Last week was the Taste of Point Loma for 2018! I previously won tickets in 2016 and 2017 but this year I was invited to attend. I feel legit, you guys.
Here’s the list of restaurants for the Taste of Point Loma! All of the places with a paw print were dog friendly locations. I chose to leave Maya at home though since I already knew I’d have my hands full with taking photos. I don’t need to add an excited dog to that mix. Stacey was my tag along for this trip!
#1 Portuguese Hall
We picked up our tickets for the Taste of Point Loma at Will Call and then popped into the Portuguese Hall for some of their bites of food. They always have several dishes out. There was an octopus salad and some other kind of fishy salad, plus bites of Portuguese sausage (a little dried out, but still tasty).
Here’s a little video of some of the other offering at the Portuguese Hall.
Also malassadas (I didn’t try this, I can’t remember why, I probably just forgot).
And fig rolls! I really really really liked the fig rolls. It was like eating the inside of a fig newton without the newton. YUM.
Ginja9 also had little samples of their sour cherry liqueur (which is from Portugal) served in tiny chocolate cups! And the chocolate cups had HANDLES. I might die from the cuteness of this.
Ginja is the Portuguese word for “Sour Cherry”, also known as morello cherries. I quite enjoyed the liqueur. It was smooth and tasted wonderful with the chocolate (which you munch on right after you drink your liqueur).
#2 Brigantine
Brigantine had tuna tacos for two years in a row so I was totally expecting them to cop out and do the same thing again. But then I saw this sign and got excited – SCALLOPS! YES!
OMG I was so happy with this dish! The short rib on top was delicious – tender, moist, almost kind of buttery melt in your mouth good. I ate that part first. Then the scallop was perfect! It had an excellent sear on it. The scallop was sweet, soft, excellent texture, and cooked just right. I quite enjoyed it with the sweet potato-mascarpone puree on the bottom which added a silky smooth, creamy, finish to the little dish.
Here’s a photo of one without the short rib on top. Stacey doesn’t eat seafood so I got to have her scallop, too. I did a happy dance getting to eat two wonderful scallops!
Brigantine went out all with a little cocktail for the Taste of Point Loma! With bourbon! Woo!
Whee!
The mini-spring cocktail was quite refreshing with bourbon, lemon, and tonic and a little lemongrass and mint on top. Quite enjoyable.
Point Break Cafe was back in the lineup (they skipped the Taste of Point Loma last year) with a little sample of beef stew. Beef stew in a dark restaurant doesn’t photograph well. It was hearty. It was alright. Nothing special in my book, though Stacey said she enjoyed it.
Miguel’s did mini tacos the past two years for Taste of Point Loma, so I was expecting mini tacos again. But instead they broke out some ceviche. It was very lime-y. A little too much lime for my tastes, but otherwise it was fair. I prefer the ceviche I make at home!
Their queso sauce is awesome though. That white cheesy sauce is worth it.
#5 The Wine Pub
The Wine Pub is a hip little dog friendly spot. They have a really neat patio.
For their sample at the Taste of Point Loma, they offered little cups of HOT French Onion soup and a really cute little crostini (served on the side). The crostini was still crisp and tasted great dipped into the hot soup. This had a great flavor and I was surprised at how HOT the dish was. Woohoo!
#6 Pomodoro Ristorante Italiano
Pomodoro offered two different types of pasta to try. Their pesto pasta or a creamy tomato sauce with I think mushrooms in it. Stacey and I got both and tried both. Pretty good samples.
By the time we got to the Elegant Truffle they were out of ricotta cookies and it sounded to me like they were out of all of their samples. But I misheard. They still had treats! We took these treats and put them into some tupperware to save for later so we could have more stomach room for “real” food and not desserts.
You got a little sample of their chocolate caramel (front and center), their OMG Cake (to the left), a brownie (top) and a shortbread cookie. My absolute favorite is the OMG cake. It’s like a creamy chocolate cheesecake with a crunchy cookie crust that really fulfils my sweet tooth without making me feel like I’ve overindulged. I love that cake!!
#8 Pummaro
I discovered Pummaro two years ago at the Taste of Point Loma and it’s one of the places I’ve returned to because their food is delicious. The crust on this pizza is amaazzzzzziiiiiiiing. It’s so light and airy – but also crispy. There’s a little cornmeal feel to it on the top. Excellent chew.
They had two pizzas for sampling. One had olives all over it. The guy handed me that one and I handed that to Stacey and asked for the other pizza. Heh.
Definitely a place to go back to. And I have!
#9 Old Venice
Next we stopped at Old Venice. They had the same offering as the last two years: a pasta dish and some salad. Stacey was happy to see salad involved since we hadn’t seen any yet!
