Del Mar Rendezvous (Restaurant Week and Giveaway!)

Jan 142013
 

I’ve heard of Del Mar Rendezvous, a Chinese fusion restaurant, for quite some time now. I had the chance to sample some of their food at last September’s SDRW Taste 2012, and recently I was contacted by the manager, Dan Schreiber, to preview their menu for the upcoming Restaurant Week. S and I happily accepted the invitation.

P1020028-1

Instead of the usual $20/30/40 dinners for Restaurant Week, Del Mar Rendezvous is offering their own version with $25, $30, or $38 menus, depending on your entree choice. There is also a 2-course lunch menu: pick any appetizer, cup of soup, or dessert and match with any lunch special for $20, Mon-Sat 11:30am-2:30pm. I’ve posted some photos of the RW menu at the bottom of the post, or you could visit their website. They will be participating in RW from January 12-31, so you have quite a bit of time to head over.

We tried quite a few of the appetizers…

Chicken lettuce wraps: sauteed minced chicken, black mushrooms, and water chestnuts, served with 6 lettuce cups and side of hoisin sauce

Chicken lettuce wraps: sauteed minced chicken, black mushrooms, and water chestnuts, served with 6 lettuce cups and side of hoisin sauce

S has never heard of chicken lettuce wraps so we had to try it. I see this quite often at Chinese fusion restaurants and usually like it since it’s a refreshing and light appetizer. DMR’s version is pretty good; the chicken and mushrooms were flavorful, except we couldn’t taste much of the chestnuts.

P1020033-4

Ready to wrap!

All in all, S enjoyed his first chicken lettuce wrap experience (although I had to help him with the wrapping, haha).

Steamed dumpling sampler: 2 each of Ha Gau (shrimp), Su Jiao (vegetable), and Xiao Long Bao (pork), served with vinegar and fresh ginger

Steamed dumpling sampler: 2 each of Ha Gau (shrimp), Su Jiao (vegetable), and Xiao Long Bao (pork), served with vinegar and fresh ginger

Continue reading »

Kensington Grill, Restaurant Week

Sep 272012
 

Okay, after whining in the previous post, I feel much better and now with solid food in my tummy, I am happily back to writing about food.

S and I decided to take advantage of Restaurant Week and try out some new places. It would be difficult to top Whisknladle, but there were quite a few restaurants still on my list. I had originally wanted to try Cafe Chloe or Cucina Urbana, but both places were booked already by the time that I got around to make reservations… boo. Next time I’ll be more on top of things.

In the end I chose Kensington Grill, a New American-ish restaurant that has been on my list for a while. For Restaurant Week, they offer $25 and $30 meals, and they are extending the prix fixe menus through this week.

I chose to order from the $30 menu, since the appetizers sounded way more interesting (there was only soup and salad from the $25 menu). It was difficult to decide between fried sweetbread and mussels.. but I figured since I’ve never had sweetbread before, and I love polenta, I’d give them a try.

“Southern fried” Brandt sweetbreads: creamy white polenta, house made chorizo ($30 menu)

One of my friends was not aware that sweetbread is offal – he thought the dish was supposed to be fried sweet bread. Hehe. Well, good thing he eats offal. I really liked it – the batter was light, and not to sound cliché, but it sort of tasted like chicken. The chorizo/polenta wasdelicious. S said it reminded him of grits – and I loooove grits.

Sea of Cortez mussels: coconut lime, kaffir, coriander ($30 menu)

My friend ordered the mussels and I got to try one. The mussels were huge! And very flavorful. I loved the broth – I only wish we got more bread so that I could sop it all up.

Onto the entrées! I’ve been craving duck so I definitely had to order this:

Roasted duck confit: duck cherry jus, mushrooms, baby carrots, artichoke puree ($30 menu)

Continue reading »

Whisknladle (Restaurant Week)

Sep 212012
 

S and I have visited Whisknladle for lunch once and loved it, and I have been wanting to go back and try their dinner sometime. Several people have told me that it’s a great option for Restaurant Week, since they offer the entire menu for you to choose from, for a $40 prix fixe meal.

Started out with delicious housemade bread and butter.

Bread and butter

It was so difficult to pick the appetizers because so many things sounded so delicious. I had a hard time deciding between bone marrow and the cutting board – finally, I chose the cutting board since it’s so highly praised on Yelp.

Cutting board: house breadsticks, bruschetta, squash sott’olio, soppressata, pesto and spicy salsa spreads, chicken liver mousse(?), olives, tamarind agrodulce, fig and sausage pâté(?), aged Gouda(?)

The cutting board spread was amazing. I could not believe that there is this much food for my appetizer! One of the waiters explained everything on the board to me, but I couldn’t catch everything. My favorites were the fig & sausage pâté (I love figs, and this is probably like the one week of the year that they are in season), squash sott’olio, and spicy salsa spread, but really, everything was delicious.

Potato and Gruyere ravioli: short ribs alla Verona, glazed onions, gremolata

It was hard to take a pretty picture of this dish, but it tasted great. The short ribs were very flavorful and tender, and the ravioli was so good. I only wish it weren’t such a small appetizer portion! I would definitely order the entreé-sized version of this dish.

Continue reading »

SDRW Taste 2012

Sep 152012
 

This year’s September Restaurant Week is the first one that I would be participating in as a San Diego resident! I was also in San Diego last September and had the chance to try Cavaillon (read my post on it here), which is actually now closed, sadly.

This year’s RW is kicking off with the first-ever tasting event, SDRW Taste 2012. It features samples from over 30 RW-participating restaurants, and a beer/wine/cocktail drink to pair with each sample. Tickets are $75 per person, but I was lucky enough to win a pair of tickets from Kirbie of Kirbie’s Cravings! So, last Friday, S and I headed out to Port Pavilion to attend the event. I have actually never been to one of these “tasting” events, so I didn’t really know what to expect.

