It’s Holly

Gabe was kind enough to share his love for food and introduce me to The Guild. It all started a couple Saturdays ago, when I met him for lunch. We drove around Uptown and Mission Hills aimlessly searching for something we were in the mood for. We settled on good ol’ standby La Vache, which rarely disappoints. As soon as we sat down, Gabe says “Oh. My. God. We have to go to The Guild. Like, right now.” The waitress comes to take our drink orders and Gabe says “Actually, we need a little bit more time…” Who says they need more time for a drink order? Gabe does, because he’s stalling so we can frantically punch our Blackberries to death looking for a phone number for The Guild. We don’t want to leave our table at La Vache in case The Guild is closed, so we just end up looking like douchebags trying to get a reservation at a restaurant while we’re in a restaurant. Nice.

Unfortunately, The Guild didn’t open until 4PM on Saturdays, and it was 11:30, and we were hungry. We promised we’d make a reservation (which wasn’t as easy as I thought) so I could check it out. Our first attempt wouldn’t get us a table until 9:30PM. Too late for me. Our last attempt went more like this:

Host: Thank you for calling The Guild.

Holly: I’d like to make a reservation for next Tuesday at 6:30, please.

Host: No problem.

Holly: Actually, the chances of me coming in tonight and getting a table are like, slim to none, right?

Host: That’s right dear, less than zero. See you next Tuesday.

So, Gabe, Emma and I trek our way down to Barrio Logan (not the most well developed area in San Diego, but charming in it’s own rundown, underdeveloped, sketchy and shady sort of way) to have what will soon become the best meal I’ve ever had.

Gabe rolled up in the best shirt. ever.

the front

the back

we’ve arrived

very cool ambiance. exposed concrete and the coolest chairs i’ve ever seen. the owner is a metal sculptor, and actually has his workshop in back. Gabe said sometimes, you can actually see him working back there while you eat.

there’s a built in hook for your purse, ladies! i love it! my mom always said it’s bad luck to put your purse on the ground. i believe it.

funky forks

The entire menu looks delicious. It’s a tasting menu, so the portions are smaller and meant to be shared. It’s not ridiculously pricey, and each person can order 2 or 3 dishes and be comfortably full. We start with drinks. Gabe’s been bragging about this horchata martini forever (and for good reason), so we ordered a round.

horchata martini - soju, vanilla rice milk and cinnamon. it’s fantastic, and quite dangerous because it’s so refreshing and doesn’t taste alcoholic at all.

We start with the Toyo Ito and the Caprese.

left - caprese, right - toyo ito sashimi

We dug into the Toyo Ito first, which is tuna sashimi with chile sesame oil, avocado, red sea salt and wasabi foam. Foam? Heck yes, FOAM!

i was surprised by the consistency of the foam. when i first heard “foam”, i was thinking something frothier and less dense. this was luscious and creamy, but not so overpowering as to coat your tongue with fat. the wasabi flavor was just that, the flavor or wasabi, and not so much the traditional “heat” found with wasabi. i’m sure the cream cut the heat a lot, as well.

Next we started in on the caprese, with pesto infused mozzarella, tomatoes and a basil foam. Yes, more foam. I made it my personal mission to order everything on the menu with the word “foam” mentioned. Damn you, Marcel, and your molecular gastronomy!

Gabe, on basil foam: “This tastes better than real basil”.
That is correct.

At this point in our meal, which is relatively early, we’re all so satisfied and excited, we’ve decided the order the entire menu. We also have empty drink glasses - which is always a problem. Emma and Gabe went with another round of Horchata Martinis. I decided to be a little more adventurous and try the White Peach martini. I won this round.

Next out, the Chevre Bruleé. I heart goat cheese, in all forms. Now you’re telling me you can bruleé it? Done and done! Stacked were small toastettes with a slice of grilled artichoke and thyme citrus vinagrette, topped with a thick slice of chevre, bruleé’d with balsalmic vinegar and honey. to. die. for.

the three of us agreed at the end of the night, that this dish (and the toyo ito) could be a part of our daily diets for the remainder of our existence.

