Kensington Grill – San Diego, CA

To celebrate Chinese New Year’s Eve on 1/22, we chose KENSINGTON GRILL (which Harlen and I had visited for the first time a few weeks ago) in San Diego. It was the first time eating at this restaurant for our kids and my mom.

When we arrived, we discovered San Diego Restaurant Week was extended another week (Jan 21 – 27) and we could get a three-course meal for $30. Awesome!

Kensington Grill – 4055 Adams Ave., San Diego, CA

Having been to Kensington Grill before, Harlen and I were excited about choosing three courses from the Restaurant Week menu. We both chose the endive, date and prosciutto salad for the 1st course. It was a good balance of sweetness from dates and saltiness from prosciutto to accompany the distinctive taste of endive and arugula.

1st course: endive, date, & prosciutto salad with arugula, manchego, spanish peanut, and balsalmic reduction

Harlen ordered the herb roasted salmon and really enjoyed it. He said it was one of the best salmon dishes he’s eaten.

Harlen’s 2nd course: herb roasted salmon with tomato braised cauliflower and basil butter

My first choice for the 2nd course was the braised short rib with the plan to share with Alani. But the server apologized that they ran out of short rib, so I chose the pan roasted jidori chicken. The pepper pan jus definitely gave a spicy kick to the chicken. But the spiciness meant that Alani did not want to try any chicken. Plus, her carnivorous tendencies lean toward beef and lamb mostly.

My 2nd course: pan roasted jidori chicken with castelvetrano olive, lemon, herb red bliss potato, and pepper pan jus

As for the kids and my mom, they all ordered off the regular dinner menu. My mom ordered the trout and ate the whole dish (a rarity for her at restaurants).

My mom’s trout entree

Because there was no separate kids’ menu, the server suggested mac ‘n shrooms, minus the shrooms for Alani. She ate a few bites. My guess is she didn’t care for the fontina cheese. We probably should have just stuck with parmesan for her.

Alani’s mac ‘n shrooms (sans shrooms) with fontina, parmesan, and panko

Rigel ordered the 10 oz brandt beef burger with fries, but asked the server if we could add some cheese and remove the lettuce, tomato and onions. This was a large burger. Rigel ate almost half  and all of the fries. The other half of his burger, he shared with his sister.

Rigel’s 10 oz brandt beef burger on ciabatta bun with cheddar cheese and fries. It normally comes with lettuce, tomato and onion

This picture is to give context of how big the burger was in relation to Rigel’s mouth.

For five of us, we ordered three desserts. Harlen ordered the pear cranberry crisp for his 3rd course.

Harlen’s 3rd course – dessert: pear cranberry crisp with rolled oat crumble and vanilla gelato

The other two desserts were repeats of what Harlen and I ate the last time we were at Kensington Grill. I am a big fan of the chocolate pot de creme and the banana bread pudding. Turns out Rigel is also a fan of the chocolate pot de creme because he ate most of it by himself. I ate almost all of the banana bread pudding…think it’s my favorite dessert at this restaurant.

June’s 3rd course – dessert: chocolate pot de creme with hint of espresso and whipped cream

not on usual dessert menu – banana bread pudding…yes it’s made with banana bread and is so amazing

We chose Kensington Grill because we knew the adults would enjoy the food. We were not sure how the kids would feel or how kid-friendly the restaurant would be. The kids have their regular restaurants they like and we tolerate. This blog gets them to try new restaurants and they like giving their ratings at the end of the meal.

We were not sure if the restaurant would have crayons or other forms of kids’ entertainment so we brought books, our iPhones, and a cube of Family TableTopics ‘questions to start great conversation.’

Handy kids’ entertainment for restaurants – Family TableTopics cards of questions and ‘Bad Kitty’ books

Rigel played with my iPhone for most of the meal. He had a small meltdown because he was so hungry and wondered when his food would arrive. We had to ask the server for some bread and butter, which she promptly brought to us.

The TableTopics questions kept Alani and the rest of us entertained between courses. It was fun and enlightening to hear our kids’ answers to questions like, “What school rules would you change?” “What do you play during recess?”

At the end of the meal, we asked Alani and Rigel to give their rating for Kensington Grill. They were not sure if they would want to go back so they gave neutral ratings. There were some aspects of the meal they enjoyed. For Rigel, it was the chocolate pot de creme and french fries. Alani was disappointed she didn’t get to eat the short ribs.

Alani’s neutral rating

Rigel’s neutral rating

Kensington Grill is definitely a place Harlen, my mom and I would eat at again. We are not sure if they kids would want to come with us the next time, though.

Now for something completely different…The Restroom Review.

The ladies’ restroom at Kensington Grill was clean, functional and even had a bottle of hand lotion available.

Ladies’ room – clean, functional and smelled pleasant

I did note there is not a diaper changing station available. There is probably enough room to change a diaper on the floor in this single restroom. But, my kids are thankfully too old for me to have to try that.