McLarenblog

World Famous Restaurant

711 Pacific Beach Drive
Pacific Beach area of San Diego.
San Diego, Calif.  92108
Phone: 858-272-3100
Fax: 858-272-3189

California coastal cuisine.

Reviewed 8/7/08 (Thursday) at about 9:45 AM for breakfast.

Food: B (Once it arrived, quite good.)
Service: C (Food took a long time to arrive.  we ordered fruit and got potatoes.  I had to ask for my coffee cup to be refilled.)
Menu: B (Scored high for some unusually nice offerings.)
Value: B (Not bad prices for what you get.)
Ambiance: A (See text below.)
Restrooms: C (a serpentine path to get to)

The concierge at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa, Jeff, recommended we try World Famous as it was one of his favorites.  He recommended the eggs Benedict.  Getting to the restaurant from the resort was extremely easy, Jeff showed us on a map he provided.  We went north on Ingram Street to Crown Point Shores and made a left on Rivera Drive, which turned into Pacific Beach Drive.  He said just go past Mission Blvd and look carefully for an underground parking lot at the Promenade shopping center.  He said parking in the beach area can at times be difficult but few people know about this particular garage because the entrance is practically hidden.   We have offered a web page that we hope shows you how to enter this garage.  <Promenade parking garage>

The restaurant is right on the boardwalk and the longest segment of the restaurant runs along the boardwalk and offers a wonderful view of the ocean and people moving up and down the boardwalk.  There is a patio area that has a half wall and on top are windows that offer an unrestricted view.  Just behind the patio is a large, rather dark dining room from which very good views of the ocean are available.

We were luck enough to get a table, actually two side by side, on the patio with a wonderful view of the ocean.  My wife and I sat at the table closest to the windows to the internal dining room and my daughter sat at her own table but next to ours.  Her table rocked.  I asked the waitress for something to wedge under the table, she said she would get something but never returned.  My daughter took 4 Sweet and Low packages and wedged them under one leg of the table.  The tables were wood tops with wonderfully rounded edges.  The chairs on the patio were wood slats on a metal frame, not too bad for comfort.

My wife, daughter and I did a three way split of the following two menu items:

World Famous Wipe Out $8.75.
3 eggs
3 buttermilk pancakes
Choice of ham, bacon or sausage.
Choice of potatoes, refried beans or fresh fruit.

Famous Bread Pudding French Toast  $7.55.
Home made bread pudding sliced, egg dipped, pan griddled, topped with diced bananas and caramelized pecans.

The coffee, I was told it Boyd’s Coffee and it was very good.  The second cup was excellent.    Boyd’s Coffee is so much better than Starbucks.

The waitresses were another visual attraction (for me), all cute, wearing short shorts and skirts and all seeming possessing killer tans.  I gave the ambiance score a high mark for having three wonderful visuals to keep me occupied, ocean, boardwalk traffic and the waitresses.

Here is the meal analysis:

• Eggs = perfect.
• Bacon = perfect.
• Potatoes = really good which is unusual.  My wife thinks they were cooked in butter, nice flavor, quite a surprise.
• Pancakes = light, fluffy, bland.
• Bread pudding French toast = quite good.
• Coffee= excellent!

I tried the Famous Bread Pudding French Toast with no syrup and they tasted just a tad better than good.  When syrup was added they really achieved a step higher in flavor.

I have a recommendation for World Famous Restaurant.  Why not offer a new menu selection and label it “Word Famous Wipe Out PLUS”.  Keep all the items for Wipe Out but substitute, for the pancakes, the bread pudding French toast.  After comparing pancakes to the French toast I just could not figure out why anyone would want pancakes.