I was touring a few museums on a recent Tuesday (when San Diego residents get in free) when hunger struck. I was close to The Prado and decided to treat myself to a Cohn Restaurant experience. I was pleasantly surprised by the inviting water fountain out front and the stellar service inside.

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What to eat? So many choices. I decided to start with the Mussels ($11.95) and head into the Market Salad. Each was large enough to satisfy a moderate lunch appetite. The mussels were steamed in whole grain mustard, white wine, and herbs and although they were small mussels, they were tasty mussels.

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The vegetarian (although I’m not one) Market Salad ($14.95) had a base of organic baby field greens, baby beets, tomato, avocado, roasted white corn, green beans, and was dressed in a light cracked coriander vinaigrette. This was the ideal salad for me as I’m into eating food in season and the corn couldn’t have been more perfect.

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My husband ordered the Baby Beet salad ($9.95), another winner. It contained red and gold beets, shaved fennel, frisee, and Sonoma goat cheese, with truffle vinaigrette. The baby beets were small but filling and the cheese was a good complement to the dish.

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Last but not least we headed into dessert with the Tres Leches ($8.50), which was the traditional "three milk" soaked sponge cake, baked pistachio meringue filled with caramel bananas. All this was topped with vanilla bean ice cream. The caramel splattered on the plate made for an even sweeter, more enjoyable dessert.

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1549 El Prado
 San Diego, CA
 Balboa Park
 (619) 557.9441 Lunch: Monday-Friday: 11:30am-3pm
 Sat-Sun: 11am-3pm Dinner: Tuesday-Sunday at 5pm http://www.cohnrestaurants.com/menu-restaurants/the-prado/