Swicks

with a quick cab ride you can acess nearly all of the city's best restaurants... Recs...Gary Danko and Michael Mina for fine dining, Tadditch Grill for old school San Francisco, Myth or Canteen for new american, Postrio is a favorite, a little bit further is Incanto for Italian and offal....etc.

Totally agree with this.... The stuff with his neice and nephew wasn't really funny to me either.

Man i'm drooling at that picture... Ham futures...GENIUS. Would there be a reasonable facimile avaliable at a specialty food store, say a whole foods?

I too was surprised at how good he was during this portion, it would be a great show, cooking instruction plus snark and hilarity. Sounds like a recipe for success to me (pardon the awful pun). Not surprising given that he has been on tv for awhile and is just naturally good on camera.

Can anyone describe how the flavor differs from other types of ham or good prociutto?

If you are referring to their cold fried chicken I have not. I wanted to last time but they had run out by the time I got there. It's on my radar screen ← Same here, they were out of it when I was in last time.

well said.... I am going to try and get in there for brunch this weekend. Anyone try the fried chicken yet?

Did anyone watch? I thought it was pretty good. I can't believe I am going to say this but it was nice to see Tiffani win, i think she is a talented cook. It was also nice to see everyone getting along and none of the BS drama. Glad Tre made it far and got some props. I think he kind of got screwed by the "surprise challenge" I think I would have just said..."you know what, you can just keep your books and your painful patronization to yourselves" Interesting that Tiffani has her own shop opening soon and in LA. When she put out that desert I immediately thought of the Butterscotch Bundino at Pizzeria Mozza.

The S. Irene Virbila and the LA Times have high praise for Bastide: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo...ack=2&cset=true I can't seem to find her star rating though, but its a highly positive review.

I did not. I actually didn't even know there was a downstairs. We were sitting at a table for four along the banquette opposite the bar. Since the menu and beer list seem to compliment each other so well, I didn't really bother much with the wine. I did see a $2900 burger special (includes a bottle of Screaming Eagle), but otherwise I was mostly interested in the draft selection. ← Check it out online. But honestly, the food is so well suited to the amazing selection of beers its tough to think too much about a $60 bottle of wine. I may try and pop in tomorrow night for some mussels....

Very nice! That christmas eve dinner looks unbelievable. "Foie gras and rabbit terrine, sauterne gelée, baguette 22." YES PLEASE!

Good report Jason, I echo all of your sentiments about the place. Where exactly were you sitting? Did you take a look at the small space downstairs? When I dine there in the future, i imagine it will be early in the evening midweek. Also as an FYI the started serving brunch this weekend and will start serving lunch in January. I am glad your service was better than mine. Mine wasn't awful as our server was very nice and trying really hard but he just seemed very inexperienced and didn't know the menus at all. What did you think of the wine list?

I would say the mains are definitely more consistent with standard entree size, but not overly large so you could probably do both depending on how hungry you were. The burger for example was a 1/4 pound so not super large. This of course based on only one meal there.

A Kate Bush cover? Very nice. I may have to try that IPOD idea, if only to subject everyone in the place to my odd musical tastes. I would pay money to see the place clear as Black Dice hits the speakers. I agree it's a cool idea, though. This place sounds great by the way. I checked out their website and the prices seem VERY resonable. ← Awesome, they finally updated their site with the menu! I thought for the quality of the food the prices were definitely reasonable.

nice choices! I was thinking along the downbeat/triphop angle myself.

Yeah, I am definately getting the mussels next time around. They also serve a variety of different Fra' Mani products in various preparations which all sounded good. It was more of an orange-ish color but bits of tomato and tomato flavoring were worked into the dough to give it a slight tomato flavor. As a music snob myself I am putting together a playlist for ipod night as well. A very cool idea. Mind if I inquire as to what is on your playlist?

