Solace & the Moonlight Lounge brunch

Apr 142013
 

One of my favorite brunch places in San Diego is Urban Solace – I really love the flavors and ingredients there. It’s slightly heavier than many other popular brunch spots (e.g. The Cottage), but S and I tend to like that more. So, when I saw the Kirbie’s Cravings post on its sister restaurant in Encinitas, Solace & the Moonlight Lounge, I was really excited to try it out – and got the chance when one of my friends decided to have her birthday brunch there. Great thing about this place – they take reservations.

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Encinitas is such an interesting city to me, so different from San Diego (or the many other cities I’ve lived in). There’s free parking lots everywhere, boutique shops, cute little restaurants… I rarely see a big fast-food restaurant around here. It’s sort of nice, I suppose… also feels very rich. Haha.

Anyway, I arrived at the restaurant first and had some fun snapping photos. The restaurant has two floors, I think, but most of the seating is on the second floor as far as I can tell. There’s a pretty well-stocked bar area.

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Friends arrived and after taking a quick glance at the menu, we realized that the brunch items are almost the same as the offerings at Urban Solace. I don’t have a problem with this, since I love the food – just a bit surprised that it was so similar. S immediately opted for the Slow-braised Berkshire Pork Belly Bennie. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the photo of that dish.

I had a really hard time deciding between the Kitchen Sink Biscuits & Gravy and the Beef Cheek Hash. Finally went with the hash:

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Paso Prime Grass-Fed Beef Cheek Hash, Poached Eggs, Smoked Ancho-Chili Hollandaise ($13.50)

I thought this was decent, but S didn’t like it too much. He says there were way too many flavors going on in this dish, and both of us agreed that the Hollandaise sauce, while delicious, was too much for thie dish. I thought the runny egg yolk from the poached eggs was quite enough “eggy” flavor. Continue reading »

Fig Tree Cafe (Pacific Beach location)

Mar 232013
 

Brunch is one of my favorite meals – relaxing atmosphere and comfort food, accompanied by good conversations. It’s been a while since I had the time to enjoy brunch, so recently I made plans with a girl friend to check out Fig Tree Cafe in PB. I had a Groupon deal, and it seemed like a decent place.

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The restaurant is, quite literally, underneath a tree. I’m not good with plants but I’ll just assume that’s a fig tree… All the seating is on the semi-covered patio. Thankfully, it was a warm-ish day.

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We started out with some coffee & tea. Look how gigantic that mug of tea is, compared with the standard cup of coffee! I think the tea cup must have been at least 1000 c.c.

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Shrimp & Mango Salad ($10.75)

Continue reading »

[Encinitas] Comfort food at Honey’s Bistro

Jul 312012
 

It’s been a while since my last update.  I’ve got drafts piled up and finally have time to get to them.

I’ve been busy, but there should always be time for going to the spa with a girl friend.  But even better is the lunch afterwards :P  We were in Encinitas and decided to try out Honey’s Bistro, recommended by several people.

It was such a nice day and we got caught up in chatting that I forgot to take pictures of the interior and exterior… oops.  At least I remember to take photos of the food.

Order at the counter, and find a seat.  The menu was several pages long and a bit overwhelming – I really couldn’t make up my mind.  In the end, both of us ordered from the Specials chalkboard menu.

Santa Fe Omelette: chicken sausage, tomatoes, green onions, Ortega chilis, avocado on top.  Served with potato hash.  $9.25

Lobster eggs benedict: lobster, asparagus, green onions, homemade Hollandaise sauce.  Served with potato hash.  $10.95

Not the best photos in the world, but we were hungry and just wanted to dig in.  No time for multiple takes!

Both dishes were delicious – the omelette was soft and fluffy, and the ingredients were fresh.  I don’t normally like chicken sausage but this was really juicy and flavorful.  The lobster benedict eggs were poached perfectly.  The lobster was a bit over-seasoned, but overall really good.

But the real highlight of the dishes was the amazing potato hash.  The outside was browned to a crisp, tossed with green onions, and lightly salted.  Simple, and really really tasty.  It’s as good as the hash at The Mission, which is saying a lot because I loved it there.

Overall, I had a great time at Honey’s Bistro.  It’s a perfect place for a casual lunch, and they also have a few seats outdoors for a nice day.  And of course, the food is great.  Can’t beat that now, can ya?

