California Food and Wine Blog

Archive for the ‘San Luis Obispo’ Category

For my birthday my boyfriend took me to Ciopinot – an upscale seafood grille and oyster bar in downtown San Luis Obispo.

There’s a formal dining theme with black and red interior and lots of nice wall accents. The Christmas lights and kitchen in the middle of the seating throws it off and keeps it from a romantic ambiance, but overall it’s pretty nice inside.

The ambiance and people

Every item on the menu lists a recommended wine pairing with it and the wine prices are actually pretty decent AND they have a no corkage fee which really sets them apart from other restaruants in SLO. The servers are very attentive and check in at your table frequently and the owner of the restaurant also walks around and talks to each party which makes it feel very personal.

We started with Oysters Rockafellar and asked for the recommended wine that was listed. Here’s where it gets a little strange; we received the wrong wine with our appetizer and asked them to take it back. They brought out a different wine and said the wine that was recommended on the menu was not good at all and this would be better. Why are they recommending a wine that they are openly stating isn’t good??

Nathan ordered the Italian Ciopinot: the signature cioppino stock with Jumbo Prawns, Scallops, Clams, Calamari and Fresh Fish with penne pasta.

Italian Ciopinot

I ordered the Fisherman’s Plate: A platter of grilled fresh fish, jumbo prawns, sea scallops,
cockle clams and deep fried calamari. They brought it to me with a side of mashed potatoes instead of the rice pilaf I’d requested. The mashed potatoes were very good, but again made it seem like they just weren’t listening very well.

Fisherman's Plate

The waitor also said my dish would go well with any wine so we went with the recommended wine for Nathan’s dish. Unfortunately it didn’t go well with either dish. It tasted ok with his, but really didn’t compliment or bring out any new flavors, and mine clashed pretty poorly.

The Italian Ciopinot was great. Very spicy and full of fish and flavor. The Fisherman’s Plate was good but not something I’d get again.

We finished the meal off with the blueberry cobbler – definitely one of the best desserts I’ve had out to dinner. We were both tempted to ask for some sponge cake or something to get every last drop off the plate, but we resisted.

Overall I would recommend NOT going with any recommended wine pairings because it doesn’t seem to be done with much thought or skill in pairing. The servers are very attentive but may need to focus a little more on listening to the guests, but the owner makes up for it by being so personable and making sure everything was to our satisfaction. Also the actual servings were very generous so even though its about $25 per plate, you’ll definitely leave full.

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“Mondays in Mexico” aren’t too bad. Margaritas are $2 and tacos are $1. The tacos are pretty small, but for $10 you could get a pretty good balance of food and drink, lots of food, or lots of drink. ex: $10= 4 margaritas 2 tacos = 10 tacos = 1 margarita 8 tacos = 3 margaritas 4 tacos… you get the picture.

Margaritas and tacos

All margaritas $2

The downtown brew dinner specials aren’t bad, but also aren’t anything special. Thursday night is the tritip sandwich and a pint for about $8. It comes with fries which is nice, but the tritip was so fatty everywhere it was almost impossible to actually eat. I’ve never been a big fan of their beer, but the the amber ale is pretty good. It’s also a little frustrating that their prices tend to go up but they don’t always change it on the website. Service at the restaurant varies and it can be hard to get a refill on your beer.

Tri-tip sandwich and a pint

There are four very important things to note about this restaurant. 1) They have great food 2) It’s amazingly low price 3) You get a ton of it 4) They brew really good beer.

Every time I go to lunch or dinner at Creekside I’m impressed and satisfied. The view overlooking the creek combined with great food and drink is perfect.

My favorite lunch item is the beef brisket sandwich (Live Oak). You also get to choose two sides in addition to your soup/salad and each of the sides really could be a main course. The Mojo Tomatoes and the Parmesan Paprika Fries are awesome, but really you can’t go wrong with any of the sides. One thing to be cautious of is that their versions of the items aren’t always what you would expect. For example the eggplant parmesan is very good but not what you’d expect so be willing to go with what you’re served and not what you’re expecting. If you haven’t been there, go there.

Live Oak Brisket Sandwich

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