bitterwaitress

I recently visited San Diego to meet a friend I had not seen in some time. I hoped to cap the visit with some excellent cuisine. After perusing some menus online, I ended up using Open Table to book a table at Bertrand at Mister A’s on 5th Avenue.

On account of booking at the restaurant’s dinner opening time of 5:00 (one of us being on East Coast time) we were able to secure a window table with views of the harbor area and airport (window views are parceled out on a first come, first serve basis and there was not much competition at said hour). The view added a great touch to the evening (particularly at sunset).

Perhaps the hardest part of the evening was selecting the appetizers to begin with—the potential options run the gamut to include lobster strudel, sautéed black tiger prawns, and an “A’s Style” macaroni and cheese (for the curious, that style would be emince of black truffles and white truffle oil).

In the end we elected the Spinach Gnocchi served with Braised Veal and the Hudson Valley Foie Gras. We decided to share a course each of the Roasted Rack of Lamb and Pan Seared Kobe Flat Iron Steak entrees as well (the author’s apologies to the more vegetarian minded readers).

The appetizers arrived after a reasonable interval. The execution on both dishes was quite pleasing. The Foie Gras was served in a bed of the red cabbage it was sautéed with, and had garnishes left to the side. This nicely allowed for a focus on the flavor of the Foie Gras itself initially and then test it with the presented garnishes as well if desired. The Gnocchi was delicious in combination with the tomato-based herbs sauce and mushrooms, and the veal itself was outstanding.

I was even more impressed by the entrees—it seems that some waiters do indeed possess telepathy. Although we did not mention it when ordering, I bowed into the wishes of the individual I was dining with and ordered the meats prepared medium instead of the rare or medium rare that I would normally desire. Perhaps a cringe in my eyes or voice betrayed my true desires when ordering? I suppose we will never know. Regardless of the cause, when the dishes came out the cuts were presented in order with about half of each meat tending strongly towards the medium rare side of things and the remainder finished to medium—a very impressive catch on the waiter’s part if that was the case.

As you may expect by now, the quality of these dishes nicely matched the care in presentation and delivery.

Although we did not order wine or dessert (the former being one draw back of dining with a teetotaler, the latter on account of the above dinner selections), the menu options presented for both sounded quite excellent.

The service throughout the evening was attentive, but appropriately invisible (not to suggest that a restaurant staff should always be invisible, but that was certainly desired in this instance). Although I believe Mister A’s is at a caliber where this would be unlikely to affect the server’s performance, my own age (early twenties and frequently mistaken for younger, not helped by some recent passive-aggressive behavior from my barber) may not have suggested that the waiter would be receiving much of a tip, and I was grateful that this provoked no noticeable reaction. However, even without alcohol or a dessert course our bill still came out to about $141 and I left a $34 tip—so hopefully I either evaded a stereotype or reaffirmed our server’s faith in mankind.

My only quibble was that Mister A’s has adopted the premium bottled water pushing. I know the arguments for it, but it is irritating all the same, and still somewhat unusual in the Southern California area. While it is of course possible to request Source Municipal, it is difficult to request the unmentioned choice without feeling cheap-hardly something one wishes to do at such an establishment, particularly as their first interaction with the restaurant staff after being seated.

But that is only a minor quibble, and I would enthusiastically recommend this establishment to anyone eyeing a fine dining experience in the San Diego area.