1500 Ocean
1500 Orange Ave
Coronado, CA 92118
(619) 522-8459
www.dine1500ocean.com/
San Diego restaurant week started this past Sunday. Boyfriend and I started it off by dining at 1500 Ocean inside the Hotel del Coronado. We’ve never dined at 1500 Ocean before, but it’s been on my list of places to try after hearing positive reviews.
It was a bit hard to find once we got to the hotel. Once we found the place, we were greeted warmly and then seated. The dining room is very dimly lit. the decor of the restaurant wasn’t that impressive to me. People had talked about the beautiful view, but you can barely see the ocean horizon.
Dinner started off with a basket of sour dough bread and cheese biscuits.
I was excited by the bread combination. I usually love cheese biscuits. The sour dough bread was very hard and chewy. It was kind of like the really thick crust you find on french bread, except that was pretty much the entire bread. I like really chewy foods, so I didn’t mind it too much, though I also thought it was too hard and chewy. Boyfriend didn’t like it at all because it was so hard. The cheese biscuits were a huge disappointment. I couldn’t even finish one. It was tasteless and dry.
We were then given a piece of beef carpaccio. Compliments of the chef. I thought this was a nice touch. The beef was accompanied by a canteloupe mousse and a dollop of pesto sauce. The beef was a bit salty, but mixed with the sweet mouse and pesto was a great combination.
For my appetizer, I chose Handmade Truffled Pappardelle: sweet corn, pancetta, mushroom beurre fondue.
I thought my appetizer was alright. Boyfriend thought the same. Neither of us were that impressed.
Boyfriend got the Hiramasa Crudo: Raw Austrailian yellowtail, avocado mousse, trio of garnishes.
Boyfriend enjoyed this. I thought it was alright. Again, nothing about it wowed me. It was a bit hard to eat in one bite.
Our appetizers were given to us so quickly that we thought the rest of the meal would come out just as fast. But after our appetizers, we waited quite a bit for our main course.
For my main entree, I chose Duck Two Ways: Roasted breast, leg confit, farro, fig gastrique
The food was served on a huge plate. It made the small entree even smaller. I usually love duck. The duck breast didn’t taste much like duck. It tasted more like steak. It didn’t have much flavor. The duck confit was really salty and I ended up not finishing it.
Boyfriend ordered the Prime beef tasting: Flat iron, braised short rib, crème fraiche potatoes, baby vegetables
I really didn’t like the flavors of the meat. The flat iron steak was brushed with a sauce that I didn’t like. The braised rib was too salty.
I was really looking forward to dessert. I chose an Ice cream sandwich: Chocolate semifreddo, double chocolate-macadamia nut cookie, fresh berries
The cookie was chewy and sweet, but it was full of walnuts, not macadamia nuts. I’m not a fan of walnuts in my cookies. I also did not like the semifreddo.
Boyfriend chose the Panne Cotta: Blueberry sauce, black pepper shortbread, candied lemon zest
The panna cotta seemed so plain. While it tasted good, I’m used to eating panna cotta topped with a lot of fruit. There was only a few blueberries on the side. Then there were lemon hard candies, which I thought was a really odd thing to put with the dessert.
All in all, it was a pretty disappoint experience. We did have good service though. Our waters were constantly refilled.
I love cheese biscuits too. Just not these…these were pretty bad. I don’t even know how they managed to make them so tasteless.
I have been to Oceanaire and was in fact there last night for restaurant week. It did not disappoint! I’ll be blogging about it soon.
Hi Faye- I hope you have some good experiences during restaurant week this time around. I love duck too, but this wasn’t very good.
Cheese biscuits?! I could make a meal out of those alone.
i was excited for you about restaurant week, but it sucks that the meal fell short of expectations. have you been to oceanaire? they are delicious and i think they are participating as well…
Hi Kirbie,
I have to agree w/ everyone here too 🙁 Every restaurant that I’ve tried during Restaurant Wk has been disappointing.
I think it’s a bad sign when the food comes out THAT quick. It just shows you that it’s all premade way in advance.
The only place we’re trying this time is Suite and Tender. Maybe Pamplemousse in Del Mar?
Thanks for the review and great pics! The duck looked yummy – so sad that it wasn’t! I’m a huge duck lover too.
Hi Carol- Towards the end of dinner I was making the observation to Boyfriend that we really haven’t found many places we liked out of all the years of participating. Your fell off the list comment is funny. I was drawing an imaginary line for Boyfriend on what I thought of our experience. It started off straight, with a slight dip down with the bread, then up a little with the beef, and then it basically plummeted after that.
Hi Kirk- I agree. A lot of restaurants do pare down their menu for restaurant week. It’s really made restaurant week less and less enjoyable for me. Boyfriend and I used to try lots of new places, but this year 1500 Ocean was the only new place on our list.
I agree with Kirk. We haven’t done Restaurant Week in a while since we never seemed to enjoy it much. What a let down on dishes. The names of the dishes sound good but I’m underwhelmed by their plating and by your review of the dishes. This place was at the bottom of my list of places to try. Oh wait, it just fell off the list, hehe.
Hi Kirbie – I think you’ve identified what I call the big problem with Restaurant week. Many places need to pare down their menu for the masses and price, and thus the food quality and even service suffers. But many of these places pretty much have to participate to stay “in the mix”. I’d much rather pay full price, and get the best of what a restaurant offers.