Restaurant: Adams Avenue Grill Location: 2201 Adams Ave. San Diego, CA Phone: (619) 298-8440 Price Range: Lunch $6.95-$8.95 includes dessert!, dinner $7.95-$19.95

Number of visits: many
Last visit before review: July 21, 2001

Randy has had: Side salad, carrot ginger soup, gazpacho (special), chilled hot chili peach & mango soup (special), salmon steak with mustard chive sauce (special), braised beef and peppercorns (special), iced tea.

Jeff has had: carrot ginger soup, butternut squash soup (special), tortilla chicken soup (special), braised beef and peppercorns (special), Yucatan steak (special), macaroni and cheese, chicken in fontina cheese and bechamel sauce (special), tarragon chicken (special), iced tea.

We've shared: Panko onion rings, sesame balls.

Rating 11 (of 12) Excellent

Randy says: On the menu, the side salad is described as "Picasso on a plate" and I think that's accurate. It's colorful and really very pretty. As the waitstaff carries them by on the way to other tables, they catch our eye and we end up getting one. It's got a good mix of dark leafy lettuces, shredded carrots, tomatoes, and a soupçon of red cabbage.

Jeff says: The side salad is really good. One of the available dressings is dill balsamic vinaigrette. Usually I don't like vinaigrettes because they are too vinegary and otherwise boring. Not this one. It's just a little sweet, not too vinegary, and the dill adds a really nice flavor. The tiny dill pieces in the dressing are as numerous as stars in a clear sky. The dressings are offered for sale in twelve ounce bottles, and on our last visit we couldn't help but get a bottle of the vinaigrette to take home with us and enjoy all week. The ranch dressing is also very good.

Randy says: The gazpacho soup is wonderful. Served cold it's refreshing and you can taste all the different flavors. The carrot ginger is one of my favorites. The flavor is not overpowering but the carrot and the ginger go very well together, and it's better seasoned than other carrot ginger soups I've tried. When I asked what the chilled hot chili peach & mango soup was like, I was told it's delightful, and it was. It was cool, creamy, and delicious. I think it would make a great dessert. Although billed as "hot chili", you had to strain to taste the chili oil.

Jeff says: The gazpacho soup is very good, as is the carrot ginger, but my favorite is the butternut squash soup. I like thick soups, and this one is thick, rich, and tasty. The chicken tortilla soup was thin, and there was more corn in it than I expected, but it was flavorful with its hearty vegetables. I was afraid to order the chilled hot chili peach & mango soup due to the inclusion of the hot chili oil, but I tasted Randy's and it wasn't at all objectionable. The soup was very rich and tangy, perfect for a summer evening.

Randy says: The onion rings were good, but we really loved the sesame balls. They were just wonderful. We couldn't get enough of them.

Jeff says: I liked the onion rings, but the sesame balls were unique. They consisted of black and white sesame seed rolled around some kind of breading, but they were delicious. Unfortunately the chef who made them is no longer there and they have never been offered again. The one thing Adams Avenue Grill doesn't do well, in my opinion, are steaks and other beef dishes. The Yucatan steak was dry and disappointing, and the braised beef & peppercorns was just too peppery. But the chicken specials, such as the chicken in fontina cheese and bechamel sauce and the tarragon chicken have been very good. But the thing they do best of all — the dish to die for — is their macaroni and cheese. This is a casserole with real grated cheeses blended to delicious perfection. It reminds me of a homemade macaroni and cheese casserole a friend used to make for me when I was a teenager. It's a large portion and I always end up bringing some home.

Randy says: The braised beef and peppercorns was good but it was maybe a little bit too salty. Other than that I really liked it. The iced tea is good. The bread has a good hard crust and it's substantial with a nice flavor.

Jeff says: I'm not sure I like the iced tea that much. I can't pin it down, but there's something about it. Of interest are the many changes the available sweeteners have gone through. First the only sugar they had was in a form they had to melt down and bring in a little cup as liquid. Then for the longest time they only had that grainy raw sugar that won't melt in anything cold. Finally they started serving regular white refined sugar. Likewise the accompaniment to the bread has changed. Originally there was a spread made of beans and garlic that I didn't care for at all. Recently the bread has been served with butter, which I like a lot.

Adams Avenue Grill offers a menu that changes each week in addition to the items always offered. There is a mailing list to inform of the weekly specials, and when we see something on that list that sounds good we usually go and try it out. The soups are always exceptional. For the entrees, the chef usually likes to serve the meat, fish, chicken or vegetarian fare over — that is on top of — potatoes (garlic mashed, sweet potato mash, etc.) or rice. That is a pretty constant theme from what we have observed. Since most of the items we have tried are transient specials, we were not able to remember the details of some of them to describe them here.

The noise level at Adams Avenue Grill is pretty high due to the hard floors, walls, and ceilings. There are meager swaths of fabric on the ceiling which may contribute to the aesthetics of the room, but they don't help much with the noise level. Carpeting on the floors would help tremendously. The art on the wall is changed every 6 weeks (and the mailing list introduces the art and the artist to further entice patrons to stop in for a look). The tables are clothed with paper, and a cup of crayons is provided for those who wish to create their own art (and, we suppose, to keep children occupied while they wait for their food).

One time as we approached the front door at about dusk, a photographer was perched outside with a tripod. As we opened the door and entered, the camera's flash lit up the front of the building, after which the photographer packed up his camera and left. The next time we visited, we noticed on the counter a photo of the front of the building at about dusk with two figures of about our relative heights in the entrance. The figures are artfully blurred and we don't know how many photos the photographer took before we arrived so it's impossible to be certain, but we strongly feel that we are the two customers shown entering the building in the photograph, which as of the date of this review is still displayed prominently on the front counter.