S&M Sausage and Meat is the newest concept by Scott Slater (owner of Slater’s 50/50), focusing on a menu of exotic game meats and creative twists on traditional dishes.
The casual eatery has a cheeky, playful vibe. The bar area has its own name (“Swine Bar”) and the walls are decorated with an eclectic collection of art, and a wall of Nicolas Cage.
After ordering at the front, it’s open seating. Once seated, your server/expert will come over and greet you. You’re provided a set of cards which allows you to indicate when you need service, when you want to be left alone, and when you’re ready for your check.
There is also a meat counter full of exotic sausages which you can purchase to take home, as well as a variety of sauces of other gift ideas.
Sausage Board
For the sausage board, you get to choose any two of their exotic sausage selection and it’s served accompanied with house-made pickled relish and sauerkraut and a whiskey mustard. It was really difficult to choose two with more than a dozen choices. We ended up selecting pizza sausage and bison chipotle.
I thought this was a great way to sample the various sausage offerings without filling up.
Rabbit Poutine
I was quite excited to try this dish, especially since it actually has cheese curds, unlike most poutine dishes in San Diego. The fries are waffle fries, or “hashtag” fries as they call them. Rather than gravy, they serve a braised rabbit au jus sauce, which gives the dish the needed moistness without completely softening the fries. While I think it worked, I did miss having a salty gravy. I also wish that the cheese curds were more squeaky.
Pork Wings
Next to the sausage offerings, the pork wings were one of my favorite bites. It really does feel like you’re chowing down on wings and the pork is coated with a sticky, sweet balsamic root beer reduction.
Pig Ears
The crispy fried pig ears are doused in a sweet General Tso’s sauce. I did think the dish veered on a being a little too sweet for my liking. I loved the texture of the crispy pig ears, but I wish the sauce had more savory notes.
Sesame Soy and Honey Sriracha Bacon
Tip: Every week the restaurant has a “safe” word which you can find on their website. Tell it when you place your order and you get two strips of bacon for free. There is a long selection of bacon flavors, both sweet and salty. We chose to order two sets: the sesame soy (which Mr. K preferred) and the honey sriracha (which I preferred). I loved that the thick slices were cooked until completely firm and crispy.
Overall, we had a pretty good meal here. The highlight for me was definitely the variety of exotic sausages and next time I think I’ll even get some from the counter to bring home and cook on my own, so that I can make my way through the entire list of offerings.
S&M Sausage and Meat
4130 PARK BLVD
SAN DIEGO, CA 92103
Hmmm! Crazy exotic sausages sound like a fun thing to try. They make the bacon look all fancy, too.
it definitely has a good assortment of things to try! and yes, i love how they make the bacon look fancy =)
Hi Kirbie – We checked them out last week. The sausages weren’t bad; but we really enjoyed the pickles and that whiskey mustard was really nice.
i loved the pickles! the whiskey mustard was a bit too strong for me, but then I don’t really enjoy mustard so this stuff was potent. hehe
Those pork “wings” look quite tasty but too bad the pig ears too sweet. They have a great selection of sausages but I’m not sure if I would go for alligator antelope though 🙂
I really like how they added Mr. T and David Bowie (Aladdin Sane album cover) along with animal headed figures on thrift store plates. Very interesting! I’d hang those in my kitchen!
I like the plates they collected too. I want to try more of the sausage flavors!