Juniper and Ivy

I had an invitation to dine at Juniper and Ivy with some friends and even though it was a school night, I wanted to experience the offerings from Richard Blaise of Top Chef fame.

The restaurant is on Kettner and is off by itself in a large warehouse space.  There are no ceilings so the noise level is pretty high.  There is a very large bar area and a banquet room upstairs.

Even though we had reservations, the wait was very long.  We did not get seated in our booth until 35 minutes after our reservation time.  Management was on top of things and we were comped all the drinks for the night as well as 4 appetizer dishes.

It was a feeding frenzy as we ordered additional plates of various food.

Summer Squash

Grilled Scallop Skewer

Baja Shrimp Toast

Linguni and Clams

Oysters and Pearls.  The dish came out smoking and the presentation was very cool.  The pearls are horseradish in liquid nitrogen.

Kale and Seaweed Caesar which was pretty chewy.

Lamb Pappardelle.

Kurobuta Pork Meatball.

Chicken Liver with Chutney eaten with tiny loaves of bread.

Originally, we placed a special order for a Rock Cod dish which got rave reviews, but it was not available.  We did get a Copper River Salmon dish that was prepared the same way as their King Salmon plate.

Overall, a good food experience although some dishes were a bit salty.  We did not see the chef but he was around according to our waiter.  He has moved to Del Mar from Atlanta.