With the new changes made to Laurel I am surprised I did not eat here sooner, the decore reminds me of a swanky New York or Paris style restaurant with dim lighting and highlights of green & red on white and grey backround. I had been to Laurel in years past and enjoyed it very much, but this is something different. From the remodel to the food, the face lift has reinvented this restaurant into one of my favorite places to dine. I enjoyed a very creative version of a greek salad with marinated feta cheese and pepperoncini vinaigrette, a succulant pork duo of African BBQ belly and Berkshire tenderloin with green curry and plantain gnocchi…(to die for) I would recomend this place to anyone that enjoys fine food and beautiful restaurants.

Out of all the restaurants there are to eat at in San Diego, we picked Laurel because we happened to drive by it on the way to Balboa park, and it just looked absolutely gorgeous. And it really didn’t disappoint – honestly, I think this is the most stunning restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. It’s not traditionally ornate, but really beautifully modern, with bright, bold colors, but a mostly black and white palette. The main dining room is sunken, which makes the ceilings tremendously high, and the bar area is all floor-to-ceiling windows with comfy looking window seats set into the bottoms. But what I thought was so original and cool was their flowers – they had bouquets of red roses suspended in the middle of 10 gallon cylindrical vases. The restaurant really looked stunning.

already blown away by the interior decorating, i was hoping that the menu choices would be equally enticing. The drink menu had several creative options, and i had to ask the waitress to help pick one out. I selected the “Prickly Pineapple,” made of vanilla vodka, creme de cassis, pineapple, and champagne float, and it was really yummy! during dessert, i had a white chocolate raspberry cocktail, and that was really good as well. so their drinks are totally different, and tasty too. a little pricey, so come during happy hour if it’s just drinks that you want.

now, the food. sadly, none of the entrees sounded that appealing, so we decided to just order a variety of appetizers. we got the short rib spring roll (good), hamachi crudo (good), foie gras slider (AWESOME), and the oxtail ravioli (good). the dessert was a little disappointing… i think mostly b/c the whole time i was thinking of what i would have gotten at extraordinary desserts.

all in all, if i were to come back here again, i’d probably come for happy hour and order some foie gras, b/c those are definitely the best things at laurel, but i wouldn’t complain if someone wanted to come try dinner here. i’d give it another chance to wow me.