Parkhouse Eatery

D.B. and D.D. very kindly took D. and me out for a celebratory birthday dinner. I'm grossly behind on the blogging, because it's been nearly a month since my birthday. Despite being very close to University Heights, we rarely venture north of Park and El Cajon Blvd. D&D thought it'd be great to introduce us to Parkhouse Eatery, which I had heard about on Chowhound.

I highly recommend eating on the patio, weather permitting. Well, given it's July in San Diego, the weather is always permitting. The food was very good and leaned towards the homey and rustic. We started with focaccia and a lovely olive/sun-dried tomato tapanade. I love tapanades.

Ok, so this is where I think I was either pegged as a food-blogger or a weirdo. D.B. went to use the facilities and heard one of the servers whisper loudly, "Oh, my God, she's taking a picture of the bread!" Plus, we ended dinner with a discussion of New York and the D.'s were asking us where we'd eat next. I was joking about Per Se (yes, I'm a fan of Thomas Keller), which makes D. sweat, because it's a $275 prie fixe menu. Had to go into a little background into who Chef Keller is, which led to a little bit of gushing, and I started getting bemused looks from our server.

Great, she's not only a weirdo who photographs her food, but some kind of pretentious nut who worships a chef?

Shit. Well, if you're out there, Mr. Server, I'm merely an enthusiast... nothing more. Pretentious, maybe, but still an enthusiast.

Anyway, the food was delightful. D.B. had the mac and cheese topped with grilled scallops. He said that the sauce was a little too rich and that mascarpone may not have been the ideal cheese for this dish, but it was good. The scallops looked fantastic.

My own dish, the old-fashioned down home beef stew, was lovely, although I like to eat my stews with plenty of carbs. The beef was tender, polenta cubes a nice touch, the veggies perfectly cooked, and the blue cheese was a nice touch. The only thing I could have done without were the green beans. Texturally and flavor-wise, they didn't work with the dish. As for the carbs, the bread was a good accompaniment, but what worked really well was taking the leftovers home, making rice, and piling the stew on it.

It's a great neighborhood restaurant. Drop by when you have a chance, and for goodness' sake, be discreet with the picture-taking.

Parkhouse Eatery
4574 Park Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92116