You always see Richard Blais on tv, so when I was in San Diego, we decided to give his restaurant a shot.  Juniper & Ivy, it sounded good!

The place is towards the north end of Little Italy, but once you got there it was done quite nicely inside.  A huge bar area for waiting, and then open kitchen concept as well.

We started off with some rolls and bread, homemade.  Soft and nice to to the taste.

Appetizers were ordered and the first to arrive were a molecular gastronomy version of Deviled Eggs.  Great texture and great taste also.

Next up, some local San Diego Uni on bread.  Not that great, as you couldn’t taste the Uni at all.  Disappointed actually.

Some Octopus Tacos.  These were bright and flavored very well!

Some Carne Asada with egg.  This was also a pretty tasty bite.

And finally some Artichokes with Apple and Sunchoke.  Refreshing and a nice taste.

For mains, we went with all sorts of different things.

Some quail with a pickled slaw.

This is a Short Rib dish.  It’s in there somewhere…

I went for the Oxtail Toretellini in a Vietnamese broth.  Wow, so smooth and tender and the broth was so fragrant.

And some pressed Chicken.

Dessert was also a great adventure.  Here is Brown Butter Ice Cream with a Popcorn Mousse, Torn Croissant and a Lime Curd.  Wow, amazing!

This one tasted better than it looked…

 

This was Yodel Devil’s Cake.  Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate inside, Hazelnut Brittle and Hot Chocolate poured on top.  Also an amazing taste, but I think the presentation leaves something to be desired…

And some Marshmallow Cake to close it out.

By no means is it a cheap night out, but the food was pretty good and inventive.  I would give it another shot for sure!