Recently I was invited to Fleming’s to check out their new happy hour menu in the bar area. I still a little sick from a cold I had but you still need to eat, right?! Stacey came along with me this evening. I considered in a belated birthday gift for her. Especially since she got to have some cocktails.
Specifically this cocktail. An Old Fashioned. She liked it a lot. She had two of them. I had one sip. It was delightful.
Here’s Fleming’s “A La Carte” menu for when you’re schmoozing in the bar area at Fleming’s.
And here is Fleming’s Happy Hour menu which is from 5-7PM. Stacey and I balked a little at the calorie counts on some of these items. I mean, I know it’s there to help us, but sometimes it’s a buzzkiller.
We started our evening off with the Housemade Burrata [$9] because well… I just can’t stay away from cheese. And LOOK AT THIS JAR. Doesn’t that burrata look so inviting and luscious?! The burrata comes with a bunch of sides, including grilled bread and grilled tomatoes, cooked garlic cloves, and prosciutto. The burrata is luscious – there’s a cream in there and the mozzarella is incredibly soft. It spreads really easily on the yummy herb infused grilled bread and you can’t go wrong topping it with garlic, tomato, and prosciutto. It was the perfect starter!
We also got a basket of complimentary bread, like we needed more carbs. Comes with some really tasty butter, too.
Stacey and I debated about whether we should get the Candied Bacon [$6] but really… it’s candied bacon, so why WOULDN’T we get it? You get like a tiny bucket of bacon filled with aromatic herbs that tickle your nose when you grab a piece to stuff into your face. The bacon has a smokey sweet flavor to it with a slight crispiness to it. We were good and only ate like 1 or 2 pieces and I took the rest to go (including the herbs) and had it for breakfast the next day!
These next two items came out together because our awesome waitress at Fleming’s paced out our food nicely. It was perfect because we enjoyed our dishes as courses and didn’t feel overwhelmed with a table full of food.
The Mushroom & Red Pepper Flatbread was an easy choose for us since we both love mushrooms and what’s not to love about flatbread? But… this dish wasn’t a winner for me. First off I’m not a fan of arugula, but that’s easily discarded. There’s a strong goat cheese on the flatbread which was very overpowering to me – it dwarfed the flavor of the mushroom to the point where I couldn’t really taste it at all, and that made me sad since I love mushrooms. The big clumps of goat cheese was a little too much, perhaps if there had been smaller dollops all around? Funny because normally I love cheese of any kind, but this one was a bit pungent. Stacey enjoyed the leftovers on this dish since she didn’t mind it.
Normally I’d probably go for the Shrimp Tempura off Fleming’s Bar La Carte menu, but Stacey doesn’t eat seafood so we opted to share the Harvest Vegetable Tempura [$20] instead. It came with a lovely mix of vegetables including red pepper, asparagus, mushroom, and slices of tempura fried lemon. The batter on the vegetables was incredibly light and made the veggies just a bit crispy. Wonderful dish, we both really enjoyed this one (and I got to have all of the asparagus since Stacey doesn’t like it – woo!).
Next two dishes would be our “entree” dishes that we shared.
This is the Filet Mignon & Potato Waffle [$30]. We couldn’t resist the idea of a potato waffle and I’m happy to report that potato waffle was incredible! It tasted like they look mashed potatoes and put them into a waffle iron. There were these little crunchier parts but it still had the consistency of potato and the taste of a potato. I quite liked it – a lot! The filet mignon was cooked quite well – very tender and I liked the demi glace that was drizzled on top of the meat.
We also ordered the Grilled Lamb Lollipops [$30]. Lamb is one of my favorites but this particular lamb chop was a bit gamey tasting for some reason. Stacey and I both agreed it had an earthier flavor than we were used to. It was cooked well but that extra gamey flavor was a little off-putting on this dish.
Our waitress came up to us at the end of the meal and told us about a Chocolate Lava Cake dessert that Fleming’s has. She pretty much had me at “chocolate”. This dessert was astounding! I mean, you get hot cake and ice cream with pistachios on top, and the ice cream is separate from the hot cake so you can decide for yourself if you want to mix them together or not.
Plus… it came with an entire bowl of whipped cream on the side.
I love it when things are on the side so I can put them together myself.
I’m one of those “can my food not be touching other things” kind of people but usually I can go with the flow.
I tucked my fork into the lava cake and this river of molten chocolate came flowing out much to my delight. The raspberries were a nice way to cut through the chocolate and I loved the ice cream with the crispy brittle piece in the middle.
Stacey and I tried really hard but we weren’t have to finish this. But damn it was so tasty! Totally worth the bit of food coma I felt after this meal.
It was fun checking out the bar menu at Fleming’s – you can definitely get a full meal just eating from the happy hour menu but the a la carte menu is available if you can’t subsistent on bacon and cheese alone.
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse
Multiple Locations
8970 University Center Lane
San Diego, CA 92122
Disclaimer: I was invited to dine at Fleming’s on behalf of the restaurant. Our meal and drinks were complimentary. All opinions stated here are my own and I was not further compensated for this post.