ROFL. Good one, FN.
We had dinner at Bracero last night.
Overall-solid to excellent, and we will return.
My first impression upon entering the door was, âOh, itâs a CASUAL place.â The hostesses were very professional and welcoming, but their clothing was more casual Friday at the law office. This is a tiny nit-pick quibble, and Iâll take professional demeanor over good clothing, I just did not expect jeans and t-shirts. This impression extended to the waitstaff, I was expecting a more polished appearance, but jeans and t-shirts were the order of the day.
The service was spot-on efficient. Our server was knowledgable about the menu, was able to answer all our questions, give recommendations, etc. She was attentive and friendly, without being too intrusive. I loved that she was definitely a food person, and could tell WE were food people. She had an excited demeanor about the product she served.
The room was a little loud, as has been previously reported. We sat inside on the banquette at the back of the room. Another tiny quibble, this area kind of felt like the kids table. It was dark and smallish. The patio tables looked much more inviting, but I did not want to risk being cold.
The food:
The four little salsas they served with the meal knocked our socks off! My only complaint there was the ramekins were too small.
The House Guacamole. A good start, not incredibly creative, but good.
Clam Chocolata. Kind of a clam ceviche, also good.
Ahi Two Ways. I loved this. I enjoyed the textures, the subtle flavorsâŚDavid was not crazy about it and said he preferred ahi to stand alone. I get this, I feel the same way about anything foie gras.
The Wood-Grilled Octopus. The star of the night and our favorite, hands down. The octopus was just too deliciously tender for words. ThenâŚthe peanuts and the garbanzo beans! All of a sudden these two little spear-carrying bit players were centerstage with octopus and making the dish sing!
Tacos, carnitas and beef cheek. Both good, but the carnitas was the favorite of the two.
The Shrimp and Marrow Sope. This was a close second for the favorite of the night. I thought the triumph of this dish was shrimp being âdressedâ in the fat, loud, marrow and being forced into delectable submission. DeLISH.
Dessert was the Brown Butter Panque and the Cinnamon Custard. Both were excellent and not overly sweet, a graceful finish.
So, overall, we walked away excited to go back. I might try to brave the patio next time.
Thanks for the report.
Glad to hear you had a good time.
Maybe you should also post this over on the CH board, because over here this is the âBracero - very disappointingâ thread, and it sounds from your post like you werenât exactly woefully disappointed.
Good pointâŚjeez, CH-FTCâŚFTC-CH, I feel like my parents got divorced.
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I wish there would be only one board - itâs annoying to always have to post on both boards
Then donât post on both - pick one and run with it.
At least this isnât the Bay Area, where there are three boards to post.
I find the disparity in service at Bracero rather confusing.
I like to discuss about food and since both boards are rather slow it is better to post on boards to at leadt a few things to discuss
FOH and BOH at Bracero seem to be badly trained - some people could explain the components of a dish, some had absolutely no clue. Some tables get all salsas explained, some tables no explanation at all. Some dishes well executed (e.g. octopus), some very careless
Frustrating, make a choice and go for it.
I looked at CH for the first time in at least a month and it seemed to be Dr. Chow talking to himself. This location seems to be more active for San Diego people and I think everyone active at CH is here now.
Now if we could wrangle many of the quality Hounders booted from asinine moderationâŚ
And meanwhile, Iâve plugged into a couple San Diego Facebook pages that are food related. Over 5k people on it, lots of noise. But- lots of interesting options being presented, significantly lower-brow, and very high volume. One must pick the gems out from the rocks, but they are there.
Agreed and the really big SD FB page trends pretty young, but they do come up with some interesting options from time to time
FN, DD - I normally donât use FB and was just wondering if you could provide some links to the different FB SD groups to see if it is worth getting a FB account
Youâll hate it, I promise.
Hereâs the link to one of the groups Eating and Drinking in San Diego
I tend to agree with FN on this one. I donât think itâs your style at all
On the other hand, it is right up my alley.
Yes, I believe it probably is 
Finally made it to Bracero and had a completely different experience from you. Service was good. Food was quite good with two dishes (bacalao tostada and bone marrow and shrimp sope) outstanding and some of the best food Iâve had in San Diego. I agree the tacos were okay, nothing special and there were some misses like the albacore two ways but all in all a very good meal and absolutely something different for sd (although there was a short rib dish on the menu).
Was in response to Honkmanâs initial post
Agree heartily about the bone marrow and shrimp sopes. Sooo good!
When we had the two way fish dish, it was not Albacore, but Hamachi (yellowtail) Two Ways, and thought it was sublime. Everything seemed to work in harmony together yet the individual components (even the eggplant) stood out and was all brought together by the burnt onion crema.
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