San Diego Restaurant Week 2016: Lunching at Del Mar Rendezvous & La Jolla’s Brockton Villa

Happy Friday!

I hope that you all have some fun things planned for your weekend. I’m definitely looking forward to mine, and I have off from my publicist job on Monday for Presidents’ Day so it’s a long weekend for me!

Backing it up a bit, a few weeks ago was San Diego Restaurant Week. It happens twice annually, and is a fun chance for foodies like myself to try out new restaurants at discounted prices.

I missed the last SDRW due to travel, so I was excited to check out a few new eateries this time around. I wound up going out to lunch twice during this SDRW – which is kind of interesting since I rarely dine out for lunch – and thought I’d give you all some SoCal flair and share my thoughts on the restaurants today.

First up was lunch at La Jolla’s Brockton Villa with my hubby. I had passed this restaurant many times but never dined at it before. A historic building located in the heart of La Jolla Cove, the restaurant offers ocean front dining… and we definitely enjoyed the view!

I started off with a Greek appetizer that had feta, kalamata tapenade, cucumbers, tzatziki, and some other goodies with grilled pita wedges, while my hubby tried their “Epic Chowder” – a clam, crab and potato soup.

I think that I just love any Greek food! My diet is like a vegetarian Mediterranean diet for the most part, and I would happily eat that appetizer daily.

For my entree, I ordered the portobello mushroom sandwich, which was loaded with tomato, red onion, pepper, spinach and goat cheese on multigrain bread. I’m usually up for a sandwich loaded with veggies! My hubby ate grilled fish tacos that he was a fan of.

I give the food a thumbs up, plus I think that Brockton Villa is a fun eatery choice for its location alone. You can stroll around La Jolla, watch the seals, and then conveniently stroll over to the restaurant to grab a bite to eat while staring off into the Pacific – which is precisely what we did that day.

It seems like a popular joint, as it looks crowded every time I’ve passed there, and we had a wait for lunch that day. The one downside for plant-based eaters is that the menu doesn’t offer a lot of options without seafood or meat, but it does have a couple of things to choose from.

My second SDRW experience was meeting my friend Tiffany for lunch at Del Mar Rendezvous. I had been wanting to try this Chinese restaurant for awhile after seeing that it has won San Diego Magazine awards, including for  their “Best Vegetarian” restaurant category.

(Photo via the restaurant website)

Del Mar Rendezvous is located a block off from Del Mar beach, and every time I’ve passed it, it looks crowded. We had made last minute reservations for lunch, wound up getting there a bit earlier than our recommendation, and wound up having to wait for a little before being before seated.

While some restaurants really limit SDRW meal options, Del Mar Rendezvous left the choices up to SDRW diners. For $15, you could choose from two of their soups and any entree, salad, noodle dish, or rice dish from their lunch specials menu – which is pretty extensive. I enjoy having lots of vegetarian options to choose from, and quite frankly, think it’s kind of crazy that I sometimes run into restaurants still don’t have meatless menu items – really?!

I digress. To start, we both ordered the Hot & Sour soup, which had tofu, egg, and black mushrooms in a vegetable soup broth. It had a pretty strong sour taste, and I couldn’t really decide if I liked it or not… though I ate the whole cup trying to make up my mind because I was super hungry! For my entree, I ordered sautéed vegetables and tofu with konnyaku noodles:

I must admit, I have pretty high standards for Asian food – especially since I hold every Asian restaurant up to my beloved vegan college joint in Jersey, Veggie Heaven. Their food always tastes just so fresh, delicious, and not at all heavy and fried like a lot of Chinese food. My entree at Del Mar Rendezvous was good, but definitely not on Veggie Heaven level. Though I liked it, it just wasn’t as flavorful or satisfying to me.

However, I would pop back into Del Mar Rendezvous when I’m hardcore craving Chinese food again. It didn’t knock my socks off, but it was one of the better Asian restaurants I’ve been to in the San Diego area, and I love the Del Mar area.

Overall, I enjoyed trying out both eateries and had fun taking advantage of SDRW…. though in writing this, I realize that I passed up dessert at both restaurants to have an appetizer instead. The madness! 

Tell me… Do you have an all-time favorite Chinese food restaurant? Local readers, have you dined at either of these places?