Thursday, October 14, 2010

Miguel's Cocina--Old Town, San Diego

Miguel's Cocina, 2444 San Diego Ave., San Diego.  (619) 298-9840, Website: http://www.brigantine.com/.

On Thursday night, Toni and I wanted Mexican so our natural choice was San Diego's Old Town, which boasts several Mexican restaurants, a Cajun restaurant, Italian, and a few others all within two or three blocks.  We arrived in the area at about 6:00 and there was lots of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, typical of the neighborhood.  Old Town seems to always have a lot of tourism, creating parking problems and large packs of people on foot.  However, there is a public lot that has a lot of turnover--one can usually get a spot after no more than ten minutes of circling.  All of the tourists have the benefit of making you feel like you're on vacation whenever you're there.

We were undecided as to where we would eat.  We picked Miguel's Cocina primarily based on the attractive facade and pleasant looking patio dining room.  Miguel's is part of the Brigantine chain of restaurants, a small, local, corporate chain that consists of seven Brigantine restaurants, five Miguel's restaurants, Miguelito's in Coronado, and The Steakhouse at Azul La Jolla.

There were a few people in line ahead of us, one was the scout for a large party.  Because of the large party, we could not sit in the dining room and had to settle for the lounge.  Toni liked the lounge more because it was inside and warmer, but spacious and relaxed.  The lounge was mostly full but we saw one empty table that was in need of bussing.  Toni said 'I'll take care of this.'  She went to the hostess stand and in a few moments someone came by to clear the table.  He removed the dirty dishes and wiped it down with a dirty napkin left by the previous patron.  We were unimpressed.  But he redeemed by giving it a more thourough wipedown when he brought us our chips and salsa.

The chips were warm, fresh, only slightly greasy and slightly salty.  The salsa was reminiscent of Ortega or Pace, but Toni liked it, as she has a pet peeve about people trying to get to creative with salsa, to the point where it is no longer salsa.  They also brought a small dish of queso dip--rare in San Diego, and pickled peppers, onions, and carrots.

The had an attractive happy hour menu, but we just missed happy hour, which ran from 3:00-6:00.  The drink menu was adequate with all of the Mexican restaurant standards, but was hardly exhaustive. Beers were $5 to $7, mixed drinks about $10.  Entrees were typical and seemed to start around $10.

Lately, every time we've gone out we get a wobbly table.  We got one at Miguel's too, but while we have fixed the last few, we didn't have anything handy to fix this wobble with, so we lived with it.

The server was fairly prompt in taking our orders.  He was friendly but not overbearing. 

We got our food and drinks in decent time.  I had two shredded beef tacos with rice and refried beans ($10). Toni had a chicken burrito and a soft chicken taco ($11.50) with rice, hold the beans.  My tacos were a little greasy, but that is typical because they fry the shells just prior to serving.  (I should also note that they had a woman near the bar making all of the tortillas by hand.)  The shedded beef was in a big clump that came out all at once when I bit it.  The refried beans were a little overcooked, but not bad.

Toni's chicken burrito was stuffed full of shredded chicken with nothing else inside, light sauce and cheese on top.  She gave it good marks.  She said that her soft taco was delicious, with chicken, a little cheese, and a salsa fresca.  She also got a margarita that she reported as being delicious and generous in portion.



Overall, we thought the food was good but not great.  The service was California good (meaning they try, but aren't as organized on average as restaurants back East.), friendly and accomodating.  The atmosphere was pleasant.  We both thought that we would give Miguel's another shot.  On our rating scale, I gave Miguel's a SO-SO to GOOD, while Toni gave the restaurant a SO-SO to GOOD.

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