Jake's Del Mar - Happy Hour

Date of Dining: 5/18/2012
Price: $6-11 happy hour
Location: 1660 Coast Ave, Del Mar, CA 92014
website

The Quick Bit:

+ great coastal view
+ discounted happy hour food
+ fast friendly service
Δ cooking temperatures could have been more accurate
Δ drinks could have been discounted

Jake's Del Mar is one of those restaurants that gets mentioned when people want to dine at a place with a great Ocean View. Generally, this means that the money you pay goes more into the rent than the food so the quality suffers. It also generally means you're paying a lot more than usual.

Enter happy hour - with discounted food at happy hour, Jake's becomes an affordable option for dining with a great atmosphere. "Bistro" dishes are discounted 40-50% and range from $6-$11. I decided to check out this happy hour option.

Food

ahi poke rolls - chili and soy dipping sauce

This one the one item we ordered that wasn't on the bistro menu. I imagined getting a roll that was more like a spring roll filled with the freshest and most succulent raw hawaiian poke. The photo speaks for itself as to what the result was.

grilled prawns - basil, prosciutto wrapped, melon vinaigrette

This was my favorite dish of the evening. The prosciutto wrapped prawns were cooked well and the crunch and saltiness of the prosciutto highlighted the prawns. On top of it, the melon salad was very refreshing as was the sauce.

layered seafood cocktail - shrimp, lobster, avocado, orange chili sauce

While I enoyed the seafood in the cocktail, the entire dish was missing a glue element to bring it together. The orange chili sauce really didn't work for me as it drowned out all the great flavors of the cocktail.

carlsbad mussels - coconut lime broth, tomato, cilantro, seabeans

The mussels were well cooked and flavorful. I really enjoyed the mussels and there were a great addition to the happy hour.

crispy calamari - macadamia nut crusted, sweet and sour glaze

Surprisingly, this dish really worked for me and was my second favorite of the night. The calamari was cooked to be perfectly tender and the macadmia nut in the crust came through to add a rich nuttiness. While I usually hate sweet and sour sauces, this one (used sparingly) seemed to provide that tiny bit of counterpoint to the fried crust.

jake's bistro burger - grilled onions and tillamook cheddar

To finish off, there was the standard burger. To their credit, I ordered medium rare and got a medium rare burger. The fries were fried well and were very crisp. Overall, I thought it was a great value for a $6 burger.

Conclusion

Jake's is not going to be winning a michelin star anytime soon. That said, Jake's does not set out to accomplish culinary perfection; ultimately this lack of pretentiousness works heavily in their favor.  What Jake's offers is american food with a Hawaiian twist with a drop dead gorgeous ocean view. 

Taken at happy hour pricing, this entire experience comes at an affordable price with a few nice dishes. Overall, it was a great way to spend an early Friday evening, and I encourage others to stop by as well.

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Nine Ten - Happy Hour

Date of Dining: 9/9/2011

Price: $5-8 per dish during happy hour

Location: 910 Prospect St, La Jolla, 92037

website

The Quick Bit:

+ Great price point at happy hour

+ High quality ingredients

+ Great desserts

Δ Seasoning of dishes was extremely uneven

Δ charcuterie could have been more inspired

While on the hunt for burgers, a friend passed me a tip to try the burger at Nine-Ten during happy hour. As I was already there, I went ahead and decided to sample more dishes off the happy hour menu in addition to the burger. Nine-Ten has a great happy hour deal as all the bar dishes are half priced during happy hour. Additionally, they have a $5 glass of red and white wine which rotates regularly.

Nine-Ten is located as part of the Grande Colonial Hotel in La Jolla. Nine-Ten is headed by Chef Jason Knibb whose food is characterized as "earth-to-table" meaning he only uses the freshest regional ingredients in his cuisine. Chef Knibb has trained under many chefs including Wolfgang Puck at Eureka, Roy Yamaguchi at Roy's Kahana Bar and Grill in Maui, and Trey Foshee at Tree Restaurant. 

While the fine dining restaurants are usually expensive to be inaccessible to many people, a lot of these restaurants will have a happy hour menu where the food is cheaper. A lot of times, this is the best way to sample the food of a restaurant to decide if you enjoy the food before committing to a larger and more expensive tasting menu. 

At Nine-Ten I ordered a selection of dishes and asked them to be coursed out. I did also order a burger, but that will be covered as part of a later blog post.

Charcuterie:

Charctuerie plate - La Quercia proscuitto, house-made rabbit rilletes, varzi salami

While La Quercia is a great proscuitto to have at home when purchasing from the market, the quality is not quite at the level of what should be expected from a fine dining restaurant. The rabbit rilletes (back) were the best item on this plate as they were full of flavor and well balanced. What brought this dish down was the pickles. Most of these were too strongly pickled and had a really strong acidic odor from the pickling liquid. 

Appetizers:

tuna tartare

The quality of the tuna was exceptional. Mixed with the avocado puree and the konbu, the tuna was perfect. Unfortunately, there were some soy-ponzu spheres that were also served with this dish. When these spheres were broken, the resulting flavors were very strong and overpowered the other rather delicate flavors of the dish. Fortunately it was easy to avoid the spheres so the dish was still very enjoyable.

hamachi sashimi

Again, the quality of the hamachi sashimi was exceptional. Alone, the taste, texture and oil of the hamachi didn't need much extra to really highlight the natural flavors. However, the button mushrooms seemed to have either been pickled or marinated in an overly aggressive and salty liquid, which completely ruined the dish. Had this not been a happy hour bar menu, I would have sent this dish back.

Sandwiches:

lamb meatballs - pine nuts, saltanas, san marzano tomato sauce, grilled artisan bread

The San Marzano tomato sauce was the highlight of this dish. Mixed with the pine nuts, the sauce was extremely flavorful, sweet, and interesting. Unfortunately, the lamb meatballs did not stand up to the sauce. The integration of the lamb into a meatball killed most of the gamey meat flavor that would have been necessary to contrast the sauce.

short rib panini - aged cheddar, onion marmalade

This was the best savory course of the evening. The panini was cooked very well and the onion marmalade was an excellent contrast to the tender and flavorful short rib. The cheese tied all the flavors together. This dish was so good on the savory side that I would return in the future to just order this dish. At $6 during happy hour, this is an absolute steal.

Dessert:

Strauss yogurt panna cotta

This was the best dish of the night. The texture of the panna cotta was just right and the flavor gave just the perfect hint of sweetness. The lychee and raspberry added a nice contrast of sweet and tart, and the toasted granola gave the nice textural contrast that was needed to round out the dish.

warm hazelnut cake - marscapone cream, plum, figs

While this dish was also well composed and very enjoyable, it was completely overshadowed by the panna cotta so I don't remember too many details about it. The figs were perfectly ripened and very enjoyable on their own.

Conclusion:

I was extremely impressed with Pasty Chef Jack Fisher's desserts. As I had almost not even ordered dessert, it was a good thing that my companion insisted that the dessert was ordered. On the savory side, I felt that many of the courses left an extra element to be desired. The only really good dish from that side was the short rib panini.

On the other hand, if I was to evaluate each of the dishes I had at the happy hour price, I would be extremely happy with the food to price ratio. For the price in which the food is being delivered, it is a smoking hot deal. If you're in La Jolla during happy hour, I would definitely recommend stopping by to enjoy the slightly diminished fine dining food at happy hour prices.

As an additional comment, I really disagreed with their choice of artisan bread as the bread left a strange aftertaste almost of raw flour in my mouth. I'm sure others really enjoy the bread that was used, but any courses containing bread seemed to be diminished for me if only because of the bread.

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