Del Rio Bar & Grill Chef Comes on Strong : Oasis of Good Food in Mission Valley Desert

A certain touch of class appears to be returning to the Mission Valley restaurant scene.

For all its restaurants, the area long has been regarded as a disaster zone by demanding eaters. This perspective probably arose from the valley’s serious yuppification, a situation that led many restaurants to concentrate on offering speedy liquor service and serving as meeting grounds for the sexes; at such places, edible food did not figure in the equation. Because proprietors tend to live by the bottom line, one cannot fault their addiction to a system that worked so well.

But it is nice to find that a couple of serious restaurants have ventured into this howling, if overbuilt, wilderness. One of them is the Del Rio Bar & Grill, which gains its special character from the presence of chef Gayle Covner.

Del Rio Bar & Grill occupies the carefully remodeled premises of the old Ivy Barn, the one-time palace of indifferent quiche that one would miss only in a fit of insincere nostalgia. The place is large and noisy (really too noisy at times, but the liveliness still is rather likable), and it looks like one of the numerous saloons that lately have sprung up in the more fortunate sections of Los Angeles. In other words, it exudes a relaxed sense of chic that is rare in San Diego, and is enjoyable to encounter.

The menu is very much a reflection of the tastes and talents of chef Covner, who formerly practiced her trade at downtown’s Pacifica Grill. Covner is a devotee of strong flavors, smoked foods, fads and American regional cuisine, and by and large she offers an exciting selection of dishes. Her execution generally is commendable, and about the only grounds upon which one might pick a quarrel would be with the sizes of the portions. At this restaurant, one tends to play portion roulette, in that some plates contain food sufficient to feed two healthy eaters, while other servings are tiny; to complicate the situation, price does not seem to play a role in relation to the sizes of the servings.

Covner acquired a fine reputation at Pacifica Grill, and she seems unlikely to relinquish it. Subtlety is not one of her allies, though, since her cooking evinces a powerful affection for all sorts of peppers (black, cayenne, chili, bell), as well as other spices and the more assertive herbs. For the sake of convenience, her cooking style can be called contemporary, since it includes references to the cuisines of California, the Orient, Italy and the American South.

Several of these cuisines are represented on the appetizer list, which commences with sashimi (raw fish served in the Japanese style) and moves cheerfully along to hotly seasoned smoked chicken wings, a cilantro quesadilla, and a sampler plate of the smoked-on-premises barbecued ribs.

The pan-fried Chinese dumplings in sesame sauce are likable in most respects, the meat filling juicy and the noodle dough tender, but it would be nice if the sauce included a little of the chili oil that normally accompanies these tidbits in Chinese restaurants. The lack of this spicy condiment is especially noticeable here, where such emphasis is placed on peppery seasoning. However, hotness turns up in the calamari “fingers,” or snippets of fried squid encased in a well-seasoned mix of bread crumbs that includes much oregano. This was one of those cases in which the size of the portion caused the eyebrows to rise ceilingward, because squid is cheap, the dish cost $4.90, and the serving included just nine small pieces, or probably no more than three ounces of squid.

Try one of Del Rio’s pizzas, however, and you may wonder how the restaurant can turn out such lovely examples at such moderate prices, generally $8.25 or less. These can be regarded as an appetizer by a party of three or four, or as a meal by one or two, and fall into a category that could be called designer pizza. Between the top layer of bubbling mozzarella and the bottom layer of crisp, puffy crust lie numerous delicious surprises; in the case of the lamb sausage pizza, the surprises would number pine nuts, smooth globs of goat cheese, and whole cloves of sweetly pungent roasted garlic that should be pleasing to the adventurous. The lamb sausage itself is rich, and seasoned rather like Italian pork sausage. Another pizza choice teams scallops with mixed cheeses, cilantro, and red bell pepper puree.

The menu stretches to a rather daring length, and includes Oriental stir-fries; pastas (Covner attempts the difficult-to-master spaghetti carbonara, which incorporates lots of dried red chili pepper); quite a number of sandwiches, some rather complicated, and several entree-sized salads. Among these last, the Caesar is quite agreeable, as long as one accepts the unorthodox addition of strong mustard to the dressing. The smoked Chinese chicken salad, in which such ingredients as delicately smoked chicken, rice flavored with sesame oil, Napa cabbage, cellophane noodles and more, all are arranged neatly in their own little piles, also is enjoyable.

The list of serious, garnished entree plates takes up another whole page of the menu, and offers such diverse items as seafoods and the day’s fish grilled over mesquite, calves liver with bacon and grain mustard, and a steak with blue cheese and roasted peppers. Several items from this page were chosen, and it must be said that the kitchen enjoyed no more than a mixed success with them.

The mixed grilled sausage with baked beans, for example, included a trio of large, tasty, homemade sausages (veal, lamb and spicy hot), all finished in the kitchen’s oak smoker. Their flavor was excellent, and the beans that accompanied them had been dressed up with bell pepper and seasonings. The plate also included good potato salad (again with bell peppers; is this starting to sound repetitious?), and a nice, crisp cole slaw. The portion easily could have fed two guests.

Why then was the Chinese-style roast pork so parsimoniously apportioned? What little there was of it was delicious, especially when wrapped in the clever, scallion-flavored Oriental pancakes, and dipped into a zesty, sweet-and-hot mustard sauce.

The pounded chicken breast, served over mixed, crisp vegetables and greenery, was a disappointment in the sense that it failed to live up to the menu’s description. Supposedly served with a “raspberry-mandarin dressing,” the rather ordinary boned breast boasted only a garnish of canned mandarin orange segments; the raspberry flavor was not to be found. To make matters worse, the meat was raw in the center.

However, the kitchen can handle fowl. Covner’s special of roast duck finished with a pan gravy fancied up with a bit of orange and a few green peppercorns was a nicely balanced work, the flavors complementary and the duck itself tender and succulent.

The kitchen makes a good selection of desserts, the emphasis here on old fashioned American favorites embellished with restaurant extravagance. Thus it is possible to have a wedge of good chocolate brownie, split and stuffed with a choice of home made ice cream (the dark chocolate works well, although cautious types will opt for vanilla); a creamy rice pudding flavored with cinnamon and orange liqueur; or a thin pecan tart with a wickedly rich sauce.

As at many contemporary restaurants, it is possible to spend a little or considerably more. Two guests who restrict themselves to an entree and glass of wine each should be able to dine for about $30, including tax and tip. Including a moderate bottle of wine, appetizers and desserts, can speedily raise the tab to $75 or more.

DEL RIO BAR & GRILL

911 Camino del Rio South, San Diego

692-0094

Lunch and dinner served daily.

Credit cards accepted