The Smoking Goat

A nice awesome hidden little place in the North Park area. Beautiful décor and I would like to be back, only once I’ve saved up enough money.
The plates are delicious, but this is the place you would come to if you are going to be on the 4^th or 5^th date and you are thinking about locking it in. For a group of friends who are just out and about trying a bunch of different things in life, maybe not so much.
We ordered a couple of appetizers and an entrée. All the food was delicious. Octopus was cooked to perfection and isn’t chewy at all. The raviolis had the prefect brussel sprouts paired with them and the right flavor. I’ve had some where it’s bland. A lot of ham can really be over bearing and bring a lot of saltines to the simpleness of the food. The short ribs were delicious and very tender.
Overall, it was ok for me. I got really overwhelmed when our busser guy/​waterboy kept circling and pouring water over my shoulder every few minutes. Our server seemed a little un-​nerving and uneasy.

Very good restaurant, what a beautiful location and setting.
I love the rustic modern décor and clean minimal serving style. I thoroughly enjoyed every plate I tried only complaint is the name I was praying for a goat dish on the menu but was mislead by the name. No Bueno.

The food was good but the service was horrendous. Took us 45 min to get seated even though we had a reservation. Server told us we’d all have to all do the prix fixe menu or we’d all have to go a la carte, no way around it, which turned out to be incorrect, as we got confirmation from the manager. Then our drink orders were wrong, some came out, some didn’t come out at all. The best part was they tried to make up to us by sending some appetizers to our table once our friend addressed the situation with the manager, but a server came and took back an appetizer that was dropped off from our table. I guess they screwed up. The whole thing was a mess. Oh well. There are enough restaurants in SD to try out. No need to put up with poor service when you’re paying a $ 720 tab.

I went here last night for restaurant week and unfortunately, I have to say that this was one of the worst meals I’ve ever had. I ordered the escargot which tasted extremely bland and under seasoned! I also ordered the chicken and the Black Forest cake. The chicken was nothing to brag about — which was a bummer as it was the main course of my meal. But the mashed potatoes were AWFUL!!! They tasted like instant mashed potatoes from a box! (Trust me, I thought I was crazy for thinking this so I had the other girls in my party try them and they all agreed) They were super gritty and had a weird texture. For a $ 40 restaurant week menu I expected them to use real potatoes.
Overall, the atmosphere was amazing! However, I don’t think I would ever return. For a moderately expensive menu — I would expect a lot more then bland food and instant mashed potatoes.
I’m sorry Smoking Goat :(Wish it worked out between us!

Came here for Restaurant Week last year and enjoyed it.
So I came back for Round 2 on 1÷22÷16 with another group of people and had the same results. Excellent food and great service. Too bad about the espresso machine not working, tough.
Loved the snails and the accompanying bread. I don’t know what you put on the bread, but they were tasty as heck.
The pork was juicy and tender. I can’t remember what the other people in my party had ordered but I know there were no complaints. Everyone remarked about the good portion size. No one came out hungry.
Will definitely come back.

I want to express our frustration at the Smoking Goat on their «birthday cake cutting fee». After the birthday boy made a wish, the server asked if we needed them to cut the cake for us or to cut it on our own. We asked the sever to kindly please cut it for us. Then, to our biggest surprise that they charged $ 2.50 per slice they cut. We had 8 people, they charged a total of cutting fee of $ 20 ($ 2.50×8). This is the most ridiculous thing we’ve ever seen. The server should have told us the charge beforehand and let us decide whether we cut the cake on our own or to let them do it for us with the charge. The server wasn’t being honest. I am writing this to warn everyone who’s throwing a birthday party at Smoking Goat with a birthday cake! This restaurant does not even deserve 1 star but I can’t post this review if I don’t vote a star!

