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Sessions Public, a new brave-heart gastropub in Ocean Beach
Published Sept. 1, 2010
My posse-mate Lynne, queen of the food-blog scouts, discovered Sessions Public via a detailed, positive review on Chowhound, one of the most honest and sophisticated local food boards. (Oddly enough, the blogger was reporting on a ...
Sweet Ideas
Published Aug. 25, 2010
We were standing outside Blanca after our fabulous meal, plotting ways to hang on to its new chef of four months, Gavin Schmidt. “Even for a Wednesday, there aren’t enough people in here, given how good ...
Cosmopolitan Comfort Cuisine
Published Aug. 18, 2010
Carl Schroeder was the hot young chef hired by Bradley Ogden to oversee Arterra back when it was new. Schroeder made both his and the restaurant’s name there. Then he opened his own place, Market, at ...
Korea's Got Cooking Talent!
Published Aug. 11, 2010
The adventure began with an email from a work colleague: “You’ve got to try this place, even if you don’t review it. You should just ... More Post a comment
Food Girl's Mexican Soul
Published Aug. 4, 2010
I headed for Barrio Star with fear in my heart. Fear, and numerous variations of annoyance. Let’s start with the annoyances and touch on the ... More Comments (2)
You're Not in Guaymas Anymore
Published July 21, 2010
Some norteamericanos view Mexico as a romantic destination — aah, the wide beaches, the colorful villages, the open-air markets, the cute guys/gals, etc. On my ... More Comments (10)
A Goat Comes to North Park
Published July 14, 2010
The small sign on the restaurant’s front door, displaying the charming logo of a clever-looking billy enjoying a pipe, is hard to spot when you’re ... More Comment (1)
Of an Earlier Era
Published July 7, 2010
My friend Charlie Perry (now food writer for the L.A. Times and various food-scholar magazines) used to live about a mile from me in San ... More Comment (1)
Not "Baah" but "Ahh"
Published June 30, 2010
I had to think twice about trying Little Sheep, a Mongolian hot-pot restaurant, but I figured that if I hated it, I could title the ... More Post a comment
Whole New World
Published June 23, 2010
It’s summer-movie time, bringing all those boyish action flicks, indefatigable heroes with glam starlets breathing heavily all over them. This story, however, features a heroine, ... More Comments (2)
Cozy Mystery
Published June 16, 2010
I’ve passed Crown Bistro scores of times, always wondering about it: a little white building, well gardened and with an inviting front patio in front ... More Post a comment
Ya Gotta Have a Gimmick
Published June 9, 2010
Too much, too soon? Bencotto, a new Northern Italian restaurant in Little Italy, launched sometime this winter (the earliest Yelp raves I’ve spotted were posted ... More Comments (8)
The Maine Event
Published May 26, 2010
King’s Fish House’s announcement of its May–June Maine lobster event (ending July 4) set the gears spinning: I realized that my last review was eight ... More Comments (4)
Your Deliverance Is at Hand
Published May 19, 2010
Some nights, you don’t want to dress up for a restaurant or, worse yet, keep wearing that same stiff corporate outfit for 14 hours straight. ... More Comment (1)
Sensual Spa
Published May 12, 2010
The ever-enchanting Mistral (née Azzura Point) has been remade again with a renovated dining room and new chefs. The executive chef for the whole resort ... More Comments (3)
From Texas to Argentina
Published May 5, 2010
SOHO, which opened on Saint Patrick’s Day, instantly offered one of the most interesting, eccentric menus in San Diego, combining tastes from the South, the ... More Post a comment
Easy Does It
Published April 28, 2010
Still no alcohol license, still no menu on the website, but I finally gave in — whether it was ready or not, I had to ... More Comments (3)
Pecks of Pickled Peppers
Published April 21, 2010
Who’ll be the winner of Szechuan Idol? The two local finalists for the most authentic Szechuan food in San Diego are Ba Ren and Dede’s. ... More Post a comment
Upside Down in the Crescent City
Published April 14, 2010
About six months ago, “Tin Fork’s” Ed Bedford reviewed Indigo Café and liked it. He mentioned that half the dinner menu consisted of New Orleans ... More Comments (5)
Early Report: High Dive
Published March 31, 2010
The menu calls Quality Social “a bar with food.” It’d be more accurate to say “a serious casual eating place with a bar.” You could ... More Post a comment
Your Neighborhood of Azerbaijan
Published March 24, 2010
Cafe 2121 began as a quiet little breakfast/lunch place a few blocks west of Cafe 21 at 2121 Adams. The neighborhood adopted it warmly, so ... More Comments (4)
Tapas on Tokyo Time
Published March 17, 2010
An izakaya is the Japanese equivalent of a tapas bar or gastropub — a place where salarymen flock after work to snack on a variety ... More Comments (3)
From Disneyland to Ducasse
Published March 10, 2010
As my posse and I settled down and looked at the latest menu at Blanca, I sang out happily, “Thank God, it’s not the same ... More Comments (2)
Neighborhood Mom
Published March 3, 2010
When chef Amiko Gubbins left her pioneering eclectic-fusion restaurant Parallel 33 to go cook for a rock star, local foodies gasped. She finally shut Parallel ... More Comments (2)
Close, So Close
Published Feb. 24, 2010
Oh, so embarrassing! I’ve known for a long time that Soleil @ K had changed chefs (the opening chef moved on to another local restaurant), ... More Comments (2)
To the Lighthouse
Published Feb. 10, 2010
