Last night, about a dozen of us met up at Finch’s Bistro & Wine Bar in La Jolla to hear Sacha Boutros sing. Sacha is a song bird. The way I would describe her is: She’s the real deal. You watch her sing, you hear her sing, you listen to her entertain, and it’s totally satisfying.
It’s like Billy Joel’s song Piano Man…. bread in my jar and say MAN what are YOU doing here”…?
If and when you see her name come up? Get tickets or make reservations quickly because all of her gigs fill up!
The restaurant is small. It only has a small courtyard and a small bar, and then a small inside dining room. You might call it ‘quaint’. And if you asked? I would say it’s perfect for ‘date night’.
On nights’ it’s full? Opt for the bar or an outside seat or under a fan in the dining room. (I did have a few comments about the small air conditioning unit and limited air).
A beautiful woman named Linda Anne from South Africa owns it. And that’s a big part of what makes it work. If you have an owner on premise, overseeing and doing customer service, making you feel like a V.I.P., then that’s a place you want to support and frequent.
Did I mention the menu’s? Very very cute menu’s. Seriously. I really liked the artwork and presentation! Go google them and take a look under menus! lol
HOW ABOUT THE FOOD CHEF?
Ok. Ok. You always want to hear about the food! lol
Well first, you can tell (or may not from the shoddy photography because of the beautifully dimmed lighting) that the food is pleasing to the eye. Wait. Here. I will give you another couple of shots……
Here’s the first one….
So you can clearly see, they make the effort. Again, the lighting was not conducive to good pictures…. but you get the idea, yes?
YES CHEF!
The starters included Panko flash fried avocado, which I had and enjoyed. And a Roasted Beet Salad. OMG. I have no idea what they did to create that dressing but I am going back today to find out!
I would say the only thing my palate didn’t appreciate was the amount of citrus on the plate: slices of oranges, pieces of grapefruit. But the woman sitting next to me said: “I’ll take the fruit”. So that was an easy fix!
We talked about it at the table and one of my diners said she thought they added that much fruit so that it would look balanced and pretty. So there we are again, with focus on presentation!
Here’s another shot…..
I couldn’t eat everything on the menu myself, right?
RIGHT CHEF!
So I can’t advise with first hand knowledge. But I will say this: I asked everyone how their food was, and I got “Good”, “Good”, “Good”.
To give the full picture and a fair review, (because I was really happy with their food) there was by one diner a small mention about not enough blue cheese on the lettuce wedge, (and with a quick accommodation they brought out more), and that same gentleman said the filet mignon was really good but because of his advanced ‘palate’ he thought it could be brought to the next level of great.
(Hmmmm… perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned. As a Chef I’m not quite sure how they would do that. Maybe Filet Mignon topped with Gorgonzola)?
Hey! You can always improve on really good, right? Every restaurant needs and looks for that kind of feedback!
Over all, everyone agreed the food is worth coming out for.
And this is the kind of place you can find a couple of dishes you really like and know what to order when you go in. And they hit the flavor nail on the head with their fried cheesecake (sounds bad, tastes great – it’s in a pastry wrapper).
Another aside: They do offer ‘cava’ a Spanish Sparkling Wine at $5 per glass. And they do have happy hour EVERY day from 3pm – 6pm. So that’s a bonus for sure.
… and my last AND is: They do have a tasting menu for $30 worth ordering.
So my recommendation is YES. YES! Do go to Finch’s Bistro & Wine Bar. It is certainly a ‘find’.
And please tell Linda Anne that Chef Marian sent you!
Happy Eating,
Chef Marian