Culinaring Through Diego (Lunch Day 4)
lunch with a view? yes, please.
I’m so happy right now I can barely stand it, bubbling with satiation after a lunch at Bertrand’s at Mister A’s on the rooftop. With every meal, the depth of San Diego’s culinary well becomes clearer and clearer to me. This is a city whose best food must come with a side of ocean and/or skyline view. And to drink, San Diego’s smiling sun and gentle breezes.
Best mac and cheese ever. Maybe it was the black truffles or the comte cheese or the white truffle oil — I don’t know and to be frank, I don’t really care. The whirl of flavors sculpted into this beautiful classic have no equal. Mac and cheese dishes tend to be dense but this was not as it was too busy being elegant. One downside: this was the first face my stomach saw after waking up and by the time it was time to leave the restaurant, the cheese and cream were already waging war on my gastrointestinal system. Worth it though.
Despite the cutesie parsley foam and stylishly cut carrots, the braised prime beef short ribs fell short of anything spectacular. The sauce especially held a consistency and flavor profile too lithe to stay with the meaty ribs. Disappointing since half of the work was already done for the kitchen. Prime beef requires little attention to be, at the least, good. Something greater certainly should have come from Mister A’s kitchen.
Sauteed fresh trout meuniere with spoon spinach and steamed yukon potatoes. Most definitely an unforgettable presentation with the spinach wrapped inside the trout and a beet-red sauce striking against the white plate. And if you can’t tell from the picture, look at those baby yukons with sour cream inside them. Adorable!
Beyond its looks the trout, albeit a tinge overcooked, tasted like the ocean (in a good way). Freshness with a capital “F” as it were. The beet sauce could have used more punch but I suppose that’s why the spinach was there.
coffee keoke. pretty. worth sharing the picture.
The strawberry shortcake favored more strawberry than shortcake but no matter. The strawberries were as fresh as summer. If you can’t tell by the picture, that’s a spoon made out of shortcake on top. Notice the harbor in the background?
Tahitian vanilla bean creme brulee. Beyond its thicker than usual crust, the creme brulee made little impressions. Good? Yes. Excellent? No.
Mister A’s peach tart. The absolute best dessert of the meal and best tart I’ve ever had. Unfortunately the picture doesn’t do the tart justice but you can at least see its crumbly nature. I’ve had my fair share of predictable and clean cut cornmeal-crusted tarts. This tart not so, with a buttery-crumbly crust packed with sweet peach goodness.
For a restaurant as fine as Mister A’s, service shouldn’t have been as faulty as it was. Water glasses left empty for longer than— correction: water glasses ever empty, waiters so stoic you wonder if they were born mute, a slow kitchen. But like at most of San Diego’s best restaurants, there was a jaw-dropping view to keep our attention and distract us from the mistakes.
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