cantab
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Fab Palace, No Clothes
Naomi Wise should give Addison another chance. It's not perfect, but it is very good. The restaurant now offers only either a four course menu with choices, or a seven course tasting menu "at the mercy of the chef." Two of us had the former yesterday, priced at $98 before drinks, tax or tip. At lot of what Naomi Wise writes is correct. The menu changes very slowly. The menu we were offered was identical to one framed by the entrance, who knows how long ago. All the ingredients are obviously first-rate, but not described on the menu. Preparations tend to be simple, but difficult, with contrasting flavors on the same plate. We liked all the dishes we had, and all were executed very well. Unlike most other top restaurants in California, it seems this one does not have unqualified, unsupervised line cooks. The cooking is in fact very French, in the “haute cuisine” style: small but satisfying portions of high-quality ingredients, cooked in traditional ways but with untraditional spices and combinations. As is customary in top restaurants in France, there are clear influences from Japanese and other cuisines, but the result is purely European. We didn’t see any foam or other postmodern influences. As Naomi Wise says, the service is formal, but we found all the servers to be friendly. As she points out also, occasionally they say things that aren’t true. Our waiter said that sablefish is the same as cod. It isn’t. It is sometimes called black cod or blue cod, but it’s still not the same. The restaurant suffers from its design and decor. It is very comfortable, but excessively spacious in a nouveau riche, Carmel Valley, American way. The artwork and the interior design are excessively homogeneous and symmetrical and tame. As of the summer of 2009, Addison is the only restaurant in San Diego to score a 17 from the Gayot guide. San Diego’s other top restaurants have 16s. Addison probably deserves this food rating, mainly for the consistency of the kitchen compared to at its competitors. Addison is very good, but other restaurants provide better value for money and sometimes a more sensual, satisfying experience overall.— August 16, 2009 11:56 a.m.
In the Realm of the Senses
"I need to explain just what I mean by 4 3/4 stars for food and why he doesn’t get the whole fantastic five ... It’s not that a line-chef oversalted some prawns" Naomi, your reviews are wonderful but you need to be tougher when you assign stars. A line cook who messes up a dish is a major fault. A really good restaurant delivers a consistent experience. Michelin stresses consistency in its evaluations, for good reasons. Line cooks are the Achilles heel of American restaurants. We have many chefs with great talent here. We have fewer restaurants that can deliver what the chefs can when they cook personally. When a dish in San Diego has an obvious flaw, such as too much salt, I always wonder whether the line cook was a gardener the week before. You mention that Bernard Guillas "learned his craft through the rigorous French apprenticeship system." That's what we are missing in California: line cooks who are part of a system of quality rather than just unskilled help.— July 19, 2009 4:05 p.m.
Modigliani Mussels, Absinthe Fountain
Correction to my review: The cassoulet came with a "crépinette." According to Wikipedia, this is "a small, flattened sausage made of minced or ground pork, lamb, veal, or chicken, wrapped in caul fat. Usually breaded and sautéed in butter." Indeed, the crépinette was on the cassoulet, and it was delicious. Too bad the waitress couldn't explain this.— January 14, 2009 2:24 p.m.
Holiday Inn
Gavin Kaysen is long gone, to be a celebrity in New York now. Justification for five stars may be long gone also. El Bizcocho now has a new chef who is a fervent proponent of molecular gastronomy. We went for restaurant week in January 2009. The outcome is underwhelming. One dish supposedly had "foie gras powder" but this was undetectable. In Bananas Foster, the bananas are converted into a thin syrup. This tasted vaguely of caramel and that's all. On a nonmolecular level, the menu tries hard to be original, but without much point. For example, one main dish is "duck chop." Gee, yes, you won't get see that on a menu anywhere else. But what is it in reality? Just a duck breast with some bone attached. The downside of including the bone is that the traditional presentation of contrasting crispy skin, melt-in-your mouth fat, and rare flesh goes missing. The kitchen is no doubt excellent at technique, classical and modern, but the basics are sometimes forgotten. Butter was at the right temperature, but tasted stale. Cured sashimi had interesting flavors, but all were overpowered by salt. All in all, the molecular tricks come at the expense of sensuousness, and the elaborate preparations obscure the true nature of the ingredients. Portions were tiny, appropriate for a tasting menu but not for a three course dinner. Service was friendly and welcoming, but not sensitive. After telling us that we could continue talking as long as we wanted (not so directly!) the waiter came for the bill before we had laid down our credit card.— January 14, 2009 2:21 p.m.
El Bizcocho
We went for restaurant week in January 2009. El Bizcocho is now into molecular gastronomy, but the results are underwhelming. One dish supposedly had "foie gras powder" but this was undetectable. In Bananas Foster, the bananas are converted into a thin syrup. This tasted vaguely of caramel and that's all. On a nonmolecular level, the menu tries hard to be original, but without much point. For example, one main dish is "duck chop." Gee, yes, you won't get see that on a menu anywhere else. But what is it in reality? Just a duck breast with some bone attached. The downside of including the bone is that the traditional presentation of contrasting crispy skin, melt-in-your mouth fat, and rare flesh goes missing. The kitchen is no doubt excellent at technique, classical and modern, but the basics are sometimes forgotten. Butter was at the right temperature, but tasted stale. Cured sashimi had interesting flavors, but all were overpowered by salt. All in all, the molecular tricks come at the expense of sensuousness, and the elaborate preparations obscure the true nature of the ingredients. Portions were tiny, appropriate for a tasting menu but not for a three course dinner. Service was friendly and welcoming, but not sensitive. After telling us that we could continue talking as long as we wanted (not so directly!) the waiter came for the bill before we had laid down our credit card.— January 14, 2009 1:07 p.m.
Modigliani Mussels, Absinthe Fountain
We couldn't recognize the restaurant that Naomi Wise reviewed. Instead of "the tastiest late-’50s jazz" there is earsplitting noise from raucous happy-hour conversationalists and a crying baby (really). The decor is all hard surfaces and uncomfortable seating. There is no detectable bone marrow in "the glorious five-onion soup with short-rib meat and beef marrow," just too much sugar. The so-called cassoulet has undercooked al-dente beans, and strong inauthentic North African spices. The sausage and duck leg confit on the cassoulet were good, but they were obviously cooked separately. This dish is not cassoulet at all. Prices are at the level of Rancho Santa Fe: $33 for the so-called cassoulet. Service is friendly but uninformed. The menu says the cassoulet comes with a "crepiniere." (I may have misremembered the French word.) The waitress explained this incorectly. The kitchen did not produce it at all.— January 10, 2009 8:32 a.m.
Currant
There is nothing left of the restaurant that Naomi Wise reviewed. Instead of "the tastiest late-’50s jazz" there is earsplitting noise from raucous happy-hour conversationalists and a crying baby (really). There is no detectable bone marrow in "the glorious five-onion soup with short-rib meat and beef marrow," just too much sugar. The so-called cassoulet has undercooked al-dente beans, and strong inauthentic North African spices. The sausage and duck leg confit on the cassoulet were good, but they were obviously cooked separately. This dish is not cassoulet at all. Prices are at the level of Rancho Santa Fe: $33 for the so-called cassoulet. Service is friendly but uninformed. The menu says the cassoulet comes with a "crepiniere." (I may have misremembered the French word.) The waitress explained this incorectly. The kitchen did not produce it at all.— January 10, 2009 8:23 a.m.