In hindsight, we should have arrived much earlier...
It was twilight time but still enough light to enjoy sitting on their outdoor patio.
Lovely font for Sorella (I'm seeing it every, the uneven sized letters, very hipster), which means "sister" in Italian. This used to be Kensington Grill twenty years ago. It closed a few years ago and became Fish Public which wasn't well received and folded just last year. I think Cucina Sorella will be much more popular here in Kensington...
The owner is still Tracy Borkum (of the Urban Kitchen Group which includes Cucina Urbana and Cucina Enoteca). The floral/botanical motif is everwhere and it is beautiful.
Bench in the reception area above and below, their wall paper.
Their tablecloths are also quite lovely with giant pink and yellow blooms adoring each table.
We already had drinks at his place (Kir Royales) and appetizers (crackers, cheese plus pancit palabok that I made for his birthday). We arrived at 7:45 (quite late in my opinion), got our appetizers 30 minutes later and for our shared pasta entrees, more than one hour later. Yeah. that kind of sucked but again, that can be chalked up to going at a very busy time with the the kitchen (which is small) getting slammed.
Our appetizers - potato gnocchi tots with housemade ketchup and roasted cauliflower with smoked ricota, currant and cashew.
Both were fantastic. The potato gnocchi were like tiny little potato pillows. Such fun to eat.
La Ley and MFH shared the Triangoli, one of Sorella'smore popular pasta dishes according to our server. The house made pasta dish included goat cheese (which equals barf for me), mascarpone, eggplant, fig, almond, and brown butter balsamic. Mr. TJ and I shared the Saffron Bucatini (rock shrimp, clam, spicy white wine brodo, or "broth" in Italian, topped with toasted breadcrumbs).
We loved our dish which was perfect for us to share. The breadcrumbs gave it a nice texture. They were also generous with their shrimp and clams.
If this didn't have the goat cheese, I would have enjoyed this much more.
Both dishes were really excellent but it sucked having to wait more than an hour. The table behind us also experience a dinner malfunction (I overheard their server apologizing to them) due to the wait. Our server had to ask me several times about which bucatini dish I ordered (there are two, one with saffron and seafood; the other with meatballs). I knew I was clear but I don't think she was paying much attention. She also later forgot our other dessert until I reminded her.
My friends are not as adventurous when it comes to desserts. As desperate as I was to try the Peanut Butter Bar, they all nixed that idea and opted for the safe (and boring) Ice cream (mint and vanilla). I think they may have envisioned something else when seeing the words "peanut butter bar"; the pancetta sugar may have also scared them off.
Can get this anywhere. Nice but boring.
This, now this was desired by both Mr. TJ (the birthday celebrant) and myself, the Sea salt caramel budino. It servedin a jar with two biscotti slices and garnished wit edible flowers. The sea salt caramel itself was at the bottom of the pudding, which was nice and creamy enough but tasted more vanilla/citrus than I expected. In fact, I expected the whole dessert to taste like its title, but alas, the flavor was only at the bottom.
Other than the super long wait time it took for us to get our mains after our appetizer, we enjoyed our experience. I knew I had to give Cucina Sorella another try. This time, I would have dinner much much earlier, making reservations right when they started dinner service at 5 pm. They do open at 4 pm but only the bar is available which is nice because you can order from the Happy Hour menu (we were actually able to do that since we requested to sit out on the patio, which gets the Happy Hour menu treatment).
Bert, TC and I were at Sorella late Sundary afternoon....
Their in-store shop has a lot of cute things (but very expensive). TC and I had a nice time smelling the different candles and lotions while Bert leafed through some books. This would be a great place to pick up a few gifts though.
I really love their wallpaper pattern so here it is again!
In their women's bathroom they have framed photos of 60's movie stars/sexpots including Raquel Welch and Sofia Lorena (va va voom!).
So yay for sitting out on the patio...Regular menu you will be given but also the Happy Hour menu.
Bert ordered the Monk's Drink (under the Cocktails; not a special) while I had the Mango Madness (also not a special).
Here they are - TC's blood orange soda in a mason jar, Bert's cocktail and my mango drink.
Our appetizers were from the Happy Hour menu - rosemary garlic fries and the chicken liver pate in a jar with assorted flatbreads. Cucina Urbana does this too but with regular bread.
The flatbreads were from local bakery Sadie Rose and were sliced so very thin, which we liked. There were two baguess slices, plus two plain crackes, then a brown bread, and our favorite, the walnut with cherry.
Our server even offered to bring us more if we needed some. We wanted to save some room for our entrees and thus, did not finish off the pate (TC didn't like it).
Thin and lacy!
TC's heirloom tomato panzanella salad, the squid ink fusilli with octopus and the torchiere with seafood sausage.
The bread cubes here were not totally soaked; our server told us in Italy they are traditionally softer. For this dish, to adapt to American palates, the bread has some crunch to it. TC really loved the mix of fresh heirloom tomatoes with creamy avocado and sweet watermelon. This was really refreshing.
Bert chose the Torchiere (the pasta so name for it's torch like shape which is also quite conducive to cupping sauces). The seafood sausage was made with a mixture of the catches of the day (halibut, rockfish and swordfish), mixed into the pasta was white corn and a lovely cashew basil pesto with a dollop of burrata and chili flakes on top. We liked how creative and tasty this dish was.
I can never resist squid ink anythink and the fusilli was great except for the overabundance of capers which rendered the dish to be too salty. The pasta itself was al dente, the breadcrumbs giving a nice teture and the octopus tender enough. The sauce was puttanesca and wasn't as spicy as I had feared. Except for those capers, the dish was really great. Maybe a small sprinkling would have been okay, but these were the huge kind which were chopped up (I almost thought they were green olives).
And now for dessert...I finally got the peanut butter bar that I originally wanted (yes, me). It looked almost too pretty to eat but we got over that quickly. Or at least until after both TC and I took photos of it. Her for her snapchat, me for my blog.
There were torched marshmallow dotting the plate. The bar itself had a graham cracker crust; the PB filling had a nice texture to it tasting almost like a butterfinger. The top layer was ganache topped with pancetta sea salt which added a nice salty smokiness to the dessert.
It reminded me of this epic dessert enjoyed two years ago at Bertand at Mr. A's. This was the mini dessert portion of the salted caramel and chocolate bar over a praline crisp with brown butter ice cream and garnished with caramel popcorn.
(photo from my "Bertrand at Mr. A's - the full post" post, April 2014)
I noticed the Ken changed its marquee again...
It's great to still see a Landmark movie theatre still in use.
Articles/blurbs:
"Tracy Borkum dishes on bringing Cucina Sorella to Kensington SD Eater, Jan 26, 2016
Thrillist, SanDiegoMagazine,
"Cucina Sorella swings open in Kensington", May 2, 2016; "A neighborhood eatery in which the neighborhood had a say" SD Reader, June 23, 2016;
+ hot off the press, Darlene's article on Zagat San Diego, "Cucina Sorella - First Look"
Cucina Sorella
4055 Adams Ave
San Diego, CA 92116
(619) 281-4014
cucina-sorella-kensington + fb page plus reviews from that four lettered site
I'm glad that I went here again. I didn't want to write off Sorella based on that one experience. Their pastas are quite excellent with interesting and complex flavors. As I mentioned before, it's better to go early if you want more prompt food service. Going super late (which was not my choice) stretched out our evening longer than we wanted due to how crowded it was. I hope to come here again to try their menu, which I'm told is constantly evolving. It will be exciting to try something new and inventive.
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