Conveniently located off of West Point Loma Boulevard, Embers Grille offers a spacious setting, family atmosphere, and delicious gourmet cuisine. Fresh ingredients are woven together to create a diverse array of pizzas, pastas, sandwiches, and salads, as well as signature entrees as decadent as Baby Back Pork Ribs and Mandarin Mahi Mahi. Whether you're dining on a simple pizza or an exquisite steak, Embers Grill is a place you will return to again and again.
Read More ...My favorite restaurant experiences arise when I am completely taken by surprise, entering a restaurant with no expectations and being blown away by quality, freshness, and flavor. When I pulled into the Midway Towne Center for a meal at Embers Grille, I had no idea I'd be so impressed.
Embers is a quiet, neighborhood restaurant. Since its opening in 1991, it has been mostly word of mouth that has propelled the restaurant to success. It has become a particular favorite among nearby Point Loma residents, especially in the past seven years, when it has been under the ownership of the Ortega family. "People come because they know us," an affable Blanca Ortega explains, "and they come again and again."
According to Blanca, the restaurant's history is an interesting one. It was originally opened by a company that intended to turn it into a chain concept. However, when the owners of the company decided to retire rather than pursue new restaurant opportunities, they sold the single location. In 1999, Blanca and her family stepped in, along with longtime friend and chef Miguel Milan, who now runs the kitchen. Thanks to them, this destined-to-become-a-chain restaurant has been transformed into an independently owned operation with personality and charisma.
The building is cute and quaint, with a glowing sign that announces the restaurant's presence. Plentiful parking and a convenient location just off the 8 ensure a no-hassle trip. Inside, the decor is casual and welcoming. The open, airy space is painted in earth tones, adorned with old poster art, country-style artwork, and signs conveying lighthearted messages such as "live, love, laugh." Around holiday times, the restaurant is awash in festive decorations, such as December's 6-foot-tall nutcrackers and decked-out Christmas tree, and October's haunted-house theme.
The atmosphere is both family- and group-friendly, with large booths and a dining room that is always a flurry of activity, thanks in part to the enormous open kitchen. But the layout accommodates a range of dining scenarios. A covered patio is quiet and quaint, offering a private space for intimate conversations. The eight-seat bar and adjacent lounge has a laid-back, wine-bar-like setting that fills quickly by early evening. Tuesday through Thursday evenings are especially popular, as Embers offers half-off every bottle on their wine list.
The menu is inherited from the restaurant's original owners, and it’s easy to see why it hasn't changed. "It has a little bit for every taste and budget," explains Blanca. She is not kidding. The menu, while a mere five pages, is packed with both healthy and hearty, practical and over-the-top. There are salads, sandwiches, pasta dishes, grill entrees, and pizzas, representing a diverse array of flavors and culinary influences including Italian, Mexican, and regional American.
The more I study the menu, the more I am overwhelmed, not just because of the number of dishes but because every single dish looks tempting. It seems near impossible to narrow the options down to a manageable amount of food. Luckily, the wine list and appetizer section are both relatively compact, and we are able to quickly select a Ceviche Cocktail and a glass of Anapamu Chardonnay while we ponder the rest of the menu.
Ceviche is a dish that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways; at Embers, it’s prepared Mexico City style. A martini glass arrives holding a concoction of shrimp, avocado, and mango in a bright red sauce. The glass proves to be deceptively large—while we go for spoonful after spoonful, we never manage to reach bottom. The sauce is elusively complex, with an acidic tang mingling with both spicy and sweet. We're told the flavors come from a mix of lemon, lime, and orange, plus spicy ground dried peppers, fresh tomato, and a secret ingredient that I won't reveal but which I can assure is delightfully unexpected.
The salad selection is a greens-lovers heaven. Of the eleven salad options, each looks better than the last. They're available in two sizes, small and large, with the large intended to be meal-sized. I could easily see myself making a satisfying—and healthy—meal out of any of the salads, but decide to go for the one with the most ingredients: the Old Town Fiesta. Baby spinach and red leaf lettuce offer a plump bed for a party of ingredients: cubes of apples, jicama, and smoked turkey; crumbled walnuts and gorgonzola; splashes of golden raisins and slivers of red onion. A ring of plump mango pieces surrounds the greens, and a tangle of ribbon-like sweet potato crisps crowns them. The salad is so chock full of ingredients that no two bites are alike—each forkful offers different tastes and textures depending on what's speared. Turkey plus gorgonzola is hearty, gorgonzola with apple proves rich and refreshing, and jicama and walnut is ethereal and intriguing. Even the greens alone are satisfying, thanks to the house-made red vinaigrette's complex, lively flavor.