Honey’s Bistro
632 S Coast Highway 101, Encinitas, CA
(760) 942-5433

[SD Mission Hills] Brunch at The Red Door

Jul 192012
 

I had Sunday brunch with a couple of girl friends a few weeks back.  While we were planning, I was originally vouching for dim sum, but they convinced me to try out The Red Door, a quaint little restaurant in Mission Hills.

I was instantly charmed by the sunny interior, cute decor, and of course, the live music.  Ukulele and double bass, what a lovely combo.

A friendly server brought us our menus.  I was very tempted by the bottomless mimosas… but decided to hold off that day.  Didn’t want to be hazy for the rest of the day.

Complimentary muffins and scones for the table – the raspberry muffins were decent and fluffy, but the dried blueberry scones were delicious.  Crunchy, egg-washed exterior with crumbly and soft interior.  If only they had some crème fraîche for accompaniment.. that would really be perfection.

We asked for 2 more baskets of the scones, they were that good.  The waiter was a little shocked that three girls like us could eat so much.

I almost didn’t want to order anything and just eat scones all morning, but the menu items looked so good, too – finally decided on the sausage benedict.

Sausage benedict: chicken-jalapeno sausage patties over polenta, with hollandaise sauce.  Served with fresh fruit, $11

I’m usually a skeptic when it comes to chicken sausage (why deviate from pork, the best thing ever?), but I must admit that this chicken sausage patty was pretty good.  It was juicy and flavorful, especially with the added spiciness from the jalapeno.  Overall a nice dish – creamy polenta, deliciously runny poached eggs, and a super rich (almost overly so) hollandaise sauce.  Actually, the hollandaise sauce broke soon after it was served to me, which was a little sad.  The benedicts came with a huge bowl of berries.

Friends ordered the Skillet Egg Souffle and Shrimp and Grits (not pictured).

Skillet Egg Soufflé: ham, eggs, and caramelized onions baked in a puff pastry.  Served with fresh fruit, $12

Certainly wins many points for presentation.  I think anything that comes out in a skillet just deserves extra points, even more so if there’s puff pastry involved.  After tasting some, though, I wasn’t as impressed by the taste – the eggs were too overcooked to be considered a “soufflé.”  Maybe like a frittata?

I didn’t get a photo of the Shrimp and Grits, which I now regret because I wish I could show all the folks in the South just what Californians have done to grits.  Instead of the creamy “corn porridge” served in a bowl, the grits looked like mashed potatoes, but more yellow.  I almost think that they took the same polenta from my benedict dish and mashed it into “grits”…haha.  Alas.

The bottom line?  I don’t think any of the dishes wow’ed me (although the scones certainly did), but the relaxing atmosphere was perfect for a lazy Sunday morning, and I had a nice time here.  I checked out their dinner menu online – a little pricey but the items sound yummy!  Maybe the next date night?

The Red Door
741 W. Washington St., San Diego, CA
(619) 295-6000

http://thereddoorsd.com/

[SD Clairemont] Amazing brunch at Kitchen 4140

Apr 272012
 

I visited Kitchen 4140 for brunch on a fine Sunday morning with Sk.  I’ve been a bit wary of restaurants offering brunch, since many turn out to be overpriced and underwhelming meals.  But the reviews for Kitchen 4140 were high, and I had a Passport Card discount, so I decided to give this place a try.

We chose indoor seating, and the inside is decorated in a really neat, modernist style.  I love the high, wooden ceiling and paintings of cows, haha.

They had a pretty extensive drinks menu, with various coffee, espresso, tea, and other brunch-y drinks.  I tried my first Yerba mate tea!  I loved the spiciness of the tea and will definitely be getting some for my office.

Mate latte: organic Yerba mate with steamed milk & honey , $3.95

And Sk ordered an Almond Joy mocha, which actually did resemble the candy bar quite a bit, and was pretty much dessert in a cup.

Almond Joy mocha: infused with coconut and almond, $4.95

We decided to order one item each from the “Breakfast” and “Between the Bread” sections of the menu – everything looked so good, and we had a pretty hard time deciding.  In the end, we went with the steak hash and the short rib sandwich.

