Appetizers:

Crab Cake Served on Spinach with Orange Reduction Sauce

Warm Goat Cheese Crouton, Drizzled with Lavender Honey, Candied Walnuts, Mixed Greens with Apple, Bacon, Mushrooms &Truffle Vinaigrette

I have to say, this was our favorite course of the meal.  According to JT, the crab cake was loaded with lumps of crab meat.  She loved it and it did look pretty darn good from where I was sitting!  My salad was absolutely delicious!  The best part is the highlighted item – warm goat cheese, drizzled in the lavender honey.  My goodness, I could have eaten TEN of these croutons!  Paired with a fresh salad, it made me feel like I was eating something healthy and good.  Althought I would have to say that those mushrooms were a bit out of placed.  Had they been marinated mushrooms, that would have made the dish twice as good.

Entrees:

Fisherman’s Stew with Mussels, Fish, and Potatoes, In a Saffron Lobster Broth with a Rouille Crouton

Duck Confit with Fries & Salad

Our entrees was not our first choices, because they ran out of the Cassoulet (White Bean Stew with Duck Confit, Bacon & Sausage).   JT enjoyed her stew, and it smelled nice, but it was not what I would want either.  My Duck Confit was sadly under seasoned and a little dry.  Also, my fries should have been crispier too.  There’s nothing worse than a limp fry!

Dessert:

Apple Tarte Tatin with Vanilla Ice Cream

JT and I both ordered the Tartin, but again…much to our disappointment, the apple filling was too sweet for us.  It felt like canned apple pie filling to me, but I cannot confirm that this was the case.  The best part of this dessert was the ice cream.

Overall, La Bastide Bistro completely failed my expectations and they were not even set high to begin with!  That was probably the worst part for me.  Would I come back?  For the prices they are charging both in their lunch and dinner menu, I think I’d rather opt for a different option.

La Bastide Bistro
10006 Scripps Ranch Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92131

Appetizers

So CP did not go with the pre-fixe menu, but still had a starter.  His choice – the Crab Cake, with fresh lump crab and no fillers.  It is paired with roasted red bell peppers, kalamata olives and sun dried tomato with sweet basil dressing.  Now the order actually comes with TWO crab cakes, and as you can see that was not the case.  However, they quickly realized their mistake and added the additional cake (with all the fixings) immediately.  They also took off this order on the receipt because of the mistake, which I found to be a nice touch of customer service.  Kudos!

My first choice in my three course meal was the Shrimp Creole, which I had the first time I came here and fell head over heals for it.  The dish was presented in a skillet rather than a composed plate, but still as delicious as I recalled.  I couldn’t get enough of the sauce again!!

Entrée

CP’s entree of choice: the Red Door Burger – char grilled ½ lb meyer natural ground beef, buttermilk bun, American cheese (but CP didn’t want it), caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, and house burger sauce (aka thousand island).  The shoestring fries were crispy, just the way I like it.

My entree, my second choice, was the Lamb Meatballs – ground Colorado lamb with roasted garlic, feta, pine nuts, home made gnocchi, tomato, spring raab, and chimichurri sauce.  Um…how could I describe my thoughts?  Let’s see…THIS is one of the MANY reasons why I am finding my personal desire to give up lamb to be SO hard!  It was great dish as a whole, but one area of improvement – the meatballs could be a little more tender.  After that, you have achieved perfection my SD friend.

Dessert

Last time, I tried their fruit cobbler (which is one of two choices on the RW menu) and it was not that good.  So I tried something different this time!

For my finale, I chose their signature dessert: the Banana Cream Pie with graham cracker-walnut crust, and chocolate & caramel sauces.  I think this could be a good dessert if: 1. tone down the whip cream a little, and 2. increase the pastry cream filling.

I still love the restaurant and this time around, the service was much better.  It’s a perfect time for you to try The Red Door during Restaurant Week to sample some of their signature items.  The menu will be available through the end of the week on Friday (1/20).  Bon Appetit!

