Southern California Road Trip (Long)

We had a wonderful circular drive from Tahoe to San Diego, LA, Santa Barbara and Paso Robles. Between LA and San Diego is the wine country centered in Temecula. It’s not very well know but they’re producing some wonderful wines. Most are very limited production so you’ll only find them on restaurant menus, at the winery, or on their web sites. The wines from Santa Barbara and Paso Robles were gems.

We had a lot of terrific food so I will mention the restaurants and what we ate and not go into a long discourse.

Made it to LA the 1st night and ate at Ciudad, sister restaurant of Border Grill, though more complex. Had a dish called chicken enrollado while MsRev had a couple appetizers-seared calamari with white beans,peppers,bilbao chorizo, and argentine empanadas with wild mushroom,warm chipotle sauce and swiss chard & tomatillo sauce. Everything was great.

Lunch Saturday was at Ponte Winery in Temecula at their Smokehouse restaurant. Had wonderful pulled pork and wood-fired pizza with veggies, pesto, and goat cheese.

Dinner Sunday in San Diego was with a friend at Peohe’s, on Coronado Island. Beautiful views of the city and the food was okay. We had an ono dish and a halibut with bananas and other tropical stuff. Our breakfasts were pastries from the French Bakery & Patisserie in LaJolla. Good stuff. Dinner Monday night was at the rooftop bar at the Hotel Valencia in LaJolla. They have a tapas type menu and everything we ordered was outstanding. We had Lobster paella stuffed calamari, diver scallops with white beans and truffle tomato ragout, ahi tuna tartare, and an heirloom tomato and bufalo mozzarella salad.

Our first dinner in LA was possibly the best of the trip-AOC,. It’s like dining at Avec in Chicago, as Suzanne Goin and Paul Kahan are good friends. However AOC is not as cramped, has a more extensive menu, and I think has a little better food. We had so many dishes I can’t name them all, but suffice it to say, there wasn’t a weak dish in the group. Lunch the next day was my most disappointing meal of the trip-Tommy’s. I know this is an institution but it’s just a greasy burger with some of the worst chili I’ve ever had. The chili is not quite as bad when mixed with the burger but I still don’t get it. Also had an average tamale. I couldn’t wait to dine here because I absolutely loved it on my last visit-however I was 20, stoned, and it was 1 in the morning. Do you think that could’ve clouded my judgement? The difference is that I was also eating ultimate tacos from Jack in the Box on Ridge at that time and I still love those tacos. As a matter of fact, our last meal, on the road, was at Jack in the Box along the highway having tacos and their sourdough burger. MMMMMM!

Our next dinner was at Yong Su San, a Korean restaurant serving a fixed price what I call royal Korean dinner. We had a 10 course meal for $23 each and it was great. Thanks to Erik M for this find. Lunch was at the Border Grill in Santa Monica. They had great watermelon margaritas. We ate grilled fish tacos and a dish called mushroom melinta, with grilled portobellas, great sauces, cheese, and other stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Our last dinner in LA was at Lucques. Had an incredible heirloom tomato dish with burrata,croutons, basil, sautéed sweetbreads with grilled cornbread,chanterelles and sherry glaze, summer lamb cassoulet with shellbeans,garlic sausage and roasted cherry tomatoes, and suckling pig with long-cooked romano beans,grilled baby leeks and romescos. Finished with a fruit tart. Outstanding!

It was on to Santa Barbara with a wonderful meal at Downey’s. Fresh local crab toasts with curried fruits and arugula, followed by Opakapaka with fricassee of chanterelles,flageolets,tomatoes, and swiss chard and Morro Bay black cod with saffron-lobster sauce, asparagus and parsley potatoes. Don’t remember dessert. I highly recommend this place. Lunch was in Solvang, a cutesy Danish town, at Chef’s Touch. Nice deli-grocery with very interesting and tasty sandwiches.

