A Burger Week Epilogue: Urban Solace

  Urban Solace has become one of the Missus's favorite restaurants. So it's probably about time I did a post. You can get a pretty good feel for the restaurant from the many food blog posts out there, by Alice Q Foodie,  Clayfu , Gil,  and Beth. And though I've not been "wowed" by some of the items I've tasted in the past (such as a really greasy and salty pastrami), I've long coveted the burger. It just looks great arriving at the table. So burger week provided a great opportunity. 

    

I like the dining area at US, the ceiling height, colors, and lighting strike a nice balance. The menu consists of what Urban Solace calls "New American Comfort Food", basically American food with a twist, like the "Duck-a-roni".

As much as I wanted to complete this post, it almost did not see the light of day. On this visit, we sat out in the courtyard, and the bright sunlight and the surroundings ended up giving all my photos an orange hue. But in the end, here I was all dressed up and nowhere to go.....

On this visit we started with a favorite of the Missus, an order of the Cheese Biscuits ($4.25):

 

Personally, I'd prefer a bit more cheese flavor, or any flavor, to my biscuits, as these are very mild in flavor. I like the texture of these, they are moist, and soft, without getting to close to foccacia, and also have a nice mildly crisp (though not very flaky) "crust" that does not head into "scone-land". My personal preference is for the salty over the sweet, so I'd have preferred a really nice and light butter, rather than the overly sweet and salty Orange Honey Butter that is provided, though I can understand that this would be a good compromise for some.......

So of course I had the burger, which, like many of the menu items are plain, downright reasonable in price ($9.25). I was asked how I wanted my burger, which was medium, and hey, for once, my burger arrived "medium". I had pretty much written off the perfunctory ritual of asking how you want your burger done, as just "shibai", so it was nice to have my faith restored.

   

As AliceQFoodie notes, the burger comes fully dressed, with a mild cheddar, thousand island dressing, and the produce. The bun had a mild and pleasant sweetness to it, but it was too large upsetting the meat to bun ratio. This burger had a bit too much dressing, which overpowered the flavor of the beef. And, because it seemed that the burger had either not been rested, or had been brushed with a ton of butter, the combination of the dressing and the "juices" just made the bottom bun turn into mush in addition to making the whole thing seem a bit too rich and oily....a bit more acid would help cut the richness.  I scraped some of this off, so I could taste the burger, which had a pleasant beefy flavor.

As for the sweet potato fries, they are delicious, but arrive limp, wrinkled, and seemingly on the edge of rigor mortis, which makes eating them less pleasurable. The only semi-crisp sweet potato fries I've ever had or made, were baked, so I think Urban Solace would do just fine with regular fries, which I'm sure they'd pull off well.

The Missus ordered Her current favorite at Urban Solace, the Chicken and Dumplings, which at $15.95 was one of the more expensive items on the lunch menu.

 

I'm not a big fan of Chicken and Dumplings, so I'll just say, nice, tender and moist chicken, too much cream, and waaaay too much salt. And even though the Missus has been known to body slam a Moose to get to its salt lick, she ended up drinking 2 bottles of water on the way home. I'm sure She'll still order this again the next time.

The service at Urban Solace was very nice on this visit. Except for one strange thing. It seems like our Server has an interesting concept of "personal space". He really didn't want to get near us....to the point that I checked to make sure my 12 hour deodorant hadn't hit hour 13. He placed every dish on the opposite side of the table from us. So we had to stretch over the table to get our food. Nothing bad....just a bit odd.

As you'll notice from the menu on Urban Solace's Website, the prices a very reasonable. 

Urban Solace Restaurant
3823 30th Street
San Diego, CA 92104 

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Comments

[James]

I'm also a huge fan of this place, but think it's stronger at dinner than lunch/brunch. The food is sophisticated and comforting at the same time, and the service is top-notch. BTW, the glazed jidori chicken is to die for...the yukon gold potato gratin that comes with it is the worth the cost of the entree!

[Ken]

Pity. You could have walked around the corner to the Linkery, which has, IMHO, the best burger in the city. Grass fed organic beef, in-house baked bun, etc., etc. Its not that their cooking style is so fancy, but their emphasis on farm to table ingredients lets you taste how the food should really taste.

[Alice Q. Foodie]

Oh my goodness. This has got to be the best line ever in a food blog - especially about one's wife "The Missus has been known to body slam a Moose to get to his salt lick." Quite evocative Kirk! ;-)

[foodhoe]

I've had the same problem with taking pictures outside on a sunny day, it's almost worse than using the flash in a dark restaurant! did you guys really have biscuits and dumplings in the same meal?

