San Diego Bites: Searsucker

As I sat down at a table at Searsucker in downtown San Diego I had to pinch myself. I would never have imagined that I would be eating in two Top Chef restaurants in nearly as many months (first one here), especially while on a trip with Mr. Misadventures.

It is very hard to convince the hubby to go someplace because other people say it is good, I swear that is a French thing! The revolutionary spirit lives on, you say go left, they'll want to ask why or, in many cases, go right. I honestly can't blame him since we have had many more misses than wins when it comes to eating at a “hot restaurant.”

So no one was more surprised than me when he suggested dinner in this San Diego hot spot. Thanks to the wonders of Foodspotting, the social app that allows people to upload photos of food they eat in restaurants (I do it too!), Mr. Misadventures had found several dishes that he was keen on trying, so when he asked if I wanted to go, I shrugged my shoulders and said why not, but my inner foodie and Top Chef fan geek was doing cartwheels in my head!

Searsucker is one of several fabric-inspired restaurants created by Top Chef contestant Brian Malarkey. If you looked at Brian's website, you'll see that he has a wonderful eye when it comes to the aesthetics of his restaurant designs and I immediately fell in love with the decor.

I didn't get too many more shots because it was rather dark. And noisy. I am becoming less and less of a fan of noisy restaurants, I hate shouting over the table to have a conversation. In any case, I got food shots because Mr. Misadventures used a flashlight app on his phone so that we could get a little light.

Our plan of attack was to try several of the small plates offered on the menu and it turned out to be a really good plan because it allowed to taste a larger amount of really great selection. We started with a scallop with pork belly caramel. The sweet and salty “caramel” really paired well with the delicate, perfectly cooked scallop.

This may sound crazy, but I am not a huge fan of french fries. I will eat a few if they come served with a burger or steak-frites, or dunk some in my moules-frites, but I won't go out of my way to eat them, and I never finish a serving. But I think I would eat anything if you fried it in duck fat which is precisely what these fries were. Needless to say, we ended up getting a second order!

Given my last meal request, I was most keen on trying the fried chicken and waffle, but it was actually the dish I was most disappointed in, might be very high expectations. Also. I am not one to drench my waffles or pancakes in syrup, so this dish which is served with a ton of syrup just wasn't for me.

Another dish that we almost ordered seconds on was the mussels in beer with chorizo. We actually had tried a similar dish at The Grange when we visited Sacramento in October. Theirs was served with wine instead of beer. I preferred the beer-based broth at Searsucker, but liked how the chorizo was incorporated in the version at The Grange.

We finished our meal with the dish that had lured us in, bacon and eggs. The Searsucker version is with pork belly and was pretty tasty. Again, I am not a big fan or hollandaise sauce, but the egg was perfectly poached and the pork belly was delicious.

All in all, a really enjoyable meal and there are several small plates left to try on a return trip. I think I might go for lunch when there is more light and possibly less noise. Sadly, unlike when I lunched at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, there was no chef Malarkey on hand.