As you see our adventures was drastically decreased this month. Me being sick really slowed down our discovering :). We also met a few other couples out this month, which meant either not taking pictures or going to repeats. I’m sure we will pick it back up in May. We certainly enjoyed discovering the Kensington area, as three of the below is in that neighborhood. Not the most exciting month, but we found two gems.
Food
Bleu Boheme
We LOVE this place!! We have been three times so far, twice in the month of April. Though, we went recently and I was a bit disappointed with the french onion soup. I had high expectations and it did not met them. It was not salty enough and too much bread. I still recommend this place, and we have loved their brunch. They have a larger menu, so you can choose from breakfast or lunch items for brunch, which is nice. When we make it for dinner I will do a new post 🙂
Queenstown Public
This is the cutest little place in Little Italy. Great outdoor space, very lawn party. We went for a very late lunch, so we took advantage of some of their happy hour specials. It worked out super well since they offered many of their sandwiches in slider form, so we got to sample 4 different sandwiches instead of just two 🙂 I got their sangria sampler, it was ok, to be honest I think I’m just not a sangria fan. I want to be, but I’m never wowed. They had a nice beer selection. This is a return spot, I want to try their brunch!
The Haven Pizza
This place was fine, but there is better pizza in town. The service was great, and the pizza was good, but I like BLAH’s pizza better. I felt like it lacked seasoning. They had other items on their menu like salad and pasta, so maybe those are better. It seems to be a popular spot. The inside is super cute and they have a small patio.
Puesto
This was a lunch I had with Shannon, that I actually remembered to take pictures of!!! S and I have lunch on the regular, though I fail to document it almost all of the time or I’ve been there already 🙂 The tacos were surprisingly good, tons of flavor from the meat and toppings. The rice was only ok, it was a bit bland. This place has a great patio, perfect for a sunny day!
Moosies
Such a cute spot, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the ice cream. I had the chocolate covered strawberry and it had an artificial taste to it. P’s pistachio was much better tasting. It was a fun cap to our pizza night. Pizza and ice cream is such a fun outing 🙂
Booze
Mission Brewery
After trying one of their Amber ales for Into The Pint Glass that I thought fell short, I wanted to see if the draft version was any different. P is not one to say no to a brewery outing, for whatever the reason 🙂 I did get to try the amber ale on draft and it was much better than the bottle we bought (it must have been an old bottle). Great service, the bartenders were very personable and knowledgeable. Good beers, but nothing too unique. This place is dog friendly, though we didn’t take Sam since it was our first time.
Citybeat Festival of Beer
This beerfest was right up the street from our house, so we had to go. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, but there were not very many new to us breweries or beer offered. I didn’t get very many pictures, it was just too crowded for me to take pictures. With that said I’ve been to much more crowded beerfests. I think P and I might are have grown out of the beerfest scene. I think we enjoy the food + beerfests a little more these days. They tend to be a bit less crazy.
Other
P & I went on our first hike this month!! It was 1.5 miles one-way, round-trip of 3 miles. We parked at the lot right off of Navajo Road & Golfcrest, this lot is the start of the trail, and has restrooms and maps. We got there around 9am on Good Friday and got one of the last spots, I think we got luckily as cars were parked on the street. I was strongly considering stopping mid-way. P and I were taking a little break at one of the few shaded bends on the way up and this other couple passed us on the way down. This gentleman totally shamed me into making to the top. He was 65, bad hip, smoker and he made it to the top. I guess sometimes you get the push you need without even looking for it. The trail is steep in some areas, and it is busy. Don’t go expecting a quiet walk. Coming down was bit challenging just because the trail is steep and the dirt/rocks make it a bit slippery. We came home with a good amount of dust on our shoes and legs.
For more San Diego adventures check out Jessica’s blog. I have picked up some great tips from her to add to my continuously growing San Diego food list. Jessica had a review of Clem’s Tap House which just happens to be in the Kensignton neighborhood too. This is high on our try list as we were impressed with their store beer selection. We look forward to trying their sandwiches and bar area.
What was your favorite outing you took in April?
