Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill opened up a location in San Diego recently and we were invited to dine there. It's on the far right side of the Hazard Center Plaza so keep going and you'll find yourself there before you know it! They also have a 'take-out' entrance to the left for a quicker turnaround.
Inside, the restaurant is spacious including a bar area and outdoor patio. The restaurant was almost completely full on our visit so word is getting around about this place! Our pleasant server Tim gave us plenty of options on what to order from the menu.
To start, Dennis ordered the Vintage Bullet, a whiskey rye with a very berry flavor. Such a beautiful drink to start out the evening!
This year we attended our first Taste of Little Italy via media passes. With all of our 'Taste of' experiences, it's a wonder how we've missed it! Technically, we attended Taste of Downtown 2007 (when downtown and Little Italy were in a single event). Since then, Little Italy has grown WAY too prominent as its own community to share the spotlight! In fact, they now split Little Italy into two routes, north or south ($30 each), or a combined route ($45) for the ambitious! And ambitious San Diegans must be as the combined route tickets sold out first! Or perhaps... it was too difficult to choose just one route!
In case you missed out on all of the fun, or even just a few stops of your map, we're here to give you the scoop on all the samples from this year's event!
San Diego is an evergrowing foodie haven and the food blogger community in San Diego is outstanding. I was lucky to be able to meet fellow bloggers at the Green Acre Campus Pointe location for a lunch.
The restaurant has a big focus on farm-to-table. The sign above shows items that are grown in the garden right here! Now that's as fresh as you can get, without picking it yourself!
We took a short tour around the building too. I couldn't believe my eyes how huge this building was. Look at this lovely view from the top floor, which houses multiple conference rooms for big parties.
Souplantation has always been one of my favorite healthy alternative buffets so I was thrilled to attend a very special Souplantation dinner earlier this year. This event was a celebration of the hardworking farmers who make Souplantation what it is, a chain committed to providing customers with fresh wholesome food. A slick black bus arrived at the restaurant, VIP style, filled with these farmers, unaware of what was in store for them.
Another year, another Taste of Hillcrest! Can you believe it's been going on for 15 years? This year I was provided a pair of media tickets for their event on April 18, 2015 between 12-4pm.
We enjoyed the Latin Food Fest in San Diego last year and were pleased to be invited back for the Los Angeles grande tasting on March 21. Even though it's farther away, we knew there'd be many, if not all, new restaurants for us to sample! The sipping of spirits was also a plus.
The Los Angeles location was at Hangar 8, a 15000 facitity at the Santa Monica Airport. Paid parking lot ($10) and ticket pickup were to the right with the event to the left.
Entrance to the Latin Food Festival. It doesn't look all that big on the outside but there were additional booths, mainly the spirits, located in the back building.
We first got in the Stella Artois line for the purpose of collecting their cute glassware. I'm a fan of Belgium style beer so this one is nice and familiar. I also like their cider too.
While waiting for beer, Dennis picked up samples from the nearby Rosa Mexicano booth. The tableside guac was yummy but we needed more than two chips! The pink lemonade mixed drink was refreshing and light. The El Floridita booth had pork with a banana chip. The strands of meat were long which made it a bit chewier for us.
To the left of Stella was Coni'Seafood, serving raw shrimp marinated in jalapeno juice. There were definitely some hesitant looks as we took pictures. I finally gave it a shot and...
An actual CHEESE Festival? Why yes there is! Escondido (north county San Diego) produces the Wedge Cheese Festival, a glorious event of cheesy goodness paired with beer and wine. I heard about it after attending the Escondido Chocolate Festival in February and knew we'd have to check it out as well!
We’ve been digging the latin food these days, especially after events like Latin Food Festival and Taste of Old Town. Lucky for us, we were recently invited to try out mexican food at Café Coyote in Old Town San Diego. How could we say no?
Tourists love Old Town in the summer and during holidays but crowds do seem to clear up a bit when the weather cools. We found street parking on San Diego Ave 1 block south of the restaurant.
I was surprised to see such a long line at 6pm on a Sunday, but it moved fairly quick. The restaurant itself is gigantic, like a shopping plaza with multiple sections including upstairs seating, patio area, and dining on both sides. It could fit 900+ people at once. Wow.
Right outside the restaurant, you can see fresh tortillas being made. With a full house of diners, you know they are making thousands each day.
After getting seated, complimentary chips and salsa were brought out. Dennis decided to add Guacamole ($8.95). These are made fresh daily with Hass avocados and traditional ingredients and served in a fried tortilla bowl. Portion size was decent for two people. The guac itself was not fully whipped and had chunks of natural avocado. I think a tiny bit more lime would have made it perfect. I recommend eating with fresh hot chips. Request new ones if they aren't! Besides that, the standard appetizer salsa set off my "spicy" senses but it was still manageable.
The past two years, we attended the Tequila Trail (2012/2013) but this year the event got a new name! So welcome to the Taste of Old Town everyone! With so many other events under the "Taste of" branding, it was sure to draw an even bigger crowd than before! The event had designated driver tickets (food only) and regular tickets (food and tequila/beer) from 16 participating restaurants.
Here's the flyer by the fire. Ha, that rhymes a bit! The event was on Thursday Sept. 18 from 6-9pm in fabulous Old Town San Diego.
The event had a raffle that included Old Town restaurant gift certificates, tequila, and more prizes. More good reasons to come back to Old Town!
We had been waiting all day for this event. We met up with our friend Jon and as soon as we had our tasting guides, we hit our first stop at The Patio. Their delicious mexican mole had a flavorful sauce that was especially good with the super tender meat! There was also Pacifico beer served here for those drinking.
McDonalds is everywhere. But most don't have THIS. We were invited to try out their new Build Your Burger concept. Only four McD stores in the US currently offer this, two in San Diego and two in Orange County! The concept isn't new but the kiosk implementation is where it's breaking some ground in the fast food industry.
So THIS is the inside of the McDonalds on 3805 Midway Drive in San Diego. Huh? Are we in the right place? Yep, it was remodeled a couple of years ago. Wow, actually kinda impressed. There's no more playpen though!
Hello Ben the Guide! Check out these new aprons too! He was here to walk us through the Build Your Burger process, which is actually quite simple.
