San Diego Restaurant Week, SDH/GL Style

It’s San Diego Restaurant Week and with over 180 participating restaurants throughout the county, it can be a little overwhelming to plan the week. So, we turned to our archives to help us decide, and luckily, we’ve written about quite a few of San Diego’s favorite restaurants over the years. Here’s a Restaurant Week-ready roundup, just for you!

Jayne’s Gastropub

BENCH Home business owner Helen Bonar took us to Jayne’s Gastropub during an “Around Town” feature on Kensington in our August issue.

Photo by Gary Payne.

“We’ve been coming here for 10 years,” Helen reveals. Her favorite dish? Though it’s always changing, she currently fancies the weekly Wednesday buttermilk fried-chicken special, the maple-leaf duck-breast gnocchi and a gin gimlet served in a vintage glass. Niven’s palate gravitates to classics such as the lamb shepherd’s pie or the fish and chips. And both say the Jayne Impossible Burger, which is concocted from vegetable proteins and amino acids to look and taste like beef (and even bleed), is a must try. 4677 30th St., 619-563-1011, jaynesgastropub.com

Jayne’s Gastropub Restaurant Week details can be found here.

Photo: Gary Payne

Great Maple

Chef Deborah Scott (of Indigo Grill, Coasterra and more) took us to Great Maple in our “Where the Chefs Eat” series in November.

She recommends the Portobello mushroom fries and brown bag mini popovers, which are shaken tableside, dusted with parmesan and served with honey butter, for starters. Kelly Stilwell, executive baker at Great Maple, used to work for Deb. “She’s got such a cool rendition on the popover,” Deb says.

For the main dish, she loves the California fresh kale-and-quinoa salad served with chicken, toasted pine nuts, tomatoes and a shallot vinaigrette, or the turkey burger with melted brie and arugula.

1451 Washington St., 619-255-2282, or 8675 Genesee Ave., Suite 1200, 858-886-7403
thegreatmaple.com

Great Maple Restaurant Week details can be found here.

Poseidon On The Beach

Deb Scott also recommended Poseidon on the Beach, and took us there for lunch. Deb recommends to go hungry!

Photo courtesy of Poseidon

Her menu picks: Start with the citrus-marinated ceviche with white fish, shrimp, cilantro, tomato, avocado, cucumber, jalapeño, scallions, olive oil and papaya-serrano relish. Try the beet-and-citrus salad with watercress, dried cherries, strawberries, oranges, tomato, pickled fennel, candied pepitas, radish, Humboldt Fog cheese, pomegranate crème fraîche and Meyer lemon vinaigrette; and finish with the wasabi sesame-crusted yellowfin tuna, which is served rare on wasabi mashed potatoes with a ginger baby bok choy slaw.

1670 Coast Blvd., 858-755-9345, poseidonrestaurant.com

Poseidon on the Beach Restaurant Week details can be found here.

Photo: Martin Mann

Water Grill

Our food writer David Nelson wrote about Water Grill this October, and brought you their recipe for Wild Sea Scallops with Treviso & Roasted Vegetables. And if you don’t feel like making it yourself, now is a great time to have the chefs do the cooking!

“Chef Damon Gordon of downtown San Diego’s seafood-centric Water Grill offers a dish of layered flavors that carefully avoids overpowering seasonings,” said critic David Nelson.

Water Grill Restaurant Week details can be found here.

Photo: Jenny Siegwart

Eddie V’s Prime Seafood

For our Where the Chefs Eat series, Chef Bernard Guillas took us to Eddie V’s Wildfish (formerly Eddie V’s Prime Seafood).

For a drink, the beautiful bar and awesome nighttime view from Eddie V’s Wildfish in La Jolla (there’s also a location near Seaport Village) can’t be beat, especially if you score a seat around the fire pit.

What to try? Enjoy the Maine lobster tacos appetizer with a Hendrick’s gin martini, Bernard advises. 

1270 Prospect St., 858-459-5500, and 789 West Harbor Dr.,619-615-0281, eddiev.com

Eddie V’s Restaurant Week details can be found here.

The Shores Restaurant

Chef Bernard Guillas also took us to The Shores. For brunch, there’s no place like the family-friendly The Shores, one of the three establishments Bernard oversees. “I love the patio and the energy of kids everywhere and running up from the beach,” he says. “Plus, Chef Percy Oani ‘Papa Bear’ cooks with his heart and soul.”

Menu favorites: Bring friends and order a mimosa flight; Cabo fish tacos (he raves about the mahi); the Baja omelet with crab meat, avocado, cheddar, cilantro cream and salsa; and a Belgian waffle. 

8110 Camino Del Oro, 866-644-2630, theshoresrestaurant.com

(Photo courtesy of The Shores Restaurant.)

The Shores Restaurant Week details can be found here. 

Antica Trattoria

DISH, our gossiping gourmet’s monthly column, took Antica Trattoria out for a spin some seven years ago, and we look forward to trying it again.

“Carpaccio alla rossini, mafatti alle noci, handmade potato gnocchi dressed with fresh goat cheese and buttery shreds of wine-braised short ribs: three good reasons to hitch a ride on I-8 to La Mesa. Francesco Basile’s Antica Trattoria has been around awhile, but the look is new, and the revamped menu delights with dishes like Signor Rossini’s thinly sliced beef filet with capers, truffle oil, Parmesan shavings and arugula, and malfatti (roughly shaped spinach ravioli) in a ravishing walnut cream. Treasured by locals who don’t want to drive way out West for fine fare, Antica offers plenty unavailable elsewhere in the county, like a fat, oven-roasted pork chop with herbs, a rich red wine reduction and caramelized apples; true cioppino in the lightest of tomato broths; a salad of spinach, mushrooms and Gorgonzola sprinkled with toasted pistachios; other pleasures… ”

Antica Trattoria Restaurant Week details can be found here.

Vintana

And there’s also a nod to Escondido’s Vintana, then-brand new, in the same “vintage” 2012 column. “Leslie and David Cohn and business partner/chef Deborah Scott fearlessly accept formidable challenges that less self-assured restaurateurs tremble to contemplate…” And, of all the large-in-scale restaurants that seemed to open around the same time, “Vintana trumps them all. The hearty meat-seafood menu is Scott’s best effort yet…”

Vintana Restaurant Week details can be found here.

For the full list of participating restaurants, go to sandiegorestaurantweek.com