There are several Malibu Farm locations to choose from, but San Diego offers a potential glimpse at beautiful sunset to go with some delicious eats.

First Friday Feast is a monthly post debuting on the first Friday of each month and elaborates on a recent dining experience.

We’ve been trying to have a date night each month this year (and post about it on the first Friday of every month). Sometimes we bring the kids along for date night and sometimes they stay at home. But that’s fine by us–the kids are more than welcome to tag along if they want.

Malibu Farm has locations in Malibu, Newport Beach, San Diego, and Tiburon. But for this visit, we went to the location at Seaport Village in San Diego, California. Between the generally good walkability of the city and the light rail, chances are it’s not hard to get to if you’re in town. The restaurant also participates with Resy, which is good for those of us with Resy credits. We didn’t make reservations, but were successfully able to walk in before it got crowded (we arrived before 5PM).

The Menu

We received a few menus once at our table. There aren’t separate kids menus but the main menu does have a small children’s section in the bottom right corner. The emphasis of the menu seemed to be more on general American cuisine. There is a corner of the menu dedicated to farmers, presumably the ones from whom they receive their ingredients. I suppose it does make sense given the name of the restaurant to call out the farmers.

If we’re being honest, it took quite a while for anyone to arrive at our table upon seating. After well over 10 minutes, we had to flag someone down. I’m still not sure who was supposed to be our designated waiter as it seemed more like a committee approach throughout the night. After the disappointing slow start, the dinner was pretty enjoyable.

Our table gave us a nice view of the outside without needing to be out in the cold.

The Food

Drinks

To start the evening, Jenn and I chose to start with a Papaya cocktail (made with tequila) and a Dole Pacific (made with rum). The Papaya was on the sweeter side, but it was balanced by the salt on the rim. If you’re a fan of margaritas, you’ll feel at home with this drink.

The Dole Pacific was very strong, as you might expect with aged rum. It’s a strong drink and tasted more like straight alcohol rather than a mixed drink. Still, I enjoyed it, though it was not Jenn’s preference.

Kids meals

The kids both wanted some penne pasta, one with a butter sauce and the other with pesto. The noodles tasted freshly made and came with some broccoli, which just so happens to be their favorite vegetable. The butter sauce is pretty mild in taste, but the parmesan cheese on the side added some pop to the dish. Alex loved the pesto dish, which was just oozing with the smell of fresh basil.

Of the choices of side dishes for the kids, they both preferred the berries. And rather than get into an argument of who ate more of each berry, we got them each a side dish. You don’t get too many berries for a $6 side dish, but it is beautifully presented and each berry was sweet. With a sliced strawberry, some plump blueberries, and some blackberries, it’s a healthy side dish we don’t mind them eating alongside any meal.

Entrees

Jenn looked over at the other tables to spy on what they chose and saw a rather impressive cone-shaped tower on their plates. That prompted an inquiry to our server who responded that it’s their catch of the day, which was Chilean sea bass. Her favorite cooked fish is Chilean sea bass and she couldn’t resist. The large piece of fish sat upon some delicious butternut squash puree and some greens. The puree melded the flavors of the dish remarkably. Very tasty!

For my meal, I decided to order a trio of tacos. After all, San Diego is not that far away from Mexico and I’ve long loved some good tacos. The trio comes with a red taco (steak), a yellow taco (squash), and a green taco (chicken). Of the three, the steak had the most flavor, but I feel like I preferred the squash the most. Something about butternut squash just makes me happy.

You can also order it to come with avocado. It wasn’t clear if the tacos included avocado with the dish. It wasn’t listed on the menu and the server didn’t mention a price, only if I wanted it. And when I hesitated, the server asked if I perhaps wanted it on the side, which I agreed to. Turns out it cost $5. Oh well.

Dessert

At the end of our meal, the server asked if we wanted any dessert to cap off the evening. That’s always a dangerous question to ask us. We’re always down to taking a look at the menu and then deciding from there if anything looks good. Window shopping is always a risky proposition.

The server mentioned his favorite dessert is the coconut carrot cake. However, we hesitated on the option, wondering if the kids would similarly enjoy it. Besides, we were looking for something with ice cream and thus opted for the seasonal bread pudding. I’m not sure what defines chocolate season–frankly, chocolate should be in-season year-round.

The dessert has that combination of hot and cold that makes for a very comforting conclusion to the meal. The bread pudding was gooey and flavorful. Given how popular it was at our table, I think we made the right choice for dessert.

Recommendation: Yes

Aside from the service snafu to start our dining experience, Malibu Farm was perhaps better than we expected. I’m not sure if it’s just the fresh ingredients, but the dishes almost had a little bit of umami in them. They were so good, in fact, that we didn’t end up with any leftovers at the end of the meal.

While the prices of the dishes are a little on the higher side, the execution was great and I walked away not too worried about the price. It also helps that you can help offset the cost at Resy restaurants with the right American Express credit cards.