For more San Diego adventures:
Finally, I got to try a ramen place!! Underbelly has a remarkable space, the design is very cool, with seating mostly outdoors. This is an order at the counter and find a seat place. Both P and I got ramen, I got the charred vegetable and kimchi ramen and P got the underbelly version. Both were good, but we both liked the vegetable one best, it had a greater depth of flavor. One thing to note is that they do not serve spoons with their ramen, only chopsticks which I was not a huge fan of…broth is my favorite part! I did drink it out of the bowl, but I like having a spoon as an option. Would it be weird if I started carrying a spoon in my purse?
This place was recommended from one of P’s co-workers. It was quite good, and we would go back. We split a pizza and tried the calamari. I was not impressed at all with the calamari but the pizza was REALLY good. A table near us got the calzone and it looked so good and was huge!! It was so big the table right beside us got up and cancelled the other half of their order. We want to go back and try the calzone and one of their pasta dishes. Tons of pizza choices but limited pasta dishes and salads. They also had a very nice and ample outdoor area, though we ate inside since it was on the brisk side the night we went. Get there earlier to avoid a wait, we went around 6 and by 7 they were full (outside too).
I love Waypoint’s space with the big windows and bar seating all around. P and I had tried a few items here during the Bottle Share event and their dish at the Beer Garden event was one of our favorites. We had been wanting to try them for dinner for a while. I thought our dinner was good, but nothing I would insist on ordering again. I’m sure we will go back, but I may stick with their appetizers and small plates. I had the crab pot pie, it was perfect for the chilly night. Lots of crab meat but lacked seasoning and depth of flavor. Also, the veggies were in such huge chunks it was a bit hard to eat. I don’t want to have to bite through half a carrot or a huge wedge of potato. P had the mussels which were good, but not to our high standards. The broth was better than most, however the mussels did not pick up very much on the flavor. The dish was described as mussels and pork belly, the pork belly was no where to be seen in the dish or broth. An enjoyable evening with good service, even though the dishes didn’t quite live up to expectations. 
I don’t get the hype. The burritos were good but nothing spectacular. I’m not putting it under bad, it tasted fine, just not worth the wait. We went on a Friday around 1:30 and while the line moved quickly (we were in and out under an hour), it was still a wait. The place is crowded and the not all that clean, it’s not a relaxing meal. I had the California burrito with chicken and P had the California Surfer, both were fine but under-seasoned. Their salsa bar had a lot of choices and what we tried was good, though no labeling so I couldn’t tell you what we had. If we were to go back, I would skip the line, call in take-out and hop down to Acoustic Ales to enjoy it there. It would be a much better environment to eat your burrito in and you can skip the wait. 
This is a newly opened spot, hosting donuts and fried chicken…they had me at donuts. P and I picked up a few donuts one Friday morning to sample. They offer a nice variety of flavors but overall I was a bit disappointed. They are good, but just not to my taste, I feel like they could use a little more umph. The donuts themselves are really thick, almost like biscuits. They need filling. Only one out of the four we tried had filling, the lemoncillo one. The s’more and the maple bacon were disappointing because the only flavor you got was from the small amount of topping. P and I did try the chicken, the Nashville hot, but I neglected to take pictures. It was so good, but it was no joke spicy…lip tingling spicy. We will certainly be back to try the not so spicy version. It was cooked exceptional well, very juicy with a crispy outside…just the way fried chicken should be. They utilize chicken from a California supplier that is Step 3 in animal welfare, it’s nice they are transparent about where their chicken comes from. The service is also VERY friendly. They should consider adding a fried chicken and donut sandwich, those would sell like gangbusters….especially since their donuts are so dense. It is a winning idea 🙂 
This is a newly opened restaurant in San Diego that is near our house. I liked it, but didn’t love it. We split a sausage sandwich and the poutine. The poutine was the star of the meal, though it was more like loaded fries than poutine. It had more of a glaze (which was delicious) not gravy, labeling it poutine is a bit off. They used waffle fries which were great. I loved this dish. The sandwich was ok. The sausage itself was good, but the bun overwhelmed the sausage completely, they need to find different bread. I think next time we may just try the sausage plate instead. I was impressed that they offered four mustard choices. The deli and creole were my favorites. They also sell their sausages uncooked to grill at home, and I could 100% see us doing that. We also tried the chocolate covered bacon for dessert and I was not a fan, so much so that I only had a few bits. It was not good, the chocolate was gritty and the bacon was not crispy or salty…I wouldn’t give that dish a second chance. Overall, a good experience and good food (minus the chocolate bacon). As a side note, if you sit at the bar it is full service so you don’t have to wait in line to order.
