Cloak and Petal Little Italy — Restaurant in San Diego

We visited twice during our short stay in San Diego, that's how good this place is! We did have two different experiences even though we sat at the same seats at the bar both nights:

Night 1) We were lucky enough to have Harrison tend to us during our visit. I think the best word to describe him is "fastidious". His drinks were made with absolute precision. They were made right in front of us so we got to enjoy the show. Each ingredient was thoughtfully and precisely added. He squeezed the orange peels to get the little mist of orange into our drinks and then gently wiped the peel along the rim where we would drink. It was the most care I've ever seen a bartender put into a drink, and I've been to some pretty fancy places. We couldn't help but keep ordering them because they were so good! Harrison was extremely attentive and we never got a chance to rattle ice in a glass before he was there ready for our next order or to refill our waters. The dude is legit. Made our experience so awesome. If I owned a bar, I'd beg borrow and steal to put him on my payroll. In addition to amazing drinks, we had amazing food! We had the Wagyu lettuce wraps which were amazing. They were also made with care and I noticed that each was precisely topped with three pine nuts each... not four, not two. Three. In a line. They were wonderful. We also had the chicken karaage. I could NOT believe how tender and juicy the chicken was! Amazing! The food came promptly and was made with the level of care we would expect from a place with Harrison at the bar. What a great experience.

Night 2) We came the second night and had a totally different experience at the bar. Why? Harrison was not our bartender. He greeted us with a big smile and handshake when we arrived, remembered that my wife wanted lemon in her water and I did not, and asked us if we'd like to order the same food we had the night before. Amazing. He put our food order in and then told us he was working the other end of the bar and his friend (I don't remember his name) would take care of us. Well, 20 min went by and we had our food before his friend showed up to take our drink order and that was only after my wife asked the expediter behind us if he would get the bartender's attention for us. The bartender made our drinks but they were NOTHING like the night before. They didn't even taste the same. When Harrison made them we kept ordering, when this guy made them, we were over them after one sip. The proportions the night before made for a complex drink, layered in flavors. The drinks this other guy made were somehow homogeneous. For example, when Harrison made our drinks the cinnamon in them was subtle and in the background and you could get the different layers of the drink. With the second guy, cinnamon was all we could taste. It even overpowered the orange. One guy cares about his job immensely, the other just splashes drinks together. Our food, however, came out with the same attention to detail as the night before; still three pine nuts on each lettuce wrap, and the chicken on the karrage was amazing again. Big kudos to the kitchen and their consistency!

I highly recommend this place, and if you want the best experience possible, seek out Harrison.... or avoid him at all costs because once you have him for a bartender, all others will fall short. No, I don't know him. That's just how much he...

This was a gorgeous downtown sushi place with top notch happy hour sushi deals Mon-Fri from 4-6 PM. Me and friend started off with miso soups which were yummy and different to any i’ve had before. They had these small balls inside the soup, and used green and red algaes alongside the tofu which gave the miso a richer and more complex taste. So much so that after the rolls we doubled down on an extra miso each. For appetizer we had these kaarage green beans and I kid you not they were some of the best appetizer snacks I’ve ever had. The green beans were fried to perfection and seasoned perfectly and had the most amazing umami taste that complemented so well with the aioli they come with. I never knew I could love the taste of green beans, but this had me munching hard on them. Finally we got our rolls and decided on the Saucy Boi, Kamikaze, and a Classic Spicy Tuna to make sure the meal was satisfying. We’d had a long day at UCSD, so it was well deserved. From those, the Saucy Boi was definitely the standout for joe absolutely delicious it was. It was almost remindcidnt of Mexican style sushi and I thought it was amazing. The kamikaze and spicy tuna were definitely more underwhelming, and I just didn’t love that the kamikaze had some fishier flavors as well as a ponzu/citrus base to it which I’m personally just not a huge fan of. Sam with spicy tuna, I don’t mess with it but my friend does and she said it was yummy. But being big backs, this was the point where we doubled on our miso soups, and also ordered the sticky fingaz ribs as well as some off menu sweet potato fries. Shoutout to the kitchen for whipping us up some sweet potato fries because they are literally so amazing, similarly to the green beans they have a je no se qua umami flavor to them and the spicy mayo pairing makes for a delicious crunchy fry. The pork ribs were also amazing and had a sweet glaze to them although I think the flavors were very Korean Spicy Sweet BBQ flavor and they weren’t the most notable option, although a good one nonetheless (the slaw wasn’t good tho). The decor was what really set he vibe though, and I just couldn’t get over how absolutely stunning the whole place is, especially with the ways they use lighting. We washed everything down with some diet cokes, and this place is also very much a bar so feel free to try out the cocktails, the people around us sure seemed to enjoy them🤣🤣. Anyways, this place is straight gas and I recommend anyone from Daygo to pull up on a weekday from 4-6 and see what this gem has to offer for some really honest and humble prices....

Came here because my friend saw this place on instagram and wanted to come. It looked so fun on Instagram. We walked up and the outside was kind of meh. We got to the host and three different people walked past before someone came to seat us.. The first thing you see when you walk up is the bar which is beautiful and well put together. There’s two giant Japanese Cherry Blossom trees in the bar and it’s just so pretty.

To drink, we ordered the Dragonball Tea and the Tea Ceremony. The Dragonball Tea was sweet and delicious but the balls in it got stuck in the straw so you can’t drink them through the straw. The Tea Ceremony was cucumber base and subtly sweet but absolutely right up my ally! There was very little drink and very much ice so you decide if that’s worth $15..

For appetizers, we ordered the Sunomono Salad, Lamp pops and Karaage. The salad was delicious and had two different types of seaweeds in it with cucumbers and was very refreshing. The Lamp pops were bland and not tender.. they were hard to eat and the only flavor on them was from the sauce. A huge fail.. and the Karaage was pretty good, not authentic but perfectly fried and the sauce it came with were very complimenting.

The rolls we ordered were the Saucy Boi, Shibuya Nights, Notorious P.I.G., Snake Eyes and Kyoto Ninja. The Saucy Boi was okay, too much sauce on top and not that impressive. The Shibuya Nights was pretty good but had a sweet crunch inside that kind of tasted like cereal and threw us all of.. the Notorious P.I.G. Was delicious, well put together and definitely something you should order when you go! The Snake Eyes roll was also delicious with calm flavors that came together really well. Definitely get that one too if you like eel, if you don’t then give it a try you won’t regret it. The Kyoto Ninja was absolutely the wrong move! The menu said it was wagyu strip but it was not wagyu.. the “wagyu” was extremely bland and you could taste that it was low quality meat.. they drizzled a generic salsa verde on top that gave an impression that the roll wanted to be Mexican base but Japanese meat and Mexican salsa for this roll was not a good idea.. we didn’t enjoy it at all and it really just threw off our senses.. creme brûlée for desert though was perfect!

Over all this place is cute but I won’t be back. The staff was great, the service was a little slow and they weren’t to tentative but they were very kind. The drinks were good but the food was hit or miss which is why I’m...