Glass Box San Diego — Restaurant in San Diego

This past weekend we descended upon The Glass Box in the Del Mar Highlands Town Center to do a Restaurant Review. It's Del Mar Heights off the 5 Freeway, above Jimbo's in 'The Sky Deck', a new part of this mall.

With a Chef whose mission for this restaurant is about authenticity, consistency, providing a great atmosphere and an engaging experience he nails what dining is all about.

I am happy to welcome him to the neighborhood. The Glass Box is truly in line with good food consistently and a beautiful experience.

Tonight we enjoyed a large Omakase. What is an Omakase you ask? It’s when you give the chef ‘carte blanche’. You ask him to serve the freshest, the best of what he’s got and you leave the decision making to him. How many courses? We stopped counting after 5.

Chef Ethan started us off with diced Hamachi and Watermelon couple with a couple of pieces of Salmon Lemon Roll.

Kat says: “Ohhh god! This is awesome”. Bob adds: “Tasty good. A nice balance of sweet and tart with the fish. Susan says: “This is the right amount of spice”.

Che agrees with Bob: “The perfect balance”. Everyone down the line has similar responses including Jeanette who says: “Excellent combination of sweet, spicy and then the thickness of the fish. The flavors don’t overpower each other because it’s enough fish to absorb the watermelon. Letty adds: “I’m not used to sweets like watermelon with fish, but this is good”. So now, we are enjoying things we have not tried before that we actually enjoy, and that's a credit to the restaurant.

The next plate has a mix of different choices that include an albacore belly with a hint of seaweed salad a bit of ginger, garlic, jalapeño and a soy reduction with a local Aji mackerel. Added are local grilled shishito peppers”. Now it may have been the peppers were different plate. But either way, just ask for what we had! lol

Kat mentions “the Shishito Peppers are so beautiful. You get that smoke going on…. So amazing about the plate in general”.

Next is an arugula spring mix like nothing I have ever tasted, with Salmon skin, truffle salt and a miso dressing. One of the things Chef Ethan does is place something fun on the bottom of a dish like edamame humus. So fun! Che says: “Everything is good”. Cat chimes in: “Gosh… it’s so good”.

It’s onto a skewer of Pork Belly, grilled Thailand Broccoli … with a hint of 5 spice, garlic plus a homemade charcoal grill sauce sitting on top of their typical egg fried rice. The perfect flavor profile for me. And there was so much of it, I ate it the next day for lunch as well. There’s nothing bland or boring about this food. And while egg fried rice (which didn't seem 'fried' at all) is probably not a big thing for everybody, when you haven't had fried rice in a long time like this, it actually is.

I asked for grated wasabi which I am going to recommend you do, as well. You take a small amount onto your chopsticks into your mouth, then add food. Just the right amount of heat, if you like heat.

And I will say that everyone has a different cocktail tonight, some with a big square ice cube in the middle and some creatively made like a Lychee Nut Martini. Their Mai Tai with a spiced rum, (which is what I have), has the flavor of what we used to get at Trader Vic’s in Beverly Hills. So I will say: That’s a nice cocktail.

The Black Sesame Cake is nothing but amazing. That’s my comment. So light and so much flavor, followed by a coffee latte shot with a hint of Kailua and Bailey's topped off with homemade brownie bits. What a happy end to a great meal!

As we find ourselves cashing out, Susan says to me: “It was overall a great experience. Every course was amazing … I really enjoyed this”. Jeanette sums it up: “ I love every minute of this experience”. And so as the sun set in the west and we wrap up the evening, we all feel the same …. It was a very satisfying experience and that’s a nice way to close out this Restaurant Review, of The Glass Box, Del Mar Highlands...

The service was not superb or ideal, and the food was very mediocre. I had to wait for the waiter to bring us to a table, when there were only 2 other customers there, on a Saturday. The ingredients were not as fresh as they could have been, and the taste was pretty mediocre. However, where it all falls apart is the value. For having ordered such a small amount of food, expect to spend around $20 and above. You may think, this review is from a person who went to the wrong place if my intention was to find great value for the price, however, I have gone to other restaurants of simlar nature and price, and deemed them worth what they have charged, because of the superb and attentive service, the portions they served, and overall experience and catering to that you are subject to in those establishments. In summary, $30 for about 6 pieces of sushi is not acceptable, especially when the ingredients are not as fresh as they should be, and the waiter treats you in a "very rushed and not rude", but cold, detached, and inhospitable manner.

Neither the food nor the service was worth almost $100 for 2 people, and I had to go eat something afterwards.

TLDR: The price is not justified whatsoever. I do not recommend. Go to "Sushi Kuchi" instead. And for an actual dining experience worth the prices I was charged here, go to "Grace at SFMOMA,"...

Dinner last night at the Glass Box was an ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE experience. Chef Ethan is amazing, he took our party on a culinary trip that started at 10/10 with the most delicate oysters served with a magical sauce that somehow managed to pack every possible flavor in a few drops -- and then (in what seemed like an impossible feat) continued just as strong, if not even stronger! seriously 11/10? 12/10? how do you even describe this?

The rolls and nigiri were absolutely perfect and SO decadent. I had the best salmon belly and tuna belly nigiri I have ever tasted. We shared several amazing rolls. Just to sample a couple of standouts -- we had the most satisfying roll of scallops wrapped with king salmon with fish roe and more of chef Etan's incredible sauces on top, as well as a rice-less roll that was just an out-of-this-world symphony of flavors and textures.

Seriously -- saying that this was one of the best meals I had in the last decade would be an understatement. Who am I kidding? This was easily the best food I ever had. ever. period.

This restaurant should have a line going out the sky-deck door, and wrapping around the parking lot day and night. GO THERE! NOW! Forget the menu. Tell chef Ethan what you like to eat, how adventurous you are willing to be, trust the guy, sit back and enjoy the ride. You'll...