[clayfu]

#1 most overrated restaurant in San Diego. I agree 100% with your review (even though your wording is far sweeter than mine was!).

How do you CONSISTENTLY provide LIMP sweet potato fries? That is just atrocious, lunch time.. dinner time.. doesn't matter.

The gimmick of "farm fresh" food is ridiculous considering just how average the food is here.

We went for a dinner gathering and each friend has decided never to go again.

[Dennis]

Hmm, I actually loved the way your photos turned out Kirk!

[Kirk]

Hi James - I did want to the burger for burger week...and I usually don't post on our visits to places like this. I do think they fuss a bit much with their food.

Hi Ken - I did have the burger at the Linkery, in fact there's a photo somewhere in one of my posts. But that was at the old location. I liked it except that it had everything but the kitchen sink on it, which took away from appreciating the burger.

Happy New Year Alice! Did I actually write that??? Oh, I did.... that's the problem with writing everything in one pass. I might get body-slammed myself! ;o)

Hi FH - Yes, I agree....... orange tinted food is not a pleasant sight.

Hi Clayfu - So I'm guessing you didn't enjoy Urban Solace? ;o)It's funny, I've never had my typing described as "sweet" before! That's, ummm, well, so sweet! he-he-he......

Hi Dennis - You are much too kind! I'm guessing you like orange? ;o)

[caninecologne]

hi kirk
we went last year and thought it was all right, but that was only one time. the sweet potato fries were okay although i wasn't expecting them to be served with ketchup - thought it was supposed to be with another type of dip (from reading other people's blogs). there was an item on their menu that i wanted to try (if we ever go again) - something with beef cheeks.

that's wierd about your service - wtf!!!! you shouldn't have to reach for your food, on another table, no less! that straight up sucks.

[stephen]

Hi,
I had been wanting to try this place for a while.
Finally went, and was underwhelmed. I had the beef cheeks, which I would not recommend. They were so soft that they were like mush, and they came with some kinda smoked tomato mess which totally overwhelmed the dish.
I think its overpriced and overrated.
The orange butter with the cheese biscuit was exactly Kirk described it, and there really wasn't any cheese taste.

[Kirk]

Hi CC - That service was a bit strange, but was very good in every other way.

Hi Stephen - Oooh, that doesn't sound very good. I enjoyed the texture of the biscuits, but expected much more flavor.

[sha]

hi kirk,
Nice post, you are sooo funny =). I actually liked US the last time I went. but from the comments here... it seems like the quality of food is very inconsistent...

[Kirk]

Hi Sha - I think US does some things rather well, and James is correct in that dinner is better than lunch. US is a bit inconsistent. The prices are reasonable though.

[RT]

Hey caninecologne & stephen (and Kirk of course!),

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but hopefully you'll see this... I went to US not too long after it opened and couldn't resist getting the Beef Cheeks, which were SUPERB! Exceedingly tender and flavorful without being too rich or over sauced. I actually felt moved to tell the waitress to complement the chef, which has never happened before. It was so good I brought my brother, who is also a foodie, here when visiting from SF and he couldn't stop raving either. Unfortunately, it seems the dish was not a big seller and they've taken it off the menu. Accordingly, US has moved down the list of my regular eats, mostly because it just makes me so sad to see their best dish gone.

I asked my server once if the lamb meatloaf was gamey (because lamb should be!) and she said something to the effect of "no not much," which I assume was her way of trying to placate me, but really it just made me not want to order it. I did anyway, and she was right, but it was still pretty tasty.

I've only gone for dinner and the food is generally above par and service has always been wonderful, although the acoustics of the place make eating inside pretty loud. Whew sorry for the long post!

[Kirk]

Hi RT - Thanks for the update and all the info! No problemo about the comment length, I enjoyed reading it.

[Marcella Hammond]

Urban Solace is one of my favorite restaurants in town, but I agree - it's much better at dinner than lunch. I've never seen beef cheeks on the menu, but the braised pork belly is so good that I salivate every time I think about it. Since I first tried it, I've ended up ordering it every time we've been back. I keep telling myself that I'll try something else, but like my own personal Bali Hai, it sings to me from the menu. I'm trying their brunch for the first time tomorrow, so I guess I'll finally get/have to try something different!

[Kirk]

Hi Marcella - Thanks for taking the time out to comment and let us know how you enjoy US.

[Jollibee Corporation]

Wow! i like the dining area and specially the burger it looks so delicious,yummy!

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