The Lion's Share

Date of Dining: 7/13/2012
Price: $5-16 appetizers, $14-36 entrees
Location: 629 Kettner Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101
website

The Quick Bit

+ good selection of cocktails

+ interesting menu items

+ mussels were great

Δ food could be less greasy

Δ eating areas could be expanded

As part of the visit to Comic-Con, I ended up at The Lion's Share for dinner during one of the evenings. While the Lion's Share does have some exotic food selections of game proteins, it really does seem more like a hangout spot for locals. The bar and cocktails play a significant role in the restaurant, and the restaurant space is extremely limited.

I ended up at the Lion's Share because I wanted to try and expand upon the possible destinations for convention center dining. Since the beat of the restaurant is somewhat focused on the adult beverages, I will include the one I enjoyed as part of the commentary.

Cocktail

monks gone wild - strawberry infused pimms, green chartreuse, lemon, ginger beer

This was an extremely enjoyable cocktail. The ginger beer was really key in both the carbonation and the ginger flavor. Overall, I'd put this cocktail in my short list of great San Diego cocktails.

While I didn't order many other cocktails - mainly cause I was already plenty dehydrated from the convention - I did find many of them interesting and worthy of being ordered in future visits.

Appetizers

olives - garlic herb oil

The olives were pitted and were a great way to start off the meal and get the appetite going. I didn't really notice the garlic herb oil as the olives themselves were nice in flavor and stood out alone.

mussels - pancetta, cherry tomato, spring onions, cilantro, bread crumbs

This was the dish of the night. While I didn't really like the bread crumbs, the sauce with the mussels was excellent and really highlighted the flavor of the mussels. It had the perfect balance of flavor with body and the pancetta added a nice element of savoriness normally missing with mussels.

exotic sausage board - pheasant with cognac, duck with bacon and jalapeno, elk with apples and port wine

We debated between this and the charcuterie board but ultimately decided that the sausages were worth trying due to the exotic game meats. Unfortunately, the delivery of the dish was lacking in that we didn't know which sausage was which. What I found really missing in this dish was that I wasn't really able to discern the protein of one sausage from another. Mostly, the secondary flavor such and the jalapeno or apple really carried through over the flavor of the protein.

Entree

wild style - wild boar bacon, fried duck egg, smoked cheddar, mustard aioli, crispy shallots,
parmesan truffle fries

Despite the talk of the fried duck egg and boar bacon, ultimately this dish came down to the burger itself. All the proteins were extremely flavorful and the egg really tied together many of the elements. The fried shallots were a nice touch as I prefer them to onions and they really added a nice seasoning to the dish. It helped that the burger was cooked medium rare as it was ordered.

We did order a second entree, but it was really delayed so we ended up cancelling as we were full.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed my visit to The Lion's Share and would visit again. That being said, going into the restaurant and expecting execution along the lines of Cowboy Star would be a mistake. The Lion's Share is a gastropub with excellent cocktails and an interesting menu. However being a gastropub, the food does suffer from some execution issues - mainly the level of grease present in all the food.

If your goal is to go out and have some drinks with some interesting food, then The Lion's Share is definitely a worthy destination. However, if the point of visiting is to try the various game proteins for the first time, then The Lion's Share will not deliver.