Next was the lobster crab cake. The moment I stuck my fork in, I’ve decided that all other crab cakes need to find their original shells, crawl back into the ocean and drown. I sat on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes and arugla with a brie + crème fraiche sauce, as well as a smoky chipotle sauce.

a squeeze of lime over the top makes this perfect.

Next to arrive was the organic flat iron steak frites, grilled with herbs and sea salt, served with fries, house ketchup, crumbled gorgonzola and a horseradish crème fraiche. The steak was cooked *perfectly*, and the seasoned fries were thin and crispy. The house ketchup is hard to describe. It has a smoky, almost chipotle flavor, but I’m not sure if that’s what it was. Excellent, nonetheless.

steak frites

Next up, we decided to go with one of the specials of the day. Gabe had mentioned a truffled macaroni and cheese, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a special today. We went with the prosciutto wrapped mongchong, with arugala, house pico de gallo and a blood orange foam. When our waitress read the specials, I didn’t even know what a mongchong was, I just heard “prosciutto wrapped” and said “yes, that one”. Turns out it’s fish. The executive chef actually brought this dish to us. As she described it, I said “What’s mongchong?”. lol She said it’s a Hawaiian yellowtail (I think). Either way, it’s beautiful.

loooved the blood orange foam. at this point we noticed that every dish had the four basic taste elements - sour, salty, bitter and sweet. it was most apparent in this dish. the bitter greens, the salty chipotle sauce, the sourness of the lime we squeezed over the top, and the sweet blood orange foam. not one flavor overpowered the other, or the fish for that matter.

At this point, we had finished all the food in our initial order. Then we kept seeing plates of food to by and started drooling again. We decided to order one more thing. Gabe’s been wanting to try the three cheese stuffed roasted pasilla chile since the last time he was here, so we flagged down our waitress and put in an order. Of course, by this time, our drink glasses were empty again. We all decided to try something new. Gabe got the Key Lime Pie martini, Emma ordered the Mango Mojito, and I opted for the most unique item on the menu, the Passionate Flame Martini. Emma won this round. Gabe’s Key Lime Pie martini tasted good, but he described it as “drinking Bath & Body Works”.

Emma’s Mango Mojito was simply refreshing. Mint and lime with mango puree and sojo - simple and tasty. It won Best Drink of the night.

Passionate Flame Martini: Soju, passion fruit, white cranberry juice, jalapeño infusion. Adventurous? YES! Best thing ever? Heck yes! The smell of passion fruit was strong. The most interesting part of this drink is (obviously) the jalapeño infusion. The heat wasn’t immediate, and you honestly didn’t even feel it on your palette. About 5 seconds after your sip, there was a warm feeling in the back of your throat. Very odd, but amazing.

Out comes the stuffed chile.

It’s a roasted pasilla chile, stuffed with queso fresco, feta and gorgonzola with a rojo creme sauce and serrano lime soda foam. Yay Foam! I’m not a big stuffed chile fan, but this was a great dish. This was probably my least favorite dish of the night, but I’d still recommend it. I just have weird taste buds, and whole chiles just don’t do it for me. The rojo creme sauce was excellent, so excellent, in fact, that we wouldn’t let them take the plate when we were finished. What could we do with this sauce? Well, dip some fries in it, of course. Again, we flagged down the waitress and put in an order of fries.

The same fries that accompanied the steak frites, but in addition to the house ketchup it also came with crumbled feta. see the plate of sauce from the pasilla to the right.

So we’re done now, right? Another waitress walks by with a plate for another table. I flag down our waitress and ask what it was. Sesame seared yellowfin, you say? Yeah, let’s get one of those.

yellowfin with a sesame pepper crust, spicy sweet chile sauce and sesame oil. perfectly cooked. I like my seared fish to be a little cool inside, and this was a bit warmer, but perfectly done. I’m not a big fan of sweet chile sauce (hell, maybe if it came in a foam I’d like it more), so I opted for the sesame oil. And how cute is the little wasabi fish sculpture on the plate?

Fin. Done. I promise, that was the last thing we ordered. We were a happy full, not overly stuffed, and very happy.