“Oh, Oysters, come and walk with us!” the Walrus did beseech. “A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk, along the briny beach.” — Lewis Carroll Aagh, ... More Comments (5)
Sour Grapefruit
Published Feb. 3, 2010
Can you judge a chef’s palate by a single dish if that dish represents how he cooks when he’s showing off for his peers? Before ... More Comments (10)
A Taste of the Tropics
Published Jan. 27, 2010
Planning a trip to India years ago, I set my sights on the south of the country (Kerala and Tamil Nadhu). Why? To eat. I’d ... More Comments (2)
Golden Oldie
Published Jan. 13, 2010
Last week’s search for great soups brought me to Dobson’s famed mussel bisque and thence to their website, where I discovered a well-kept secret, their ... More Comment (1)
Soup of the Evening
Published Jan. 6, 2010
So, holidays are over, all the fun is gone. All the money’s gone. Sorry, Gate, but you got here late, all the jive is gone. ... More Comments (5)
The Year in Restaurants
Published Dec. 30, 2009
Famous Chinese curse: “May you have an interesting life.” It’s been an interesting year, the financial weather a perpetual windstorm batting restaurants around along with ... More Comments (8)
Milan Modern
Published Dec. 23, 2009
Bice (pronounced “BEE-chay”) had been open only five weeks when I ate there, because I didn’t have the patience to wait the standard, tactful three ... More Comments (3)
The Native Quarter
Published Dec. 16, 2009
Oh, boy, has Paris Hilton ever left the building! Khloe Kardashian (as they say in N’awlins, “Who dat?”) may or may not show up at ... More Post a comment
Seafood and Splendor
Published Dec. 9, 2009
Let’s have one more chorus of “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” The hellish economy is kickin’ out the jams in the restaurant biz, especially in ... More Post a comment
Mystic Revelations
Published Dec. 2, 2009
Word spread from foodblog to foodblog until it reached my friend Lynne, who reads loads of ’em. She emailed me: “This place sounds interesting.” The ... More Post a comment
Back to Kathmandu
Published Nov. 18, 2009
Why would a one-time Nepal trekker ever want to eat Nepalese food again? Is it masochism — or is it just that Nepal casts such ... More Comment (1)
Gobble Well
Published Nov. 11, 2009
It’s starting to become a new tradition: celebrating Thanksgiving with “dinner out” or with home dinners utilizing restaurant takeout. More and more restaurants have jumped ... More Comment (1)
American Revolutionary
Published Nov. 4, 2009
Food can be a deeply political issue, but in this case it’s the merely skin-deep question of the restaurant’s name that’s bugging me. (Didn’t Shakespeare ... More Comment (1)
Fiesta for Friends
Published Oct. 28, 2009
It’s weird that right on the border here, we’re so slow to catch up with the rest of the country on real Mexican cuisine. We’ve ... More Comments (5)
The Golden Coast
Published Oct. 21, 2009
The Lynnester has ways to make men talk. When Mark and I arrived to meet her at Iris, she was having a drink and pumping ... More Comments (2)
99 Years of Seduction
Published Oct. 14, 2009
The U.S. Grant Hotel, completed in October 1910, is one of the city’s grandest old hotels. Its signature restaurant, the Grant Grill, is equally historic. ... More Comments (3)
Rare Burgers? Rarely
Published Oct. 7, 2009
Trekking in Nepal involved 25 grueling vegan days of rice, lentils, mustard greens, noodles, barley stew, and boiled potatoes (and one glorious night of smoky ... More Comments (51)
Have It Your Way
Published Sept. 23, 2009
Don’t cry for Laurel. It has gone to a far better place. Reincarnated as Cucina Urbana, you can now hang your hat (on the back ... More Comments (4)
Free-Range Grazing
Published Sept. 16, 2009
Alchemy doesn’t turn lead into gold, but its kitchen does turn good ingredients into palate-pleasers. Open seven months and well populated since Day One, it ... More Comments (2)
Feasting on Olympus
Published Sept. 9, 2009
Looking at the $20 menus for upcoming Restaurant Week, the sole temptation was Apollonia — but clicking to the website menu, I realized I wanted ... More Comments (2)
Crab Bag
Published Sept. 2, 2009
Truluck’s is a Florida-based surf-and-turf house specializing in crabs — above all, Florida stone crabs, but also Maine Jonahs, Pacific Dungeness, never-frozen (they claim) Alaskan ... More Comments (8)
Sail Away
Published Aug. 26, 2009
“Hotel restaurant” used to be shorthand for “What’s that slop you’re eating?” — back in the era of moldy “colonial” inns and all-one-mold “family” chains ... More Comment (1)
Seasonal Bouquet
Published Aug. 19, 2009
What a difference nine years makes, just 80,000 little hours. Over those years, Mille Fleurs has mellowed markedly, adapting to leaner times. This major mood ... More Post a comment
Over the Airplanes
Published Aug. 12, 2009
A few months ago, some guy from some burg like Dubuque emailed the paper, asking which restaurants he should try during a few days’ visit ... More Post a comment
Half a Glass
Published July 29, 2009
Everything about Glass Door makes it a delightful, entertaining restaurant — except the food. On the fourth floor of a new hotel in Little Italy, ... More Comments (22)
Top of the World, Ma!
Published July 22, 2009
La Valencia is a sheerly gorgeous hotel. Walking through that Spanish-Moorish tiled lobby en route to the Sky Room elevator, you want to sell your ... More Comments (4)
In the Realm of the Senses
Published July 15, 2009
Marine Room kicks off this summer’s unofficial series on “Rooms with a View — and Bargains, Too.” The small tradeoff that recession brings to visitors ... More Comments (5)
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