foodies: a southern california food blog

the prado / san diego, ca

mary — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:00:02 +0000

On a rainy Sunday in March, I met up with my long time friend, Sarah, and took her to the Prado for lunch. Sarah was in town visiting from Alaska, not very happy to find that it was raining in usually sunny San Diego. I originally couldn’t find a place to park downtown for another place we were going to go for breakfast, but we ditched that plan and headed over to Balboa Park. The Prado doesn’t actually serve breakfast and isn’t open until 11AM, so we killed a little time walking in the misty rain. The botanical gardens are a neat place to visit when it’s slightly wet out – though I still recommend a jacket and either a hat or an umbrella to keep your mind off of getting wet.

When the restaurant started taking customers, we stopped back over and were seated in a pretty spot overlooking the wet terrace. I must admit that the Prado is usually out of my price range, but I figured we’d find something a little cheaper on the lunch menu for us to enjoy. We decided to each get a bowl of soup and to split balsamic grilled portobello mushroom sandwich. A split plate charge allowed us to each get our own sides and half of the sandwich for an additional $3 – score!

I got the Prado Tortilla Soup ($6.95) to warm up my belly that day. The soup was at an excellent temperature – ready to eat right away, but not too cold to make me think it had been sitting out for awhile. It was just spicy enough for my taste buds, with big strips of chicken and tortilla chips that got soft from sitting in the balmy liquid.

The Portobello Mushroom Sandwich ($11.95) comes on a baked ciabatta roll with a lovely chimichuri sauce. The flavors of the sandwich were really excellent. The only problem was that my mushroom kept trying to fall out of my sandwich and I discarded the roasted bell pepper before I even began (since I don’t like bell peppers). We got homemade taro chips to crunch on and a marinated veggie salad for side dishes. The veggie salad had a really good crunch and an excellent medley of flavors that I really enjoyed.

The one other thing that I really love at the Prado (that I did not get on this visit) is the crispy calamari fries. They come in this totally awesome Asian sauce and I love love love them. I could probably eat them as a meal by itself. And maybe I will next time. And take photos to share with you. Oh yes. They will be mine.

The Prado
1549 El Prado
San Diego, CA
(619) 557-9441

original roadhouse grill / temecula, ca

mary — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:40:57 +0000

My boyfriend and I spent a little time up in Temecula, CA recently. We had time to kill that day. We were driving around and we were originally going to go to the Souplanation. After we got out of the car, we both sniffed the deliciousness coming from the Original Roadhouse Grill and changed paths. Jake isn’t into waiting for tables, but since we had the aforementioned time to kill, we endured the 45 minute wait for a table on a Saturday evening. They do break up this wait by offering up a bucket of shelled peanuts to distract you from the monotony of waiting for a table.

Since I didn’t have any water, I wasn’t too into cracking open peanuts to snack on. I will say this though – if you have a peanut allergy, this may not be a good place for you to go. There were peanut shells all over the floor and seats in the waiting area. I’m glad I don’t ever have to clean that up.

I was still feeling a little ill from eating too much popcorn at the movies earlier that day (Sherlock Holmes was actually good, if you ask me!) so I decided to go for something off of the “Little Less Dinner” menu. A little less also means a little less money taken from your pocket, so I’m all for that. I ordered the Bison Meatloaf Dinner ($8.99).

The meatloaf, which is made with lean ground bison meat and covered in mushroom gravy, was just okay. I think I should have listened to Jake when he said he didn’t order it because it had bell peppers in in, but mushroom gravy + meatloaf sounded way too good to me. But yeah, I don’t like bell peppers either. The meatloaf itself was moist and juicy, but the flavor didn’t totally do it for me. The “Garlic Mashers” though were so delicious that it totally made up for the meatloaf! I could tell these would be terrible for me when I pressed my fork into them and butter oozed out. I had bacon added in, too, just to make it outrageously bad for me and man was it good. Best mashed potatoes ever!

Jake got the Bourbon Tri-Tip Dinner ($9.99). He let me have a bite of it and as soon as I did, I was jealous of his meal. Live and learn.

