Del Mar Rendezvous

On Friday, we dined out at Del Mar Rendezvous. It's a beautiful restaurant with modern dark wood tones, asian inspiration, and an extensive wine rack of which we partook later for dinner! Both the Manager Dan and Chef Tony have worked hard to continually make improvements in the experience as well as the food which has won them "best chinese" from San Diego Magazine for the past three years. One big selling point is that they have a separate vegetarian/vegan menu as well as a gluten-free menu, both with over 40 items to choose from, including gluten-free beer! It's fantastic that they are catering to more diners AND it is delicious!

We tried out some of the items that are going to be part of the San Diego Restaurant Week menu below:

Sesame Crusted Seared Ahi $13

This had a perfect sear and a great portion of food for appetizer! The accompanying sauce is light but still gives it that wasabi bite.

Honey Glazed Spare Ribs $10

The ribs didn't look like they were going to be moist but after a bite we were happily proven wrong. This was like eating ribs with the yummy sweet glaze usually found on roast ducks! Even the bed of lettuce had soaked up some of the meat flavor and we ate everything off the plate except the bones of course!

Three-Cup Chicken "Sanbeiji"

This traditional Taiwanese dish is a special addition to the menu for Restaurant Week. The biggest contributor to the flavor is the bone marrow... 10 minutes of cooking to get it out of the bones, plus another 15 minutes or so to get it back in to the chicken! With that much cooktime, the meat falls off the bones easily. Since the chicken is chopped into smaller pieces, there are bones but none too small that we couldn't easily find them. Added bonus: free-range chicken from their new supplier Mary's Farms in San Joanquin! Kudos for this in addition to their excellent menu!

Walnut Shrimp $19

There was a nice crispiness to the huge breaded shrimp and a semi-sweet honey glaze to top it off. The walnuts made in house were crunchy goodness too. This was my favorite dishes here.

Mango Sorbet $5.95

The sorbet was well packed and melted ever so slowly so we were able to enjoy the sweet treat even after a couple minutes of sitting out! I love that the sorbet came in the bowl of mango peel too!

Xango (Cinnamon Banana Eggroll) 

Dennis was loving the sweet cinnamon crunch of this dessert! You have to try it yourself to see what the fuss is about!

In addition, for restaurant week, Del Mar Rendezvous is offering diners wine pairings for either 2 or 3 courses at a discount. For lighter drinkers, there's also a 1/2 glass option! We sampled a few wines and decided to take home a bottle of Castello Banfi Rosa Regale. This one is raspberry inspired and we just couldn't resist! The restaurant also has a great selection of beer and sake with special pricing on certain nights.

FOR THE GIVEAWAY: 

Del Mar Rendezvous has generously given us 2 free meals for use during San Diego Restaurant Week menu for one of our lucky readers!

To enter, please do at least one of the following:

1. Leave a comment below about what dish you'd love to try (comments are moderated so will not appear right away)

2. Like our new facebook page:

3. Follow us on twitter and tweet the following: "Follow us and retweet @ohsoyummyreview for a chance to win 2 dinners to Del Mar Rendezvous for San Diego Restaurant Week #sdrw"

To be fair, the only rule is that the winner must be able to physically use this prize. San Diego and nearby areas only!

Contest closes on Monday September 10th 2012 at 5pm and we'll randomly pick a winner. Max three entries per person, one for each of the above. Thanks and good luck!

AND THE WINNER IS... AARON! Congratulations and enjoy your dinner! =)