Lefty’s shows up on a lot of lists as a good place for pizza and hot dogs. They style themselves as Chicago style in both, but also offer thin crust pizza. It was good, but I don’t know if I would go for the deep dish again. The one we got was uber garliky and I wanted more cheese.
Such a cute spot! The food was really good too, we went for brunch and liked both the dishes we tried. They had a really interesting cocktail menu as well, but we were not in the mood for a cocktail that morning. I also liked that their portion size was reasonable, unlike most of San Diego restaurants that give you enough food for two.
Awarded friendliest patron medal for our experience there. The bartenders were very friendly too. I liked the vibe here and I we will be back at least to get a T-shirt. The beers were ok, some were much better than others. Better across the board than ThornStreet but not as good overall as some of the other breweries we have tried.
We decided to pop into Coronado Brewing for a beer and a bit since we were in the area after a day at the beach. I love their beer! The atmosphere is pretty lacking however, very dark and not what you would expect from a beach brewery. The food was good but the menu was not very creative or enticing to me. They have a great selection of beers, so I do still highly recommend a visit. They had over 15 beers on tap to choose from.
This is such a cute a bar! I love the feel and interior! The drinks are good; not the best I’ve ever had but at $8 they are REALLY good. This is definitely on the repeat list. In fact I got Shannon to go with me for a little Sunday-Funday after our brunch.
Cute space, though in a random warehouse spot (see the bottom left). They had a lot of cute decorations up for Fall, aren’t those pumpkins cute? It was nice to see they had put a little effort into the decor. This is a nano brewery (meaning the do batches on a small scale). They had quite a large selection (I was expecting maybe only 4-5 beers on tap) but they had 15. They had an excellent Dubbel, which was funny since we were just saying that you don’t find very many good Dubbels from American breweries. Their Dubbel was extremely well balanced. Overall, their beers were good but I was only wowed by 2 of the about nine total we tasted (P and I each got a taster and shared a few sips of the ones that did not overlap).
Another warehouse brewing spot, this one though in the back of the building, making it a bit harder to find, though they did have good signage up. I was not impressed with their beers, I just don’t think they have the recipes down to make a solid beer. Kudos to them for producing the grossest beer I’ve ever tasted, garlic/onion is not a taste profile I would recommend for an IPA. A one on Untapped was too generous. Not a brewery we would be seeking out again. 
This was a find that was in our neighborhood and we happened to bike by one day, so we decided to pop in and give it a try. The beers were good, nothing spectacular but strong recipes. The atmosphere was great, the bartenders super friendly and knowledgeable, and the patrons were chatty. We enjoyed our time here and will definitely be back. 
Gorgeous beach. Very clean and plenty of beach space. I think it is the perfect spot for soaking up some sun and putting your toes in the water. We went on a Saturday around 10:30, and had no problem finding parking…it did begin to get quite a bit busier as we were leaving around 12:30. After our time on the beach we headed over to Coronado brewing…see that review under Booze! I went back another day by myself and it was just as nice. Even on a Friday, the parking was filling up by the time I was leaving around 12:45. Of course it could also be that it was such a gorgeous day!
We took a little drive up to Del Mar after a few brewery visits to grab some dinner and the sunset. The sunset was pretty spectacular and I was so glad we caught it. I’m obsessed with getting more sunset shots now. For dinner we squeezed into 
I envision a full post solely on Balboa as we explore more. I did not really grasp the magnitude of what the park had to offer or how large it was. This trip we just walked around, but we will certainly be back to explore some of the museums, zoo, and other offerings. For now you I just have pretty pictures to show some of the buildings, rose garden, and cactus garden. I could have spent hours in just the rose garden and cactus garden. The sun was not at the best angle for the pictures in the gardens but I was still enjoying snapping pictures left and right. The cactus garden reminded me of a landscape from a Dr. Seuss book. We had a fun afternoon just wondering around. For more San Diego Adventures make sure to check out my 