The Red Door
741 W. Washington St
San Diego, CA 92103

Have you looked at the menus and booked ahead of time for your spot? If not, and you would LIKE to be seated between the hours of 6-8pm, I would suggest you get on it!

Here is the site for the list of participating restaurants: http://www.sandiegorestaurantweek.com/

Enjoy!

In the words of Billy Blanks, “When I say get on, you get on it!”

Over the weekend, I attempted to organize my memory card’s ridiculous crap-load of pictures and realized, “Sh*t!  How did I let it get this bad??  I haven’t even uploaded minuscule percentage of it for my friends!”  Because some of the pictures actually have people in them!  And it’s not just food!  They know that it takes me forever to upload pictures for them, but because they love me (I hope), they allow for me to continue on with my ways.  However, this weekend was to make up for it!  For almost a year’s worth of photos, I planned on organizing, backing up, and uploading them for all to see!

…………….yea that didn’t happen. *sigh*

AND to add salt to the wound – I am falling behind on my weekly posts!  *double sigh*

Well I did promise myself and you, that I would tell the rest of my New Orleans Adventure!  Here goes!

NOLA – Part Deux!

Cafe Beignet

So as you can see…my first official NOLA beignets were NOT from the famous Cafe Du Monde.  I was tired, and still reeling from the whole event of the previous night (see Part 1), so I was in NO mood to stand in line for a beignet.  Hence, this little cafe on Bourbon Street was our savior – Cafe Beignet.

Now, I had enough sense in me to know NOT to eat only sweets (and nothing else) as a meal.  That is why you see an order of jambalaya and a shrimp po-boy.  They were mostly to coat CP’s and my stomachs before the main attraction…

The FRESH beignets!  Oh man…even though our actual food was sitting there, I dug into one of these puppies immediately.  And honestly, it was good…yet at the end of the day – they are powdered doughnuts.  Don’t get me wrong!  I have nothing against it!  Or hate it!!! I loved every bite of it, that I came back with CP the following day for another round.  However, for me…it wasn’t something that made me go: this is genius!  It’s simple, done well, tastes good…there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

Commander’s Palace

That evening was done in high style and tradition.  CP had made dinner plans for our last evening in NOLA.  He wanted to keep it as a surprise from me (which is a hard thing to do!) and I must say, he did extraordinarily!

Warm Garlic Bread to start

Gumbo du Jour (Tasso and shrimp)

Pecan Crusted Gulf Fish

Seared Sea Scallops (my fave)

Simple scoop of vanilla ice cream for CP

Creole Bread Pudding Soufflé (and that whiskey sauce was NOT kidding around!)

Just all around amazing restaurant.  Sitting in the main dining room on the first floor, you can feel the history.  That place has seen it’s fair share of faces, lived through disasters, survived through wars, and still manages to show up every night with its bells and whistles on.  I loved Commander’s Palace and I would come back again.  Although it isn’t cheap, it’s worth every penny for the experience and great food.

So going from the blazer type restaurant, to the down to the basics simple but still delicious, the following day…

Gumbo Shop

This was our last official meal of New Orleans and we wanted something simple, but still good.  The Gumbo Shop delivered us just that:

(left to right) Crawfish Étouffée, Jambalaya, & Shrimp Creole

(left to right) Red Beans & Rice, Jambalaya, & Shrimp Creole

Simple, delicious, and warmed our stomachs to a state of blissful contentment.  What more do you need?

So that wraps it up for CP’s and my first trip to the Big Easy.  There were extreme highs and extreme lows in this trip, and not for the reasons most people associate this town with.  Our time there was short lived, but the memories of the sounds, smells, and sights are forever with us.  New Orleans…you are one H*LL of a city!  As they say, “Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Cafe Beignet
311 Bourbon Street
334-B Royal Street

Commander’s Palace
1403 Washington Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70130

Gumbo Shop
630 Saint Peter St,  New Orleans, LA 70116″