⁰⁰¹⁄₁₀₀ — 2016 Unilocal 100 CHALLENGE.
I thought I would start off this challenge with some good ‘ol San Diego Restaurant Week. My friends made a reservation at The Smoking Goat for 8:15PM. My best friend and I got there super early and it was PACKED! As soon as our other two friends arrived, we checked in and got seated within 10−15min — not bad, all things considered.
For starters we ordered the escargots, the foie gras, the pear & blue cheese salad, and the french onion soup. For entrees we either got the pork chops or the steak and frites. For dessert we all got the salted caramel panna cotta.
Since we all got something different for the appetizers, we all shared. The appetizers came out in a timely manner.
I got the foie gras as it is something I do enjoy eating and it was quite delicious, but not mind blowingly so. I’m not a fan of pear & blue cheese so the salad was lack luster for me. The escargot, however, was REALLY GOOD. I had never had escargot before this so I had no idea what to really expect… it was squishy (kind of calamari-​like but not too chewy) and tasted very garlic-​y. There was no distinct flavor to the escargot. We could only taste the garlic it was drowning in lol. Delicious, nonetheless.
We polished off our appetizers pretty quickly and then waited for our entrees. Unfortunately, this is where we faced the lowest part of our night. Our entrees took 30−40minutes to get to us. I think the kitchen was pretty busy with all of the other orders, so I’m going to let it slide and assume that this wasn’t a normal thing, but it took so long that we started off surrounded by people and, by the time our food got to us, everyone was gone and the staff was actually beginning to go home! Yikes!
When our food got to us, my steak was already a little cold but it was still pretty yummy. I think the star of the dish, though, were the truffle fries. One word: WOW. I couldn’t stop eating them and neither could my friends. The pork chop was also good, but I would still recommend the steak instead.
Thankfully we didn’t have to wait around long for our dessert. I already felt pretty full from the appetizer and entrée so I had no clue as to whether or not I would actually be able to eat the dessert successfully. We all got the salted caramel panna cotta which came with some kind of granola on top.
If heaven is real I’m pretty sure eating that salted caramel panna cotta is it.
It was creamy and the granola added just the right amount of texture. It was a lot like eating apple pie — one of my favorite things to chow down on! I think I could have eaten everyone’s panna cotta if they had let me lol. After that we finished up, paid out check, and bounced.
Service was great (constantly checked up on us, refilled our waters) so no complaints on that. They were incredibly friendly and courteous. I will definitely be eating here again.

Excellent!!! Seriously excellent. My family took me here for my birthday last week and out of five picky eaters absolutely everyone loved their dinner. The restaurant has a medium/​small menu which is a plus because it means that everything is thoughtful and well prepared. There is a great deal they have for $ 40 you get an ap or a salad, an entrée, and a dessert. We ended up ordering the fois gras, macaroni and cheese, and octopus salad to start and I can only say good things about each of them.
The octopus salad was my favorite dish of the entire night, it was cooked and seasoned wonderfully which is hard to do with a peice of octopus. I had the steak and my other two favorites were the pork and the salmon.
The best desert was the goat cheese cheesecake!!!
Service was great and I will definitely be back!!!

It was hard to determine a rating for the Smoking Goat because our experience had it all the good, the bad and the ugly. We got there around 715 to a very crowded restaurant and asked to be placed on a wait list. The very scatter brained hostess grabbed a receipt and used the back to jot down my name and number. «20−25 minutes and I’ll text you when it’s ready for first available, bar seating is ok .» No problem so we headed down the street and grabbed a drink. My phone out, charged and receiving full signal. 20 minutes came and went so we decided to head back to see where we were on the list. After returning the hostess saw us and we waited by the door. About 10 minutes later another couple strolled in and were immediately seated at the bar. You could see the «oh crap» in the hostess’ eyes and she saw us again and said «oh you guys can sit at the bar too.» Guess her super legit receipt wait list wasn’t so organized. After being seated we placed a drink and then food orders. This is where the good starts. Our bartender was amazing and attentive even as the experience started to slide down hill. We quickly received our delicious truffle fries and awaited the entrees. About 15 minutes later my salad and the hubs chicken came. The salad was fine but the chicken was pink in a couple spots. As neither of us are eager to risk being sick we sent the chicken back. 10 minutes later our awesome bartender said that the cool was what the chef intended and it was fine. If you say so chief. So we just asked for another to be made. Bottom line– 30 minutes come and go and no chicken. We finally gave up and just asked for the check. The bartender apologized profusely and then the owner or manager came over apologized again and worked with us on the check. He was more than generous in how he handled the situation.
So here’s the deal. Would I go back? Yes! Definitely. The manager and bartender redeemed the whole debacle that the flighty hostess and slow moving, under cooking chef created.

