Cloak and Petal landed with quite a splash at the end of last year. Even though the place had been open barely a month, it garnered many votes as San Diego's most beautiful new restaurant for 2017. And yes; the space is quite stunning.
As are some of the menu prices. Service was quite pleasant and knowledgeable on our three visits. It's not uncommon for me to ask a question and get blank stares and shrugged shoulders here in San Diego. But the folks serving us did well and managed to answer our questions about where the products are sourced and ingredients (i.e. New Zealand salmon – per Tommy Gomes the "best" farmed salmon). Of course we ate early with minimal crowds; but that's because we like unrushed meals.
The drinks, even the proclaimed "Flagship" "Japanese to English" are on the sweet side for us.
Here's a rundown of dishes we've had in order of preference.
The Glazed Duck Breast ($23) is by far our favorite; we've had it three times and on each occasion it's been prepped perfectly. Great mild gaminess with a very nice, just sweet enough glaze.
The kabocha puree and the sauces are superfluous in our opinion and really don't add anything to the dish, other than to garner a "look at the pretty colors" response. Still, by far a favorite.
We've had the Wagyu Roll ($25) three times. If Kobe Nigiri at Urasawa didn't convince me that great quality beef belonged on rice or with rice, the Aburi Wagyu Nigiri at Miku surely did. and the first time we had the wagyu roll it totally delivered.
Torched, buttery wagyu beef, with perfectly made rice, wrapped around a crab and scallop mixture with what seems like tenkasu – fried tempura batter or something similarly crunchy, with a wonderfully earthy-rich truffle nikiri, capped off with a slightly spicy slice of jalapeno. Man this was amazing. On the next two visits, it was not quite up to par. Once, the jalapeno seemed to be MIA once the rice was hard, twice we couldn't detect any truffle flavor in the nikiri. One out of three is great in baseball….but not for dinner.
I was excited to see Houba (Hoba) Yaki ($20) on the menu. If you've seen our posts on places in Hida-Takayama and elsewhere in Japan, you know this is one of my favorite food preparations. This version is seafood based.
While the miso here is legit, great fermented beany-nutty and not too salty, and the spot prawns quite nice; the shiromi (whitefish) was really tough and there really wasn't enough miso used to really make this sing…..
We had the Belly Sashimi ($28) twice. Just because I noticed something quite odd about the portion the first time.
While the salmon belly cut is nice and thick; everything else is cut super thin and rather long. On the first visit the salmon was mushy and watery, on the second tough. On the first visit the chu-toro was actually better than the o-toro which had a metallic finish to it. Overall, other places will do this so much better. At least they gave us real wasabi and the soy sauce was of high quality.
The Buta Kakuni ($12) was just okay.
There was a good porkiness, but was on the tough side and the braising liquid really lacked the sweet-saltiness we enjoy. The ajitama (marinated soft boiled egg) was delicious, but was ice cold.
The Mero Saikyo Seabass ($28 – 4 ounces) was a bit of an enigma to us.
While the miso flavor was wonderful, there wasn't enough caramelization to add a bit of texture to the fish. Also, after having this twice (fool me once…shame on you….fool me twice…) we came to the conclusion that seabass might be too lean for this prep as it lacked the butteriness we enjoy in this type of dish.
While the Jidori Chicken Karaage ($12) was very moist, the mild flavor reminded me of the buta kakuni.
It was also not crisp. I kind of look at Tori Karaage a couple of ways. Crisp and crunchy or less crisp, but with deep umami from something like shio koji. Of course our favorite in Japan does both. A case of good ingredient, just not enough flavor for us.
Our least favorite dish during our visit was the Cloak and Petal Ceviche ($20).
Besides the rather miniscule amount of seafood, this was way too sour, and things just seemed out of balance. There was a good amount of "sugi" (stringy connective tissue) in the fish as well.
So, after three visits, we've come to the conclusion that it's probably the "fusion" type dishes at C&P that do well, we found the more traditional dishes to be a bit mild in terms of seasoning. The ingredients for most of the dishes were excellent and nothing came across as salty. Our Servers were excellent, though the music is a bit too loud…though it could be my age showing. Also, the cheapest we got away with for any meal (without tip) was about $120. The vibe is definitely hip, the seats now that they've changed them out from the terrible lounge like chairs they had in the beginning is a definite improvement.
I'd certainly come back for that duck again, perhaps try something else, though at this price point, it's not a weekly or perhaps even monthly kind of thing for us. We'd rather save our money for our trips and meals at places like Sola (our meal there minus drinks was just a bit more than our most expensive meal here), our favorite restaurant Suzunari (remember no tipping in Japan), or if we want fusion, maybe give Maido another shot (that was about $100 pp).
Please check out Kirbie's post on Cloak and Petal for balance.
Cloak & Petal
1953 India St
San Diego, CA 92101
Hours:
Mon – Fri 5pm – Midnight
Sat – Sun 3pm – Midnight
