A vegan in San Diego. Part 1: Dining out

What a wonderful gal-pal weekend in San Diego. My friend Susan flew in from Florida. I flew in from New York. And Lisa opened her gorgeous home to us.

In this post, I will highlight our dining out adventures.

Friday, dinner at Kitchen 1540 in Del Mar

I phoned Kitchen 1540 at L’Auberge to verify that they would accommodate a vegan. Their response? “Absolutely!”  I promptly made reservations.

My omnivore friends poured over the menu and I told the server I would sit back and see what the chef had in mind for me.  He did not disappoint!

The starter

Lightly fried heirloom tomatoes and salad. The white stuff?  Not cheese!  It’s dehydrated olive oil and lemon juice. Delicious!

For dinner

Vegetables and Bulgar, marinated artichokes and roasted asparagus, potatoes and tomatoes. The meal was absolutely perfect! Nothing pleases me more than getting an amazing vegan meal at a “mainstream” restaurant.  Applause, applause Chef Paul McCabe!

Kitchen 1540 at the L'Auberge Del Mar Resort on Urbanspoon

Saturday, lunch at Sipz in San Diego


Sipz is a vegetarian (mostly vegan) “Asian-fusion” restaurant.  They have a huge menu! It was very hard to decide what to eat.

We started with the steamed pot sticker:

Very, very good!

Lisa and Susan each ordered a salad bowl with “ham”

And I had a spicy basil dish with “chicken”

Yummy!

Yes, I know, we should have stopped there but I have two words for you:  Vegan Dessert.

Banana cake, chocolate cake and carrot cake.  ‘Nuff said.

Sipz Fusion Cafe on Urbanspoon

Sunday, dinner at spread. nouveau comfort food in San Diego

Oh, and we brought Lisa’s husband, Vince.

We started our fun evening at spread. nouveau comfort food with a peach sangria that went down oh-so-smoothly.

The food at Spread is served tapas style. Here’s the “menu”

The food, in the order in which it arrived:

Boiled peanuts (yum x 100)

Lentil salad

Here’s the only non-vegan dish. Of course I did not partake, so I don’t know what this dish is. It had figs and cheese and the omnivores enjoyed it.

Paella

Fried cauliflower

Walnut pesto

Mushroom ragout

And, yes, there was dessert, again. Fruit dipped in a chocolate-peanut butter sauce.

Spread on Urbanspoon

We loved Spread so much that we walked out with Spread t-shirts.

Susan, JL and Lisa

A Twitter friend, thevegguy, suggested I try Sipz and Spread while in San Diego. A big thanks to him for the great suggestions!

Stay tuned for my next blog post later this week: A vegan in San Diego.  Part 2: Dining in

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