Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Golden Triangle restaurant drifts aimlessly

Just another hotel restaurant

The interior of Drift, a newly opened restaurant at the Hyatt Regency in La Jolla.
The interior of Drift, a newly opened restaurant at the Hyatt Regency in La Jolla.

My wife is vegetarian, so I’ve been seeking out restaurants with tasty meatless options. Her birthday was last week, and I was hoping to kick things up a notch by taking her to a place with good drinks, a nice atmosphere and, of course, decent food.

Place

Drift

3777 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego

I had heard decent things about Drift, a new place in the Golden Triangle. Since it’s right near popular places like Café Japengo, Truluck's, and Fleming's, I was hoping those places' reputations would rub off on Drift.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Instead? Well ... I’m glad I have a tolerant wife.

The patio of Drift at night.

Drift has some modern furnishings, but the brightly lit interior screams, We have our breakfast buffet here! The mood outside is more conducive to fine dining, especially at night when the lights strung on nearby palm tree trunks are glowing.

Hotel restaurants can be destination spots for locals (as those nearby restaurants prove), but Drift is just a hotel restaurant as far as I’m concerned.

Drift's Cauliflower Casserole combines curried cauliflower with garbanzo beans and fresh vegetables.

When I first saw the menu, the thing that stood out was the Cauliflower Casserole, made with curried cauliflower, garbanzo beans, and other vegetables ($18). My wife agreed.

Cauliflower and curry go great together. Usually. In this case, the curry didn’t “pop” out on the tongue and the flavor was flat, almost metallic. Maybe there was too much cream or something. It wasn’t worth $18.

The margherita pizza has mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and basil.

We nixed that dish and my wife chose the margherita flatbread pizza ($15), a simple mixture of tomatoes, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

This flatbread pizza left us flat.

Flatbread is supposed to be crispy. This was soft and doughy. The cheese was rubbery, and the blend of fresh tomatoes with an excessively sweet tomato sauce didn’t work. I think pizza makers should pick tomatoes or tomato sauce and not combine the two.

The Melon and Roasted Beet Salad has lots of arugula as well as chopped hazelnuts and red quinoa in a white balsamic vinaigrette.

To be fair, my wife and I did enjoy the Melon and Roasted Beet Salad ($11) which had lots of arugula, some red quinoa, a decent amount of fresh melon, and hazelnuts, all with a white balsamic vinaigrette. There were a few roasted beets as well, but they were almost an afterthought — a glorified cameo. I could have done with half the arugula and a lot more beets — I think I counted eight of them.

The Giant Meatball combines beef and pork. It's served over polenta and seasonal vegetables.

I did enjoy parts of my Giant Meatball ($21), a huge mix of pork and that was served with a little bit of pomodoro sauce, over some roasted asparagus and carrot stalks, and thick lumpy polenta (which the waitress thought were potatoes).

I liked the meatball. I liked the veggies. I might have liked the pomodoro sauce if there had been more than a bit. I even would have tolerated the polenta, but they didn’t blend together well at all.

This is like a dish I put together with leftovers when I’m in a hurry — though the presentation was much better.

Drift opened about a month ago, and may be still finding its way. But based on my meal, some improvements need to be made or it will continue to drift along aimlessly.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Syrian treat maker Hakmi Sweets makes Dubai chocolate bars

Look for the counter shop inside a Mediterranean grill in El Cajon
The interior of Drift, a newly opened restaurant at the Hyatt Regency in La Jolla.
The interior of Drift, a newly opened restaurant at the Hyatt Regency in La Jolla.

My wife is vegetarian, so I’ve been seeking out restaurants with tasty meatless options. Her birthday was last week, and I was hoping to kick things up a notch by taking her to a place with good drinks, a nice atmosphere and, of course, decent food.

Place

Drift

3777 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego

I had heard decent things about Drift, a new place in the Golden Triangle. Since it’s right near popular places like Café Japengo, Truluck's, and Fleming's, I was hoping those places' reputations would rub off on Drift.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Instead? Well ... I’m glad I have a tolerant wife.

The patio of Drift at night.

Drift has some modern furnishings, but the brightly lit interior screams, We have our breakfast buffet here! The mood outside is more conducive to fine dining, especially at night when the lights strung on nearby palm tree trunks are glowing.

Hotel restaurants can be destination spots for locals (as those nearby restaurants prove), but Drift is just a hotel restaurant as far as I’m concerned.

Drift's Cauliflower Casserole combines curried cauliflower with garbanzo beans and fresh vegetables.

When I first saw the menu, the thing that stood out was the Cauliflower Casserole, made with curried cauliflower, garbanzo beans, and other vegetables ($18). My wife agreed.

Cauliflower and curry go great together. Usually. In this case, the curry didn’t “pop” out on the tongue and the flavor was flat, almost metallic. Maybe there was too much cream or something. It wasn’t worth $18.

The margherita pizza has mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and basil.

We nixed that dish and my wife chose the margherita flatbread pizza ($15), a simple mixture of tomatoes, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

This flatbread pizza left us flat.

Flatbread is supposed to be crispy. This was soft and doughy. The cheese was rubbery, and the blend of fresh tomatoes with an excessively sweet tomato sauce didn’t work. I think pizza makers should pick tomatoes or tomato sauce and not combine the two.

The Melon and Roasted Beet Salad has lots of arugula as well as chopped hazelnuts and red quinoa in a white balsamic vinaigrette.

To be fair, my wife and I did enjoy the Melon and Roasted Beet Salad ($11) which had lots of arugula, some red quinoa, a decent amount of fresh melon, and hazelnuts, all with a white balsamic vinaigrette. There were a few roasted beets as well, but they were almost an afterthought — a glorified cameo. I could have done with half the arugula and a lot more beets — I think I counted eight of them.

The Giant Meatball combines beef and pork. It's served over polenta and seasonal vegetables.

I did enjoy parts of my Giant Meatball ($21), a huge mix of pork and that was served with a little bit of pomodoro sauce, over some roasted asparagus and carrot stalks, and thick lumpy polenta (which the waitress thought were potatoes).

I liked the meatball. I liked the veggies. I might have liked the pomodoro sauce if there had been more than a bit. I even would have tolerated the polenta, but they didn’t blend together well at all.

This is like a dish I put together with leftovers when I’m in a hurry — though the presentation was much better.

Drift opened about a month ago, and may be still finding its way. But based on my meal, some improvements need to be made or it will continue to drift along aimlessly.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Trump names local supporter new Border Czar

Another Brick (Suit) in the Wall
Next Article

NORTH COUNTY’S BEST PERSONAL TRAINER: NICOLE HANSULT HELPING YOU FEEL STRONG, CONFIDENT, AND VIBRANT AT ANY AGE

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader