Spoiler alert: this was probably the best meal we’ve ever had…and also the most expensive.

This restaurant was the main reason we came down here to the San Diego area. At our last Ritual dinner, the person sitting next to me said this was one of his best dining experiences. The following week was the announcement on the latest Michelin stars in California and Addison received their 3rd Michelin star, the first 3-star restaurant in California not located in the SF Bay area. So, of course I immediately made a reservation which put us out until now. Addison is located by the Fairmont Grand Del Mar. We did not stay at the Fairmont, but merely at a Courtyard Marriott.

We had a 6pm reservation and took an Uber so we didn’t have to worry about driving. When we arrived, there wasn’t another person to be seen until we walked into the lobby area where we were cordially greeted and taken to our table. There was a “main” dining area and then another area by the windows or in nearby booths and we were seated in a booth. There were only a few tables occupied at this point.

Service was very attentive (as it was through the entire evening). We had our choice of slection of champagne. I had the Krug and Andrea has the Pierre Gimmonet (we passed on the Cristal although the explanation of the clear crystal bottle with a lack of punt was informative). There were 3 wine pairing optionsn available. I went with the standard pairing, Andrea had the luxury pairing, and we had them explain the Legendary pairing, and at $1500, was a quite a bit too much.

We also had the option of adding various “luxuries” of caviar (Regis Ova), perigord truffle (they get 5 lbs flown in daily…we asked about them of course since we’ve had so many bad experiences with truffles at even high end restuarnats), and wagyu. We decided to try them all since that is the trifecta of bougie fine dining (i.e. caviar, truffle, wagyu).

The starters consisted of multiple small bites, each meticulously crafted with top rate ingredients. our favorite was the jamon iberico, truffle and potato.

The next course were rosettes of kampachi, again meticulously prepared with fantastic ingredients.

Next came the chawanmushi with uni and scallops from Hokkaido and truffle. Delicious.

Then came a couple caviar dishes. The caviar is Regiis Ova (from Thomas Keller), which we know we already like. First one was an “egg and rice” dish with the caviar and rice and smoked sabayon (which paired amazingly well with the Burgundy in the luxury pairing) and then the second caviar course was with a very create fried potato presentation and an incredible toasted dill and onion dip.

Then came a fish course, a bread course, and then the sweetbread course. The bread was a sourdough made from heritage grains…the crust was so nice and crisp with such a moist inside. The sourdough wasn’t particularly sour, but it was still some of the tastiest bread we’ve had at a restaurant (Manresa (now gone) used to claim to have such great bread, but we found it to be decent, but far from the best). Plus, the bread came with two different, but very tasty butters…one a goat milk butter (deliciously goaty) and the other a brown honey butter (delicious, but definitely sweeter).

The sweetbread course, sauce served by the chef, and then heavily covered in truffle was very tasty of course. But the A5 Wagyu that followed was perhaps the best presentation of wagyu that we’ve had.

There was a “creamsicle” palate cleanser before dessert. We added a glass of 1990 Chateay D’yquem along with our deesert wine…this was the darkest colored sauterne we’ve ever seen, but was suprisingly not overly sweet. This, along with the regular wine pairings we had, were served alongside the 5 dessert bites we had. The praline, cocoa, caramel, truffle dessert was rich and the only dessert we’ve ever had with truffle. The wildflower honeycomb was also one of our favorites.

The standard wine pairing was solid across the board, but the luxury pairing had much more interesting wines for jaded wine drinkers like us. Service was very attentive and engaging. Pacing was much more rapid and the start, slowed down a bit when all tabled were full, and the full meal took over 4 hours, but it didn;t feel like it.

All in all, this was probably the best meal we’ve ever had and at a cost. Theiir 3-star rating is easily deserved and we’d happily dine here again.