The Smoking Goat

San Diego, CA (The Joy of Food) — Across the street from trendy ramen joint Underbelly and next door to a degenerate day-drinking bar sits the Smoking Goat, possibly San Diego’s very best French restaurant, and certainly my favorite of the bunch.

Of course, when you say “French restaurant” in San Diego, strangely not much of a footprint comes to mind, particularly for a city with nearly 1.5 million inhabitants. There’s Bistro du Marché that’s also first-rate, the BO-Beau family that’s decent and middle of the road, Et Voilà which is fine, and Blue Bohème, a place you couldn’t pay me to visit again. There are a handful more, but not many. It is one of the great puzzles for me, how a place can be so diverse and yet be so lacking in a cuisine that’s fully embraced by other large cities.

On the other hand, despite a plethora of Italian restaurants in San Diego I can only think of two, maybe three, that wouldn’t be razed to the ground in Italy on their first day of operation. So it’s probably good we don’t have more French options.

You can discover everything you need to know about a French bistro through its escargot, a dish that done badly can resemble bits of rubber on a scalding hot ceramic plate. But done well, escargot is earthy, tender, and the perfect umami hit in a rich sea of garlic and herbs, all ready to be sopped up using pre-cut scraps of baguette. There is not a better plate of Escargots à la Bourguignonne to be found in the city than this one.

Things in bubbling liquids are an endless parade, like the PEI mussels, briny in their sea of garlic, tomato, and chorizo, or the baked brie, a decadent little pool of cheese paired with pistachio, cranberry, and honey, all of which come with even more baguette lest you miss a coveted drop otherwise. If these things are not what the doctor ordered for you, there’s always poached pear salad as the sensible option. 

French-style pastas are plentiful here, sautéed expertly within an inch of their lives. The butternut squash ravioli in a garlic sage cream sauce is magnificent when the produce sings at its peak, but it can lose some of its appeal when it’s not seasoned well and tastes mainly of cream. Linguine spun with mushrooms in a rich puddle of cheesy cauliflower and garlic are even more spectacular and always successful with that good, firm bite I look for in my pasta.

If there is fish on the menu, you would be wise to order it, like the pan-roasted swordfish or salmon, each tossed with seasonal greens in sauces and purees that highlight their flavors. Seasonality is king in the accompaniments as well, stuff like fingerling potatoes and spinach that add hits of bitterness and earthiness and contrasting textures. 

Can we talk about the duck fat truffle fries for a second, a dish that not only deserves its own mention, but its own ode to greatness. The french fries, crisp on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside, get a salty blanket of pecorino romano and earthy truffles outdone only by the melted duck fat they’re cooked in. These come with a side of mustard aioli, but it is not needed. While the core of the menu changes, you can always count on this to be available.

I think I’ve slowly worked my way through the small dessert menu, usually a chunk of goat cheesecake, some properly done crème brûlée, or my personal favorite, the flourless chocolate cake, a rich little mound that’s topped with brandied cherries and a dollop of whipped cream. 

The Smoking Goat was the first restaurant venture for chef Fred Piehl, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris who completed stints in other prestigious San Diego restaurants like the Lodge at Torrey Pines and Nine-Ten. One door north sits the Smoking Goat’s sister restaurant, aptly named One Door North.

Written by Joy

Thanks for reading. The Joy of Food blog celebrates eating well, traveling often, and living la dolce vita. San Diego, California is home base, but thoughts are from all over. Reviews and photos help to highlight wonderful (or not) food experiences from around the world.

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