Steak hash: wild mushrooms, red onion, fire-roasted peppers, two poached eggs, chive-chervil creme fraiche, $14

The hash was awesome!!  I couldn’t decide what was my favorite component – the eggs were perfectly poached, almost like the soft-boiled eggs that I love in Japanese ramen (糖心蛋).  If I could use only one word to describe this, it’d be “rustic”.  All the ingredients – potatoes, beef, peppers, even the creme fraiche – worked really well together to create a hearty, delicious dish.  My only bone to pick is that the bread was a bit over-toasted, but other than that, it is perfect.

Short rib sandwich: beer-braised short ribs, pickled onion, mango chutney, & Asian slaw on roasted pepper bread, served with French fries, $14

The short rib sandwich was a completely different style than the steak hash.  The flavors were distinctly Asian, with the mango chutney and sesame vinaigrette(?) slaw.  The meat itself was tender, the bread was nicely toasted, and the meat-to-bread ratio was just perfect – you could get everything in one bite.  The French fries were brown and crispy, my favorite.

Overall, I loved my meal.  The entire experience was excellent, from the service to the atmosphere to the food.  One of the reasons that we enjoyed the food so much was perhaps because the flavors were rich but not overly heavy, and it reminded me of some of the Southern fusion food that I miss so much.  (Sk pointed out that it’s like Watt’s Grocery in Durham – one of my favorite restaurants!)  I will definitely be back for brunch again, and/or try their lunch and dinner sometime!

What is your favorite brunch spot in San Diego?  Will you be giving Kitchen 4140 a try? (Because you totally should!)

Kitchen 4140
4140 Morena Blvd., San Diego, CA
(858) 483-4140
http://www.kitchen4140.com

Hours
Mon-Fri:  11am-3pm
Wed-Fri:  5pm-9pm
Sun:  9am-2pm

[Berkeley] My favorite brunch/lunch spot: La Note

Apr 112012
 

I just realized that I had an entire folder of photos from January 2012 that I had forgotten… which means that I will be playing catch-up again, and a flood of posts will hopefully be coming soon!

I’ll start with the Berkeley places, since I’ve been missing Berkeley a lot these days.  There are also food pics from a somewhat random trip to LA.. but you’ll get to read about that later =P

So the first in this catch-up series is about La Note, one of my favorite restaurants.  I cannot believe that I discovered this place less than 2 months before I had to leave Berkeley… alas, I was only able to squeeze in two visits before I left, but both were wonderful experiences.

My first visit here was for weekend brunch with SK.  We figured that with just the two of us, the wait would not be too long – and I was right; we were seated in about 15 minutes.  The restaurant exterior doesn’t look like much, but the inside is adorable: wooden chairs and tables, items written on a chalkboard, flowers on every table… I loved the charm.

I started off with “Le Pagnol”, orange and cranberry juice with Perrier ($2.95) – I don’t normally order beverages at restaurants, but I gave in to the brunch-y atmosphere.  From the food menu, we ordered a couple of things to share:

Omelette Fromage et Jambon ("Emmenthal cheese and ham omelette, served with homefries and choice of toast"), $12.95

This was so. good.  Possibly the best omelette I’ve ever had.  (Okay, maybe my most recent memory of an omelette is from the dining hall in college, so that’s not even a valid comparison.)  The eggs were incredibly fluffy – perhaps a hint of heavy cream or creme fraiche?  The ham and cheese were also spectacular; the Emmenthal was mild, which was perfect for an omelette since anything heavier would have outdone the eggs.  It also went well with the ham – overall, a pretty perfect dish.  It was served with sourdough toast and seasoned homefries, which were flavorful and had a nice, crispy outside.

Creme fraiche pancake, $4.50/single

This pancake basically reaffirmed my love for creme fraiche.  I am normally not a fan of pancakes (waffles are more of my thing), but add some creme fraiche in the batter/ swirled on top?  I’m a fan.  Creme fraiche will be a permanent item in my fridge from now on…

During my second visit, I tried one of their sandwiches, the Croque Madame (ham, cheese, and sunny-side up egg on pan de mie with bechamel, $11.95) – again, it was awesome.  I simply loved their bechamel sauce.  Sadly, I did not get a photo, but trust me, it was delicious.

Writing about La Note makes me want to fly back to Berkeley just to eat there again!  It is definitely on my list of favorite restaurants in Berkeley.  Please go try it if you haven’t yet – and tell me what you ate!

