Urban Solace Bluegrass Brunch Review – North Park

Taste

Appearance

Service

Summary:

4.7

Chomps

Urban Solace Review

Urban Solace is perfectly placed in the ever increasingly trendy 30th street area of North Park, among adorable shops filled with hip literature, modern gourmet cookbooks, and DIY succulent gardens. This is my old stomping ground, and let me tell you- I sure wish Urban Solace had been around when I lived in North Park! Urban Solace is the creation chef Matt Gordon and his wife, who after having their first child decided to start their baby as well as themselves on a natural diet. Being someone who tries to eat a natural and unprocessed diet, I can attest to the fact that once you take on this “challenge”, and a challenge it is, you will quickly realize that even when cooking quality food from scratch, many of the very basic ingredients you may be accustomed to using may in fact have unhealthy additives like high fructose corn syrup and MSG. Thus began chef Gordon’s journey to create something rare; a restaurant that serves the highest quality and sustainable foods cooked and served with unprocessed, additive free ingredients. By creating condiments from scratch like their unique and addictive smoked tomato jam, and orange-honey butter – they are able to serve food they are proud to know is not only soulful and tasty, but truly natural and nourishing.

Walking into Urban Solace you will immediately notice the community table in the middle of the room. This newly popular seating arrangement is such a great idea, at least for this type of “down home” restaurant. You can have a delicious meal, and make friends at the same time.

Warm Cheese Biscuits

I suggest checking out Urban Solace for their Blue-grass Sunday Brunch. If you don’t like Blue Grass, not to worry, the band only plays on the patio so you’re covered. Regardless your musical preferences, the brunch menu is incredibly mouthwatering. Do your senses a favor and start your meal off right with the Warm Cheese Biscuits. These smell amazing, and are accompanied with their house smoked tomato jam, and orange honey butter. I guarantee you have never tasted anything like this tomato jam. The smokiness is reminiscent of bacon, and with a slight bit of sweetness, you can’t go wrong putting this stuff on just about anything!

Next up were the main dishes.

Cheesy Scrambled Eggs, Brown Sugar Slab Bacon and Traditional Grits

The eggs were perfectly scrambled, and were pretty basic. They seemed a bit oily for my taste, but then again I am somewhat of an egg snob. The bacon, on the other hand, was far from basic. In fact, it was hands down the BEST bacon I have ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth. Brown sugar+bacon= bacon candy. It’s heavenly. I’m wondering if they have this as a side? I would go there just for this bacon. The grits were exquisitely legit. I’m no southern girl, but I’m pretty sure any Georgia Peach would be willing to bet these grits were cooked by her Grammy. They were rich and buttery, and with just a bit of the natural lump sugar they keep in the center of the table-absolute grit (free) perfection. Forget all the thoughts you had about lumpy, gritty malt-o-meal. This kicks its butt.

Quinoa Veggie Burger

Coming from a family of vegetarians and vegans, I am naturally drawn to awesome sounding veggie dishes. Hence, my decision to go with the Quinoa Veg Burger. This was not your average low rent Boca burger- which for the record are filled with modified soy this and hydrogenated oil that. This, my friend, is a REAL veggie burger made from nuts, beans, and veggies. It was spiced and seasoned perfectly, and had a very meaty and filling texture. Served on a slightly charred brioche style bun with melted aged white cheddar, bibb lettuce, tomato and a house sauce. It came with a side salad, which was not your boring, dripping in dressing, leafy greens thrown on the plate. It looked like the local farmers’ market exploded all over this little salad! Fresh cucumber, mushrooms, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and pickled onion. It was a delightful addition to my already hearty meal.

The ambiance was chill, and the service on point. I can only hope that more organic-minded chefs follow in the foot steps of Urban Solace’s chef Gordon. I look forward to many more Sunday brunches at this wonderful neighborhood eatery, and invite you to see for yourself what all the hype is about.

Urban Solace
3823 30th St
San Diego, CA 92104
Neighborhood: North Park

(619) 295-6464
www.urbansolace.net

Tags: American, Breakfast, Brunch, Restaurants