"A lot of TLC (Tasty Loving Care) goes into your meal. We buy all sustainable seafood and all natural, hormone and antibiotic free meat and chicken. We buy from the following local San Diego family farms: Stehly Organics, Blue Heron Farms, Suzie's Farm, Sage Mountain, Cunningham Organics, Crows Pass and Tierra Miguel. If you should have any food allergies or concerns, or just want to ask about our food, please ask your server."
My girlfriends and I run by this restaurant on a regular basis and have been curious for a while about the food, but suspicious that it never seemed to be busy. In fact, San Diego Home/Garden Magazine calls it, "San Diego's Best Kept Secret." That's rather unfortunate, if you ask me, so let's not keep it a secret anymore, how about that? But, upon entering the establishment, we realized there are probably a couple reasons Terra isn't slammed with business the way they should be. Those reasons are: Decor and Location.
1. We decided the interior design, while comfortable and well lit, reminded us of a cross between an early 90's hotel restaurant and an upscale Denny's. The window treatments and chair upholstery does not match the organic nature of the place. If you want my humble decorating opinion (and if you don't too bad), the place needs pictures of local farms, fresh cut foliage from said farms on the tables, earth-toned upholstery and more natural, organic-looking window treatments.
2. Hillcrest is the perfect place for a restaurant of this nature; however, it's located in the back of the Ralph's/Trader Joe's parking lot... if you're going to go out for a nice-ish dinner, who wants to drive through a grocery store parking lot to get there? It doesn't feel organic. It feels strip-mally.
But if you can get over the decor and the location, then you're in for a treat. This is a restaurant worth going out of your way for.
Observe my selection...
The Summer Vegetable Plate:
with mushroom risotto
The veggies (according to the waiter) change daily based on what is harvested that day or week. My plate happened to have colorful carrots, radishes, oyster mushrooms, spinach and various summer squashes. It was rich, creamy, and slightly sweet.
This was the best of the three meals. Light, but full of rich flavors. The gnocchi was perfectly cooked and the collard greens were vibrant and refreshing (...rather than wilty and bitter like I usually experience).
The veggies (according to the waiter) change daily based on what is harvested that day or week. My plate happened to have colorful carrots, radishes, oyster mushrooms, spinach and various summer squashes. It was rich, creamy, and slightly sweet.
The other two dishes we ordered were...
Grilled Atlantic Salmon: with barbeque cream sauce, applewood smoked bacon, mushroom gnocchi and collard greens.
Grilled Atlantic Salmon: with barbeque cream sauce, applewood smoked bacon, mushroom gnocchi and collard greens.
This was the best of the three meals. Light, but full of rich flavors. The gnocchi was perfectly cooked and the collard greens were vibrant and refreshing (...rather than wilty and bitter like I usually experience).
Meyeer Farm all-natural Hanger Steak: with mushroom-leek risotto, smoked onion marmalade and summer veggies.
This is a pretty sweet dish-- so I wouldn't recommend it if you like savory or salty meat entree. It was still delicious though.
I was impressed with the creativity of the dishes and inspired to try them with my own Suzie's Farm veggies. The Bonuses: I felt like I did something good by supporting a local restaurant that in turn supports local farmers. Furthermore, I ate fresh, flavorful food that was really good, and I enjoyed a nice dinner with a couple friends.
Now if we could only convince Terra to redecorate....
1270 Cleveland Ave (between Richmond and Vermont St)
San Diego, CA 92103
619.293.7088
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