Bread & Cie - Best Bakery in San Diego

After the disappointing hotel breakfast at the US grant on the previous day, we started our trip north on Pacific Coast Highway (CA 1) with a breakfast stop at Bread & Cie in San Diego.

What a treat - this place truly deserves to be called the best bakery in San Diego. From the fantastic blueberry turnovers to the eclairs, the entire selection of pastries is to die for and presented in a beautiful glass display next to amazing looking cakes and pies that made us seriously consider having a round of dessert right after breakfast.

You get to pick your choices in front of the glass display, place your coffee order, and pay at the register - then they bring everything to your table when it is ready. The variety of breads on display was also breath-taking and we bought an olive bread as well as some sourdough rolls for the trip up the coast.

Our rating: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ (5 out of a possible 5 diamonds).

Confidential

Here is some confidential information for you: the Pheasant Glass team will be traveling up the West Coast from San Diego to San Francisco - following the Pacific Coast Highway - over the course of the next week and will be reporting on various culinary adventures as time permits and wherever Internet connections can be found.

While in San Diego, we discovered another top-secret location that we need to tell you about: the Confidential Restaurant and Loft is a hip bar located on Fourth Street in San Diego that features a fantastic mix of music, excellent food, and drinks.

All food is served tapas-style, meaning that the portions are small and meant to be shared with friends - and you probably want to start ordering 5-6 dishes for a table of 4. The drink selection is quite exquisite and I would recommend a White Orchid Martini (see photo above) for starters. It's Grey Goose vodka with elderflower syrup - not something you get to try every day.

The lobster bisque is very intense - almost an explosion of flavors - and comes with some delicious foam on top - it is served in a small cup, so you probably want to have one soup per person rather than sharing. Sadly, however, they were out of oyster shooters on the day we were there, but those sounded delicious, too, at least from what we could read in the menu....

It is also this unfortunate absence of oyster shooters as well as the missing-in-action  carpaccio that resulted in a one-point deduction from the maximum possible score for an otherwise quite memorable dining experience that night.

A few more notable dishes include the hearts of palm salad (pictured above) and the amazing Coca-Cola basted baby back ribs (on the right), as well as the salmon, and the deconstructed pizza.

The service was fast, friendly, and competent, rounding off an altogether top-notch dining experience that was accompanied by hip music. So whatever top-secret business brings you to town, make sure you conduct it at Confidential on Fourth Street in San Diego.

Our rating: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ◊ (4 out of a possible 5 diamonds).

Breakfast at the US Grant's "Grant Grill"

The US Grant in San Diego certainly has a great reputation and is part of  Starwood's "The Luxury Collection" of hotels. It also came recommended by our American Express travel counselor.

When we arrived on Saturday, the service quality was excellent - from the valet staff to the front desk to the concierge, the hotel lived up to our expectations. The hotel has undergone substantial renovations a few years back, and the lobby is extravagant, yet inviting. The rooms have been redecorated in a stylish way, although it appears that a fashion statement was more important to the interior designer than the comfort of guests. The sofa in the above picture is opposite the TV in the suite, and it is perhaps the most uncomfortable sofa I ever sat in. Also, the choice of fabric does no accommodate high traffic use, the settees look stained. We know for sure that the rooms are being cleaned, because a dirty rag was left on our suitcases.

For breakfast we went to the Grant Grill in the hotel. The breakfast menu was well designed and the Wedgwood china, silverware, and table setting looked promising.  

Imagine our surprise, when we were told upon being served our coffee and tea  that they were out of English breakfast tea. But this was only the foreboding of things to come. Even though the restaurant was only 20-25% full, it took forever until we were served. When the food finally arrived, the pancakes that my daughter had ordered were covered with blueberries, but once she pushed those aside, the entire stack turned out to be severely burnt. Needless to say, we sent them back. One would imagine that an egg over-easy is one of the more-easy items on the menu to get right. Au contraire, the egg was undercooked and covered with grease. Likewise, the "Gold Yukon Potatoes" turned out to be hash-browns that were raw on the inside and burnt on top and bottom.

This was also the point in time, when service quality went downhill. Not only did we have to wait for the toast and pastries for another 10 minutes, by which time the eggs were already cold, but we were also confronted with an empty salt shaker and no sight of the waiter for those entire 10 minutes. When the pastries finally arrived, they turned out to be soaked in fat to the point where a huge grease stain was left behind in the bread basket. Upon serving the check the waiter asked if everything had been alright, and instead of waiting for our answer concluded for himself "All is well, that's good to hear."

We respectfully disagree...

Our rating: ♦ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ (1 out of a possible 5 diamonds).