San Diego Metropolitan - Downtown Dining

Hidden away on one of the best pieces of real estate in North County, 15th Street at Camino Del Mar, 15 or so steps below street level, is one of the loveliest dining spots in all of San Diego — J. Taylor’s Restaurant. Carefully tucked behind beautiful landscaping at the L’Auberge Hotel in Del Mar, the dining room opens up to tropical plants, waterfalls and herb gardens.

I have been a fan of Tom Atkins since 1997, when he was hired as the opening executive chef at Bellefleur Winery and Restaurant in Carlsbad. An alumnus of Bradley Odgen’s Lark Creek Restaurant group, he left a little more than a year later to take the executive chef position at L’Auberge, where he oversees all culinary aspects of the hotel: banquets, catering, restaurants and room service.

Atkins is amply backed up in the dining room by his chef de cuisine, Michael Zonfrilli, a Johnson and Wales graduate, who runs the day-to-day operations of the dining room.

The cuisine changes seasonally. The new fall menu began late last month.

It is rich with meat, poultry and game, but still offers a few seafood items, for those SoCal fish-ophiles who, unlike myself, snub the heavier entrees.

A stand-out starter is the “Fig and Walnut Flatbread” ($10). Housemade pita bread is topped with fig jam and paper-thin brie cheese, grilled just long enough to melt the cheese, topped with micro greens, and drizzled with Meyer lemon oil, a little salt and pepper and candied walnuts. This is a great combination of flavors, textures and colors.

Another favorite is the “Roasted Carrot Soup with Curried Lavender Honey” ($7). After tossing local-grown carrots with salt, sugar and curry, Zonfrilli roasts them at low heat for several hours. He adds sweet onions that have been sweated off with butter and curry paste, then purees the root vegetables and combines them with fresh carrot juice. The soup is seasoned and finished with a drizzle of honey infused with fresh lavender (from the herb garden) and carrot “frites” (shaved carrots blanched and flash-fried until crispy).

The “Pan Seared Foie Gras” served with a duck confit ravioli and a sundried cherry broth is earthy, fabulous and a steal at just $15. (Have you seen the price of foie gras lately?)

I lingered long over the entrée list because so many things sounded wonderful. “Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast,” “Herb Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Brioche Apple Stuffing” and “Sonoma Rack of Lamb with Olive Mashed Potatoes” all tempted me.

I thought I’d died and gone to some kind of food heaven when I tasted the “Confit Mashed Potatoes” that accompanied the “Citrus Caramel Duck Breast” ($24). The combination of the potatoes with a sweet, tender duck breast and glazed baby carrots creates a harmonious yin-yang of sweet and salty that make a superb fall meal.

My escort ordered the beautifully presented “Seared Wild Salmon” ($23). A 7-ounce Pacific Northwest filet is served over a caramelized onion and shredded potato “rosti.” The dish is finished with a Pinot beurre rouge, a nice twist on the classic beurre blanc.

Chef Atkins started out as a pastry chef and it really shows on the dessert menu. All selections are made in-house; the “Butterscotch Pudding,” which has become a signature dish, is outrageously creamy, butterscotchy and good.

J. Taylor’s, a secret garde hidden from view, is an undiscovered dining destination. An al fresco evening in the herb garden makes even driving the dreaded I-5/805 merge seem worth it.