Kelsey's Bar & Grill in Pechanga Resort & Casino (Temecula)

Our recent trip to Pechanga Resort & Casino was quite a busy one! Between the delicious events of Chocolate Decadence and Pechanga Wine Festival, we also dropped by Kelsey's Bar & Grill, one of eleven restaurants inside the resort. Pechanga completely overhauled its sports bar restaurant and turned it into an upscale American pub. One of their additions was smoked barbecue and a large craft beer selection!

The restaurant isn't hard to find if you use the resort map and follow the overhead signs in the casino.

As we talked to the hostess, our eyes were immediately drawn toward this dessert display behind her. The food was looking amazing already!

Inside, the restaurant was trendy with plenty of tables for indoor seating and a wide spacious bar area. The restaurant opens as late as midnight on the weekends.

Debbie took care of us that night. She brought out our drinks which were served in mason jars!

The Clam Chowder is served only on Fridays so we had to try it out! It had the perfect consistancy with a enjoyable flavor but a tad bit salty. The creamy chowder had big chunks of clam though the potato pieces fell apart quickly.

Who can resist trying Pork Belly? Not us at least! The scent permeated the air, enticing our senses before the meaty but tender pork belly hit our mouths. The edges had a nice crust to them. My piece was a little chewier than Dennis's piece but the third (shared) piece was such an improvement! The green apple slaw was fun with its thicker sauce, similar to the Asian sweet and spicy chili sauce. Underneath was thinly sliced bread, adding a slight sweetness, and toasted enough to hold up the toppings. Then it hit us... it's cornbread underneath!

The main entrees came out soon after. This is the Half Rack of Baby Back Ribs (around 6 bones). The meat was fall off the bone tender with a really light rub on it, about the right amount for Dennis. It was so good that Dennis was sad he had to share with me! If we hadn't just finished Chocolate Decadence 2 hours prior, Dennis would have ordered a whole rack for himself! This dish also came with cornbread still moist on the inside!

Here's all the available BBQ sauces for your meats, all thick and strong flavored! The Texas style is ketchup based and the sweetest one while the other three have more of an A1 sauce base. The memphis flavor had some mustard to its flavor and turned out to be both of our favorites. The jalapeno flavor is really unique but hard to eat for the more sensitive!

We decided to try one item made in this pizza oven as well! This flatbread caught our eye because it had trip-tip. The little meatballs of tri-tip seemed moist and seasoned from what we could tell. The sweet nibbles of pineapple were great with the cheese and meat though the crust was slightly crunchier than preferred. The most interesting thing about this pizza was the base sauce. Rather than a wetter tomato or white sauce, it was a black bean puree! Dennis ended up dipping the flatbread in the bbq sauce, preferring the texas style bbq over the subtle puree. Not too strange since that was like a variation on a bbq chicken pizza!

We didn't have room for dessert that evening due to the Chocolate Decadence event but we made sure to stop by the next day...

Here's the towering churro dessert in all its glory.

These churros had a light enough dusting of sugar to avoid leaving a messy trail on your fingers! I especially liked the oreo flavored churro and how each had a different filling inside! The side dips included chocolate, raspberry and creme which Dennis quite enjoyed as he created multiple combinations!

We enjoyed sampling the menu at Kelsey's and think it's a nice dining option at the resort. The ambience was chill and not too noisy and service was friendly. Add to that a huge selection of craft beers to relax between the excitement of casino games!

Disclaimer: We were hosted for dinner but bought the churros on a separate visit. All opinions are our own.