Broadway Pier at Port Pavilion

Port Pavilion is a new-ish addition to San Diego’s harbor, and I must say that it was a really beautiful venue – very modern, plenty of open space for all the booths, and a gorgeous view.

 

We had so much to eat and drink that I could not upload individual photos of everything, so I made some collages of all the different things I tried. (Click to see larger size image.)

Collage 1: Individual plates

Top row:
The Palm Restaurant – NY steak with caramelized onion mashed potatoes
Slater’s 50/50 - The 50/50 burger
Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse – Seared ahi tuna

Middle row:
Luna Grill – Chicken & gyro sampler
Peohe’s – Salmon watermelon taco
Bertrand at Mister A’s – Kurobuta pork belly
The Marble Room – Ahi lettuce wraps

Bottom row:
Devine Pastabilities – Creamy pesto chicken and spaghetti and meatball torpastas
The French Gourmet – Tagine chicken with couscous
Chedi Thai Bistro – Papaya salad

 

Collage 2: Drinks and desserts

Top row:
Cafe Virtuoso – Iced coffees & teas
Cucina Urbana – Caramel panna cotta
Firestone Brewery – Union Jack IPA and… a seasonal (oops, too much to drink)

Bottom row:
GI Group – Whipsy (whipped cream with wine)
Roppongi – Salted caramel pudding
The Melting Pot – Dark and white chocolate fondue
Stone Brewery – Self-Righteous Ale
Analog Bar – Analog Organic Chai Mule

 

Collage 3: Chefs and booths. Everyone was happy to strike a pose for me!

Top row:
Luna Grill – Chicken & gyro sampler
Firestone Brewery – Union Jack IPA and seasonal
Del Mar Rendezvous – Five-spice beef
Blue Point - Fresh oysters

Bottom row:
The Marble Room – Ahi lettuce wrap
Devine Pastabilities – Torpastas
Crab Hut – Cajun-style shrimp

 

Collage 4: More food!

Top row:
Firefly - Hamachi crudo
Chris’ Ono Grinds and Grill – Kahlua pork
Donovan’s Steakhouse – Philly cheesesteak

Middle row:
Donovan’s Steakhouse – Shrimp & sausage skewer
Challenge Dairy - Cheese samples
Cowboy Star – Pastrami beef tongue rueben

Bottom row:
Analog Bar – Bahn mi kettle chip
French Gourmet - Alligator-shaped bread (ok, I didn’t eat this. But it was too cool not to show.)
Chris’ Ono Grinds and Grill – Grilled chicken

 

So as you can probably figure out, we ate a lot. And drank a lot. And had a great time! I’ve highlighted my favorites in the photo descriptions. Now I have an even harder time deciding where I want to eat for Restaurant Week! So far, we have a reservation for Whisknladle (per many people’s recommendations), but I absolutely cannot make up my mind on anything else. Haha. So please share your Restaurant Week experience with me! I’d love to hear your thoughts and recommendations.

Gorgeous sunset from the pier

Live jazz band

Thanks again to Kirbie’s Cravings for hosting the SDRW Taste 2012 giveaway! (And thanks to Lady Luck for letting me win the giveaway, haha.)

[San Diego] Restaurant Week at Cavaillon

Oct 252011
 

I was in San Diego visiting S. during Restaurant Week in September, and we went to try out Cavaillon with our friends. They only offered a special RW menu that day, but it did feature some of their regular menu items. For $40, you get a choice of appetizer, entree, and dessert. (I have included the prices of the items as they appear on the regular menu, just for your reference.)

Restaurant Week menu

Bread & truffle butter

I have been sort of obsessed with bread recently, and I liked these dinner rolls. The truffle butter was very truffle-y. Haha. Which is a good thing :)

Escargot "Boulanger" ($15)Escargot "Boulanger"

There was actually quite a bit of escargot, which was a pleasant surprise. It is made with a flavorful but rather heavy garlic butter sauce. I complained to S. that it was too buttery and covered up the natural taste of the escargot. (But the sauce was very nice for bread-dipping!)

Braised Lamb Shanks, Pomme Mousseline, Glazed Vegetables ($29)

The lamb shank was braised to tender, fall-off-the-bone perfection, and served over a lovely bed of vegetables. I especially loved the carrots, which were nicely roasted. The “pomme mousseline” – fancy for mashed potatoes – were smooth and creamy, a perfect accompaniment to the lamb.

Beef Tenderloin, Green Bean Salad, Parsnip Duo ($30 for 6oz)

This was S.’s entree. The steak, I admit, was really delicious (then again, it would be pretty bad to mess up a filet, right?) – such that I almost regretted ordering the lamb. The green beans were colorful though not as soft as I’d have liked, and I enjoyed the parsnip puree (although I’m not quite sure what the ‘duo’ was supposed to be…)

Creme Brulee Trio ($12)

A trio of raspberry, orange, chocolate creme brulees. I didn’t like the raspberry one very much – the flavor felt a bit artificial for some reason. The orange one was definitely my favorite, since I actually don’t like chocolate unless it’s just in a chocolate bar form.

It was definitely a lovely meal, and I found out recently that you don’t have to wait for Restaurant Week to have a somewhat affordable meal – they offer a 3-course prix fixe menu every Monday-Thursday for $38, and the choices for appetizer, entree, and dessert are comparable.

Cavaillon
14701 Via Bettona, Suite 200, San Diego, CA
858-433-0483

Hours:
Mon-Sun 6pm-9:30pm
Sun 9am-2pm

End of the meal, a refreshing note with raspberry gummies :)

After-dinner Raspberry(?) candies


Switch to our mobile site