices and was mixed with chunks sea bass, green bell peppers, green tomatos, onions, serrano chili, cucumbers, capers and avocado slivers and served with toasted tostada shells on the side. It was flavorful and perfectly marinated but as excellent as it was, I do have to give the nod to Quero Restaurant in Encinitas for best ceviche in San Diego. We were trying to eat light since we were going out so we each ordered salads. They both had Caesar salads ($8) and I had the Heart of Palm and Mango Salad ($10) which was hearts of palm lettuce, goat cheese, mangos, carmelized walnuts, and tomatos with a chipotle dressing that was phenomenal. The Caesars were nothing special and one of the guys even mentioned that it was light on flavor (but then again this is the same guy who once put boatloads of mustard on chicken marsala dish I made for him before he even tasted it so take that for what it’s worth). I had a bite of the Caesar and I thought it was just fine. Now the Heart of Palm and Mango salad, that was just delicious. I am a little partial to anything with goat cheese in it I’ll admit but everything about this salad was awesome and the combination of flavors were perfect so I highly recommend this salad. We also ordered Arrachera Tacos ($14) which was sliced up skirt steak served with tomatos, red onions, avocado, scallions and corn tortillas. They were pretty good but not amazing by any means. We also ordered the Shrimp and Crab Portabella ($15) which was a Portabella mushroom stuffed with king crab meat, topped with a blue cheese reduction sauce and topped with shrimp (or “scrimps” if you prefer to pronounce it like that). It was good but not great as I thought it was a little too rich tasting for me.

Overall I give this place 4 stars all things considered including ambiance, food and service. I definitely recommend this place and I’m going to go here again because I still haven’t had a chance to order the entres. As our govornor would say, I’ll be back.

Las Quatros Milpas – San Diego

Mike — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:16:02 +0000

Ahhh…Las Quatros Milpas. If you are ever in the mood for authentic, incredibly unhealthy, but purely delicious Mexican food, this is your place. Be prepared to stand in a long line for your food though unless you go before or after the lunch rush. Actually you’re going to stand in a line no matter what but the time you go determines how long of a line you’re going to stand in. Remember that scene from the Seinfeld episode with the soup Nazzi? You’re not going to get that kind of attitude here or anything but the ordering line is pretty much the same style. Order your food, shuffle down to the cash register. The menu is small here but everything is insanely good. I guess it helps the flavor when the good is cooked in lard. You have to order a taco if you go here. They drop it straight into a giant pot of grease for a few seconds then top it with fresh lettuce and crumbles of cheese. The shell is crispy and chewy at the same time (it’s not like a regular hard shell crunchy taco). Like I said, not healthy but you only live once, right? I also am a huge fan of the chorizo, rice and beans bowl. Have some of that with their fresh hand made tortillas (there’s a lady making them in the corner of the restaurant) and it’s an awesome little meal. I don’t know of another taco shop in San Diego that makes food like they do here. You can’t go all the time or you would keel over but you have to try it if you can. Great cheap eats for sure as you’ll probably spend $7 or so for lunch. Four stars..one star off because of the grease.

Brigantine Restaurant – Del Mar

Mike — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:37:26 +0000

Always packed out during Del Mar racing season, The Brigantine in Del Mar is always a solid meal. Not a meal that will blow you away by any means but still enjoyable. Also, if your’e a fan of cougars you might like this place especially while the track is in session. I’m a big fan of their sourdough bread which is served nice and hot and of course I like to load that up with plenty of butter which I hear is good for your heart. That’s because it makes your heart work harder..like a good workout at a gym so your heart gets stronger. If I’m there for lunch I usually get the fish tacos which are good but to be honest I actually prefer a Rubios fish taco over the tacos here. While the quality of the fish is definitely better at the Brig, they don’t have a great salsa to put on. I’m a guy that needs good fresh salsa to go with my tacos and that’s missing here. Plenty of people rave about the fish tacos though so don’t let me discourage you from ordering them.