La Note
2377 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA
(510) 843-1535

Hours:
Breakfast & lunch, Mon-Fri  8am-2:3opm
Brunch, Sat-Sun                      8am-3pm
Dinner, Thu-Sun                     6pm-1opm

[SD Miramar] Chinese-style brunch at Chin’s

Mar 192012
 

It’s almost been a month since my visit to Chin’s, but it was so good that I still want to catch up and write a post about it.  There are several locations of this Chinese restaurant throughout the San Diego area, but I was told that the Miramar location serves the best Chinese-style brunch – so I had to try it out.

We ordered quite a selection, and I couldn’t remember to take photos of everything (too hungry..), but I do think that I got some of the meal’s highlights:

牛肉捲餅 (Beef wraps with Scallion Pancakes), $3.25

Although this looks messy, it was really good.  蔥油餅 (scallion pancake) is one of my favorite breakfast items (or midday.. or late night.. you get the idea), and this dish rolls up the pancakesand adds beef slices in the middle.  The pancake wasn’t too greasy, and the beef was well-marinated and tender without being too salty.

蛋餅 (Taiwanese Egg Pancake), $3.25

Egg pancake is kind of like the scallion pancake, except without the scallions in the dough and with an egg rolled inside (sounds pretty self-explanatory, doesn’t it?).  In Taiwan, you can add all sorts of fillings, such as tuna, pork floss, corn, etc.  In the U.S., however, it’s difficult enough to find good egg pancake that I don’t even think about requesting fillings.  Anyway, the egg pancake here was pretty different from the ones in Taiwan, mostly because the egg layer was much thicker.  It added a lot of fluffiness to the roll, which was different but pretty good.

紅燒牛肉湯面麵 (Roasted Beef Noodle Soup), $7.55

Beef noodle soup is another classic Chinese/Taiwanese dish.  I think this one was more similar to Taiwanese style in terms of the type of soy sauce, but I haven’t had enough beef noodle soups to really know the difference, haha.  But as far as this dish: tender chunks of beef in a hearty broth?  Yes please!

炸銀絲卷 (Fried "Silver Strand" Roll), $3.55

“Silver Strand” Roll is a type of popular Chinese steamed roll; it’s different from man tou in that the dough is folded over itself several times to create “strands” – hence the name.  They can be served simply steamed, or fried after steaming and served with sweetened condensed milk.  I’ve actually never seen these rolls in the oblong shape; usually they look like little dinner rolls.  Anyway, I liked it although it didn’t stand out to me as much as the rest of the dishes above.

We also had a few orders of fresh sweetened soymilk ($1.75), which was a huge bowl.  Compared with soymilk, I still like rice milk (米漿) a lot more, but unfortunately Chin’s (nor anywhere in SD, as far as I know…) has it.  If you know of some place with good rice milk, let me know!

Overall, I had a really nice meal here – it brought back some great memories of breakfasts and brunches in China and Taiwan, and I’ll be back next time I have a craving!

Chin’s (Miramar location)
9355 Kearny Mesa Rd., San Diego, CA
(858) 536-2300

Hours
Mon-Fri.  11am-9:30pm
Sat-Sun.  9:30am-10pm (Brunch 9:30am-2:30pm)

[Berkeley] Fat Apple’s Bakery and Restaurant

Oct 252011
 

A friend initially recommended Fat Apple’s to me as a quick breakfast spot, and I finally had a chance to visit last weekend. It is located in a neighborhood area in North Berkeley, so small that I almost missed it. The atmosphere was strange – sort of like diner food in a fine brunch setting. Or vice versa. The overall feel was just a bit confused.

Waffle Special (Part 1/2): waffle with butter & honey syrup ($8.50)

Waffle was crispy, unlike your typical fluffy waffle. The honey syrup was pretty good – a change from the normal maple syrup, although I do still prefer maple.

Waffle Special (Part 2/2): 1 egg (over & well), chicken sausage link, orange slice

Okay, I have had many-a-breakfast/brunch in my life now, and I must say that this place is pretty overpriced. $8.50 for ONE waffle, ONE sausage link, ONE egg? C’mon.

Apple pancake ($7.50)

The apple pancake is oven-baked with ‘seasonal apples’, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with creme fraiche. S. and I didn’t really the fact that the apples were so tart! There was almost no sweetness in the entire pancake – add to that the lemon juice and creme fraiche, and you are left with quite a tart taste in your mouth.