Our last night was in Paso Robles and we dined at Deborah’s Room at Justin Winery. It’s an expensive meal but a relative bargain compared to a comparable big city restaurant. Five course meal at $75 per person plus $35 for the wine pairing, which I recommend. There’s only 6 tables, in a warm, inviting room, and the service is excellent. Started with salad of green asparagus & black truffles and goat cheese vinaigrette and a tuna carpaccio with meyer lemon chutney and citrus essence. Next was syrah poached foie gras torchon with grilled figs, shallot and peach compote and a sea urchin risotto with truffle oil and shaved parmesan. Entrees were Alaskan halibut with purple potato pave, sautéed green and yellow French beans & heirloom tomato vinaigrette and pan roasted duck breast with black forbidden rice, gooseberries and isosceles vinaigrette. This was followed by a cheese course and finished with valrhona bittersweet chocolate marquis with passion fruit and red current puree, and strawberry shortcake-strawberry and balsamic compote with mascarpone cream and brown butter cake accompanied by strawberry soup and strawberry sorbet. This was an absolutely fabulous way to end the trip.

Andy,

Thanks for the report--the trip sounded great. I'd love to hear more about the Yong Su San dinner. Ten courses for $23 bucks-wow!!

trixie-pea

I love Temecula and its wines - my favorites being from Filsinger - especially their sparking wines. We order them periodically of their website. Are they still having all the problems with Pierce's disease there?

Right down the street from Filsinger is Keyways, where the owner/winemaker (who must have won a lottery or otherwise got a windfall to buy the place) showed off his palatial home up in the hills, then told a story about a previous girlfriend who was blown away by his home, because, as he said "she was still living in her trailer ...and it wasn't even a double-wide!". He was very proud. His wines were pretty good, too.

nr706 wrote: Are they still having all the problems with Pierce's disease there?

Yes they are still having a big problem. They are replanting many of the vines. We really liked the wines from Palomar, Ponte, and Palumbo.

Here's the menu from Yong Su San
Soft creamy porridge-basically pumpkin soup, least favorite course of the night.
Jellyfish in a spicy mustard dressing
Mixed vegetable salad of bean sprouts, radish and apricot
Clear mungbean jelly mixed with beef, mushrooms and seaweeds
Kaesung style steamed pork
Egg battered fish and vegetable
Kaesung style wrapped kimchi-it was a head of lettuce split and filled with the kimchee-outstanding
Stir fried clear noodle with mixed vegetables
Fresh sea scallop a la Yongsusan
Crisp green salad in special sesame dressing
Tender beef barbecue-similar to the grilled you get at a Korean BBQ but not as good, but still tasty
This was followed by the soup you are usually served at BBQ joints-and this was an excellent version. We were also given a sweet soup which beside the porridge was the only other dish we didn't care for.

ErikM had said they have more expensive options with more courses but recommeded the $23 10 course. He was right on with that call. There was plenty of food and more would've been overkill.

GWIV has all my pictures and if he'd like to post them, I'm sure it would be appreciated

RevrendAndy wrote:We had a wonderful circular drive from Tahoe to San Diego, LA, Santa Barbara and Paso Robles. Between LA and San Diego is the wine country centered in Temecula.
<snip>
We had a lot of terrific food so I will mention the restaurants and what we ate and not go into a long discourse.

Andy,

What a fantastic sounding trip! Of the places you mention, with the exception of Tommy's, I've only been to two of the sister restaurants, Border Grill, but not Ciudad, and Lucques, but not A.O.C. I intend to follow in your footsteps next time I'm in the area, especially Youg Su San.

I guess we just have to agree to disagree on Tommy's.

Enjoy,
Gary

RevrendAndy wrote:GWIV has all my pictures and if he'd like to post them, I'm sure it would be appreciated

Andy,

Here are the pics of your fantastic sounding, and looking, meal at Yong Su San A few additional pictures may be found here

Pictures taken by RevrendAndy









Enjoy,
Gary