If Embers Grill offered pizza alone, it would still be popular. The personal-sized pies are fired in a wood oven and, like every other category on the menu, come in a myriad of options. Traditionalists will delight in simple renditions of pepperoni and cheese, as well as classic concoctions such as Meat Lovers and the Works. However, invention is where Embers shines, and some of the most enticing pies have names that don’t sound like pizzas at all: Thai Chicken, Chicken Parmigiana, and Shrimp Fajita. When our selection, a Sun Dried Tomato Pesto and Roasted Chicken pie, arrives on the table, it takes serious restraint not to immediately dig in. The pie is surprisingly artisanal—a slightly toasted, airy crust with a thin center holds an artful array of toppings: vibrant strips of sundried tomatoes, soft rings of yellow pepper and onion, verdant strips of fresh basil, and pale pieces of chicken. A bite reveals an array of surprises--the onions are sweet and crisp, the fontina and goat cheese are slightly salty, and the sauce is a bold concoction of sundried tomatoes and garlic, with whole pine nuts tossed in for good measure. There are few things I take more seriously in the food world than pizza, and this is one serious pizza—I dare say the best I've had since relocating to the west coast. (That's not a claim to be taken lightly).
The most popular dish on Ember's menu is the Peppered Steak Pasta in Chipotle Cream—and it is no wonder why. An enormous bowl arrives at the table, looking as festive as its predecessors. Stark black tortilla chips catch our attention first—a sign that this is no ordinary pasta dish. Taking flavors from Tex-Mex, the dish is filled with the intoxicating spice of chipotle and Anaheim peppers. Hidden among the ribbons of perfectly cooked linguine are strips of peppers and sliced mushrooms, which soak up the lingering spice of the rich cream sauce. The pasta, while sublime on its own, is transformed into an even heartier meal with the addition of a peppered New York steak, grilled medium rare, sliced, and arrayed across the buoyant pasta. Unblanketed by the sauce, the steak offers a pure meaty flavor, and seems an ideal pairing with the Anaheim spice.
The entrée section is the shortest on the menu, but is certainly not lacking in options. We turn to the Ember's Grill Sampler, which offers five-ounce portions of three dishes also available separately. The plate arrives absolutely covered in food—Embers certainly doesn't skimp on the portions. A glistening Lemon Rosemary Breast of Chicken sits alongside BBQ-slathered Baby Back Pork Ribs, which shoulder up to a Teriyaki-Basted N.Y. Steak. A medley of broccoli, peppers, and carrots as well as sliced herb-roasted potatoes help cover every inch of the plate. But the food is not just plentiful—it is full of flavor. The steak is perfectly tender, the quality of the 21-day aged, certified Angus beef shining through the sweet flavors of teriyaki. The ribs literally fall off the bone, the smoky barbeque sauce complimenting rather than masking their succulence. The grilled chicken breast is the most surprising—perfectly moist and full of flavor, it is bursting with refreshing lemon and rosemary. Not to be outdone, the veggies are crisp and creamy, and the potatoes are crispy on the outside and tender in the middle. For a plate with so many separate dishes, all are cooked to perfection.
You will undoubtedly be full after a meal at Embers, but that is no excuse to pass up dessert. With the exception of cheesecake, all desserts are made in house with the same from-scratch care that goes into all of the dishes. When the Bread Pudding arrives, our appetites are reawakened. The pudding has been baked into an oversized coffee mug, topped with whipped cream and caramel, and begs to be dug into. The crisp top layer of cinnamon-raisin bread gives way to a creamy mixture of bread and custard, both of which are more flavorful than sugary. It is the epitome of an Embers Grille dish—composed of a carefully balanced array of ingredients that come together in an ideal balance of flavor and texture.
Ember's Grille is not a fancy restaurant. It is not filled with haute decor, and doesn't rely on trendy design to impress. It is straightforward, unpretentious, and family-owned; a place where food takes first priority and comfort takes second. Its reputation stems from genuine customer satisfaction, rather than a savvy marketing campaign or a flashy website. It is a refreshing burst of purity in a city full of restaurants, and a place I will eagerly return to.
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Embers Grille
