Catania

Catania is the latest addition to the Whisknladle Hospitality restaurant group, focusing on Italian Coastal cuisine.

We’ve always been a big fan of the Whisknladle restaurants and so we were excited to accept an invitation to check out the newest restaurant.

Situated on the top floor of La Plaza center in downtown La Jolla , the restaurant offers a beautiful view for diners and we were able to watch the sunset during our dinner.

Smoked Duck Liver Mousse

We had a hard time choosing appetizers as everything looked so enticing. After some consulting with our server, we started with the popular smoked duck liver mousse. The silky mousse spread is topped with almonds, dates, and strawberry berry jam. This was quite an indulgent way to start our meal.

Local Spot Prawns

I was quite excited to see this on the menu as I adore spot prawns. I wish I had used a comparison point to show how big these prawns were.

They were bathed in a simple garlic butter charred lemon mixture. This is seafood at its best, letting the fresh prawns shine with minimal preparation. Each prawn tasted like mini lobsters and as we sat there getting our hands dirty and watching the sunset, I was transported back to summers in Long Island. I’d come back again for this dish alone.

Duck Sugo Orrecchiette

While this wasn’t the prettiest dish to look at, the house-made pasta was just delightful. Perfect al dente bites of pasta mixed with a rich duck and porcini sauce. I’d definitely order this again.

Whole Roasted Branzino

The tender, whole roasted fish with salse verde, fennel, olives and blood oranges, was quite tasty. We did have some issues with little bones along the sides of the fish that we had to be careful of though. I think they may have forgotten to remove them since the rest of the fish was deboned.

Chocolate Budino

For dessert, Mr. K chose the chocolate budino for us to share.. It was accompanied by a red wine reduction sauce and crunchy biscotti. The chocolate was quite rich, a little too much for me after a few bites. Mr. K is the definite chocoholic in our family and he had no problems finishing it off.

Overall, we had a really wonderful meal here. We’ve always enjoyed the Whisknladle restaurants but this may now be our favorite of the group. We’ll definitely be back to explore more menu items.

Please note, as discussed above, we were invited to dine here and our meal was complimentary. All opinions expressed remain my own.

Catania
7863 Girard Ave, Suite 301
La Jolla, California