Restaurant Review: The Counter

I was up in Fountain Valley Saturday for a medieval/renaissance tournament. After a hard day's fighting with swords, I need a good meal before traveling home. Some friends were going to a burger joint, and invited the friend I bummed a ride from and myself to join them.

Where we ended up is a place called The Counter. It's a small chain, mostly in Southern California. We were at the Newport Beach location. The Counter is a build your own burger place. The menu is basically a bunch of checklists. You pick your patty, cheese, toppings, sauces, and bun. The burger doesn't come with any sides, but you can get various fries, salad, or grilled veggies al a carte.

The possible permutations are astronomical. The basic plan gives you a choice of patty, cheese, up to four toppings, sauce, and bun. Patty choices include beef, chicken, turkey and vegan. For an extra cost, bison was also available. There are 11 choices of cheese, from yellow American to blue. There are 22 topping choices, from lettuce, to grilled pineapple, to marinated artichokes. There are also 22 sauce options, from plain mayonnaise, to peanut sauce, basil pesto, up to habanero salsa. Buns range from standard white, to English muffin, to gluten free.

You also pick the weight of the patty. The smallest available is 1/3 lb. All weights are after cooking, which is a little unusual.

I chose a 1/3 lb. beef patty, with horseradish cheddar, roasted red pepper, roasted green chili, black olives, and marinated artichoke hearts, with ranch dressing on an onion bun.

The burger was cooked to a nice medium. Hot all the way through, still pink in the middle. The bun was fresh, with a nice chewy texture.  The horseradish was not as prominent as I'd hoped, but it was still good.

I ordered a single order of sweet potato fries to go with the burger. They came with a side of the chipotle aioli for dipping. The fries were hot and as crisp as sweet potato fries get, and the aioli was really good.

The burger, fries, and a drink cost around $14. Maybe a little high for a burger, but the quality and variety of the sides and sauces made it worth it to me.

Our waiter was fantastic. We're a group prone to banter, and he gave as well as he got on that front. Did a good job of keeping the drinks filled, and was very organized when it came to splitting the bill.

There are two locations in the San Diego area, Del Mar and Downtown. I may have to visit the Downtown one during Comic-con.

Happy Eating!

Vine Cottage

For my Wines of the World class, we were required to go to a wine bar, and ask questions. The spouse had signed up with the San Diego Union-Tribune to get special deals notices in her e-mail. Knowing about the assignment, she purchased a pay $25, get a $50 coupon for the Vine Cottage. 
The Vine Cottage is a little place at 6062 Lake Murray Blvd. in La Mesa, Ca. It has a small dining area, and a small bar. The interior is warmly lit, with lots of natural wood, but a modern aesthetic. It manages to feel cozy but up-to-date at the same time. They need a light on their sign, however. The Brown on beige color scheme of the sign isn't the most visible at the best of times. At twilight, it was almost invisible.

Our server, Audrey, was very pleasant. Cheerful and helpful, she really made us feel welcome. She was more than willing to answer my assignment questions, but kept it to one per table visit. That was fair, she had other tables to deal with.

We decided to get a couple of appetizers, and then see if we were hungry enough for dinner as well. The menu is small, but comprehensive enough. Looking over the menu, they had black mussels. They had me right there. I adore mussels. They offer three sauce choices, we went with the Basque. The Basque sauce has tomatoes, leeks, spicy sausage, and smoked paprika. The mussels were superb. It is ridiculously easy to overcook mussels. These were cooked perfectly. Extraordinarily tender, and perfectly complemented by the sauce.

The other starter we got was the Artisanal Charcuterie & Cheese Board. It came with three very nice cheeses, crusty bread, pate, prosciutto and salami, and some jam and dried fruit. The cheeses were quite good, including a blue that I actually liked, especially with the jam, that mellowed that blue cheese funk down just enough for me to enjoy it. I am generally not fond of moldy cheese. The bread was good, and seriously crusty. There just wasn't enough for the amount of cheese and pate. Luckily, some very nice pub fries came with the mussels, and made a very good base to spread pate onto. It also had some very nice homemade pickles.

I had a glass of a very nice Spanish garnacha to go with the mussels. It was mildly spicy, and matched really well.

We were mostly full, but well under the $50, so decided to have dessert. We had a very nice pear panna cotta. The panna cotta itself was lovely, the poached pears needed a few more minutes poaching, they were still a little crunchy.

I had a very pleasant glass of a dryish tawny port with dessert.

Overall, and excellent experience. The service was friendly, and the server knowledgeable about the food and wines. The food, especially the mussels, was very good. Definitely worth it.

Happy Eating!

Restaurant Review: Seasons Fresh Buffet

Seasons Fresh Buffet at Barona Casino has become my favorite buffet in San Diego.  The price is reasonable (about $17, if you join Club Barona), the variety is good, and everything is fresh and well made.

They have a good, if limited, selection of maki roll sushi, and good anti-pasti. They have very good fresh seafood.  The crab legs are not oversteamed, so are very flavorful. The Gulf of Mexico oysters are quite good, this is the first place I have eaten raw oysters and not thought they were disgusting. The prime rib  is also good, I've always been able to get a proper medium rare center cut.  They have a nice selection of dim sum.  They have Mexican, Chinese, and Mongolian Barbeque sections as well, but I haven't eaten anything from those, because, well crab legs and prime rib.

They have a nice selection of desserts, including hand scooped ice cream and banans foster, as well as a person making crepes to order.  I really like their ameretto cheesecake, and they have very good creme puffs.

Happy eating!