#10 Shanghai Bun
Our next stop was new to the Taste of Point Loma! Shanghai Bun specializes in Chinese food. They were situated in the back of the restaurant with a few warming trays full of food. They had samples of General Tso’s chicken, kung pao chicken, combination chow mein, and cream cheese wontons. It all tasted good, nothing amazing but not bad, either.
Over at the Point Loma Living Room they had some pineapple soaked in port wine!
They added more alcoholic related things this year. I know this made Stacey happy. The port was quite strong with the pineapple. They had a chamomile mint tea that was amazing. Very light and refreshing with that bit of mint!
After we sat and grabbed the pineapple port, they brought out some samples of baklava. They have had these in years past as well! They had three different samples. We took one of each and then tucked them away for later. The bottom one had nuts all over it, the middle was cinnamon-y, and the top one had nutella in it. All retained their crunchy texture when I finally munched on them later.
I was HOPING the Point Loma Fish Shop would have their house shrimp out for sampling and was happy to see that I was RIGHT. BUT…. they put WAY too much seasoning on these shrimps. I mean, they looked like they were burnt. The seasoning was incredibly overpowering because they put too much on. If I had never had this before, I wouldn’t have wanted to try this again. But since I visited them not too long ago, I know this is a great dish. It was just poorly executed for this event. Too bad.
For our next stop, we hopped in the car and drove over to Shelter Island. Parking is easy and plentiful over there and I didn’t want to rely on the shuttle to take us. We popped in when no one else was there to grab the sample here.
It was a crab cake. I think I’m not too big of a crab fan, since the last few times (including this time) I have found crab cakes to be too fishy tasting to me. Also this one tasted like just fish and bell peppers and I wasn’t into it at all.
I had two bites and then tossed it. As we were leaving, the shuttle dropped off a butt load of people. I was glad we missed the crowd.
#14 Sushi Lounge
We drove over and parked near Mitch’s Seafood on a side street and made three more stops. First – to the Sushi Lounge.
There’s tuna on top of this sucker so Stacey and I both scrapped that off. I tossed the jalapeno but Stacey left it on. I really really liked the texture of the pan fried crispy rice and the creamy avocado on top gave it depth and texture. I would totally eat this in a vegetarian kind of way! Stacey loved the spice from the jalapeno on top, too.
#15 Charles & Dinorah at The Pearl
We walked a couple of blocks up the road to hit The Pearl. The restaurant inside is now renamed to “Charles & Dinorah”, named after the original owners of The Pearl back in the 1950’s.
Here’s what they had: Cauliflower with smoked aubergine, pine nuts, and gremolata plus a fancy little drink they called the “Marie Antoinette”. The drink had pearl plum vodka, lavender syrup, grapefruit, and champagne. I loved the color on the drink! And I loved the taste of the plum vodka. I liked it much more than I liked the cauliflower.
Here’s me with my pretty little drink.
And Stacey, hiding behind her drink.
#16 Mitch’s Seafood
We walked over to Mitch’s Seafood. They had started closing up already so it was hard to tell where they were having the tastes (it was outside). They had like two plates left and it just so happened to be plates with tuna on it. I felt a little bad taking the plate and not eating it but that is exactly what happened.
#17 Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern
We could have walked to our last stop but I figured it would be easier to move the car over and then not have to walk so far in the end to get to Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern. They were set up on the patio and had these cute itty bitty sliders to sample! And then a baby beer!
For comparison’s sake, here’s the baby burger in my hand. TINY!
It tasted like a tiny version of their Cowboy Burger aka BBQ bacon burger, but without the onion ring on top. I only ate half my tiny burger. Not because it wasn’t good, but because I was full of food. I also only drank half my tiny beer and then gave it to Stacey.
Apparently when making videos of “cheering”, I have to say “wheeeee!” See the other cheering video earlier in this post. I guess I can’t help myself.
Stacey and I were able to hit up all 17 spots at this year’s event – hooray! I really like the Taste of Point Loma because it’s much more of a lo-key event. There wasn’t a ton of waiting at the different spots and there was a good variety of food. The restaurants are pretty close to together (which the exception of a few) and easy to get to. I’d definitely do this event again next year!
Thanks to Brown Marketing Strategies, Inc. for the invite to the Taste of Point Loma!
*Disclaimer: I received a pair of complimentary tickets to attend the Taste of Point Loma. All opinions and photography are my own.
That’s great you hit every spot! Bummer the shrimp was over seasoned as it looked good.
Hi Soo – This is an easier event to get to all of the spots since there were only 17. I was bummed about the shrimp, too, but I know it CAN be good when they do it right!