Finally got to Crow Bar for dinner last night. Very impressed, it is exactly what I was hoping for out of this place. Space - small and inviting, decor is nothing special. Deafeningly loud however, but for me it wasn't and issue as it is a casual place. Plus we were dead in the middle of the restaurant. They have a small downstairs area with a couch, seats and a fireplace and one hightop communal table. Food - Really really awesome menu. Definitely true to its "gastropub" name. All casual and rustic food but with some interesting and upscale twists. Some interesting salads and appetizers but mains are really where its at. Most of it is casual food done really well. A few types of burgers, shortribs, mussels, sausage, fish and a steak. They have a wood fired oven for some interesting flatbreads. Also interesting were the grilled cheese of the day and the gratin of the day, two cool concepts. Prices were pretty reasonable to me, most mains were $10-$15 with a few items above that. Everything else was around $9. Drink - Beer is definitely the focus with a really impressive list of micros on draft and another large group available by the bottle, some really great choices here that complement the food really well. Wine is not an afterthought either with some good choices by the glass and a very well thought-out list. Nothing too expensive and some interesting choices. Most bottles are in the $40-$65 range. I had the classic cheeseburger, with as they put it "a top secret proprietary blend of all natural angus beef". In any case, it was really delicious and cooked perfectly. Served on a tomato infused bun with the traditional fixings. No ketchup is allowed however, I understand where the chef is coming from on this as the burger didn't need it at all. Fries were decent. My companion had the grilled cheese of the day, taleggio with arugula and brown mustard, delicious and simple. Deserts are twists on some classic deserts, we had the home-made "ding dong" which is exactly what it sounds like. We were both chocolate fans so it was right up our alley. Service was spotty but it is to be expected with inexperienced servers at a brand new place, it was all very minor stuff like not knowing the menu very well, etc and they were trying hard so it made up for it. Overall I really loved this place and will definitely be a regular. While not cheap I think it is reasonably priced enough to become a regular haunt for me. It is exactly what I hoped it would be and i look forward to making my way through the menu.

I think you really nailed it on the head with this comment Russell, well said. I have to get in and try that spot prawn/foie dish! Nice report Jason.

Wow, that sounds amazing, definitely different from your typical belly presentation. As far as "soy carmel" goes it sounds simliar to what Sam Mason at Tailor in NYC does, his presentation is with a "butterscotch miso" Very interesting, thanks for the clarification, my mouth is watering.

Jason, I am curious about that Pork Belly you had at Redd, based on the picture it looks like it was served in slices as opposed to the usual blocks? It is definitely one of my favorite things and I have never seen a presentation like that.

San Diego is a big and spread out over a large geographical area, a car is essential as rapid transit is neither rapid nor especially efficient. The North Park corridor has a lot of new and interesting restaurants starting with The Linkery a place devoted to sustainable and locally grown products...including some of San Diego's finest craft beers. For Mexican, well unfortunately, San Diego doesn't really have great Mexican food. We've probably got more taco shop per square inch than anywhere else in the world, but good Mexican is hard to find Candelas upscale alt cocina Mexican El Agave in Old Town, if mole is the choice, this is the place. Can be inconsistent Mama Testa Taqueria devoted entirely to tacos from every state in the Mexican republic. The Mojados de Carne are exceptional (a soup really, rolled tacos cut into lengths and floating in a richly flavorful and spicy broth) or the hard shelled mashed potato tacos El Comal Since the closure of Chilango's this is the closest thing I've found to mid-range, not dumbed down Mexican food. On Illinois a 1/2 blk. north of Univeristy Super Cocina - the only place in SD to go for homestyle Mexican cooking. On University between Cherokee and 37th. Very far off the beaten tourist track, locals only. Food is served from a steam table but do not let that deter you. This is truly homestyle cooking and is very, very good. They will give you as many tastes of items as you want. Very inexpensive. Neighborhood can be a bit sketchy, especially after dark, perfectly safe during the day SD is not really a food destination, but if you look hard enough you can really find some pretty interesting stuff happening around town. ←

You could feed a small army at Hash House From the same folks that brought you Hash House comes The Tractor Room an ode to red meat, game and cocktails. Tables are close together, it's a little uneven, but the cocktails and apps are great and, as with Hash House, portions are on the obscene side of generous. I don't know that I'd recommend pizza to anyone from NYC since most of my East Coast friends lament the lack of even marginally good pizza in SD. A lot of people, however, also seem to like Lefty's in addition to Bronx. And, Caffe Calabria is getting darn close to opening their new wood burning pizza oven and Napoli style pizzas. Yeah, they've been training to make pizza in Italy, we'll see how they do. ← Crap, you are right, I didn't notice they were from NYC...yeah, definately don't bother.

Wahoos is the place for fish tacos. All their other stuff is great too. I am not a huge fan of the Crab Cooker personally but it definitely fits the bill for what you are looking for and isn't a chain type restaurant.

great recs Kalypso... I will enthusiastically second the following Cafe 222, Laurel, Tapenade, and El Comal. For breakfast I also like Hash House a Go Go in Hillcrest For pizza Bronx Pizza in Hillcrest

Awesome report Jason.