Amaya at the Grand Del Mar

Jenn and I went to Amaya for lunch yesterday as the first event of our date. I picked it based on it's proximity to Addison. The architecture is very much Italianate and reminded us of the La Costa resort. We were greeted by the "hostess" and offered the breakfast buffet before she even checked our reservation (made through Opentable.com). After touring the rather ordinary looking buffet offerings, we opted for the lunch menu and were seated in a corner table just off the entrance. On the opposite corner of the room was a sales agent for the condos being offered on the Grand Del Mar property. She was giving the hard pitch and it was very hard to concentrate on the menu. Not that there was much to contemplate. It was a limited lunch menu offering some salads, one soup, a burger and some entrees -- a steak salad, a "Cobb" salad, a halibut dish, two salmon offerings and a gnocchi dish. The sales pitch was so distracting that we asked to be moved to another room. "No problem". When we were able to order, Jenn decided on the oven dried tomato goat cheese tart and the gnocchi. I went for the yellow pepper soup and the cobb salad.

The soup was actually quite nice. It had a little dungess crab and chive oil enhancing the subtle flavor of the pureed yellow peper. My salad came tossed with some of their organic roasted chicken, but lacked the chunks of bleu cheese that one generally expects in a Cobb. Jenn's gnocchi came with slices of summer truffles adding a nice earthiness.

The highlight of the meal was the dessert. We selected the "Le Grand", which was a delightful layered chocolate peanumt butter torte with a dollop of banana ice cream.