Fruit bowl ($3)

Not much to say about the fruit bowl.. there was quite an assortment: raspberries, blueberries, canteloupe, honeydew, grapes.

Overall, I felt that I paid quite a high price for just an okay breakfast. They also have an attached bakery next door with pastries and some cakes, but nothing there appealed to me either. I don’t think I will come back, but you should let me know if you have had a better experience here.

Fat Apple’s Bakery & Restaurant
1346 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Berkeley, CA
510-526-2260

Hours:
Mon-Sun 7am-9pm

Chinese brunch at Taiwan Restaurant

Jun 132011
 

I have walked/driven/biked past Taiwan Restaurant on University Ave. countless times, yet I did not pay a visit until rather recently. My friend W. and I decided to go on a Sunday, since they have a brunch menu with Chinese breakfast food items (one of my favorite categories of food!).

The restaurant is actually pretty big and not too crowded, which I say is rather unusual for places in Berkeley. We got a nice seat by the windows and had some tea brought to us right away.

Since W. had been here before, he advised against the sticky rice ball (fan tuan 飯糰) and egg pancakes (dan bing 蛋餅) that I love oh-so-much. We eventually decided upon fried sesame bread (shao bing 燒餅), egg-coated leek dumplings (jiu cai he zi 韭菜盒子), bamboo sticky rice (mi gao 米糕), and Tainan noodle soup (dan zai mian 擔仔麵).

Leek dumplings (front) and sesame bread (back)

The leek dumplings were rather disappointing. Instead of being filled with soft scrambled eggs and leeks, it used bean sprouts as a filler. I suppose the crunchy texture was there, but I missed the egg. It’s also not really supposed to be deep-fried (at least the ones that I have always had). And you know how people say that deep-frying makes everything better? I think this is the one example where that’s not true. The dough was too crunchy and not soft enough and soaked with grease. Not my favorite dish.

The fried sesame bread, on the other hand, was pretty good. It had nice puffy layers, soft on the inside, and a decent amount of sesame for flavor. I wish we had ordered more of this.

Bamboo sticky rice

The bamboo sticky rice was somewhat of a surprise… since it did not come in a bamboo section. But the glutinous rice was nice and sticky, and the accompanying pork and mushrooms had pretty good flavor. Not a memorable dish.

**I was just notified that bamboo sticky rice in Taiwan, in fact, does not come in a bamboo section. So I guess what I have had before is not Taiwanese. How disappointing. But that makes this a bit more authentic, I suppose.

Tainan-style noodle soup

Our final dish, the Tainan-style noodle soup, pretty much missed the mark as well in terms of authenticity. (Well, I don’t know how much right I have to say that since the only time I had this dish was in Taipei…) But W. agrees with me and he has had the real thing. However, aside from that, it was actually not a bad bowl of noodle soup: light flavors, not too oily, good amount of ground pork and cucumber toppings. Maybe if they just rename it something else…?

I am not sure what my expectations were for this place, but I was somewhat disappointed after the meal. The only thing that I really enjoyed was the sesame bread, but maybe I should give it another chance before writing it off completely. After all, there were still so many things on the menu that I have not tried. I hope I’ll post a better review next time.

Blue Fig Cafe (SF Mission District)

Apr 132011
 

When Sidney came back to Norcal in March, he wanted to visit a jeans shop in the Mission District of SF – which gave me an opportunity to explore food opportunities nearby. I wanted to find a nice, quaint lunch spot – and Blue Fig seemed to be the answer.

Tucked away on the corner of Valencia and 21st, it was pretty small and the space a bit crowded with only a handful of tables. I think they originally started as just a coffee shop, but expanded their menu to include lunch sandwiches. There were a few people working on their laptops and a couple of small groups. Very cozy. I ordered a Chai Latte and a Croque Madame (ham, Guyere, Bechamel sauce and poached egg). The Chai was just okay – tasted a bit watery for some reason – but the Croque Madame was gorgeous. The Bechamel sauce was smooth and creamy but not too rich, the egg was nicely poached. The only complaint is that I wish there had been more ham, as it was pretty much drowned out by the egg and sauce.

Overall, I thought it was a lovely simple meal. The Bechamel sauce really left a deep impression on my mind – I want to learn how to make that sauce now! If I am ever in the area again, I’d definitely stop by for another lunch (but probably not the Chai latte).

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