Every year San Diego CityBeat offers it’s New Year’s Eve Guide and every year I contribute the Dining portion. Here’s this year’s. The original is at: http://sdcitybeat.com/culture/features/new-year%E2%80%99s-eve-guide-2019/
New Year’s Eve dining doesn’t have to be anything less than excellent, and one of the more exciting offerings is at The Cork & Craft (16990 Via Tazon) in Rancho Bernardo. Chef Scott Cannon’s seven-course tasting menu starts with the first course: an oyster taco with potato, caviar and seaweed. Other highlights of the menu include a truffle risotto with lobster, potato and parmesan, and a surf-n-turf play featuring NY strip steak, braised octopus and a squid ink demi-glace. At $89 (with optional beer and wine pairings) per guest, it’s a steal. Call 858-618–2463, or book online with SeatMe.
Maestoso (1040 University Ave.) in Hillcrest is offering two prix fixe dinner options: a $55 three-course dinner served to guests arriving between 5 and 8:30 p.m. with an optional $25 wine pairing, or an $85 five-course dinner served beginning at 8:30 p.m. through midnight (last seating at 9:30 p.m.) with an optional $35 wine pairing. At the center of them is semolina polenta with lentils (an Italian NYE tradition) and vegetarian cotechino (traditionally a slow-cooked Italian pork sausage). The dish features semolina polenta spiced with lemon powder from the Amalfi coast, a bay leaf-smoked vegetarian sausage and some tomato stewed lentils. Reserve by calling 619-642-0777 or e-mailing hello@maestoso.com.
Continuing the international theme, Monkey King (467 Fifth Ave.), a Gaslamp Southeast Asian-inspired restaurant, will be celebrating the New Year with live music, a four-course prix fixe menu and a midnight celebration with a balloon drop and complimentary champagne toast. The highlight of the $129 per couple menu could be the Monkey King Roll: spicy tuna, crab, avocado, cream cheese, spicy mayo and eel sauce flash-fried in light tempura batter. Reserve by calling 619-359-8897 or online at monkeykingsd.com.
And there may be no better place in town to experience the more luxurious side of the holiday than at San Diego’s newest “sophisticated steakhouse,” Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse (901 Bayfront Court, Ste. 105) on the downtown waterfront. Executive Chef Brian Christman’s super-premium four-course menu ($195 per person) will feature 45-day dry-aged prime strip, bone-in ribeye and more, all with optional wine pairings. New Year’s Eve dinner service begins at 5 p.m. and runs all evening. To reserve, visit delfriscos.com or call 619-272-5060.