Original Roadhouse Grill
26440 Ynez Rd
Temecula, CA 92591
(951) 719-3389

pinkberry – free mango yogurt (today!)

mary — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:00:31 +0000

Pinkberry is adding a new flavor to their lineup this spring: Mango! To celebrate the new flavor’s introduction, Pinkberry stores will be offering a free “mini”- sized mango frozen yogurt during their Mad About Mango Happy Hour from 5PM-9PM on Friday, March 12, 2010. At the Mad About Mango Happy Hour, in addition to receiving the free mini mango, guests will enjoy in-store trivia games to win Pinkberry gift cards and Mad About Mango t-shirts.

Free stuff is awesome so be sure to stop by Pinkberry tonight and get your free mango frozen yogurt! Click here to find the Pinkberry nearest you.

chick-fil-a – green receipt fridays in march

mary — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:00:15 +0000

After a recent visit to Chick-fil-A last Friday, my boyfriend, Jake and I have determined that we are now official lovers of Chick-fil-a. We really liked the chicken sandwiches from before (when I got some free coupons to try their Spicy Chicken sandwich last summer) but our recent visit made us love it even more. Jake’s son, Thackery, had just had a tooth pulled the day before and was not able to eat a chicken sandwich. We were standing at the counter looking at the menu, trying to determine what he would be able to eat from the menu. The manager was at the counter and asked us if she could help suggest some items from the menu and we explained our situation. She suggested their chicken soup or a milkshake and emphasized with him and pulled tooth. We ended up getting both the soup and the milkshake for him and she gave us the milkshake for free since Thackery was being a real trooper and healing up from his tooth surgery. How awesome is that? Good service like that always makes you want to go back to a place and now we totally love Chick-fil-A even more than before.

We also found out that Chick-fil-A is running a special this month: every Friday in March you get a green receipt with your meal. You can come back any day during the month of March and get your order duplicated for free when you show your green receipt. You just have to come back in March to get the free items! Be sure to visit Chick-fil-A on a Friday in March to take part of this awesome deal.

bread bites and moore / san diego, ca

mary — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:41:49 +0000

I was up in Rancho Pensaquitos getting those cupcakes the other day when I discovered that the cupcake place didn’t open until noon. I had about 15 minutes until it opened and since I hadn’t eaten yet, I decided to pop over to Bread Bites and Moore to check it out. The “Moore” part of the restaurant’s name isn’t a mistake or a drawn out way to say “Mooooore”, but it’s actually the owner’s last name. Awesome.

I wasn’t sure what to try exactly. You can see they emphasize a few things on their exterior sign, but I wasn’t quite in the mood for ribs. I wanted something small and quick. I decided to try one of their personal sized pizzas and I got it with roasted chicken. I also had to try some of their Bread Bites since it’s in the name of the restaurant. Well that and I “loove” bread.

Service was fairly quick – though I must also admit that the place was quite empty (it was Saturday around lunch time). I sat and watched some of the Olympics on TV (men’s curling) while I waited for my food. The first thing to come out were the bread bites ($2.50 for a half dozen – though you can see I got an extra one) – little freshly baked bites flavored with garlic and butter and a pinch of salt. They were really good and it was hard to not eat my whole basket of rolls. They reminded me a lot of Pat & Oscar’s bread sticks, but in little roll forms. Very excellent.

The roast chicken pizza ($5.95 for Individual 7″ Pizza with One Topping) was very good. Served pipping hot, the cheese all nice and melted and the juicy chicken pieces made for a delectable meal. The crust was evenly cooked and crisp and a little on the thick side – just how I like it. I’m not a big fan of thin-crust pizzas since the crust is usually my favorite part, so this was an excellent pizza for my tastes. The pizza sauce was sweet and well balanced as well. Score!

This family owned restaurant does remind me a lot of Pat & Oscar’s with their choice of offerings – pizza, chicken, ribs, and bread rolls – but it doesn’t have that corporate-chain feeling. It feels a little more homey with their TV’s and service and is a nice place to take the family for an afternoon meal.

Bread Bites & Moore
7845 Highland Village Pl
San Diego, CA 92129
(858) 780-2501