Trust — Restaurant in San Diego

June 2024: We had dinner at Trust for the first time on a Saturday evening. We had reservations and were seated immediately on their outdoor patio which is also dog friendly. The dinner menu is a lot of small plates that are meant to be shared. They recommend 2 plates per person. We ordered the following for dinner: wood grilled cauliflower, oak fired potatoes, crab fried rice, octopus fritters, potato gnocchi, char sui brisket, and hush puppies. And for dessert, we ordered the following: grasshopper cheesecake, whatchamacallit, milk & cookies pie. Literally, everything we ate was delicious! Of the dinner items, I would say the crab fried rice was my favorite and is a must order. The octopus fritters are very much so like takoyaki. They were delicious but if you have had takoyaki before, you could skip this. The hush puppies were very different. They had a good corn flavor and you actually cut them in half to fill with butter and ham. I've never had them this way but it was great. I would say my least favorite of the savory items was the char sui brisket. I love brisket but I found this to be too salty. The desserts were all beautifully plated. The grasshopper cheesecake and whatchamacallit were my favorites. I really like the idea of a milk and cookies pie but the filling had a very odd texture - it felt like it was too set. This was my first time having dinner at Trust and I really enjoyed the meal. This will be one of my go-to places for dinner now. Definitely try it for dinner.

November 2022: We had Sunday brunch reservations at 11:15 am for the patio and were seated immediately. The patio is very spacious with heaters and is dog friendly. Make sure to give yourself plenty to time to park because there is no parking lot. The staff were all very friendly, quick, and attentive. We ordered the seasonal sticky bun (salted caramel persimmon), braised bacon grilled cheese, and pork belly poutine. The seasonal sticky bun was amazing. It's quite big so it is a great option for sharing. It came with salted caramel sauce, vanilla ice, persimmons, and oaty crumble. This was definitely a highlight and we would come back again to try another flavor. The braised bacon grilled cheese sandwich was really tasty - the portion size felt perfect (not too big). The sandwich had thick bacon inside of it and the mornay sauce on top made it extra special. The pork belly poutine was good but it felt a little salty and light on the pork belly. One thing to note about the brunch menu is there is a very limited selection of non-alcoholic drinks like coffee and tea. They seemed to only have black coffee - no lattes, chai tea, etc. Overall, we really enjoyed the food, service, and spacious outdoor seating. I would recommend coming here for brunch.

September 2023: We had brunch at Trust on a Sunday at 10 am. We made reservations and were seated immediately outdoors (since we had our dog with us). We got the seasonal sticky bun (cookies and cream), pork cutlet, french toast, and egg white scramble. The sticky bun was served with cookies and cream ice cream and was delicious - it was so warm, soft, and tender with the perfect amount of sweetness. The french toast was incredibly tender and custardy. The egg white scramble was my favorite - it was served with tempura broccoli which was amazing! Our waitress was very friendly and even brought a water bowl and some treats for our dog. Although the parking isn't great here, Trust is still worth the effort because the food is...

It's short for "In Good Food We TRUST."

I may instead be inclined to say, "In good chefs we trust," and Chef Brad Wise, previously of JRDN, is one of San Diego's best. It takes a uniquely talented chef to open this type of restaurant in an area of a neighborhood with no other similar types of restaurants and to not only succeed, but become one of the city's top dining destinations over a sustained period of time. Richard Blais did it four years ago when he planted the seeds for artful cuisine in Little Italy, and Mr. Wise is doing it again in Hillcrest, now two years in operation at Trust.

My favorite dish at Trust was the fiery "Wood Grilled Octopus," from which I was delighted by two levels of 'oomph' - first, the piquant salsa verde sauce, and then the spicy crumbled pepperoni sausage. What I liked most, however, was the excellent texture of the octopus and how tender it was through its sous-vide preparation. It is 2018, and if you are a restaurant not using sous-vide for your octopus, then you are among the primitives. For all of the folklore I'm told by restaurants about 72-hour marinades, massaging their octopuses, and inhumanely beating them while they are still alive (one chef I spoke to last year claimed to tumble his live octopuses in a Maytag electric dryer), sous-vide appears to be the one common threads among octopus preparations I love.

