San Diego is a wonderful city to live in and it's nice to discover things about where you live. We were invited to check out a Bite San Diego tour and after browsing the options, Dennis and I settled on their La Jolla tour.
We met up at the starting location of Ohana, a family owned restaurant serving homestyle Hawaiian food. Our tour guide David was easy to spot, the guy keeping an eye out for all the other "lost" folks who would be joining us that afternoon.
Everyone waited at the tables until the whole group had arrived. David started the tour with a quick intro, then started passing out the food. This is the point where you mingle with the other folks. Or keep to yourself, your choice!
Our first bite was this kahlua pork and coconut rice. I have to say that coconut rice was damn delicious with its shreds of coconut, partially toasted, and a little bit of coconut creaminess. The shredded pork was tender and juicy too so we were fans of this sample.
I'm the planner type and during my San Diego Restaurant Week research, Bankers Hill Bar + Restaurant caught my eye. Our prior experience with this restaurant is the airport side business providing pre-made sandwiches/salads. Since that is already Dennis's default airport food choice, we had a good feeling about this place. The SDRW menu had so many enticing options that I delayed our reservation by a day to bring extra people to dinner!
The San Diego Restaurant Week $30 pre-fixe dinner menu includes a choice of an appetizer, entree and dessert and is attached at the bottom of the post.
We upgraded to the foie gras appetizer and were rewarded with a generous sized, richly smooth liver paired with a mildly sweet blueberry compote. The buttery bread was the perfect firmness for a base. Side salad was coated with a slightly acidic but blueberry sugared apple vinegar dressing.
We're always checking out new places for San Diego Restaurant Week and were invited to preview the SDRW menu at The Marine Room in La Jolla. This fine dining restaurant has huge windows facing the ocean, which is especially mesmorizing when it is HIGH TIDE. I never knew there existed a restaurant where you could watch the waves splashing at the heavy duty windows while dining (view depends on season/time of the year).
The restaurant itself is located in a residential looking area so you go through a little bit of windy streets to reach it. Once there, you can valet your car or find street parking nearby. We were seated by the hostess and were ready to eat.
The San Diego Restaurant Menu is attached at the end of the post and contains 3 appetizers, 6 entrees, and a dessert to choose from.
It's time for San Diego Restaurant Week (SDRW) again! This bi-annual event has over 180 participating restaurants showcasing their menus for us! Check out your favorite restaurants or try something new! The prix fixe lunches are two course meals that cost $10, $15, or $20 while the prix fixe dinners are three course meals that cost $20, $30, $40 or $50. Prices may vary with add-ons (see restaurant for details).
This year, San Diego Restaurant Week begins on January 17 and ends January 24, 2016!
We haven't reviewed the entire SDRW list but these are a few places of interest (though the list keeps growing):
For my birthday last year, Dennis planned an outing with friends at Searsucker in Del Mar. We've had lunch in the downtown location during San Diego Restaurant Week a while back so this was our first dinner experience. This Searsucker replaced Burlap which we had visited a couple of years ago.
The waiting lounge is sort of cowboy to me, maybe because I see that cow skin!
Here's the bar area with the popularly used "eat" sign! They have a happy hour from 4:30-6:30 on Monday through Friday plus all day on Wednesday.
The restaurant wasn't too busy that Saturday night so we were seated quickly at our table. We were handed menus to browse.
It's true. We've done A LOT of eating and drinking this year at Oh-So Yummy. That's just how us food bloggers roll. Before we post our first official review this year, we wanted to share some highlights from the archives!
So what was popular in 2015?
The post on Korean BBQ AYCE at Manna Korean BBQ got the most consistent traffic.
The biggest spike in traffic hit our Bracero Cocina de Raiz post. It's well deserved because it's also Dennis's favorite restaurant from last year.
We all deserve a delicious birthday meal right? I decided to check out the very popular and recently opened Bracero Cocina de Raiz for mine. The headliner was Chef Javier Plascencia (last seen in my Caffe Calabria Specialty Produce post).
During the Taste of Little Italy, the restaurant wasn't even officially open yet Bracero was serving these grilled and roasted spaghetti squash tacos. So many unique items. I've been seeing beautiful photos on social media and we were NOT disappointed by the real thing. Are you ready to start drooling yet? These platings at Bracero were unbelievably gorgeous!
Albacore Two Ways / Seared / Tartare
This dish had lots of layers of flavor, texture and color. The top was seared albacore with a fried zucchini layer and another sort of catfish battered albacore in the middle
We're loving the holiday season in San Diego. Earlier this month we took a stroll through Hillcrest with a buddy for the Taste N Tinis event... yummy nibbles and a glass cocktail refilled at every stop. Great way to get into the spirit of the holidays and have a good time in the neighborhood. You can also check out last year's Taste N Tinis 2014.
We'll let the pictures speak for themselves...
Food
Mediterranean salad and chicken skewers at Luna Grill. We also received a coupon for a free chicken skewer on our next visit!
