Do I really have to explain why I went to this restaurant? Doesn’t the name say it all??
On my recent trip to San Diego, I went to Extraordinary Desserts, the sweets-focused restaurant overseen by Cordon Bleu-trained pastry chef Karen Krasne. Krasne isn’t just a pastry chef; she’s an artist. Her goal is to incorporate international influences into her pastries (i.e. an African wedding basket), but more than anything, she does a stunning job of infusing Cali’s natural beauty, like flowers, into her art. Take a look at just some of her creations:
You can imagine the insanely tough decision we had in choosing a dessert — so we picked two! A decadent chocolate cake (apologies for the poor photo quality) and a strawberry Napoleon. Our clear favorite was the Napoleon, which, as you can see below, we totally demolished:
Since we were going straight to the airport after the dessert and since the thought of airport grub after a weekend of amazing food made me sick, we opted to eat dinner there, too. You never know how the food options will be at a dessert-specific place, but, to our surprise and delight, ED has an incredible food menu, too!
We went with the Italian fontina panini with roasted poblano and pumpkin seed pesto (bottom left) and the tofu club on ciabatta with soy bacon, rice cheese, avocado, tomato, caramelized onion and habanero aioli (bottom right). YUM. These were some of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had, no exaggeration. To top it off, ED uses organic produce when available. When can I go back??
My only regret is that we should’ve saved this spot for sometime during our trip, as opposed to right before sitting on a six-hour plane ride with everything sitting in our stomachs. Gross. But skipping ED altogether would’ve been far, far worse.
Extraordinary Desserts: Little Italy
1430 Union St.
San Diego, CA 92101
619.294.7001
Extraordinary Desserts: Balboa Park
2929 Fifth Ave.
San Diego, CA 92103
619.294.7032