Photo by DiscoverSD.com
We’ve been busily eating our way around the city, but too busy to write up reviews… Hopefully we’ll catch up here over the next week or two.
Our first catch-up review is of the easily-overlooked Lamont Street Grill, just between Garnet and Grand in Pacific Beach. We warn you: bring a GPS and pay attention when you’re driving, or you might just miss this tiny converted home.
But the hassle of actually finding the barely-marked place, in addition to the major hassle of parking in Pacific Beach, is well worth it to eat here. It’s a beautiful little restaurant, full of personality – a few scattered tables dot the cozy patio (a couple snuggled together at the table near the outdoor fireplace) and small tables dot every room – including a great bar – of the former home. A beautiful mural decorates one wall. A multitude of windows open the space up.
We were greeted by friendly, knowledgeable staff. They were able to answer our questions and make reccommendations – both about food and wine – a big plus. The menu is short, but packed with hearty, well-thought-out dishes. The bread is good and came to our table warm with butter; it was gone within minutes and replaced by another basket.
We chose the garlic and breadcrumb-crusted halibut and the fillet mignon; for starters, he ordered the special broccoli peanut butter soup and she chose the house salad. We shared a mixed white wine.
She was most disturbed by the idea of a broccoli and peanut butter soup, but the waiter assured us that the chef was a renowned soup cookbook author (we checked: he is). And actually, the soup itself was a pleasant and interesting surprise. The bold vegetable flavor of the broccoli interspersed with the creaminess of the peanut butter and the tiny crunchy peanuts. Very small amounts of heat (tobasco?) distributed throughout helped play off the other flavors. The unexpected combination was both tasty and tantalizing.
Her house salad was equally a great start to the evening; a beautiful mixture of baby bibb leaves with walnuts, bleu cheese, and tomatoes, it was topped off with a velvety basil vinaigrette. The dish had an unmistakable freshness and every element balanced the others out so perfectly that the only criticism she could find is that she wished the plate were bigger (this was a very generous side salad, by the way).
Our entrees were equally as mouthwatering. The halibut’s crunchy topping melted into the sauce and the pasta beneath, every bit of the soft, sweet fish marrying together. Despite a creamy sauce, it was a delightfully un-heavy dish. She couldn’t imagine a better way to eat halibut.
Gracing the plate was a slice of fresh, sweet tomato and a perfectly-cooked melange of fresh vegetables. Most restaurants overcook their veggies and drench them in butter; these were steamed perfectly and presented blissfully naked. They were in need of no other dressing.
The fillet was even more outstanding; the meat was so tender it could have been cut with a fork. The flavor was incredibly intense – the red wine sauce and the caramelized onions only heightened what was undoubtedly a superior cut. He commented that he has never had a better-tasting or more buttery piece of beef, and she agreed (by the way, both have eaten fillet at many a restaurant, but neither could remember a single meal where the beef had better texture or flavor). The accompanying boiled potato was plain; a perfect compliment to the intensity of the beef. Both felt that anything richer would have only been in competition.
We finished the evening with a piece of their house-made Bailey’s Irish Cream cheesecake. With chocolate cookie crust, this dessert might have been at home on the menu of a “chain” restaurant, but the sophisticated combination of flavors was surprising and delighting (don’t get us wrong, we have had many good meals in a chain restaurant; but we weren’t expecting such incredible flavors in a dish we’ve seen done poorly elsewhere). We were not disappointed.
A quick note on the wine: we didn’t remember to write down the vintage, but a generous pour for a reasonable price (we believe it was $7, but could be $1 off) and complimentary tasting of two wines we were deciding between meant that we could enjoy what we got throughout the meal without having to feel ripped off. And that’s definitely not the case at all fine dining restaurants.
Overall, Lamont Street Grill offers everything; an excellent meal start-to-finish, great service, a beautiful (if small) and romantic setting, and reasonable prices. Our fillet’s menu price was only $26.95 – a relative steal for such a veluptuous dish. And Lamont Street Grill participates in the Entertainment Book fine dining program; so we got our entire meal, including wine, for under $50. Yes, that’s under $50.
Our only (tiny) complaint was that, even on a Wednesday evening, the place was relatively loud; it’s probably the acoustics of such an old house coupled by the hallway in which we were seated. But we seemed to hear the conversation of everyone around us, and not in a “cozy” sort of way. Still, once the food came, we forgot all about the loudness; so it’s really not anything that would discourage us from entertaining friends there.
Off the beaten path and willing to take a culinary leap, Lamont Street Grill is definitely one to put on your short lis.
San Diego Foodie 