While the octopus was the highlight of my meal, I enjoyed everything else we ordered to varying degrees. With Trust's "Pork Sugo," I relished the braised soft chunks of pork shank stewed in a luxuriously slick tomato sauce on top of creamy polenta spiked with asiago cheese. The "Wood Grilled Cauliflower" with raisins, curry, and serrano aioli, activated virtually every possible taste as I ate it: sour, smoky, bitter, sweet, and spicy. Trust's "Shrimp + Sausage," consisted of andouille sausage, garbanzo beans, and tomatoes in a spicy brown wine-butter broth, and seemed to me to be derived from New Orleans-style "BBQ Shrimp," and was rich, meaty, and wonderful. The "Hamachi Tartare," which looks as lovely as it tastes, is essentially "San Diego on a plate," consisting of raw Pacific yellowtail topped with an avocado purée, served with large, crunchy taro root chips and trout roe.

I finished my meal with "Caramel Corn Profiteroles," cream puffs stuffed with sweet cream made of corn, glazed with caramel, and coated with pieces of caramel popcorn - which turned out to be a damn ingenious way to get me to love a popcorn-based dessert! I also enjoyed my cocktails here, from my request for a Boulevardier to their "Trust Cocktail Number 2," the latter of which is in the upper echelon of "spicy margaritas" in this city.

Trust is part of the continued evolution of San Diego's dining scene from whatever it was pre-"Juniper & Ivy." Those who like that restaurant and its creative chef-driven fare will love Trust. Those who instead prefer large plates of straightforward food should consider other options to satisfy their hunger. Trust is a peak into what San Diego's transforming restaurant scene is becoming and, though much potential remains to be achieved, I am excited by this restaurant's success over just two years of operation...

4.5 stars

There are some phenomenal flavours coming out of this kitchen. The only reason why I'm taking away a bit of a star is the atmosphere. In additional to great flavours, a large amount of smoke comes out from their kitchen too and everything you're wearing will smell of the smoke for days. I don't mind a bit of smoke but I almost had my eyes watering while eating there. I also sat close to the kitchen so maybe it's not an issue if you're further out.

The restaurant is really nice... modern and clean lines with a lot of big windows to let in light. I also like how the restaurant isn't crowded. You dont feel like you're sharing your personal space with the next table. It has a chill and relaxed vibe. Nothing pretentious here... just a great place to meet up and enjoy good food with friends.

The staff here is definitely personable and very very knowledgeable about the menu. Ask any questions ... they got the answer and a recommendation. Just a great set of people working here.

We were told that the small plate set up allows us to taste various things without feeling like we're going to roll out of the door. It was mentioned that 4 to 5 would be a good start. We ended up getting 4 savoury with a dessert to finish off.

Arugula salad - So this was a great light refreshing salad. The lightly sweet yams, tangy goat cheese, spicy pumpkin seeds, and crunchy fried lentils combined with the zesty maple vinaigrette was just a great flavour bomb. 4.5/5

Wood grilled cauliflower - When a hungry carnivore eats this and claims its the best cauliflower they ever eat... I gotta take notice. I have to admit that curry with its subtle tang, aioli, and mint combo really had a nice Gulf Mediterranean twist to it. We even eat the raisins and someone at our table normally hate raisins but the flavours were that good. 5/5

Baja striped bass crudo - Very nicely plated... visually appealing. I liked the texture on how tender the bass was. It came after the salad and cauliflower which were flavour punches so this more subtle dish was a bit lacking in comparison. Still a good dish though! Hard to follow the 'best cauliflower evah' dish. 4/5

Shrimp & Sausage - This is the perfect elevated rustic stew... most of the time it's just meat but paired with the shrimp, just great. We used the bread to sop up as much sauce as we could... we could have easily used 3 more pieces. 4/5

Bourbon Custard - At first we weren't enticed by the dessert menu. Note to Trust... get your service staff to really explain how great your desserts are. You're really underselling yourself here! Our waitress did a great job telling us how good the bourbon custard is ... and she was completely right. It is layers of textures and flavours both bright and bold. You had smokey vanilla, bright burst of citrus, dark bold caramel, and sweet fruit notes of cherry. And in all of that you had smooth custard, soft tender cake bites, crispy toffee shards, and juicy fruit pieces. Yeah... amazing dessert 5/5

I would easily come back here. Service and food was on point. I couldnt have asked for better... just maybe next time, I'll ask to sit on the patio or the furthest table away from...