Currant American Brasserie

We had originally planned to have dinner on Coronado Island. However, the time we reserved for dinner and the time the last ferry takes us back to the mainland didn’t quite matchup, plus the restaurant is again on the other side of the island from where the ferry is, which is 10 blocks away, so we ditched that plan and had dinner at a place near our hotel instead.

Earlier on our walk to the ferry terminal, we passed by Currant Restaurant which is the hotel restaurant of historic Sofia Hotel. The menu looked not too expensive, and the decor looked really nice, so we decided to have dinner there.

It’s interesting because they have a window from the kitchen that’s open to the street, so you can actually see what’s going on in there if you really wanted to.

The greatest part of the restaurant really is in the decor. It’s one of those dark ones and it feels really high-end and intimate. I especially liked the chandeliers that add a sophistication to the overall ambiance. Service was good at the beginning. Our server however jokingly called us “princesses” afterwards cuz apparently we have too many requests? Not sure if a server’s supposed to say that. We were afraid to have too many requests afterwards.

Mainly our request was to have the light in our little corridor/room turned up a little since it was really really difficult to see. He turned it sort of way up though, causing everyone in the restaurant to turn to look at us. So we kindly asked that he turned it down a little. That’s when the princess remark came.

But putting that aside, it was nice to have our own room, more privacy. He even pulled the curtains to the entrance to the room for us.

Like more restaurants of the same sort, complimentary bread was served after placing our orders.

The girls really liked the fact that the bread came in paperbags rather than the usual basket. The bread was actually very good. It was quite warm (almost hot) with a thin, crispy skin (I hate hard, crunchy skins) and fluffy insides. There was about 4 different types including different varieties of white and brown bread. Very yummy.

But that was about the yummiest part of our meals.

Boy we waited a LONG time for our food. It was not pleasant.

M and I started with a virgin cocktail they the bar whipped up. M originally ordered a Diet Coke with lemon but got sort of ridiculed by our wonder server. After I asked for mine, M changed her mind and ordered the same.

It had aloe juice/pulp, lychee syrup, sparkling water, with seasoned blueberries and champagne grapes.

Sounds good right? It wasn’t. It was bland. I tasted none of those above juices. The best part was the grapes…they were tiny, cute, and sweet. Presentation was good though.

For my entree I had a Duck Cassoulet. In the menu it said that it had slow-cooked Cannellini beans. In my mind I thought it would be a few here and there or a scoop. It turned out the whole plate was the stuff. I’m really not a fan of mushy starchy beans, so I basically left most of the beans untouched.

The duck confit part wasn’t good either. It was tasteless and dry. Obviously I didn’t like this very much.

M ordered a Heirloom Tomato Salad to start. I think she thought it would come with large chunks of tomatoes instead of slices? I thought it looked pretty good.

Her entree was the Pan Seared Pork Chop. I think she said it was kind of dry. Nothing more to say about that.

Fannypack ordered the Braised Short Ribs. She said it was very tender so I think she liked it. I tried a little and it was alright. A little dry to me (that seemed to be the theme), and a bit ‘shredded’.