La Jolla is a true gem it is no wonder that it is known as the jewel of San Diego. We've visited a number of times, but we recently had our first taste of rubbing elbows with the upper crust. Travelzoo ran a deal on Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa that I couldn't resist. We booked two nights and got away from it all. We had a fabulous stay, but it's doubtful we'll return to the Estancia. Customer service was top notch and the grounds are lovely, but the accomodations failed to wow us. I guess living in Vegas with some of the best resorts in the world at rock bottom prices has spoiled us a bit.
Photos from this trip aren't up to standards, my new camera hadn't arrived before the trip, and while I had my Nikon along; I was a dimwit and forgot to charge it beforehand. Of course, I didn't pack the charger either. So, most photos are from our camera phones.
We spent time at all our favorite places and stuffed ourselves silly with our favorite eats. We also parked in the cove the morning we tried Cody's for brunch. We watched the sea lions and we went down into the La Jolla Cove Cave. We've been dozens of times before, but never knew it existed. I love that we continue to find new stuff to explore despite our many visits to the area. I can't say the Cave was anything spectacular it's small and you can experience it in 15 minutes or less - walking the stairs takes up much of the time - it's just one of those things to do once. The moisture that collects on the spider webs in the cave was particularly neat.
We caught one sunset. Usually the marine layer prevents us from doing so, but we had gorgeous weather and no marine layer, just beautiful sunshine!! Temps were in the 70's. It's what California dreams are made of.
When we weren't seeing the sights we were feeding our bellies. And they were WELL fed. We tried two new places: Carnitas Snack Shack in North Park and Cody's in La Jolla. Delicious. Plus all of our old favorites: Con Pane, El Indio, and Whisknladle. La Puerta, though, has slipped. I don't see us making it a must do in the future.
Check out these eats! We ate at the Carnitas Shack twice. On our first visit we came for lunch; we had the carnitas tacos and the pork belly banh mì which was on special. We took the order to go because we weren't properly parked. We dug in while in the car, such wonderful porkiness! The pork belly was nicely tender and bursting with flavor. The pork pate was likely the best I've tasted. Fresh veggies and bread made this one great sandwich. The carnitas were awesome! Melt in your mouth goodness. I wasn't in love with the tortillas so I'll try the torta next time.
Our second visit was for dinner. This time parking was a far easier find. We ordered the pork and steak sandwiches, side of fries and a couple local brews. We grabbed a table on the patio. Both sandwiches looked delicious when they arrived. We were eager to dig in. The pork sandwich sounds positively sinful with schnitzel, pulled pork, bacon, pepperoncini relish and shack aoli. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat. It was very dry, the bun crumbled into a dozen pieces. The bacon was undercooked, the schnitzel was overcooked and the pulled pork seemed like it sat out too long. The relish lacked crunch and heat. The aoli seemed not existent. I wanted to love this sandwich, but I did not. It has such high praises... Perhaps, I got a bad one? It seemed odd to order steak in a shack of pork, but it was wonderful. The ribeye was juicy, the jalapeno cheddar bread was tender but strong enough to hold all the goodies and the kick from the serrano chile relish was awesome. This was an outstanding sandwich. The seasoned fries come crisp and very WELL seasoned. We gobbled those up.
I can't wait for our next jaunt to SD to sample more pork goodness.
Cody's was another winner! When we checked in with the host we were asked "shade or sun?" That's the kind of welcome I enjoy. First available was shade, but it was a quick three minute wait and it had a lovely view of the cove.
We wanted to try everything. We narrowed down a real breakfast of champions: the crab cakes, biscuits and gravy, the bacon and cheddar omelet and the awesome french toast.
The crab cakes were a bit small, but what they lacked in size they made up for in flavor. The were very crabby which I highly enjoy.
I was skeptical over the Awesome French Toast. How awesome could it be? Well, truth be told, it is indeed awesome. I cannot recall devouring a better version. The marscapone butter left me on cloud nine.
The bacon and cheese omelet was prepared nicely, but it lacked any spark. We'll skip it in the future.
The biscuits and gravy, however, were absolutely dreamy. You must understand, I don't often like B & G. But these biscuits were tender and fluffy. Even on the third day I doubt they'd be dry. The gravy was smooth as silk. I don't know if it was the chopped onion that wooed me, but woo me, it did.
Needless to say, the weekend was wonderfully relaxing!
