333

We were invited out to a nice dinner last night by Retha and Doug. They wanted to try 333 Pacific, the relatively new Cohn family restaurant at the Wyndam in Oceanside. The Cohns' own many fine restaurants in San Diego including the Prado and Corvette Diner.

I can honestly say that the half evilly titled 333 had flown beneath my radar screen in the almost two years that it has been open. And readily admit that it was the best meal I have ever had at any of their locations.

We met at our hosts' house and R cracked a bottle of excellent Moet Imperial champagne to lubricate the passageways for our upcoming feast. What a delicious champagne, full bodied, perfect round fruit, if it was an omen for our night, it was clear sailing!

Oceanside is a town that has enjoyed a real renaissance. When I moved back to North County in 1975, Oceanside was a dark foreboding place. The words "The Strand" brought terror to many a mother's ears as Oceanside back then was a dilapidated assortment of seedy strip clubs, junkies, hookers and marines living at the poverty line. That has all changed. Except maybe the last part. Tough to live in SoCal on serviceman's pay.

333 is located right across from the Oceanside Pier. When we entered the busy restaurant at the bar, I was immediately struck by how young, vibrant and good looking the crowd was. I was almost underdressed but my leather jacket covered up for a multitude of sartorial shortcomings. We sat down at the aqua lit table near the bar and considered their lengthy list of vodkas and martinis, settling on almost too sweet meyer lemon drops.

We were quickly seated at our table on the heated patio. A server, who was drop dead gorgeous, brought us our menus. We started with pot stickers and calamari with a sweet chili sauce. D. brought along a 2003 Papapietro Pinot Noir, which they graciously uncorked for us.

The menu was quite interesting and not pretentious in the least - southern fried game hen with a white cheddar biscuit and greens, kobe beef meatloaf, this place was going to be fun. I settled on a special, a bone in rib eye with a topping of lobster claws that was at least twice the expected weigh in. Cooked absolutely perfectly, and as you know, I am a critical SOB. Leslie and I both ordered the huge and reasonably priced house salad which was a bit underdressed for my liking. We got broccollini and asparagus for the table. Leslie had seared diver scallops with a white bean garlic sausage cassoulet accompanied with chunks of bread pudding.  R had a trio of differently prepared filets, sporting peppercorn demi, bleu cheese and Oscar and D went with the crab legs.

Everyone's meal was delicious and there were absolutely no complaints, except maybe one itty bitty one from me, when I questioned my dinner companions about the bread roll, which I found squishy and uninspiring with a too sweet maple butter. They basically told me to shut up and that it was fine but I prefer crusty bread nine times out of ten. This almost felt microwaved and might have been. And the martini glasses, while hip and asymmetric, were prone to tipping and I had a brief thought about some old architectural credo regarding form following function.


Dessert was a strawberry cobbler with ice cream which we shared and a mousse cake, both superb. If you are looking for a nice, fancy, moderately expensive meal, surrounded by beautiful people in north county, by all means try 333. Hipper than anything else around with exceptional food. And a big thank you to our companions for picking up the check!


Click on the following link to check out the menus.

333 Pacific

333 N. Pacific St.
Oceanside, CA 92054
p: 760-433-3333

Lounge Daily at 4pm
Dinner Nightly at 5pm