Last week I had the great liberty to visit beautiful San Diego. My trip was originally for business to attend a conference on tag management software for analytics, but I was able to combine it with a few days of pleasure time.
Coming from rainy Vancouver, I was very impressed with the sunshine and shorts weather for my first two days. I had a cute tour guide visiting with me and we had a wonderful time bike riding around Coronado Island and downtown San Diego. During the week, I experienced some mighty fine restaurants and pubs.
With the mild weather and great soups, it was very much a summery cream satisfaction for myself. The following are my three favorite soups that I had dining out during my week stay in San Diego.
Kelvin Restaurant at W Hotel
http://www.kelvinrestaurant.com
421 West B. Street, San Diego, CA
The soup seemed to have fresh kernels within the pureed base, which I thought was a classy touch. They were not mushy what-so-ever liked canned corn. I LOVED the use of tiny chopped chives (my favorite soup topper) as well as a tasty swirl of chile infused oil. The oil added a really fine touch of heat.
My waitress shared that the soup had cream, vegetable stock and rice flour. I am sure that it had a lot of cream too. It had a very good tasting base but a tad heavy on the cream side. I also think it didn’t really need the rice flour because it was to thick for my liking (almost like risotto thick).
Oh well, I enjoyed it but back on the treadmill I go!
Soup Mistress Rating For Kelvin Restaurant Rustic Corn Soup:
Healthy (+ slimming + low sodium): (2.5/5)
Presentation: (4.5/5)
Taste: (4/5)
Blue Point Coastal Cuisine
http://www.cohnrestaurants.com/menu-restaurants/blue-point/
565 Fifth Avenue, San Diego, CA
I had their famous Lobster Bisque with sherry and creme fraiche (gluten-free):
The Verdict of Blue Point Coastal Cuisine Lobster Bisque:
What a special treat, I went to this restaurant twice in one week! The first time was pleasure and the second time, Tealium Software treated our team at Electronic Arts to dinner. I also had a great opportunity to sit besides Jim Sterne – one of the biggest Analytics evangelist and great eMetrics conference host and speaker. Was fun to talk analytics with him.
A few of us at the table ordered the Lobster Bisque. This soup was super rich and very tasty. The soup was perfect for my appetite because I only ordered crab cakes with it. Jim, on the other hand couldn’t finish it because he thought it was too rich and filling – he was also waiting for his main entre. Perhaps Blue Point should offer a cup of bisque for those who may be like Jim and not want a big bowl?
The pieces of lobster in my bisque was meaty and juicy at same time. Perhaps it marinated in the soup a tad -sometime I find lobster to tough. I didn’t pick up on the Sherry in the soup – perhaps it dissipated? The seasoning was just perfect but the bisque could have used triple the amount of chives.
Soup Mistress Rating For Blue Point Coastal Cuisine Lobster Bisque:
Healthy (+ slimming + low sodium): (2.5/5)
Presentation: (3.5/5)
Taste: (4/5)
Mimmo’s Italian Village
http://www.mimmos.biz
1743 India St, San Diego, CA., San Diego, CA
I had the their soup of the day which was a Tomato Basil Soup:
The Verdict of Mimo’s Tomato Basil Soup:
The last day, I had fun hanging out with two other co-workers (Nataliya and Robert). We took a tour on the USS Midway ship and then we ventured to Little Italy for our last meal before heading to the airport.
Mimo’s grabbed our attention and both Robert and I ordered the Tomato Basil soup. I really enjoyed it – I have tried many tomato basil soups and this one makes one of the top 5 I had to date.. It was simple yet tasty like it should be. I lapped up the bowl of soup with some very fresh bread slices. And the freshly grated parmesan is a must at any Italian restaurant don’t you think?
Thumbs up for taste as well as a slimming soup from both Robert and myself!