San Diego Spotlight : Keep It Simple, and You’ll Get the Best From the Grill

The Grill on the Park, the northernmost major eatery in the booming Gaslamp Quarter, changed hands several months ago and passed from its Aspen-based founders to a pair of partners who formerly worked at the management level for the Hungry Hunter chain.

It remains very much a fun place to go, and a good place to eat--if you stick to the simpler offerings.

There certainly is room in the Gaslamp for a place that takes a relatively basic, all-American approach to cooking, since few of us are unflaggingly in the mood for the Italian cooking or Spanish tapas that have become the staples of the area.

The Grill on the Park, founded in a no-nonsense mood by entrepreneurs accustomed to feeding guests just off the ski slopes, always offered good, simple fare, but served in quantities that many San Diegans found intimidating. The new owners have toned down the portions somewhat--you still get plenty of food--but have stuck to the basic theme, and this is a reliable source for barbecued baby back ribs, roast chicken, lamb chops and the like.

Of course, because this is 1992 and the laws that currently govern the local restaurant business have been neither repealed nor revised, the menu also offers pastas and designer pizzas. The approach to some of these seems a little naive, in that they all are rather busy; the simplest pasta is garnished with shrimp, tomatoes and goat cheese, the most complicated with something called “spicy chicken and sausage jambalaya.” In other words, if you want something simple, you will only get it by turning to the traditional American part of the menu.

That section does include some quite satisfactory offerings. There is a crispness to the Norwegian salmon that not only is delightful but suggests that the fish has been roasted--the kitchen boasts the usual wood-fired pizza oven, after all--rather than mesquite grilled as the menu indicates. The flavor certainly seems intensified by the process, and this is, simply put, quite an enjoyable dish. It must be added that the garnishes are mixed, however--the fresh spinach buttery and agreeable to the tooth, but the lavishly apportioned saute of assorted vegetables sloppy, mushy and a waste of a good opportunity.

Some of the other entrees are available in sampling-sized portions on the mixed grill, a Gargantuan platter that includes mesquite grilled chicken breast, duck, Italian-style sausage and a partial slab of barbecued ribs. With the exception of the duck, which managed to be scrawny but fatty at the same moment, these meats were professionally finished and offered the simple, basic flavors that would be expected of such an assortment. Like other entrees, this one was garnished with the unfortunate vegetables mentioned above, and a choice of rice and black beans, sliced tomatoes or “double-baked” potatoes; the latter, smooth, cheese-flavored but not too rich, seem the most appropriate choice for the meats.

On a slightly more adventurous level, other choices in this department include an herb-roasted chicken (you can watch as the servers carry these off from the open kitchen, the birds crackling-brown and dripping with juices); roast duck with a gingered fresh raspberry sauce; a New York steak with mushrooms, and “Colorado-style” lamb chops, in this case a marinated rack that is grilled, sectioned and served with a red wine sauce. Entree prices range from $12.95 for the marinated, Yucatan-style chicken breast to $18.95 for lamb; prices do not include the choice of soup or salad.

If main dishes are reasonably simple, the kitchen allows its imagination to range more freely with the starters and pizzas. A particularly nice appetizer, if a touch on the pricey side at $6.95, is the salad of cold, spiced, Japanese buckwheat noodles and hot, grilled shrimp. The shrimp, first marinated in sake, also are rather hotly spiced and have a fine flavor--and, as is so typically the case, the play between hot and cold temperatures brings an extra pleasure to the plate. The Grill on the Park also makes a better-than-average Caesar salad, moist and richly dressed as it should be, and none too austere in seasoning.

The pizza list includes the goat cheese pie of trendy cooking and the barbecued chicken model that has become the rage nearly everywhere--it’s a good choice if you want a really strongly flavored pizza. The Thai chicken version, also a copy of something currently trendy and widely available, is done somewhat naively, in that the “peanut chili sauce” seems exactly like spiced peanut butter, but this is not to deny this pie’s essential tastiness. This pizza actually is rather pleasant, and makes a good shared entree after a salad.

A menu note proclaims that all desserts are “proudly” made on the premises, though in the case of the flour-less chocolate cake, pride is no match for expertise. The point of such cakes is their light, mousse-like texture, while this dense, heavy dessert begged the question of just what substance had replaced the flour. There are also Key lime pie, creme brulee , a white chocolate brownie and, for those with limitless appetites, an extravagant dessert sampler that includes hunks of everything, with ice cream and whipped cream thrown in for good measure.

The first Grill on the Park took the place of an earlier, more formal restaurant that opened as the dining room of the Horton Park Plaza Hotel, a venerable building that was downtown San Diego’s first skyscraper and has served a variety of functions over the decades. The decor originally recaptured the early 20th-Century grandeur of what were formerly two floors of banking halls, but when the hotel leased the space to the Grill’s founders, the look was transformed into something much more contemporary--and, in many eyes, something much less attractive.

In any case, the upstairs mezzanine offers friendlier lighting and seems the wiser choice of locale; this floor includes the bar and, on selected evenings, very agreeable light jazz. The service in general seems knowledgeable, willing and efficient.

THE GRILL ON THE PARK 901 5th Ave., San Diego 231-0055 Lunch and dinner daily. Pizzas and entrees $7.95 to $18.95. Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $25 to $65. Credit cards accepted.