SDRW Preview at Farmer’s Table in La Mesa, CA

Recently I was invited to check out Farmer’s Table in La Mesa to preview for San Diego Restaurant Week which starts this Sunday, January 22nd, 2018. Can you believe it’s back already?!

Farmer’s Table is a super cute restaurant located in the heart of La Mesa. They’re located right next to the weekly farmer’s market which is a big source for a lot of their wonderful dishes. I also loved the decor in this restaurant! There were a lot of little touches and details that made it feel welcoming and cozy.

I loved all of the cute touches in here! 

I started off with an unsweetened iced tea. It had a great flavor and I quite enjoyed it with a squeeze of lemon. 

Our awesome waitress put in an order for these strips of bread. It’s strips of their pizza dough with herbs on top. She also gave us some dipping sauce (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and truffle oil) for the bread which was wonderful. I loved the texture of this chewy dough! The herbs were also a wonderful touch. 

One of the first things we ordered was the Pork Belly, one of the appetizers available on the SDRW menu at Farmer’s Table. The Pork Belly comes on a bed of potato risotto and mushrooms (we got the mushrooms on the side). There’s also EXTRA BACON on top because…. why the hell not. The pork belly itself was one of the most tender pork bellies I have ever tried. Holy crapcakes, it was incredibly good! The texture was perfect – tender, melt in your mouth, with crispy edges. I went to foodie nirvana from the very first bite. I probably could have stopped the meal right here and been 100% satisfied. And we had just begun! 

I also ordered us the Burnt Carrot Salad which they split in half for us. Yup… this is only half. 

It’s a medley of colorful carrots with local avocado, red onion, cilantro, and feta cheese topped with a wonderful citrus thyme vinaigrette. The carrots were tender but still had a little “bite” to them. The mixture of flavors worked so well together! I had this as my lunch the next day at work and it was perfectly wonderful. 

We also got a side order of Bacon Macaroni and Cheese. This is NOT on the SDRW week menu, it’s just something we wanted to try. While the macaroni and cheese was really creamy and saucy, we felt it was lacking in seasoning and surprisingly was tiny bit bland. 

Again… another “not on the menu” thing but hey… after having that pizza bread we really wanted to sample one of their pizzas. Jake let me pick and I choose the Speck with Pear & Blue Cheese Pizza. Speck, if you’re not familiar, is kind of like a cured ham. So this is sort of like a fancy version of ham + pineapple pizza (with the addition of blue cheese, of course).

The crust on this sucker was beautiful and lovely and I loved it. I enjoyed the flavor of the pizza but I actually like blue cheese. It gave the pizza a bit of tang! Jake didn’t enjoy that, but he’s not a blue cheese person like I am. The pears added a nice touch of sweetness for a salty-sweet mixture that I enjoyed. 

Jake did order an entree from the SDRW menu which is this MASSIVE Short Rib with polenta and roasted asparagus. This was more like a dinosaur rib – it was so big! The meat was very very uber tender and was cooked in a rich sauce. It was crazy pants. Definitely a great choice for a meal. 

I picked something off their normal menu after changing my mind about a million times. I finally decided on the Carbonara!

The pasta tubes were quite large – they looked almost like cut up manicotti! I loved the texture of the pasta. The creamy sauce had pancetta in it instead of bacon, making for a richer sauce. 

While I did love this, I probably ate like… 1/8. I was getting full!  

But you know me… there’s always room for a bite of dessert! I went for the Creme Brulee which was delightfully creamy with some blueberries on top. I always love cracking that sugar crust on top. It’s always so satisfying. 

Jake got the limoncello cake. I really liked the burst of lemon flavor from this one! It was nice and light, too. 

If you go to Farmer’s Table for San Diego Restaurant Week please get the pork belly. Oh my god, that pork belly. I think I could have had three plates and that’s it and I would have been fine (and very full). 

Farmer’s Table
8141 La Mesa Blvd.
La Mesa, CA 91942

Disclaimer: I was invited to dine at Farmer’s Table as part of a promotion for San Diego Restaurant Week. Our meal was complimentary. I was not further paid or compensated for this post and all opinions stated here are my own.