Encontro in North Park, San Diego, is a fun and inventive food and drink destination.
They just opened up earlier this year (2016), but have already begun to build a nice following.
The name “Encontro” is meant to evoke feelings of discovery or encountering new things.
The restaurant is well laid out with a super friendly staff. They serve a lot of craft beers and even several specialty sodas for the non-alcoholic drinkers like me. 🙂
You can’t see it in this picture, but there is a nice open window area that you can sit and people watch.
The restaurant is setup in a quick service style layout. You order you food from the counter, get a number, and find a table on your own.
Prices were reasonable and the menu items are definitely intriguing.
I started with a unique Batch soda called the “snozzberry”! It was actually pretty good and reminded me of a Shirley temple. They also have a lot of root beers which were tempting to me, but I recently cut out all dark sodas and held my ground… barely.
These are their portobello fries which were spectacular! Darren and I both thought they sounded good, but of course, you never know until you bite in. These were crispy and well seasoned. I couldn’t get enough! It also came with a aioli dipping sauce which was delicious.
We also chose the Brussel sprouts which were charred nicely. I think I still like the ones at Bo-Beau better (those are a bit saltier and have a more pronounced bacon flavor), but these were nice nonetheless.
Darren chose the Thai sausage for his entree which had bits of shrimp right inside! He got it protein style for me since I was trying to avoid excess carbs. The homemade chips were nice and crispy.
I chose the spinach bacon salad and added on their flat iron steak.
The salad was super fresh and I loved the perfectly cooked medium-rare steak.
Final Thoughts
I would definitely get this combination again. It’s also worth noting you could do similar types of salad with fresh salmon too. I love it when I can eat something super savory, but it’s also relatively healthy.
I’ll definitely be back soon. Perhaps another salad, and DEFINITELY the portobello mushroom fries!!
*Please note our meal was provided to us complimentary. No further compensation was received and as always our opinions remain our own.
Encontro North Park
3001 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92104
