Excellent lunch away from the SD Zoo Safari Park!!!
A 15~20 min drive from the park to Marinade is a breath of fresh air through the beautiful scenic drive on smooth winding roads, worth it just to drive through the wine canyons. And a well needed lunch break after all the walking in the park, to recharge, and go back to finish up the park.
Arrived ~15 mins before 1pm on a Saturday. Found a street parking spot on Main St (parking spaces are huge in Ramona!) and strolled into the place.
Cute rustic small restaurant was already about 2/3 full, and remaining tables had reserved signs, except for maybe 2 tables. We got lucky and a non-reserved table just cleared, whew!
Super friendly folks here, young gentleman helped us get seated after getting the table ready.
A super sweet lady (think her name was Tiffany) was patient to allow us to pour over the menus (so many choices and all sound so delicious!). To make it extra difficult, they were still offering the brunch menu as well as allowing to order from the dinner menu (I guess weekends go from brunch to dinner at 1pm).
Many enticing brunch items, but decided to tackle the dinner menu since kid wanted pasta after all the exercise, lol.
Went for 3 items.
- Signature burger = got it cooked medium and the fresh beef patty was thick and juicy and perfect. I was a tad bit bland but allowed for appreciating the quality beef patty. Dip in ketchup or ranch if need to add a bit more flavor. Came with a ton of delish fries too!
- Alfredo pasta with fried chicken = super crispy fried chicken, yet not dry meat. The cream sauce on the pasta was a little bit creamy, garlicky, and not sure what else something comforting familiar flavor that I can't describe. Lingering delicious flavor!
There was plenty of food for all 3 of us to take bites and there was still another kids meal of pasta left at the end. And even after we paid the bill, kid took another bite and that made me also take another bite too through my fullness pain before we left. Walked back to car and the residual flavor of the pasta made me salivate again and regret not getting the remainder to go! (figured it's not gonna do well sitting in a hot car for hours back at the park).
- Grilled cheese sando w/ tomato soup (tried it Marindaes Style, cause... why not?! sounds a bit weird but interesting?) = wow wow wow!!! Wife loves tomato soup and grilled cheese, but this seemingly simple order ended up being my surprise favorite of the 3!!! Tomato soup was super fresh and quality, but I'm not much of a tomato soup person. Wife enjoyed the soup.
I was just blown away by the grilled cheese, not that I eat much of it, but easily the best grilled cheese I've had! The jalapeno provides a burst to cut through the richness of the grilled cheese. And I think it's that toast that contains all that gooey flavorful goodness. That bread itself is a cheese toast full of flavor!!! It took me back to the 80's, to when mama used to take us kids to Sizzler and my favorite thing was their cheese toast. But the last few times I've tried Sizzler years ago, I felt the cheese toast was just mediocre. I just concluded my tastes have been ruined by age and maybe cheese toast was junior high taste, lol.
This place totally blew up what I thought was Age-Related-Taste-Degeneration!
The cheese toast brought back the 80's taste and MORE!!! Better than ever!!!
Flavor still lives!!! Absolute gem of a grilled cheese...
- So many more on the menu that I wanted to try, but will have to try to tackle it next time if I ever go Safari again...
If you think you are able to plan your lunch time from the Safari Park, I think it's best to call in a reservation just to make sure. read more