Liked the food be here once before. Had the steak frites very tasty cooked perfectly. My friend had the pork chop which is amazing. I had it last time so wanted to try something different. I must have read the menu wrong because we thought it said it was topped with foie gras, apparently it’s a foie butter. That’s a bummer and a huge difference.
The service was good but the kitchen was slow to get our food out. It was extremely busy so understandable. We had reservations but we were seated at a tall table which I personally don’t like because I’m short and my legs kinda go numb. I wish we were seated at a regular table. This is the only reason I gave it four stars.
Back to the food. I had the chicken pâté with some crusty bread and that was incredibly smooth and creamy. Yummy. My friend had the Mac and cheese which we ate most of to the point where she barely ate her entrée it was that good! My husband had the goat meatballs a different flavor due to the goat in it but still very good. I will definitely go back and try different stuff. Highly recommend!

Great balance of good food, great wine and beer selection, and timely customer service. Small or large group, I’d make a reservation because this place can get busy. Overall awesome restaurant!

Really nice ambiance here, small and lovely, hip and romantic. Service was great, they were able to seat us an hour before our reservation time on a busy Thursday night and bussers were efficient and polite. Wait staff was good but slow. The food was my only disappointment here, I would like to hope it was just what we ordered. Mac and cheese wasn’t at all creamy, big disappointment. French onion soup was just mediocre. Based on starters we decided not to get entrees. Maybe we’ll try again with the review highlights.

Adorable farm-​to-​table spot right outside San Diego.
We went for dinner and were not disappointed. They have a long drink menu, we ordered a couple glass of champagne.
Their menu changes seasonally, so I don’t want anyone to get attached to what we had, but overall it was good. I was disappointed in the mac and cheese as it seemed to be a popular choice from other Unilocal reviews, but overall it was delicious and I would definitely bring people back here for dinner…
Side note: It’s a smaller place, so the fit is a bit tight… not ideal for large groups, even though they do have a couple of bigger round tables… there’s a lot of squeezing by people to get around.

I have eaten here dozens of times. Food is always good and service too. But tonight…
We asked for extra caramel with the desert (I would have been happy to pay extra for it) the waitress battled me and when the dessert came, it didn’t have extra caramel. Then after more back and forth, they brought us a cauldron of caramel, and then asked «is this enough»??? Really?
#passiveaggressive

Amazing dinner at the smoking goat! We had a wonderful server and the food was delicious! 4 stars because our French onion soup and steak frites were room temperature. We would have loved for the dish to be warmer. We shared the meatballs and they were fantastic! I also got the roasted chicken and it was cooked and seasoned very well. I should have asked what the seasonal veggies were because I am not a big fan of cauliflower, and there was too much in the dish for my personal taste. My favorite part of the meal was their signature cheesecake! Hands down the best cheesecake I have ever had! It was amazing! I also love how they provide the recipe with the receipt. Overall, great meal and can’t wait to return!

Umm YES all around. Fantastic and friendly servers. The food was insanely good — incredible flavor pairings for recipes and for the wine pairings. I will come here again and again and again.
We had the meatballs and truffle fries for appetizers, duck and salmon entrees, and panna cotta and «goat cheese» cheesecake for dessert.
Dined at the chef’s table and very much enjoyed the view and the meal.
I have celiac and am dairy free, and I was able to eat here without a problem at all.

