Hoo boy, I am behind in posts! My laptop issue isn’t quite solved just yet, but hopefully in a few more days I’ll be back to work using my own laptop instead of someone else’s (aka, my dad’s laptop). Using another laptop is not quite the same as using your own. Things are different and everything’s in a weird place and you don’t have your usual programs. Arrgghhh, frustrating.
Anyway, let’s talk about something fun! As in my 5 year anniversary dinner last month with Jake!
I had grabbed a coupon for a swanky little spot in North Park called “Alexander’s on 30th” to celebrate our special occasion. The place is definitely full of swank with their all-white decor inside on the restaurant. It creates a cozy, comfortable and romantic feel to the restaurant.
[Swanky interior in the daylight]
We got some bread in a basket to start with for our lovely anniversary meal.
[Crusty bread]
Jake let me pick out an appetizer to start with. He wasn’t much into it, but told me to “order whatever I wanted”. I was tempted to order something I would usually like (aka, something with just cheese, like their roasted garlic and brie) but instead opted for one of their crostini’s.
[Goat cheese bacon and honey crostini]
I don’t remember the exact name of this one – I don’t see it on their menu anymore – but it was a crostini with goat cheese, crispy bacon, herbs and a drizzle of honey. The bacon was super crispy (just the way I like it) and the creamy goat cheese gave it an intense flavor constrast. It was very light on the honey – I would have actually preferred just a tad more honey to balance out the richness of the goat cheese. While I did enjoy this, I found I couldn’t it too much of it since the flavors here were so intense.
[House Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette & Fresh Shaved Parmesan Cheese]
Jake was very sensible and got a House Salad to start. It was very fresh and crisp with a nice light balsamic vinaigrette. He was nice enough to let me have a few bites even though he didn’t want any of my bacon-goat-cheese-honey-thing.
[Linguini Vongole – Tossed Spicy Linguine Pasta, Manila Clams, White Wine, Garlic & Pancetta]
I had seriously been in the mood for linguini and clam sauce for a few days by the time we made it in here for our anniversary dinner and I couldn’t resist getting this dish for my main course. This plate, as you can see, was really loaded up with a ton of chopped clams. I much preferred the clams in the shell that came with my dish – though it was filled to the brim with clams, I thought it was a little overkill and the clams on top of my linguini didn’t taste quite as good as the ones in the shell. While I did like it overall, it was kind of missing a slight “wow” factor for me. I also ended up adding a bunch of salt to this dish – which is weird, since usually you don’t need to with something salty from the sea. But, that’s what happened for me. Wasn’t terrible but also wasn’t great.
[The White Room Pizza – White Elephant Garlic, Chicken, Fresh Basil, Ricotta Cheese, Mozzarella and Pesto]
For Jake’s main dish, he ordered the White Room pizza. I’m pretty certain he ordered this because I had mentioned it and gushed over it a little bit. It comes with a huge head of roasted elephant garlic in the middle of the pizza (so you have to pop the garlic cloves out yourself, if you want them on your slice). The fresh basil was really nice touch and the cheeses and pesto all mixed and worked well together, but the crust was a little too soft and slightly soggy for my personal tastes. I like a firm and crisp crust – anything else sort of disappoints me. Jake enjoyed the pizza, but it wasn’t his favorite thing ever. We both thought it could have used a few improvements, though the quality of the ingredients certainly made for a good pizza.
All in all it was a lovely dinner even if we didn’t totally fall in love with all of our food.
The restaurant definitely provided the right atmosphere and feel for an anniversary dinner and perhaps we just ordered the wrong things that night. I still enjoyed it overall and we had a lovely dinner out. We didn’t get dessert that night since one of my anniversary presents to Jake were these homemade red velvet cupcakes!
I am happy to report that these are now Jake’s favorite red velvet cupcakes (previously, the winner was Heaven Sent Desserts for him). Woo! Happy Anniversary to us!
Alexander’s on 30th
3391 30th St.
San Diego, CA
619-281-2539
Happy belated anniversary to the both of you! What a cool looking place. I love the all white decor. And now I’m really intrigued by the crostini and wonder if I can replicate it at home since it’s no longer available on the menu.
What a sweet, and I really mean sweet, gift for Jake. Anyone would love cupcakes!
Thank you, Darlene! The crostini was pretty simple, I bet you could remake it easily enough. Needed more honey though!
Happy Anniversary to you guys! May you have many more to come! 🙂
I’ve heard of this place…One of my GBF’s recommended it. I never would have thought the inside looked that nice and swanky!
I like the look of Jake’s pizza with that gigantor garlic head in the middle!
The restaurant looks lovely. Ha! I was forced as a child to have to travel to North Park as a child to attend Hebrew School for years. I and all my friends absolutely hated it, with more than passion. We hated it more than we hated anything else in the world; point being, my gosh, how things have changed not only in NP, but in San Diego obviously throughout. (Of course, being born and raised there, each new “change” is and remains to this day cringing.)
Be that as it may, congratulations on your 5th anniversary and glad you were able to celebrate it in style albeit there were some shortcomings as to the menu. The tossed Spicy Linguine Pasta, Manila Clams, White Wine, Garlic & Pancetta looks scrumptious.
However, in these chi-chi type places, the prices are inversely correlated with the size of the portions, sadly.
Hi CC – Thanks! Yeah, it doesn’t look that swanky on the outside, but inside it sure is nice. I also ate a good bit of that garlic!
Hi David – Yeah, a lot of places around town have gotten a lot trendier – North Park is a supreme example of that as well as Downtown! Thanks 🙂