The very 1st restaurant in my challenge!  EXCITING!  For my maiden voyage I chose the homey, quaint & World War One-y 94th Aero Squadron.  It’s some impresssive, almost museum style digs for a restaurant.  It’s made to look like a World War I French farmhouse.  , The restaurant sits overlooking Montgomery Field Airport, and is packed full of military memorabilia, antique farm implements, and aviation relics. At least, that’s how I would describe it if the lighting were anything above black out and I could actually see it.  Fortunately, I was able to cut and paste that description from the restaurant’s website.  What I saw on the inside was stone hearths, airplane wings hanging from the ceilings and a backyard that looks like the set of M.A.S.H. (minus hot lips and a few hundred Koreans).  Super cute, if structurally suspect, chairs.

My dining companions for this restaurant were:

Abby-Swim instructor, Disneyland buddy, Stresses about making food for my other food-savvy friends

Aimee-Roommate since the 90’s, BFF, allergic to hot dogs and therefore labeled a commie by many

Harry-Wise guy, master of the grill, loves camping for some reason

Justin-My steady beau, writer, not a fan of dairy

Admit it, you’d totally eat with these people…

I started the meal with crab cakes in rosemary cream sauce as my appetizer.

Not enough basil leaf, I can still see my meal.

The cakes were tasty.  The meat was delicately sweet and the sauce added a nice richness but overall it was a bit heavy and not as hot as I would’ve liked, they tasted almost room temperature.  I prefer a bit of crispy in my crab cakes.  On that note, I did also find a bit of shell which proved they used real crab, so good on ya for that one.

Justin started with fried calamari, which he wisely chose not to insist I share with him.  Squid, like most things in nature, is gross and wrong.  The plate was also HUGE for an appetizer.  Abby ordered the shrimp cocktail, which I’m happy to report included actual JUMBO shrimp.  I just came back from spending a week in Florida with my family where the “jumbo” shrimp is, to put it politely, a buncha bullshit.  The cocktail sauce was also nice with minimal heat.

If you saw this and immediately thought of Beetlejuice. We’re friends now.

Our sassy waitress, Annie, boasted early on that 94th Aero Squadron’s French onion soup was “The best ever”.  Justin, Harry and I took her up on that challenge and I gotta say, homegirl was tellin’ the troof.  The soup was hearty, rich, sweet, salty and covered in a slab of melted gruyere.  Aimee and Abby ate New England Clam Chowder, which they both greatly enjoyed despite the fact that it was disgusting New England Clam Chowder (BTDubs, I hate chowder, which is yet another reason I have been a near constant disappointment to my family for nearly four decades!)

It wasn’t long before it was time for the main courses.  I resisted the temptation of steak or seafood as I wanted to wait until later in the year when I dine at places that specialize in these types of cuisine.  I instead ordered Panko Crusted Chicken Roulade.  This dish was a home run.  SO GOOD.  

My new favorite thing

The panko blackened to almost a perfect crust and was stuffed with ricotta cheese and covered in a creamy sauce.  Lawd have mercy this shit was good.  Not as impressive were the garlic mashed potatoes that came with it.  I found them clumpy, starchy and leaving me wanting more garlic.  But the big story here, as far as side items go, was the creamed corn.

Despite my love of corn, I *HATE* creamed corn because I’m not into food that looks like someone already chewed it for me.  But the thing I had forgotten was that I’d only ever seen creamed corn from a can.  The creamed corn at 94th Aero Squadron was actual whole kernels of fresh corn in a cream sauce!  Absolute madness, I tell you.  It was delicious.  I may need to add a caveat to my hatred of this food.  It was seriously great.

Abby ordered rack of lamb with a dijon glaze and mint jelly.  It was good.  A quality cut of lamb prepared really well.  Abby’s dish was also lacking in the side item, bland steamed vegetables.  Aimee was defeated in her request for short ribs as they had run out but instead had flat iron steak with chimmichurri sauce.  Annie again sung praises of this sauce and proved to be truthful in her assessment.  Aimee said the sauce was very fresh and well made.  It accented the meat perfectly.  Harry ordered the double thick pork chop, which I tried.  It was juicy and really good.  This place does meat well.  Justin ordered the rib eye steak, which he described as “competently cooked but comparable to others”.  I have to agree.  It was tasty but nothing ground breaking. 

Finally it was time for dessert.  I sampled all of them (for Science…shut up.)  Abby ordered the classic Creme Brulee which I will liken to Justin’s steak in that was really good but nothing beyond like I’ve had elsewhere.  Creme Brulee is just kind of awesome in it’s own right.  Justin ordered the Apple Walnut Upside Down Pie (he thoughtfully passed on the scoop of cinnamon ice cream because he’s lactose intolerant and had to share a bed with me later).  While I thought it was good, everyone else at the table seemed to be more in love with it.  MY favorite dessert was the one Aimee ordered:  Godiva Triple Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake.  This was sex on a plate.  Rich, creamy, chocolately & velvety smooth.  It’s sized for fighting to the death sharing  and was a tremendous way to end the meal.

Smooth, dark and satisfying. Imagine a Barry White song brought to life in dessert form.

So, here’s my overall report on 94th Aero Squardon:  Cool to look at but probably moreso during the day.  Great service with minimal hiccups (what’s a fruit fly drowned in a glass of Malbec between friends?).  The appetizers were so-so, the main course proteins were outstanding even if the sides hit a bad note and the desserts were top shelf.

In short: Yes, I recommend this place for dinner

Further reading: http://www.94thaerosquadron.signonsandiego.com/dinner.html