Brooklyn Girl Eatery

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. They have a caramel sweet outer glaze topping the crispy outer crust which contrasts nicely against the softer meaty insides. The slaw was spicy and tasty as well.

The Shrimp Tacos had good size shrimp for the dish but were a bit runny from the chipotle cream inside. It didn't hold its shape with one corn tortilla so I think two would have been better. Good but nothing to rave about. Isn't that plate really cool though?

The first entree was the Braised Lamb Shank. Wow was it tender but I would have liked a little more salt to it. The flavor itself didn't penetrate too deep but the meat is thick! I really loved the roasted potatoes and carrots, which were great for breaking up the monotony of so much meat. The sea of couscous was a nice base too.

The Mary's Free Range Chicken was cooked well with juicy meat and crispy skin but rather light on seasoning. It seemed a bit too ordinary compared to the fancy lamb shank. I also didn't care for the mustard greens which were slightly bitter as they usually are.

These entrees turned out to be plenty big by themselves or maybe we ate too much popcorn. We had to stop to save room for dessert!

We had to wait a bit for desserts. The Caramel Budino had a layer of caramel that makes the dessert a bit on the sweet side for me. We recommend to dig deep into the bottom to lighten it up with the cream.

The other dessert was the Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding. Following a bite of the previous dessert, this was almost bitter and dry! I switched back for a bite of caramel, then realized there was cream on the side for the bread pudding... I added it and YES, such an improvement with the contrast of subtle plus sweet cream! This was probably one of the best bread puddings I've had in a while.

The restaurant has bar seating behind the hostess stand as well as another area for enjoying their oyster bar. It's a great place to have dinner and we enjoyed this sampling. The food came out fast, our server gave great food/drink recommendations, and the ambiance was nice. We'd be up for coming here again.