Restaurants

Posted by Nancy D. Brown of What a Trip

Crater Lake Oregon photo by Nancy D. Brown

Have you ever eaten inside a volcano? Well, neither have I. But I’ve dined on the lip of a caldera. It’s true. My family and I were recently at Crater Lake Lodge in southern Oregon. We didn’t stay over night at the Lodge because we didn’t plan our reservation in advance and they were full. We did manage to make a dinner reservation before our roadtrip, and that’s a good thing.

Lodge Manager Martin McCartan was kind enough to show me some rooms and invited us to dine as guests of the lodge. As is often the case when I’m reviewing a restaurant, I asked my fellow dining companions to order something different off the menu so that I could sample a variety of items.

The kids started with the pesto focaccia pizza for $9.95. I ordered the French onion soup, featuring a signature blend of onions at $6.25 Our daughter selected the wild Alaskan salmon with long grain rice. Our son, the hunter, ordered grilled venison in a sherry berry demiglace, accompanied with local Klamath gold potatoes and vegetables for $31.

A growing teenager, he polished off the venison in no time and was soon eying my plate of lamb. I was willing to share, as my husband was offering me bites of his baked Oregon Blue Cheese Halibut sauteed with shallots and paired with long grain rice, priced at $30. Of all the entrees I tried that evening, the grilled marinated, double bone lamb chops with an olive oil garlic marinade and balsamic onion chutney in a rosemary demi-glace was the stand out for $30 with the Halibut a close second.

Double Lambchops

Our waiter, Travis, couldn’t believe the amount of food we were comsuming. “Wow! You guys must have done a lot of hiking today,” he remarked as he refreshed our bread basket. Frankly, I don’t think he was planning to show us the dessert menu, but we asked about the house specials. “You must be really hungry,” he added as he offered up the menus.

Dismissing his comments, I ordered the Crater Molten Lava Cake, warm and fudge-filled at $9.25. Frankly, I was not impressed. The always hungry teenager wolfed down the Triple Berry Cobbler Crisp, with layers of flavorful blackberry, raspberry and marionberry, while our daughter ordered the Divine Vanilla Cheesecake for $6.95. My husband, keenly aware of Travis’ comments on our food consumption, declined to order dessert.

Molten Lava Cake photo by Nancy D. Brown

The historic lodge dining room was welcoming, as was the staff. While it was billed as a fine dining establishment, guests with young children should feel comfortable here. The young wait staff was accomodating to families with children in high chairs. We gave the Crater Lake Lodge a thumbs up for quality.

Crater Lake Lodge 1 (541) 594-1184

Posted by Nancy D. Brown of What a Trip

Warm Goat Cheese Salad

After a day of playing at the beach, it’s fun to dress up and head to The Shores Restaurant at the La Jolla Shores Hotel for a sunset supper. That’s exactly what a couple of mother’s and daughter’s did after walking the beach in La Jolla. Fortunately, we were seated at a table over-looking the Pacific Ocean as we watched the sun sink into the horizon. We were in La Jolla visiting colleges during Spring Break with our teenage daughters.

Restaurant Manager Lisa Redwine, (yes, that’s truly her last name) brought the girls non-alcoholic drinks made with Navarro Vineyards grape juice, while one mom ordered a margarita and the other ordered a cosmo.

Paella

Our Dinner Selection

Appetizers included a warm Laura Chenel goat cheese salad, ceviche, a bowl of steaming mussels and skillet roasted forest mushrooms with artichokes, candied shallots and pine nuts with dry sherry.  Both the girls enjoyed the mushrooms, but I preferred to save some to accompany my Gorgonzola crusted filet with oyster mushrooms, arugula and truffle steak fries. My daughter enjoyed her pistachio crusted “natural” salmon, meaning it was farm-raised in  ocean pens. She didn’t even try the avocado butter that accompanied her fish dish, but she said her salmon was tasty. The other teen, an adventurous diner, ordered the Fisherman’s Paella with shrimp, clams, mussels, chicken, mahi mahi and churizo sausage. This was her first time trying paella and will certainly not be her last.

Dessert Selection

Upside Down Cake

We were all pleasantly full, but after reading the dessert menu, we knew we had to try some of Chef De Cusine Augustin “Augie” Saucedo’s creations. Between the four of us, we shared the High Top Cookie Dough Mudd Pie, the Warm Apple Upside Down Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream and Butterscotch and the Nutella Marshmallow Bread Pudding.  All desserts were offered at $8.00, but the clear winner was the Apple Upside Down Cake, hands down.

The Shores Restaurant at La Jolla Shores Hotel
(858) 456-0600
8110 Camino del Oro, La Jolla, CA 92037