Steven Ellison

Man, I am glad I felt the urge to check this place out. I had heard they do mimosas to go, they had a sign confirming that, but by the time we left I was far too full to want to even consider it! Very dog friendly, they were even putting dogs "inside" (the whole place is just covered patios, so no matter where you sit you'll be a bit exposed to the elements). We got one of the tables right out front, and it was so much fun for people watching! We had a great time just seeing all the people (and their dogs of course) walking by. They had $5 mimosas while we were there, which was fun. Oh my gosh, the chicken pot pie was enormous! I have a big appetite and I could barely finish it, but I did because it was also insanely good. My wife enjoyed her lamb burger. They have a big bowl of dog treats out front, and our dogs enjoyed those as well. The prices are definitely a bit expensive here, but the portion sizes definitely made up for it. We will certainly be back here.

I went here a long time ago and remembered liking it, so I'm glad I followed my hunch and recommended meeting some friends here. They have a nice covered outdoor patio (dog friendly of course). On the cold winter day we were there we had the patio to ourselves, which was nice since two couples brought their babies too. Service was quick whenever there was something to bring, but they left us alone a lot when we didn't have an order on deck, which was fine since it was probably clear we were all having a good time catching up with each other.

Abnormal Beer is their in-house brewery, we all really liked the beers we had from them. Since they have a separate listing in Google Maps for that I'll have a review there for the beers.

The food definitely feels a tiny bit upscale for the venue. The prices aren't crazy but when the menu lists the executive chef, you know they take themselves seriously. We all definitely enjoyed the poutine as an appetizer. I adored my short ribs, I didn't even need a knife to cut through the meat! The bread pudding creme brulee was definitely more bread pudding than creme brulee, luckily I like both so I didn't mind either way but if you prefer creme brulee over bread pudding you might be a bit let down.

Ultimately I would definitely come back here. It's very close to the freeway so it's easy for people to converge here.

You always know the food will be good when it's located inside of a grocery store. It took over 30 minutes for us to get our lunch, but it was definitely worth it. While you wait you can watch them make food over the countertop. The chicken curry lunch special was spicy but nothing I couldn't handle, and I can't handle a ton of spice. Tons of dog friendly outdoor seating, some of it is covered too. If I found myself in the area I would definitely come here again.

We came here on a Saturday night. They have a limited amount of outdoor seating, The outdoor seating is the best part: if you like people watching, ask for one of those tables.

The service we had was pretty bad. It wasn't crowded inside or out, but we went long stretched without seeing our waiter. It's a bad look when you go straight from food delivered to asking for the check, it means you're not getting than standard "is everything ok" that shows they didn't forget about you. We could see a bunch of the workers clumped around near the entrance, so that was extra annoying that we were left ignored, when they were hanging out just around the corner.

My lasagna was ok, I've had better lasagna. My wife got fettuccine with shrimp, and the sauce had that clumpy look that fettuccine gets when you reheat it. None of the pasta was made fresh, which we kind of expected for the price we paid.

If you do go here, get the focaccia. That's the one thing on the menu that's absolutely fantastic, and I can't imagine how they could mess it up. We've been to their location in Little Italy, the focaccia is what brought us there, we were hoping their location in Del Mar would be more of the same just closer to home, and it paled in comparison.

We could taste that the pasta here was freshly made. The chicken pesto was some of the best pesto I've had. The patio was very dog friendly and there was a ton of seating. We were here on a Sunday evening and the service was quick. If you want good Italian food and don't want to have to go all the way to Little Italy, this is definitely your spot.