The day we went to the San Diego Zoo, Ken and I stopped by Blue Water Seafood Market & Grill for a quick bite to eat before meeting up with his niece and nephew. We decided to get some fish tacos because we hadn’t eaten any since arriving in San Diego and found Blue Water Seafood as a top pick. The lines can get long around lunchtime, but luckily, we arrived right around 11:30. The place is located on a street with a bunch of other taco shops but the line is always out the door at Blue Water:
The waits can be pretty long even though it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of people there – we ended up waiting around 45 minutes before we made our order but luckily it gave us enough time to decide what we wanted to eat. They sell seafood and use it to cook, too:
The long line:
I ordered the Mahi-Mahi salad with avocado:
The salad comes with cucumbers, tomatoes, capers, lettuce, and red onions – it’s pretty plain without the dressing, but the dressing is way too sweet to put on the salad.
Ken ordered the lobster taco (a special):
As well as a beer-battered taco with an avocado side:
Overall, we were pretty disappointed with the food; I would compare it to Shake Shack in New York (you wait for 45 minutes for mediocre food but sometimes it hits the spot). I wouldn’t return – there has to be better tacos in San Diego!
On Christmas Day, we went with Ken’s family to Argyle Steakhouse, the steakhouse on the resort’s property. We had a big dinner with Ken’s extended family and ate a ton of good food before going to Ken’s parent’s suite to open gifts. I started with the Caesar salad:
For our entree, Ken and I both ordered the ribeye with a side of truffle butter:
You can order different types of finishes but I decided to order a side of truffle butter instead of having them brush the truffle butter on the steak – which ended up being a really good choice because the truffle butter tasted very strange (Ken agreed and was also glad that he didn’t have them slather on the butter on the steak)
Teresa ordered the seafood paella, a little lighter fare for the night:
For dessert, everyone ordered something a little different, but Ken ordered the chocolate souffle, an Argyle specialty:
They serve the dessert with a side of creme Anglaise, ice cream, and freshly whipped cream. We were definitely not counting calories that night!
Ken and I flew from New York to San Diego and ended up arriving around the same time as his sister, Teresa. We all drove to the hotel together and ended up ordering some late night food at the hotel restaurant, California Bistro. We ate a lot on the flight (thanks to my ability to pack a ton of grapes, hummus, carrots, and other healthy snacks) but we were still in the mood to have a little to eat before going to sleep for the night. Ken ordered the turkey club with fries:
And I ordered the Cobb salad:
Both really good options from the hotel bar – they also have live music on the weeknights (at least when we were there – maybe just for the holidays) and there were a lot of guests at the restaurant who weren’t staying at the hotel, just there for drinks or a late night snack!
The Friday before we left for San Diego, we went out to dinner with Jason and Allison, Ken’s coworker and girlfriend. We went to Abe & Arthur’s in the meatpacking district because Allison really liked their dessert and we had a really good Gilt City voucher for steaks and sides so we figured it would be the perfect double date dinner spot. The restaurant was packed on a Friday night – we sat by a huge table of teenagers who were celebrating a birthday (or multiple birthday’s?) and also a bunch of guys celebrating a bachelor party. The service was really wonderful and the food was better than I thought it would be – here’s the whole cauliflower, steak for two, mushrooms, and pureed potatoes:
For dessert, I missed the shot but we ordered the cheesecake in a jar and another chocolate dessert (Ken said they were both delicious!) Definitely not a bad choice if you’re looking for something to eat and you’re in the meatpacking district. They even have phone chargers in the bathroom (although I don’t think they have the iPhone5 chargers yet)
In December, my teammates and I went to Brooklyn for an offsite and to celebrate the intern’s last week with us in New York. I’m not the biggest fan of Brooklyn because something bad always happens to me when I’m there (not Brooklyn’s fault at all, it just so happens that bad things happen to me in Brooklyn). The day before our offsite, I was talking to my colleague about how to get to the coffee shop we were meeting at – he said to get off at Atlantic Avenue so I could transfer across the platform instead of going up and down stairs (the biggest subway win in my book). I completely forgot where I should get off because I didn’t think anything of the trip (and I kind of go on auto-pilot during the week since I only take the subway two stops). When I got to the train station, I realized that I transferred across the platform but had no idea where I was going (THE BROOKLYN CURSE STRIKES AGAIN!) I got out of the subway station after asking someone if I was going in the right direction (and her telling me that I had to go back into the city) and it just so happened to be the right station to get off at for the offsite.
Of course I texted/emailed everyone when I got out of the station to let them know I was alive but at that very moment, my phone’s signal refused to work; I tried to make a call because I thought it just took a minute to find a signal since I was underground, but no luck. I just started walking and hoping for the best…luckily, I was going on the generally right direction (although I was walking in new ballet flats and it just so happened that everything in Brooklyn was wet and ruining my new suede soles). I finally met up with my colleagues and made them promise me that we would NEVER ever go to Brooklyn again (they promised, don’t worry). For lunch, we decided to head to Brooklyn Fish Camp, who shares an owner with Mary’s Fish Camp in Manhattan. We ordered some appetizers for the table, including fried oysters with homemade tartar sauce:
And deviled eggs with smoked salmon:
I was trying to be healthy and ended up ordering the grilled whole mackerel fish:
After lunch, we lost our spot at the coffee shop and tried to find another spot to work (but couldn’t find one because apparently all the coffee shops in Brooklyn are taken during the day). On our way home, of course the storm clouds came in and it poured on us when we were running to the subway, then the subway got stuck underground and we were told to go back to Brooklyn (there was definitely no way I was EVER going back to Brooklyn on the subway), and I finally got home an hour and a half later. Luckily, I was still full from lunch….and no, I have not been back to Brooklyn since this incident.
