Restaurant Review: Market

On Thursday, I picked up Badge from the airport and whisked him away to Market for a late dinner. Market is a upscale restaurant in Del Mar serving up local seasonal foods (they get a lot of produce from Chino Farms). It's been on our list of places to try but we just never got around to it. Lucky for us, I recently noticed they were participating in SD restaurant week. No excuses, it was go time.

The restaurant is on an isolated strip of El Camino Real. Pretty non-descript from outside (at least at night). The interior decor was nice and tasteful. Had a nice cozy feel to it. But hey, let's get to the food yeah? Here's the prix fixe menu:

Choice of First/Appetizers Course
Chardonnay Braised Artichoke Soup
Herbed Gnocchi, Buttered Dungeness Crab, Meyer Lemon Emulsion
Caramelized Forest Mushroom Tart
Rosemary Potatoes, Onion Confit, Bucheron Goat Cheese, Pickled Mustard Seed
New York Steak Carpaccio
Herbed White Cheddar Flatbread, Roasted Tomatoes, Wild Arugula Salad

Choice of Second/Main Course
Crispy Stuffed Jidori Chicken Breast
Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Root Vegetable Roast, Up Egg
Coriander Dusted Local Blue Ling Cod
Roasted Chiles & Hominy, Charred Tomatillos, Avocado Spiced Corn Crisp
Cast Iron Roasted Beef Filet
Crispy Onions, Winter Vegetable Roast, Portobello-Cabernet Jus

Choice of Third/Dessert Course
Market Bars
Peanut Crunch, Chocolate Mousse Cake, Caramelized Bananas
Huckleberry Cheesecake
Candied Orange Peel, Micro Basil
Warm Toasted Walnut Torte
Caramelized Apples, Sour Cream Ice Cream, Charred Dates

Once seated, we had a nice basket of bread and corn muffins. We also got a complimentary sampling of poached shrimp with mango salsa, served in a spoon. Tasty tasty. For our first course, I got the artichoke soup since I've been on a soup kick. It had a really nice blend of flavors, the creaminess was great with the lobster. Badge got the mushroom tart (below) which delicious. Nice flakiness and the goat cheese, oh the goat cheese! I ended up stealing the second half of his tart. No shame.


For our second course, I got the beef fillet. The quality of the meat was excellent! I gobbled it up along with my glass of cabernet. I also really enjoyed the puree on the side, tasted like parsnip maybe. Badge got the Jidori chicken which was also great. The way it was fried was reminiscent of katsudon (Asian fried cutlet). It was stuffed with spinach and a whole mess of goodness, topped with an egg. While we were quite pleased with both our dishes, we did notice they were a tad salty for our tastes. I think we've just gotten used to Asian foods which tend to have less salt. But other than that, wonderful!



For dessert, I got the walnut torte which I could have eaten three more of. Badge got the huckleberry cheesecake mmmm. All in all, a great experience and worth the price tag. They are extending restaurant week till the 29th if anyone is interested!



PS my apologies for the crappy pictures but I'm still trying to figure out how to work my iPhone camera. Can you believe there is no flash on this sucker? Although I still love it...my precious...