Came here on the last day for Restaurant Week and I tried the following:
1) Escargot
Cooked very well, did not taste the typical muddy taste when it’s not cooked well. French/​Italian slices were toasted perfectly and went very well with the Escargots. Highly recommend!
2) Meatballs (goat, pork, lamb, and beef)
Ragu and Cheese flavored and it was very good. I usually can’t stand the gamy flavor of goat/​lamb but they somehow masked it out with their ingredients and adding other meat proteins to it. It was very tender and cooked well. Would recommend ordering this too.
3) Duck
Pan seared duck breast with cubed butternut squash, brussel sprouts, and farro risotto. They did a great job at cooking this protein. Not dry/​overcooked, very tender, and full of flavor. Highly recommend getting this.
4) Goat cheesecake
Although I’m sure this is very good for someone that likes the gamy flavor of Goat but this was a bit too overwhelming for me to consume. Too gamy for me. I’d stick to a non-​Goat based cheesecake.
5) Chocolate Mousse
This was very good. Light yet surprisingly full of chocolate goodness flavor in every bite. Would recommend this as well!
Staff was very attentive, friendly, and prompt. Interior is very nice and hipster. Highly recommend this place and will come again!

For a party of 7, we started with the crispy octopus (you get one tentacle — slightly on the salty side), the mac and cheese (ok-​not spectacular), and the meatballs (saucy, delicious, but a lot on the salty side). For the main, I split a french onion soup, pork chop, and heirloom tomato salad. The soup was light, not overly oily, and pretty perfect… but the pork chop took center stage. The heirloom salad was good in part, but a few pieces of tomato I bit into tasted slightly old… and old tomatoes are very off putting. Hubby had the steak frites (which he said was pretty amazing).
Dessert was a banana bread drenched in caramel with side of vanilla bean ice cream. Perfect ending to an almost perfect meal!
Service was a bit inconsistent– the busser was very pleasant, the main waitress– not always so. Never quite rude, but you could tell she didn’t really want to be there. Overall– great place to take a date-​plenty of seating options (indoor-outdoor)…wouldn’t recommend for a party larger than 8. Most of the food was ok to average, but the pork chop definitely stands out!

Downgrading to 2-​stars and never coming back. It’s like how many chances can you give a restaurant that isn’t exactly cheap? (Moriomoto’s only needed 1-​chance to earn their 5 stars from us) I really wanted them to do better on my return visit with my boyfriend.
Service was better this time, but food was not up to par. I’ve had better French food at a sleepy ski town in Colorado. The escargot wasn’t properly seasoned this time. My rib eye was overcooked and tough. I asked for medium-​rare and I got medium-​well. So no they did not outsteak a steakhouse this time so I rescind my previous comment. My boyfriend’s lamb shank wasn’t memorable. The tartare was missing something. The chocolate cremeux is still great.
They are mediocre and inconsistent. However, I will say that I won’t judge you for taking a girl on a date here… the ambiance is nice and I doubt most people are as into food as we are.

My favorite restaurant on 30^th. Actually, it’s my favorite restaurant in NP. In general, it’s a fave!
Where do I start or shall I continue from my last review. Basically, it’s still everything it was. With restaurants that have a changing menu from time to time (with an exceptions of a few of their staples), I get a little concerned that I may get disappointed from my previous experience.
But SG remains in tact. Though I’m sad to have seen that crab stuffed peppers that I raved about is no longer on the menu *waaaah* I was sure glad to have found a delicious replacement: goat meatballs. Twice now have I gone in and its still on the menu… yay! Its so gooooood! I can eat those every single day. Flavorful sweet spices, tender and very lamb tasting; less gamy and tough than I thought goat would taste. Another aphrodisiac is the short rib. Ohmygawd, that sauce. I licked that plate clean with my finger. I couldn’t resist. Seriously, it was that amazing!
Apparently, there’s now HH. Literally, just one hour, M-​F 5−6p. Which includes those yummy balls. Well, you know where and what I’ll be doing to get some of that happy. Yum yum balls!