San Diego Burger Week is back! Starting March 27 until April 6, burgers are only $5 at participating restaurants! That's about a week and a half to get your burger on!
This year, there are many additions to the list as well as a few repeat locations. The most up-to-date list is attached to the post for archive purposes. What's your pick?
Manna BBQ opened a Mira Mesa location around Thanksgiving of last year. The biggest benefits to this location vs original in Convoy? A bigger parking lot and no crazy lines, at least for now! The mother-in-law wanted to give it a try so we visited on Sunday. Yay to my second KBBQ AYCE in San Diego, following Taegukgi just last year. Yeah I know, I'm late to the KBBQ AYCE train.
The restaurant opens daily at noon. We arrived around 12:15pm and there were already a few other tables occupied. Seating was quick.
An assortment of banchan was placed on the table. Dennis really liked the bean sprouts because of the sesame oil flavor on them. I tried the noodle item (similar to jap-chae), the potato salad stuff in the back, and one or two of those crunchy cucumbers. One strange thing is that they didn't have the normal kim-chi in our batch that day! It didn't really matter because we concentrated on meats anyway.
A large salad was served to every table, even for our party of 3! I'd say it was tossed with a light kim-chi inspired dressing, hence the occasional specks of red. This was sampled but for the most part ignored to make room for the meat!
Each person was provided a dual dipping sauce container, a zesty ponzu style sauce on one side and straight-up salt on the other side.
Manna's menu gives you two options, A1 (27.99) and A2 (21.99). The major difference is that A1 includes a few more meats such as seafood. We were okay with just A2 for this trip. Let's order!
Our third and final restaurant for San Diego Restaurant Week was Cowboy Star in downtown San Diego. We were interested in this menu because we noticed it included DESSERT for lunch too, which makes it a three course meal for only $20. Yea, I'm all over that!
Being from Texas, the cowhide-style seats in the waiting area made me feel a bit nostalgic, even if it wasn't something you'd find at MY family home. And I just love cowboy hats! Surprisingly this blogger here doesn't even have her own! On the other side of the chairs was a bar area to pass time before seating in the main area.
After we ordered, they brought out a bread appetizer. It had a sourdough texture inside but was toasty brown on the outside! I didn't take pictures but it was probably served with butter.
Our first appetizer was the Cauliflower Soup. I rarely see this on a menu so of course it was a must! The soup came out at the perfect temp and ready to eat. It had a richness and subtle cauliflower taste to all that creaminess and was topped with a few tibits of cauliflower and pepita seeds. It exceeded my expectations and I'd be willing to eat this again!
Latin Food Fest (latinfoodfest.com) returns to California March 20-21, 2015 for its next star-studded Latin culinary classic – and announces the agenda for its signature event, “Grande Tasting Los Angeles.” With white tasting tents stretching across Santa Monica Beach Park, the 2015 Grande Tasting Los Angeles will be home to the epitome of all tasting events featuring a star-studded culinary showdown and the tasting booth, which will showcase offerings from more than 200 Latin restaurants, chefs, artisanal foods makers and renowned pur
Amongst chocolate, wines, and beers at the Escondido Chocolate Festival, we also sampled our first ever pupusas at Cuscatlan Salvadorian Cuisine. A pupusa is traditional Salvadorian dish, essentially a deliciously thick corn tortilla that's usually stuffed with cheese and meat. Almost a year later, we finally made it back for a full meal at the restaurant!
The Cuscatlan Sampler ($13.95) sounded like the best way to start our visit. This monstrous sized plate contained fried plantains, fried yuca with fried pork, 1 corn tamale, 1 chicken tamale, 2 pupusas, sour cream and beans.
We've been to Brooklyn Girl once before for a friend's birthday and decided that San Diego Restaurant Week would be a great time to revisit! Their pre-fixe dinner menu was $30 and includes an appetizer, entree, and dessert. As a couple, we'd get to try more of the menu at one sitting!
That night they served chili flakes and lemon seasoned popcorn as a complimentary appetizer. You can definitely taste a little bit of both flavors in there. It's tasty but not all kernels were fully popped so we hit a few hard pieces here and there. When staff cleaned up the table next to us, I noticed there were also kernals there so we weren't the only ones leaving them on the table. The popcorn flavors do change so you won't know until you're there!
Dennis loves his whiskey drinks! This was the Bear Hug ($11), made with Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey. It's a nice drink with a ginger spice and a hint of syrup from the walnut liquerer and honey, garnished with an orange peel.
The first appetizer from the restaurant week menu was the Bacon Wrapped Vietnamese Meatballs.
While browsing options for San Diego Restaurant Week (SDRW), we noticed Gaslamp Union Kitchen & Tap on the list. One of our favorite samples during Taste of Downtown 2014 were their Farmhouse Meatballs so we decided it was time to give the actual restaurant a go! I also made reservations through opentable.com for here and two other restaurants for SDRW. If I'm eating out already, might as well earn points toward a dining check toward more eats!
The restaurant is spacious between its indoor tables, bar seating, and outdoor patio area. There are also TV's mounted for watching sports or whatever they play on the tube.
After reviewing the menu, we decided to order the Albacore Poke! After a bite, we felt the fish was a bit sticky and needed something to brighten it up, perhaps a dash more salt or sesame oil. I found it to be quite plain, even with the addition of fried wonton chips.
We love participating in the Cohn Restaurant Group anniversary specials.
2015 Anniversary Promo: Join us at our participating restaurants Sunday, January 4th through Thursday, January 8th and enjoy a 2-course menu for the unbelievable price of $20.15.
This year did change a bit from the previous years; the 3 course meal is now only a 2 course meal, but it's still worth it in our opinion! We decided on Indigo Grill and OB Warehouse this year.
Indigo Grill
We visited Indigo Grill last year as well but there were different menu items this time so we came back.
We chose the Shrimp and Bay Scallop Ceviche for our first appetizer. I did notice jalapeno taste after my second bite so this does have a kick in it.
