Cuisine
Open
Lunch Tues.-Fri., Dinner Tues.-SunFeatures
- Heart-healthy dishes
- Romantic setting
- Private room(s)
- Full bar
- Reservations suggested
- Live jazz Thurs.
- Outdoor dining
- Parking available
- Casual dressy
Wine
Great Wine List* Click here for rating key
 Tapenade continues to set the bar for classic French food in San Diego. With chef Jean Michel Diot, previously famed for his stints in France and New York City, now happily entrenched in La Jolla, Southern Californians are able to experience his combination of well-practiced European technique and fresh ingredients. Classicists will love the escargots de Bourgogne, homemade duck foie gras with dried fig mousse and blueberry brioche, and osetra caviar with potato blini. We prefer to start off with the intensely flavored wild mushroom ravioli in port sauce and the Maine lobster salad, served atop celeriac rémoulade and drizzled with truffle vinaigrette. Entrées of note include the coq au vin, the ultimate in sophisticated comfort food; the venison loin with braised red cabbage, red wine-poached pear and chestnut-potato mash; and lobster served with white corn, porcini mushrooms, English peas and Tahitian vanilla lobster sauce. Crème brûlée is the must-have dessert at Tapenade: this thick confection topped with burnt sugar virtually transports us to Paris.
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