I was recently invited to come and check out The Patio on Lamont Street (there are actually two locations now, the other in Mission Hills). Jake was originally supposed to go with me, but he ended up having to work, so I took my parents and Maya with me.
This is a view of the patio area later in the evening when with the lights lit up. It gave the area a wonderful warmth!
There was also an artist there performing on the patio. The acoustics/speakers here need a little work though since sometimes we could hear him… and sometimes we couldn’t! But it was nice for the atmosphere.
We sat in a nice cushy corner that was partially covered above us. You can see some of the lush wall behind my dad – the wall was covered in plants for the full length of the wall.
Maya was pretty excited to get to dine out with us for an evening!
They gave her a water bowl that had a really cute painting in the bottom.
And homemade doggie treats! They smelled like bacon to me.
Maya was quite happy to have the snacks to munch on. Usually she is too distracted to eat but she totally loved these snacks and I gave all of them to her (over the course of the whole dinner). 
When we arrived and shown to our table, our waiter came out with three glasses of bubbling sparkling wine for us – how sweet! I think this photo kind of makes it look like there are stars sparkling inside of my glass. I don’t remember what kind of wine this was, but it was a bit on the sweet side. I only drank about 1/4 of it since I was driving. My dad gladly finished it for me.
[crab and lobster wontons / $14]
Our waiter told us about a few specials, one of them being this appetizer of Crab and Lobster Wontons. The wontons were covered in a mushroom miso sauce with scallions, daikon sprouts, nori and sesame seeds.
Just one bite of this and I fell in love with it. It was intensely flavorful! There was a bit of a “cream cheese” aspect to it (like cream cheese wontons) but not overpowering or overshadowing the seafood at all. They were buttery and delicious and the mushroom miso sauce helped pulled it all together to create a bite bursting with taste. The wontons were soft and steamed. Quite delicate and very delicious.
[braised spanish octopus / $18]
This was one of the recommendations from our waiter and I was feeling adventurous that day. Plus, my mom’s eyes lit up a little at the mention of octopus so I figured we’d better try it. It looks a little daunting, doesn’t it, with all of the suckers all of the way down? They give you a fairly large piece and I love how dramatic it looked on the plate. It was incredibly tender and flavorful! It came with a side of gigante beans (which, true to their name, are HUGE beans), smoked pork belly and pine nut butter. Actually, I don’t remember how the pine nut butter played into the dish. My mom loved those beans, she couldn’t seem to get enough of them. I was more into the octopus rather than the bean thing. Little chunks of pork belly is also always a good thing.
[braised pork shank with bacon & asiago risotto and cracklins / $26]
My folks pretty much let me have free reign over ordering for the evening and I picked out two entrees for the three of us to share. I loved how this shank looked and was stood up proudly on it’s bone. It’s surrounded by this moat of creamy risotto and spoonfuls of braising liquid all over it.
Just sliding a fork in made the meat pull away and fall off the bone. It was so tender and like everything else here – full of intense, beautiful flavors. I loved how tender the pork was, but really my favorite thing was actually the cheesy bacon and asiago risotto. It was so so so creamy and cheesy without being overwhelming. Love.
[pan seared duck / $28]
Duck sounded like a good thing to have that evening for some reason. I wasn’t sure why, but I sure didn’t regret the choice. The duck had a 5 spice rub on it plus a touch of a sweet and savory pineapple glaze with a little salad of radicchio and arugula and sliced anjou pears.
The duck was perfectly tender and had this sweetness to it that I adored. The skin is not crispy but I actually didn’t mind that for once. It still had a nice rendering of fat and though it was a touch chewy, I still enjoyed eating it. I can say I was pretty impressed at how well seasoned everything was here at The Patio. So much flavor in the dishes and all of the sauces!
[twisted elvis / $9]
Our waiter dropped off the dessert menu and we decided on this one before he could even come back to suggest it to us! It sounded the most interesting of their desserts. The base is slices of banana bread which are topped with caramelized bananas, a scoop of peanut butter, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and a drizzle of foster’s sauce. Normally I wouldn’t order stuff with banana in it but the rest of it sounded too interesting to pass up. All of it put together made me not mind the banana at all which had a good bit of caramelization on it. I loved the bit of salty peanut butter in the middle which cut through the sweetness of the sauce and ice cream. The slightly warm banana bread was moist and incredibly awesome.
I was truly impressed with the service and the food here and I’d definitely recommend it! The only thing that sucks is there’s virtually no parking at this location. They don’t have a parking lot and it’s all street parking… BUT they offer valet for only $3. I highly recommend just doing the valet. One little extra story… after dinner while the valet dude was fetching my car, Maya of course picked THAT MOMENT to go to the bathroom on the street. Luckily I had been given some pick up bags for her while inside the restaurant but there was NO WHERE for me to put the bag – not a trash can in sight! I felt so bad asking the valet dude to take it for me but I wasn’t going to drive home with it in my car. Sorry, valet dude. You were totally a good sport about it and didn’t even bat an eye.
Disclaimer: I received a $75 gift card from the restaurant to cover a portion of our meal. All opinions stated here are my own and I was not further compensated for this post.
The Patio on Lamont Street
4445 Lamont St.
San Diego, CA 92109
(858) 412-4648
I had been there a long, long, long time ago – when it was Lamont St Grill, maybe? I’m glad to see the food looks and sounds so great! We’re hardly ever in that area, but it’s good to know we have dinner choices if we find ourselves out that way and hungry.
I like that they gave Maya some treats to enjoy, too!
I honestly usually avoid eating in PB because I hate trying to park there. At least they had affordable valet! The food was really good, I was surprised by how much flavor each dish seemed to have. I love the homemade doggy treats, too! It makes it feel more dog friendly, like they’ll even cater to your dog 🙂 I bet Maya wishes I’d make her treats now.
I had the octopus at their new location recently! The beans underneath were so good. We also really enjoyed the mushroom risotto. I must go back and try those won tons!
I loooooved their asiago risotto, I can only imagine how good the mushroom risotto must be!
Ummm you literally ordered everything I would order at this place. I am pawing at the screen at that octopus and lamb shank. Did they have any cheese dishes? I remember them making a big deal they had a cheese cave so I imagined they would use cheese a lot in their dishes.
The cheese cave is only at the Goldfinch location in Mission Hills. I THOUGHT I had made my reservation for that location but uhhh, I didn’t. I meant to. Oops! No cheese cave love for me on this visit. I guess I’ll just have to go to the other location to fulfill my cheese cave dreams.
Thank you for all of the positive feedback, we loved having you. At The Patio on Lamont Street in Pacific Beach, we sell a cheese board, featuring cheese from Venissimo, a local vendor we pair with at both restaurants. Additionally, at The Patio on Goldfinch in Mission Hills, we have our very own glass-enclosed cheese cave, with a wide range of cheeses that we use for our signature cheese boards. We invite you to come back and dine with us at both locations soon.
Cheese cave! Will definitely need to check that out!
I’ve been a couple times and it has always been good. We love their charcuterie plate!
I will have to get that next time! 🙂
Just came across your blog and I’m stoked you enjoyed our food at the patio! We recently put my lobster wontons on happy hour now. Unfortunately my duck entree has been removed but we replaced it with other seasonal dishes that I’m sure you’d enjoy. Hope to have you and your family in soon! Cheers and happy holidays
Hi Gio – The lobster wontons were so so good! So much flavor in such a small package! Sad to hear the duck was removed, but understandable for more seasonal dishes. We hope to visit again soon, thank you!